Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Name: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Genre: Drama, War, Animation
Released: July 26, 1989
Duration: 89 min
Rating: 94
Cast: Akemi Yamaguchi, Ayano Shiraishi, Justin Doran, Luci Christian, Marcy Bannor

1989

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 139 Ratings

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8.9

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8.9	User Score Universal acclaim based on 139 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Toho Company | Release Date: July 26, 1989 | TV-14

Starring: Akemi Yamaguchi, Ayano Shiraishi, Justin Doran, Luci Christian, Marcy Bannor, Shannon Conley, Shelley Calene-Black, Tadashi Nakamura, Tsutomu Tatsumi, Yoshiko Shinohara

Summary: A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

Director: Isao Takahata

Genre(s): Drama, War, Animation

Rating: TV-14

Runtime: 89 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Staff (Not Credited)

Grave of the Fireflies is not a film to be taken lightly. It is not even a film to be enjoyed. It is a film which demands – and deserves – total concentration and emotional surrender. The reward is an experience unlike any other: exhausting, tragic and utterly bleak, but also somehow monumental. Read full review

100

James Berardinelli

While a child might be affected by the film, it takes the weight of a certain number of years to fully absorb what director Isao Takahata has put up on the screen. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

An emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation. Read full review

IndieWire Staff (Not Credited)

Fireflies is, at times, unbearably sad, a eulogy for a bleeding nation but also a hugely imaginative tale that reminds us of art’s power to lift us from the ramparts of our own devastation. Read full review

Peer Schneider

From its powerful opening line to the very end, Grave of the Fireflies is an important film that will prove to even the most stubborn naysayer that animated films can move you just like the "real stuff". Read full review

J.R. Jones

Rivals the films of Hayao Miyazaki in elevating anime to the level of fine art. Read full review

Juan Barquin

Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli's second best-known filmmaker and co-founder, adapts Akiyuki Nosaka's short story of the same name to great effect, using animation to create a film that emphasizes the horrors of war better than most live-action films. [21 Jun 2016]

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User Reviews

Ali677

Apr 27, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When I watched this movie, I steeled myself for a traumatic experience, based on every review I'd ever read of it, which usually include phrases like "don't watch this if you're suicidal." Instead, if I had to pick a single word to sum up the movie I saw, it would probably be 'beautiful'.

Certainly it was sad, and arguably depressing, but I've read this movie compared with 'Saving Private Ryan'. That's ridiculous. 'Grave of the Fireflies' is gentle and poetic more often than it's violent, and it's remarkably restrained in its anti-war message. It simply tells a story : there's very little at all in the way of moralizing or polemics. Why would a story like this need such heavy-handed tactics?

I've also read it argued that the movie is robbed of any suspense or impact when it's revealed in the opening scene that the main characters are dead. I have a quite different view of that device.

Firstly. the beginning of 'Fireflies' is, for all intents and purposes, a 'happy ending'. This is such a non-linear plot development that you could fail to notice it, and thereby only see the movie's gloom. The moment where the ghostly Seita takes the ghostly Setsuko's hand and nods to her is not only a happy moment, it signifies that the suffering - which is yet to come, as far as the viewer is concerned - is over, and they are together again (albeit still without parents).

As for a character revealing that he is dead in the first line of the movie, this is a device which has been used in centuries if not Milena. The crucial thing here is that 'Fireflies' isn't _about_ tension. It tells a story whose ultimate conclusion you already know (a legitimate narrative approach), and everything which happens during that story is emotionally infused with a foreknowledge of its ending. You find yourself hoping that things will go right now for Setsuko and Seita, and then the knowledge that ultimately it won't undercuts you with real emotional power. You know the characters are going to die, but you hope things won't be so bad in the meantime. It doesn't take much of an effort to make that an analogy for our own lives, which makes us all fireflies.

