A distraught experience that will leave you bereft of emotions

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2006)

It has often been quoted that films have a diversity of emotions and moods, with Grave of the fireflies I had the unfortunate duty of being over encumbered with the negative qualities of human life. Many war films inevitably depict the macabre account of three key aspects that are contradicted in the process of it's moral conclusion, those of course being survival, death and loss. This film's notion lucidly conveys the domino affect war causes and that the bullets go beyond the front line and pierce's the purity and innocence of youth. That being said Grave of the fireflies is a unique viewing, it's one of the few war films that observes the situation rather than criticize it.Rarely do you see soldiers or battles no the viewer is subjected to the darker spectrum of war such as famine and disease. The two protagonists Seita and Setsuko are a visage of the impact World War 2 has left on their society. In addition to this they are both characters you can sympathize with, Seita is very aware of his surroundings, however he remains optimistic and only periodically he is burdened with mental anguish, Setsuko on the other hand is a noble infant who's only catharsis is the death of their mother. The film is constructed similarly to a three point arc which brings me to my earlier statement the initiation being death, the median which is survival and the denouement being loss. A meticulously crafted film that equally measures the dream like qualities of humanity and the desecration of all things natural.