A Good Film, In Spite of its Sentimentality

Rating: 7/10 (10 December 2004)

One common criticism of this movie is the sentimentality. I did find while watching the movie that the child's constant crying did become annoying after a while. Some people are more easily influenced by sentimentality than others, but the sob elements in Grave of the Fireflies seem too excessive to be realistic. The child behaves too much like a child, almost as if the maker wanted to emphasize that the victim was a child to artificially heighten emotions. Towards the end though the sentimentality becomes more effective.
My dad walked out on the movie because it was an anime. Anime and cartoons are often seen as childish and some people are too proud of themselves to watch movies they perceive as childish. Dad returned halfway through the movie but complained that nothing was happening, so he left again. All viewers are different. Hollywood executives are aware that a significant proportion of viewers are averse to a movie in which nothing big happens. This leads to a situation in which action (mainly violent action with explosions) is often interspersed throughout a movie -- maybe a chase scene added in the middle of a boring dialogue session or a sex scence for shock effect.