Perhaps what might make someone feel disappointed or cheated by this film is simply that it's so damn honest. I mean that: it's one of the most honest, artifice-free movies I've ever seen. It doesn't even really try to ram an anti-war message down your throat there is very little overt violence, and if there are some scenes of corpses and suffering, it's never gratuitous, and it's over quickly. Compare this with 'Private Ryan', where you have to suffer through 40 minutes of the most horrific blood and guts, only to reach a conclusion which, after much blood and thunder, signifies very little.

'Fireflies', OTOH, has far more beauty than gore. This is what really surprised me about it. Probably two thirds of the movie takes place in gorgeously drawn, tranquil rural or urban settings, with an almost pleasant dreamlike quality - even when the American bombers are flying overhead at one point there is a surreal, almost serene sense to it - and there are plenty of moments of happiness to offset the undeniably sadness and frustration of other scenes.

Perhaps best of all, Setsuko is one of the very, very few (if not the only) animated 4 year-old I've ever seen who actually _behaves_ like a four year old. I'm so sick of seeing preternaturally smart, sassy, sophisticated and precocious children in Hollywood movies. Setsuko's emotion and behaviors are _exactly_ right for a completely normal four year-old, and recognizing this lends many scenes incredible poignancy. Similarly, Seita is a teenage boy who behaves with the sort of mixture of pride, compassion and hubris which you'd expect of someone his age. He still believes that Japan will win the war he thinks it's up to him to take care of his sister with their mother gone and father who knows where. This leads him to make mistakes: possibly the most obvious one being where he fails to take the farmer's advice, swallow his pride and ask his nasty aunt to take them back in again. You would probably have to say his decision not to even try - to go it alone instead, was a very bad one, but - hello, people - here is a character who makes mistakes because he's actually human: a believable teenage boy in an extraordinary situation, who doesn't miraculously save the day, because his best judgment just isn't good enough.

Of course, his aunt may well have knocked them back anyway. Who knows?

Don't go into the film expecting tension, drama or even a tirade against war. It's a movie about the beauty and fragility of life and youth. If you think Japanese animation is all giant robots and superhuman schoolgirls, this could be the film which changes your mind. It's slow, poetic, beautiful and sad, and extraordinarily honest.
I must be the only person who didn't cry during this film (and I mean, I get choked up during some Disney movies).… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

spencerWoody

Apr 5, 2022

A true masterpiece. Easily deserves to be on any list of the greatest films of all time.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

naldosborges

Oct 15, 2021

Animação que mostra o caos trazido pela guerra e isso mostra o porquê não glorificar ou idealizar guerras.

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

acebadger

Nov 4, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie on top of being beautifully animated (it's Ghibli so duh) is a profoundly impactful and emotional movie. This film has a strong anti-war narrative behind it; but instead of doing it in the way many American/Western studios would do it, a more slow and gradual pace is chosen.

We see a brother and sister displaced after their home is destroyed by firebombing, then briefly after their mother dies having suffered horrible burns all over her body. With their father being in the military the two are basically left to fend for themselves. It is so draining to see the brother try in vain as the story progresses to cheer up his little sister, provide for her, etc. The two are more or less just victims of circumstance and although they fall at odds with their aunt, she isn't necessarily a villain or a bad person. It's a complex situation given that it's wartime Japan, people wouldn't be likely to act in the same way they would during peacetime. There are multiple times throughout the film where I found myself tearing up, which is not to say that's the mark of the quality of a film. However, this film hit me deeply and will stay with me for years to come. I highly recommend anyone who's not seen this yet watch it.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Bromareo

Dec 10, 2021

Masterpiece of fiction. Nothing more should be said, watch it, especially if you can enjoy a really well written movie.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

abolfazlvahed

Dec 23, 2022

the saddest animation you can see. if you have sister or brother its more painful.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

pokegod11

Jul 24, 2020

Feels very lackluster in comparison to other sad movies but it definitely has its moments that can make you cry

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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