Grave of the Fireflies

By Mal -

10 out of 10

It seems IMDB doesn’t let you rate a film as 11 out of 10. That’s a pity because this one blew me away like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Grave of the Fireflies is a Studio Ghibli animation following the tale of a 14 year old boy and his 4 year old sister, struggling to survive in war-time Japan. Heart-breaking from the start, I was so glad I chose to watch this alone. Had I had to stifle my emotions, it would have ruined the experience. As it was, I was an absolute mess by the end, tears burning my eyes and rolling down my face. In fact, I was a mess by half way, but it just kept on coming. It’s relentless.

While it’s primarily the story that makes this a great movie, it’s brilliantly supported by both the artwork and the music. The characters themselves may be typically simplistic in their appearance, but the humanity in their body language is superb and the background artwork exquisite. The music, too, is perfectly pitched to support the emotions being stirred by the story. Just hearing it again in the DVD extras was enough to bring it all back.

I could go on for so much longer, discussing the merits of Fireflies, but I’m wary of giving spoilers. In particular, there’s a single scene in which... nah, I’d better not. Email me if you want to know. I just reckon it’s probably the greatest moment in animation history.

Summing up, this is a spectacularly good and spectacularly sad film. I’m not sure I could bring myself to watch it again, though, so you might want to rent rather than buy. Just make sure you see it somehow. And watch it subtitled — dubbing sucks. :)

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