A Sweet and Sour Treat...

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2015)

I had to watch it in Japanese with English subtitles to understand it. But this turned out to be a boon as the original voice actors are possibly the only people who could do justice to the voices of the innocent children going through this tough period of time. The actors especially that of Setsuko is just amazing. The movie makes a lasting impression on the viewer which shows the Second World War from a perspective that is very rarely, if at all, shown in western movies. The animation is executed fantastically well, right down to the details. The movie makes you laugh and makes you cry with the protagonists. The characters are very endearing and show a great bond of love and affection. They not only love but understand each other. The young girl (Setsuko) understands their situation and behaves very maturely with some outbursts of childlike silliness that she is entitled to. This title made me realize the magnitude of civilian casualty that the war saw which most western movies fail to show because they either focus on the soldiers or the Jews in concentration camps in Germany. It makes it visually obvious that the life of an innocent human being was also not spared. The one line that Seita narrates near the end in which he states that his sister 'never woke up again' is very shocking and tear- jerking but the stone-faced emotion with which he says it adds a layer of despair into it, of a boy who has lost his entire family.
One of the best foreign movies and movies in general, that I have ever seen.