Grief of War

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2016)

Hotaru no haka is a 1988 Japanese animated war drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story Hotaru no haka by Akiyuki Nosaka.The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi. Set in the city of Kobe, Japan, the film tells the story of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War. The film was critically acclaimed. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list. Two live-action remakes of Grave of the Fireflies were made, one in 2005 and one in 2008. It is commonly described as an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been denied by the director.
The film begins at Sannomiya Station on 21 September 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. A boy, Seita, is shown dying of starvation. Later that night, having removed Seita's body, a janitor digs through his possessions and finds a candy tin which he throws away into a nearby field. The spirit of Seita's younger sister, Setsuko, springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit as well as a cloud of fireflies. Seita's spirit then begins to narrate their story accompanied by an extended flashback of the final months of World War II.
When I watch the film, I am filled with grief. I can imagine what war is and how people live during war. We should never happen war again.