Netflix has almost the entire catalogue of the Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli – except for one of its older masterpieces. Grave of the Fireflies (1988), directed by the company’s co-founder Isao Takahata, had been excluded due to problems about rights. The film is finally available on the platform.
Takahata’s emotionally wrenching work is a departure from his own films as well as other Ghibli productions. Grave of the Fireflies is a tragedy about siblings who cope with degrees of loss during World War II – of their parents, stability, and honour after their country’s military defeat.
Kobe resident Seita is forced to become a parent to his younger sister Setsuko after his mother’s death in a bombing. His father is away, serving in the Japanese Navy. American planes spread carnage through Kobe, reducing the city to rubble.
Seita has no time to mourn. He takes Setsuko to a relative’s home in a town that has not yet been affected by the war. Here, brother and sister get a break from their privations. They take comfort in the small pleasures of life, such as fireflies that are caught in the hand or a visit to the beach.
The hardship forced on the Japanese catches up with the siblings soon enough. The movie has one of the most difficult scenes of a child’s death, matching Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali in its austere intensity.
Hunger is a recurrent theme in the movie. Seita’s efforts to feed his innocent sister is the kind of lump-in-the-throat stuff that is neither manipulative nor sentimental.
The 89-minute film is based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-autobiographical short story of the same name. In its crisp runtime, Grave of the Fireflies captures the horrors of war and the suffering of civilians in a way that few live-action movies have.
In an interview in The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013), Mami Sunada’s documentary on Studio Ghibli, Takahata’s colleague and legendary director Hayao Miyazaki commented on animation’s advantage over live-action cinema: “Feels like you could go somewhere far beyond.”
Grave of the Fireflies proves this observation. Never once do you feel that you are watching animated figures moving through animated backdrops.
From the ash that settles on the ruins of what once were homes and schools to the tears that flow down the faces of children forced to grow up too soon, the movie has rich detailing as well as immense feeling. The heart breaks on seeing Seita’s attempts to be brave for his sister’s sake, Setsuko’s innocence, and the unwavering bond between them. Grave of the Fireflies transcends style and genre, ranking as one of the greatest movies about the brutality of war, whatever the time and place.
