I'm probably an outlier on this one: It is well crafted, but predictable

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2017)

Grave of the Fireflies is a movie that I've desperately wanted to see for a long time. Fortunately, I didn't know about too much of the plot going into it, but I'm afraid that possibly the hype leading up to it might have spoiled the movie for me.
Either way, I won't dive too much into the plot of the movie, but I will reference plot points as needed to explain my point of view on the movie.
The movie introduces us to the fact that our protagonists are dead and are moving onto the spirit world; however, they look back at what lead them to their deaths. To me, this might have been a mistake, because (for me) I could tell what the plot was going to be from that point on: Brother and sister trying to survive, things get rough, parents probably die, the morals of the older brother probably degrade at some point leading to scenes of him slowly becoming a thief, and in the end they will both die. Unfortunately, THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS.
For me, that seriously weakens the film. Introducing the audience to the fact that they both die means that movie has already thrown its most powerful punch. When watching the film, nothing felt surprising because I knew how it was going to end. It was simply waiting to see how the sister would die, and then what leads up to the death of the brother. This kills the tension of whether they are going to make it out okay or not... because you know they won't.
Now, considering the characters, I also liked a lot of elements, but had some gripes. The protagonist of the film is Seita, a 14 year old boy with his 4 year old sister Setsuko. As life gets worse during the end of WWII, Seita must find ways to make sure that Seita is alive and healthy... or at least that is what he thinks he is doing. This concept is probably my favorite idea of the film, the fact that we have a very loving brother who wants to help his sister be calm and happy, yet he is completely oblivious to the fact that he is actually dooming her. In one scene, his Aunt complains that Seita should help out with the war efforts if he wants more food. What does Seita do? Plays the piano to make his sister happy. Or in another scene where the same Aunt is frustrated at the fact that Seita does no work and suggests that he should leave if he is going to be so lazy. What does Seita do? He leaves with his sister.
To me, this is really fascinating because it shows a character who has such an insane amount of pride that he believes he is completely in control and that he can do what he wants and will still turn out okay. Even when it is blatantly obvious that the path he is taking is doomed, he still chooses to not work to get food or to go back to his relatives for help. In the end, this leads to the death of him and his sister.
However, I do think that Setsuko is a bit of an issue. I understand that the character is a little kid, but I found her fairly bland as a character. Granted, this is more realistic, but I felt that she was mostly used for nostalgic purposes rather than as an actual character. The only time where I was actually interested in her character was when she was on her deathbed, because she starts to become compassionate and very concerned for Seita, in contrast to the rest of the movie where she is only complaining about her own issues.
On an ending, I think a part of the reason I can't quite get into this movie is because the themes of the movie are probably much more confident to Japanese culture and the conflicts during the end of WWII. I know that the Japanese public were mad at their government for not giving up sooner (which lead to massive tragedies) so I have a feeling that Seita's pride may be a representation of those who continued to push the war forward even though it was clearly a bad choice.
So while watching the movie I realized that a good portion of the movie's greatness might be tied to its cultural relevance. While I know a lot of people in the West really like this film and say "It is sad movie about how war ruins lives", and I feel like that is missing a lot of what the movie was trying to say. While the war is happening in the movie, very little of it is actually discussed. I would say that the most important theme that I got out of it was "Don't let your pride lead to your destruction."
All in all, beautiful film at times, but I just couldn't quite get into it due to its intentional predictability.