great movie, but not hyped too much for me

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2007)

Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed this movie, but as a whole I just did not get the emotional impact that many other describe. Maybe because I am cold hearted robot or maybe because I was watching during an unbearable heat wave, but it just did not hit me that hard. There is no real criticism for the movie, but I am not going to go out and tell everyone about the movie. A large part of the emotional impact comes from being familiar with the culture and the whole idea of having to rebuild a life after it being destroyed, but it did not hit me. I would say Seita was an aggravating character and it seems as if there must have been plenty more options than just living in the caves. Other than that a few of my few favorite points is that they do not hide the fact that this was going to be a sad movie right from the beginning and the fact that it began the way it did made it tragic. It was very slow, but the slowness added to the slow decay of the children. One of my favorite parts was the most devastating thing for Seita was when he finds out that Japan "the greatest empire in the world" was defeated and surrendered unconditionally that he finally breaks down. Even when his sister dies he does not show the emotion which shows the Japanesse issue in having to rebuild what was once thought a superior society to conform to something that they must have hated. The fire bombings of Japan is one of the most tragic events of our world's history. The horror of it was lessened a bit, but it was still potent. A very well done movie, but because everyone had told me that this was a great movie it disappointed me a little bit (but it might also be because I am a robot).