Grave of the Fireflies

Posted February 22nd, 2010 in Ume's Interests 6 Comments »

You can watch this film on SBS tonight, 12:20  (midnight) !!! (Perth time)

Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 animated film written and directed by Isao Takahata. This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work. (wiki)

I believe this is one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made.  The story is about a brother and a sister, Seita and Setsuko.  Their mother is caught in the air raid during World War ll, and dies from her burns. Having nowhere else to go, Setsuko and Seita move in with a distant aunt, but the aunt didn’t welcome them.  In the end they leave the house and move into an abandoned bomb shelter.  They’re so alone, and Seita (brother) tries to protect young Setsuko, but they have no food and no parents.  As time goes by, Setsuko suffer from hunger, and she passes away 7days after the war ends.

The story is very sad, and educational to people who don’t know about “war”.  I’ve seen this film many times at elementary school and home, and it told me that a war gives nothing but sadness to people who live normal lives.  This film makes me cry every time I watch.  One of my favorite film of Ghibli.

You can watch this film on SBS tonight, 12:20  (midnight) !!!


6 Comments on “Grave of the Fireflies”

  1. 1 Cameron Lynch said at 7:44 am on February 23rd, 2010:

    Yo Ume!

    I love this movie! It’s so beautiful yet so sad!

    REALLY stupid time to put such a great movie on as it’ll be too late for most people to see it! >:P

  2. 2 umepontarou said at 9:53 am on February 23rd, 2010:

    Hi Cameron,

    I agree! I also couldn’t stand being awake, so I asked my husband to record it so that I can watch it some other time.

  3. 3 jean said at 4:41 pm on February 26th, 2010:

    Oh poop i missed it 🙁

  4. 4 umepontarou said at 10:32 am on February 28th, 2010:

    Yeah I also knew in the morning of the day…
    I hope SBS shows that again sometime soon… it’s shame you can’t rent the DVD here.

  5. 5 Cam said at 6:17 pm on March 1st, 2010:

    Well you CAN rent the DVD here!

    If you go to DVD Heaven http://www.dvdheaven.com.au/ they have a section called “anime world” at the Rivervale store and they have TONS of Anime there including Grave of Fireflies.
    Otherwise you can buy it at either JB Hifi or Borders too ^_^

  6. 6 umepontarou said at 9:28 pm on March 1st, 2010:

    Cam,

    I didn’t know about this shop! Thanks 🙂


Leave a Comment