Sad and extremely moving, but very rewarding animated film

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2012)

Very moving animated film from Japan, based on an autobiographical novel. Set in Japan in the final months of World War II, it is about a couple of children – a boy of about 12 and her sister of about 4 and how they try to confront their awful circumstances. Their father, about whom they haven't had news for a while, is supposedly at sea, being an officer in the Japanese navy – they live with their mother, but she is soon killed after an American air raid. They go to live with an aunt, but she's so nagging towards them that they soon leave and decide to live in a cave for themselves in the terrible final weeks of the war. Haunted by bombings and hunger, they nevertheless try to keep their spirits high, one of their few amusements being seeing the fireflies light up at night. I don't want to tell more, but the ending is far from happy. The movie shows why in wars, innocent civilians are the ones that suffer most. The delicate drawings help a lot.