Tiny, fleeting points of light in the endless blackness

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2008)

The African savannah has an old proverb: "When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled." This movie, based on the real-life experiences of a World War 2 survivor, wishes to teach us that there were victims on all sides. One of the harsh realities of the war was that a great many attacks deliberately aimed at civilians, something none of the Allied nations had done on such a massive scale before.
The story is completely straightforward. A brother and sister lose their home and mother. Forced to seek shelter with one of the mother's sisters, they struggle to cope in a nation that is rapidly running out of all the essentials. Food, water, medicine, work...and basic human compassion. Indeed, the steady, interminable dehumanization of the aunt (who is actually very warm and friendly when she first takes her new guests in) is tough to watch; she's every bit a victim of the war as her sister.
As time passes and the brother and sister are forced to move on, we see that no part of the once-proud empire has been untouched by war, and the famed Japanese politeness has warped into callous indifference. And yet, the brother and sister endure and get what they can out of life to the very end. Even as the last illusions are shattered and the hopelessness of the situation sets in.
Is this a sad movie? I don't think so, at least not the way I understand sad movies. Most of the tragedy happens early on; the rest is how two children deal with it. Personally, I found their righteous struggle against despair right up to the final moments inspiring. The ending (which admittedly is fairly ambiguous and can be interpreted a number of ways) gave me a sense that the original author just wants to put the past behind and move on. No vendettas, no hatred, no pining for the old empire. Life goes on.
All in all, it's simply a very pretty story, the kind you rarely see in anime, and quite moving, if not necessarily to tears.