Its amazing what can be achieved with a small crew and low budget. But with a vision of telling a compelling story and a good camera. This film has very little dialog or musical accompaniment. The audio track is astounding, as we're dropped into a rain-forest that's been overrun by the Japanese during WWII. We get the sounds of war and the jungle. I was riveted. I love the close encounters with the life of the place. Feel the bugs crawling on my skin. A unique piece of cinematic art deserving of positive critical review. I've seen lots of WWII movies over the years, but nothing like this. Another plus: none of the blood or violence or men with guns that is usual with the genre. More awards please!
Reviews
2 Reviews
Grave of the Fireflies
(1988)
If there were more than 10 stars to give
8 June 2014
My father was a B-29 pilot part of the 315th Bomb Wing in Guam. Growing up, he never talked about WWII, ever. Despite a first class American education, I never learned about the fire-bombing of Japan. Having watched this great film, I now know why, and more importantly that it happened.
I watch and rate lots of films and rarely give any film 10-stars. If there were more to give, I would. Besides being a great film, beautifully made, at an emotional depth I feel otherwise impossible, I understand my father's reluctance. He chose to be buried in the Houston National Cemetery and was interred there In June of 2004, so his role in WWII was of obvious importance to him.
The film's impetus, however, was to look deeper into that role, to understand it from the eyes of two Kobe war orphans on the ground under those fireflies laying waste to their lives, their cities, their nation. War from the perspective of civilians and their great casualty. For that, I'd recommend Mark Selden's excellent article "A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq".
Because it continues. Because it was then and is now a crime. Because it must stop.
I thank the artists.
I watch and rate lots of films and rarely give any film 10-stars. If there were more to give, I would. Besides being a great film, beautifully made, at an emotional depth I feel otherwise impossible, I understand my father's reluctance. He chose to be buried in the Houston National Cemetery and was interred there In June of 2004, so his role in WWII was of obvious importance to him.
The film's impetus, however, was to look deeper into that role, to understand it from the eyes of two Kobe war orphans on the ground under those fireflies laying waste to their lives, their cities, their nation. War from the perspective of civilians and their great casualty. For that, I'd recommend Mark Selden's excellent article "A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq".
Because it continues. Because it was then and is now a crime. Because it must stop.
I thank the artists.
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