Movie Thoughts: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

• Released: April 16th, 1988
• Directed by: Isao Takahata
• Running time: 1 h 28 min
• Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

A boy named Seita and his little sister Setsuko try to survive alone in World War II era Japan.

My Thoughts

Okay, so this might be a bit of a controversial statement but... I am not the biggest Ghibli fan. I have seen most of their catalog by now (though not everything) and while I obviously acknowledge these are beautiful-looking movies and they definitely have heart to them, at the same time a lot of them just don't do that much for me. 

There are a few exceptions, though. I did like The Boy and the Heron from recent times a lot and Whisper of the Heart is my favorite out of their entire catalog. And if we count Nausicaä as Ghibli, sure, that one too. But others I saw just didn't do much for me, even a lot of talent and effort clearly went into these movies. I'm also not calling the Ghibli movies that aren't my favorites bad at all, for the record. Just saying they're not for me personally, I guess.

All this to say that this is probably another one of my favorite Ghibli films, even if not all of the studio's movies are hits for me. This movie wasn't just art, it was an emotional experience from start to finish. What more, it absolutely does feel real. It pulls no punches. This is just one and a half hours of cold hard reality. But it succeeds at it immensely.

I was drawn into these characters and this setting pretty much from the start (especially with that poignant way to kick off the film). You almost feel like you're really there in World War II era Japan alongside these characters. 

Their misery feels real and of course the movie does have this absolute downer ending where both Setsuko and eventually Seita die. But it's the emotional journey you go on with these characters that's absolutely resonant and didn't make me want to pause the movie for one moment. 

Of course, I can see this movie being too depressing and too hard to watch for some people, but honestly for me I think that these elements made it hit all the harder for me emotionally. Even if I wasn't in the right headspace to watch it sometimes, I always came back to it soon thereafter because I wanted to know how Seita's and Setsuko's lives would continue.

I do have to say that visually this is probably not the most impressive-looking Ghibli film (it is still really impressive, don't get me wrong, but by the insanely high standards of other Ghibli movies this one is slightly less visually impressive). So this is still a very good-looking movie. I'm only comparing it to other Ghibli films here which set the standards very, very high.

I really don't know what else to say here. It's a super emotional, super realistic take on these kids' survival in WWII era Japan. I can see how it probably isn't for everyone and might be too emotional or depressing (I know my brother, a Ghibli fan, has held off from watching it because of this, for example) but I think that if you're in the right headspace for it this is absolutely a film that must be seen at least once.