Grave of the Fireflies
Named Best Animated Feature at the 1994 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (remember that, later, CHILDREN’S Film Festival), Grave of the Fireflies is about two orphans who are trying to survive in post World War II Japan.
This film is BRUTAL.
So much so, in fact, that I turned it off and didn’t even finish it. Just a quick note, there will be spoilers.
Yup, I made it passed the opener where the narrator tells you the day he died and you get to see his poor dead child body getting made fun of and picked over next to his poor dead sister’s body. You get to see their spirits play with fireflies. I made it passed the bombing of the city and the people getting burned and trampled (they did this really well, and, honestly, I am pretty sure that my niece and nephews would have been too young to know that they had died, but they wouldn’t have liked the screaming). I EVEN made it passed the scene where the kids mom gets blown the hell up and is laying on the cot with her ENTIRE upper body bandaged in bloody bandages with no eyelids, hardly any nose, and blue freakin’ lips, AND the next mom scene (after the scene where the boy is trying to keep his crying sister from worrying by doing flips on a jungle gym) where they are putting her on a truck to go to the hospital and maggots and bits of flesh are falling off of her dirty, bloody, bandaged body and they are scrubbing up decay and rotting flesh and maggots off of the floor.
I got all the way to where their aunt is making them feel bad about having to feed them the food that THEIR DAD BEING IN THE ARMY brings them because they are a burden on her family and I had had enough. ESPECIALLY when I KNOW the damn thing ENDS with these two wonderful kids dying of starvation in a cave somewhere.
I turned it off and have every intention of sending it back to Netflix unfinished. It is just too much depression for me at the moment.
AND, NOT A KID’S MOVIE!! Maybe an older kid, like, say 13 or older, and ONLY certain kids, (some kids would DEFINITELY not be able to handle this, depends on the kid, really). I mean, really, it is “Why don’t you beat me some more?” depressing. And that was only the first thirty minutes. Literally.
It was well illustrated and a good commentary on why it sucks to bomb civilians during a war, but to be billed as a children’s movie and then have mom rotting away with her maggots was just a bit much in my opinion because when I think children I think 2 to 10 and I really don’t think this is appropriate for that age bracket.
Needless to say, did not like.
I agree that it should not be billed as a children’s movie. Certainly not.
But… the movie is great, very moving. There were some very eerie scenes and regardless of the fact that it was animated, it is one of the most realistic war films I’ve seen and it left me in tears and thinking of it for days.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are some great scenes (from what I saw), and it is a very realistic portrayal of war time, but I didn’t know that was what it was when I got it, I just knew it was supposed to be beautiful and sad. And, to be honest, it just isn’t my type of movie. I don’t like ANY war movies, animated or otherwise, they make me sad. I would rather read a book on them and not have the visuals trapped in my head for months. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone looking for something to show the kiddies, but I would suggest it to people who like movies about war. As well done as it was (and, again, I didn’t even watch all of it) I just didn’t like it. It was brutal and depressing and well done and not my cup of tea. I agree with you on all of your points, it just wasn’t for me.