grave of the fireflys.

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 4:54 am

i need a review or 30

Mroni · Post by **Mroni** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 5:26 am

This thread is always fun. Ok here's my review. Ok this movie is a piece of anti american filth which shows american fighters straffing civilians on the ground. It's all about how a lazy good for nothing boy who refuses to do his share for the war effort and let's his little sister die. She is innocent and yes it is sad to see her go but this is the inevitable outcome of the boy's inherent laziness . I end up with 2 emotions. One I hate the guy that made the film and two I hate that kid he needs drop kicked more than Shinji needs drop kicked. On the plus side there is plenty to laugh at and if you are like me you can always cheer for the B 29s. That's my review and in conclusion this movie sucks.

Mr Oni

Mr Pilkington · Post by **Mr Pilkington** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:31 am

Mroni wrote:On the plus side there is plenty to laugh at and if you are like me you can always cheer for the B 29s. That's my review and in conclusion this movie sucks.

Agreed! However, unlike you I wan't angered. I found the whole thing morbidly humorous. definitly a wartime laugh-riot! But the whole thing was anticlimactic, and I am currently in a lawsuit over the makers demanding those two hours of my life back. If you haven nothing better to do see this movie, but please don't blame me. I warned you.
I give this movie 7 and 1/2 hydrogen atoms out of a possible 500.

superspike · Post by **superspike** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:22 am

is it me, or is this getting old....

Brolli411 · Post by **Brolli411** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:36 pm

This has been posted over 3 times! LOOK

And there have been many reviews. Every hear of something called Google?

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 8:52 pm

I think he wants one that didn't devolve into a giant argument between whiners, realists, and Japanese atrocity deniers.

But that's the whole point of a thread about this topic!

DeathScytheAngel · Post by **DeathScytheAngel** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 9:30 pm

I really don't feel that you should be calling this movie a piece of anit-american filth. It's really a very moving film. If you think its anti-american don't watch it, you know what its about. You really shouldn't be insulting someone's work like that. Its meant to be more than a war film.

This isn't a review I have written myself, because I don't think I'd be able to write a decent review that didn't take sides. I found this review very helpful and I hope you do too.

"Grave of the Fireflies" ("Hotaru no haka") is one of the most powerful anti-war films I have ever seen, which means that it has no competition when it comes to emotional impact in terms of animated films. The death of Bambi's mother was a traumatic shock, but nothing like the sense of despair and grief that overwhelms you by the end of this film. The film begins with the spirit of a young boy showing us his death in a train station, after which we follow the fireflies into the past to see his story. At the beginning of the original movie of "Brian's Song" we were told: "All true stories end in death. This is a true story." So is "Grave of the Fireflies" because I have no problem granting the legitimacy of "truth" to fiction.

In the last months of World War II an American fire bomb raid destroys the port city of Kobe, where almost all of the buildings are made of wood. Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi/J. Robert Spencer) is a 14-year old boy who survives along with his 4-year old sister Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi/Rhoda Chrosite). They were separated from their mother during the raid, which spares them from her fate. Their father is a navy officer serving in the Imperial Navy at sea, and the two kids go off to live with an aunt. With both his school and the war factory where we worked gone, Seita does not know what to do. So he tries to take care of his sister. But his aunt constantly berates him and after trading his mother's kimonos for race, Seita decides to take Setsuko and live in a couple of caves dug for bomb shelters. For a while their live remains idyllic, but then there is nothing left to trade for food, and no food to be bought for money. Seita has to steal food to survive and Setsuko is getting weaker and weaker from hunger.

This film is based on the semi-autobiographical novel written by Akiyuki Nosaka, which won the Naoli Prize, the Japanese equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Like Seita, he survived the fire bombing with a younger sister, who died in his care. Obviously the story stems from a sense of guilty and I have to think the story was confessional rather than cathartic for Nosaka. Writer-director Isao Takahata turns this tragedy into what can only be described as a poetic experience, achieving a cinematic lyricism that could never have been accomplished in a live-action film (e.g., the way the fireflies have a counterpoint in the pieces of ash that drift on the wind after the fire bombings). There is a quietness to this film, a sense of contemplation that emphasizes important and small moments alike, and makes scenes linger as the heart-rending story plays out to its fatal conclusion. The voice work by both of the young girls playing Setsuko is extremely effective; I have a slight preference for that done by Ayano Shiriashi simply because it is much more naturalistic than what you usually find in anime depicting children.

"Graves of the Fireflies" is an unforgettable film, one which will reduce most viewers to tears if not outright sobbing. Watching it is a painful experience, but then a film depicting the horrors of war and showing what happens to young children is supposed to have that effect. Viewing it a second time makes the experience even more intense (you probably will not catch what Setsuko's last words are the first time through, but be prepared for what it will do to you when you watch the film again). You will never, ever forget this film and you should be very, very careful about showing it to younger children, because it will change forever what they think about animated films. It will do that for you as well.

Lyrs · Post by **Lyrs** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 9:50 pm

I didn't like the graphics. Other than that, i respectidly suffered through many many forgetable moments.

/end

CaTaClYsM · Post by **CaTaClYsM** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 9:58 pm

*waits for it*

I know it is comming, that is, if it isn't already here. this would be thread nuber what, 3 or 4?

mexicanjunior · Post by **mexicanjunior** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 10:23 pm

[Shameless plug] So ummm...yeah.

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=12511

[/Shameless plug]

AnimeMusicVideos.org

grave of the fireflys.

grave of the fireflys.

Re: grave of the fireflys.