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Grave of the Fireflies
火垂るの墓
1988 · Film · 89 min
Directed by Isao Takahata
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
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I can't recommend a specific order but...
If looking for "adventure" go with Laputa, Cagliostro, maybe Porco Rosso.
If looking for something "warm" go with Totoro, Kiki, Ponyo.
If looking for something more "fantastical" (probably also more complex) try Howl's, Spirited Away, Nausicaä, Mononoke.
If you are willing to consider a TV show, then Sherlock Hound is really fun and delightful in every possible way. The complete series is IIRC 26 episodes.
Also, there are some non-Miyazaki but still Ghibli films which you may want to consider too. Personally, I absolutely love Mimi wo Sumaseba and I can hear the sea, but these may well be a bit uninteresting for a 10 year old; better for a teen probably over 15 I'd guess. Pompoko is clearly recommended for your age bracket though, and it's fun too.
Finally, there's the question of Grave of the Fireflies. I think 15 is probably fine, 10... maybe. But in any case, be warned that it's a very sad story and I have very rarely met someone who could watch it without crying profusely.
Grave of the Fireflies is the most emotionally disturbing movie I have ever watched (including non animes). It is a masterpiece but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.
It's based on a short story published by Akiyuki Nosaka [1] which was based on his own experiences, and in general, the fate of many children after the war [2].
As far as I can tell, the movie was a faithful re-enactment of the story, which itself was only slightly removed from the author's own experiences. War is fundamentally depressing, and the only thing you could reasonably call "oscar bait" was the choice to make the movie at all. Others might call it brave -- particularly when you realize that it was released at the same time as Totoro. The brilliance of the film was that it used "kids animation" to portray the misery of war in a way that I don't think any other movie ever has.
It was a fundamental re-imagining of the scope of the medium, and the deep irony of a comment like the GP is that the entire reason it gets dismissed is because it pushes the boundaries of animation far beyond what is usually deemed acceptable.
Miyazaki plays metaphorical footsie with themes like death and pain and obligation -- and maybe he's more successful because of it -- but Takahata just takes them head-on.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(short_story)
[2] https://thoughtmight.com/movie/grave-of-the-fireflies-misinformation/
Grave of the fireflies can be described as depressing Oscar bait.
I believe the reason Miyazaki's movies are so popular is because there is at least hope in them.
There are notable Studio Ghibli films that were not made by Miyazaki such as Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie was There.
All of those were in my opinion excellent films and similar in style to ones made by Miyazaki, and I think fans of Miyazaki's work will also enjoy them.
> personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen
You owe it to yourself to watch the Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語). It might be his best film, and quite possibly one of the best ever produced by Ghibli.
Takahata was robbed of the Oscar that year which went to...Big Hero. Ugh.
Between Kaguya and Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata had two of the best films ever made, in any category, and never got an Oscar.
Well their top directorial talent is retired (and even if it's another fake retirement like his last two, he's too old to do too much more) or dead. Miyazaki's films seem to be more popular and well known than Takahata's (personally Grave of the Fireflies and The Cat Returns are the only Takahata films I've seen), but both men were the heart of the studio. Goro Miyazaki has improved since his debut but is still nowhere as talented nor as visionary as his father.
Also The Boy and the Heron was quite a letdown for me for Miyazaki's final film. I understood the point he was trying to make, that the films he made were his attempt at creating a perfect world, but the malice in his own heart made him unable to accomplish his vision. But the rest of the film didn't really seem to be built around that message, it seemed like an afterthought for the final scenes where the great-uncle is trying to pass the mantle on to him.
In any case, Princess Mononoke is my favorite film of all time, and the closest that Miyazaki (and Studio Ghibli) ever got to perfection. If you haven't seen it you should absolutely check it out.
Fire-bombing a city full of civilians is probably also a war crime. Tokyo was not a giant aeroplane factory, it was full of Japanese citizens who we would consider innocents, "Grave of the Fireflies" is about that period† - the children literally starving to death isn't an exaggeration for the sake of making a sad movie - that's the reality of what we did to win.
Not to mention the US literally rounded up citizens who had Japanese ancestors and sent them to concentration camps. They apologised, decades later, but note these aren't enemy civilians who happen to be in the wrong place, they're your own citizens who merely look similar to the enemy.
Because the Americans sent babies to these camps for the crime of having ancestors born in Japan there will be a decade or so of people who have memories (albeit fuzzy ones) of this actually fucking happening to them after the people who fought WWII are dead.
