Grave of the Fireflies

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2010)

Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are really good Japanese cartoon films, from Studio Ghibli, to feature in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I was really glad I spotted this one when I did. Basically fourteen year old Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi) is dead, but the narration continues to tell the story of what made him end up in that way. He and four year old Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi) are brother and sister living in Japan during World War II, and they witness a mass bombing in their home town. Coming out of the wreckage of the air raid, they find a temporary home with their Aunt (Akemi Yamaguchi), and Seita is devastated when he sees the body of their Mother (Yoshiko Shinohara) and obviously near death. Seita is the only one who knows that their mother has died, and he writes to their father over seas to try and get out of the danger zone, so they stay with the Aunt in the meantime. It is obvious that Seita and Setsuko are getting on the Aunt's nerves, so they leave and make their way to an abandoned shelter to live in. All they need to stay alive is the roof over the heads, to care for each other, and find any food they can, but they still have fun as well. It becomes apparent that Setsuko is sick with hideous rashes developing on her body, and the doctor concludes that it is because of the lack of food. With the low supply of food, they can only entertain themselves while looking gazing at the beautiful light of the fireflies. Eventually Seita finds that his fears about his father being killed over seas are right, and the sick Setsuko confesses that she already knew that their mother was dead also. Seita decides that because she is so sick, Setsuko needs a serious amount of food, so he takes out the money from the bank to get a good supply, and she does take one bite of watermelon, but it is not enough and she dies. The story is nice and simple, it may not be dubbed into English but it doesn't matter, the use of colours was well assorted, and it is quite harrowing viewing which makes it essential. But what I enjoyed most about this film was the beautiful music by Michio Mamiya, not many cartoon films compel you with just some images and the use of excellent music score, but this one definitely does, a most worthwhile animated Second World War drama. Very good!