GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988)
Directed by Isao Takahata
Starring: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi (Voices)
Genre: Anime/Drama
Running Time: 86mins

Rating:

Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies depicts the lives of two children caught in the crossfire of wartime Japan. Losing their father in battle and their mother and home in the wake of the firebombing of Tokyo, they find themselves in a society in ruin. Cast aside and barely given a second look by the adults around them, they are somebody else's responsibility, somebody else's children. And so, left to fend for themselves they create a world around them where an abandoned bomb shelter can be a modest home, and fruit drops a luxury desert.

Studio Ghibli has long been associated with beautifully subtle yet whimsical fairytales, food for the imagination with moral teachings for the soul. And while Miyazaki may reign supreme in the West with his eclectic flights of fantasy, Fireflies director Isao Takahata has gone some way in proving himself of equal talent by producing a masterwork of cinema that just happens to be animated.

It's a film rich with eccentricities, complex characterisation and heartbreaking emotion painstakingly crafted so that each shot and each subtle expression hits every right note. Credit is due to the animators who abandon the big eyes and wide smiles to allow for subtle gestures and compositions that evoke much more than just "cutesy" reactions, what we're witnessing here are two outstanding performances filled with precise, well observed nuances that simply could not have been created by young actors.

In his approach to such a grave subject matter, Takahata chooses to rest his politics squarely from the eyes of the children experiencing the attacks. There is no anti-US sentiment, no questioning of who is right and wrong just a blank canvas stating the cliché of "war is bad". Regardless, this message when combined with such an apolitical stance and the plight of its two protagonists, who merely want to survive, takes on added weight and without ever being preachy has a far greater impact on its audience.

Grave of the Fireflies is a masterwork of animation, of cinema itself. Sure, there won't be many dry eyes as the credits roll but this isn't a film that relies on the dreamscape of the imagination to tell its story, it's a sophisticated account of war and its effects upon society. It's not hard to see why it is praised so highly among critics, the film is virtually flawless, a sensitive, haunting yet beautifully composed piece of filmmaking that shows just why Ghibli is so highly regarded.

Stunning.