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GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

Released: 1988

Rated: PG

Running Time: 71 minutes

Voice Cast: J. Robert Spencer, Rhoda Chrosite, Veronica Taylor, Amy Jones

   I was told by a friend that this was a movie I should look into, that he had heard that it was a good film. What I don’t think he knew was just HOW good of a movie it was. Now don’t misunderstand me…this is not an action film 99% of the time, this is not a funny family feature with slapstick or clever jokes. This is not a feel good heart lifting triumph of the human spirit story. This isn’t even a happy ending movie.

   Ok, so you’re asking me, “Well, if it’s that bad, why in the world are you saying it’s such a good movie?” What many people cannot grasp in our modern American culture is that a good movie does not need to end the same as every other or have the same tired formula to be great. It does not have to play to a crowd of one or the other, but can actually me made to transcend tastes, ages, and cultures to be a truly great piece of cinema. When you hear my reasons, perhaps you’ll agree.  

  The story is that of Seta and Setsuko, two Japanese children trapped in the middle of air raids on their home during WW2. They leave their home for shelter when fire bombs are rained down on them, and while they survive their mother is killed, and with their father off on the Navy they live with their aunt. Misunderstood and verbally abused by her, Seta takes his sister Setsuko and they move to a bomb shelter to live on their own, relying on their own ability to provide for their needs but discovering the difficulty therein and feeling the pain as they both become sick and starved at the end of the war.

   Believe it or not, that last paragraph was basically the whole movie. The story itself is extremely simplistic and basic, and Grave has been better described as an experiential movie. It’s not so much that you’re watching the plot unfold and you discover more and more about the characters and what’s going on that will involve them until the end or conclusion. It’s much rather like just standing on the sidelines and viewing the lives of two everyday children going through a hard time, doing things that seem unimportant, at least to us, but to them is just what they do. There is no goal they are striving for…they are just living, trying to stay alive, and we are watching them do it. There are of course crucial moments in the story that effect them, and this drives events and things that happen to them, but truly there is no real sense of an ending, because it is very much like life, where even though people die and some things seem to end, it’s not like many other films where our heroes go on until their goal is achieved and everyone goes home, happy and contented.

  There are some charming moments between the brother and sister, but this is a dark film of war and suffering, sacrifice and pain. It shows the human spirit and the spirit of the young stripped down to its barest, and what the hard reality of a war is and how it effects even the least of the world like Seta and Setsuko. The only thing that seems strange about the flow of the story are scenes where seemingly the spirits of dead characters make brief appearances to look at their past as we watch it for the first time, grieving over some of what they are seeing. This seems odd to us watching it on this side of the world, but I suppose in Japan it’s basically the equivalent of Jimmy Stewart and Clarence the Angel in It’s A Wonderful Life.

  It is almost a guarantee that kids will NOT want to watch this film. It is only 71 minutes or more, but it feels like two hours. It is slow paced with good reason, it has no monsters, battles or fights. Save for some attack planes bombing Japan and a scuffle or two, there is no action. This film is more realistic and more believable than anything reality TV could ever hope to sell off as “real”. Even in anime form, you believe what you are seeing.

  This film has a heart to it that is rare even for serious anime features. You feel bonded to the children, you feel for them, your heart can really bleed for them even though physically they do not exist. The key to the emotion is that by feeling like you are experiencing the events in this film with the characters, by almost being there with them, you can feel deeply for them, be touched by them or weep at their tragedies. The feelings build and build the longer it goes, where if you were not sure what to think of them at the start you almost love them by the end, especially Setsuko who is only five and is going through so much. I am a softy anyway, and like to get emotional over movies, but this film had me in tears by the end like I could not remember. It was heart breaking, convicting, and strangely uplifting too. Director Isao Takahata did a superb job on this film, which he almost decided not to make.

  Now as far as the voices are concerned for the American dub, they almost made the film not work in some cases. Seta is ok, and most of the other incidental characters, but Rhoda Chrosite as the voice of Setsuko simply makes the 5 year-old sound TOO old. The charm of the little girl is lessened from the original Japanese where a real 5-year-old was used. It’s not a big deal, but it does sound silly at times. Veronica Taylor, known to her fans as Ash in Pokemon, April O’Neil in the TMNT cartoon and many, many other voices has a small part as well.

  My last word if this film is slated for family night (and I would highly recommend it if you believe it appropriate) is that there are some rather gruesome images of war in the way of dead bodies burning in ditches, dying people including the mother of the children who is so physically scarred in the bombing that she is (thankfully) covered from head to toe in bandages. It is still hard to see though, for she is clearly messed up badly, and if we were to get a clearer image of her the imagination could visualize a skeleton with bits of ragged flesh left. Maggots and worms crawl out of her dead body later, and even Setsuko gets infected with something that leaves her back full of rashes. Not the most pleasant viewing experience for a cartoon, but it does a convincing job of showing you without too much gross detail the hell of war, and even at that it is not worse than the PG rating.

   This is truly a masterpiece, and even though you don’t exactly want to watch it regularly (God knows I don’t), it is a chilling film with a deep soul, and in my opinion is one of the greatest treasures we’ve been given by the Japanese movie industry.