† Grave of the Fireflies is set in Kobe, which was also fire bombed.
[Edited to specify that Grave is in Kobe]
Have you ever watched a film like Come and See, Schindlers list, Grave of the fireflies, etc…?
These movies are some of the most impactful that I have ever seen, but by no means would I rate them highly rewatchable. They are gut wrenching, and some people can only stand to watch them once, few want to rewatch them, but they are also incredible.
I also gain a lot from a rewatchable piece of content, but you might be shorting yourself by always watching things designed to tickle the dopamine receptors.
I strongly recommend Wolf Children. It's on par with Miyazaki's best. A really moving and heartwarming film.
On the flipside of the spectrum, Grave of the Fireflies and In This Corner of the World are excellent but tragic WW2 films told from the Japanese civilian perspective. Grave of the Fireflies in particular is a difficult watch, but worth seeing once.
Remember: you can’t make any movie about postwar Japan without also making it about the warcrimes of Imperial Japan /s
This is like bitching that Grave of the Fireflies doesn’t call out the atrocities committed by unit 731 so it’s bad.
The regular people featured in Godzilla Minus One talk about how corrupt and destructive their government is; they explicitly call attention to the fact that their government didn’t care at all about the lives of its own people. I think it is pretty telling that if Imperial Japan is letting it’s own civilians starve or forcing them into pointless suicide attacks, then they certainly wouldn’t care about American POWs or Chinese peasants.
I think I can apply your last two paragraphs to pretty much any movie unintentionally celebrating the United States security apparatus, politics, public policy, or exploitative crony capitalism that that people lust over for whatever reason.
"That said, there are clear problems with the political narrative in the film Oppenheimer, given that it's supposed to be artwork. Making a film about a nuclear weapon without in any way extensively showcasing the result of it's use on a civilian population i.e. the consequences of the development of that weapon is extremely American and morally dubious at best...downright propaganda at worst. Were the American public and military rank and file the real victims of WW2 ()? Is it ok to pronounce the moral ambiguity of the top brass without commenting on the Holocaust-level crimes committed?
These things were glaring in the theater. And I know I'm going to get the standard 'MAGA move to a Commie country' for having an honest appraisal of the conceptual idea. But it's bad in that way. ..."
War is a complex issue and making a film about Japan's war crimes (the first installment of the Ip Man series was good with this) is something which has to be met with approval from its government who have their hands in film finance as well. Japan is not exactly a capitalist economy-- it is culturally a command economy and everyone listens to the government (this is actually one of the critiques of Shin Godzilla and even if this Godzilla movie).
There are not that many governments that are going to be thrilled about you making a movie shitting on their armed forces or speaking on their war crimes. In the United States, our first amendment protects give us tremendous leeway to do this, but there is a lot of other pressures which can be extorted to kill a film prior to release.
Scorcese recently released Killers of the Flower Moon, which is not about a Holocaust, but about a limited genocide, and people are already bitching about the length, and it is as long as a "rah rah America" Avengers movie. This kind of movie was hard to make in the United States. It would be impossible to make in Japan. People there have to use metaphors to talk about getting nuked (aside from Grave of the Fireflies showing the Tokyo Firebombing, which was worse). How are you supposed to use a metaphor for an Asian Holocaust? If they did it would it come off as insensitive to a Western viewer?
This is a political Godzilla movie. It's a movie about Japan dealing with post war recovery. Maybe next time, there will be a Godzilla who comes and frees all the slave labor in the Imphal India campaign (maybe involve the Indian film industry to reduce cost). Maybe you should pitch it to be developed here with US political assistance and pressure so that Japanese war crimes are addressed. It's certainly a good idea.
But I would hesitate from: -- being a hypocrite. -- critiquing simplistically without seeing the larger work of this director.
Pedant's note: GP's comment was how Guillermo del Toro compared Miyazaki to Mozart. Grave of the Fireflies was written and directed by Isao Takahata, not Hayao Miyazaki.
The only two animated films that have ever triggered an emotional response are Watership Down (when I was a kid) and Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies (when I was an adult). Both were really heavy in ways that are hard to articulate.
The trailer for the latter:
https://youtu.be/4vPeTSRd580?si=CAN__Md9KIKQcehN
While not Miyazaki (but still Studio Ghibli), Isao Takahata's films Grave of the Fireflies (and to some extent, Princess Kaguya), isn't really some ”feel good” movies. Optimistic is the last thing i would describes those two masterpieces.
Agreed that Takahata was a master in his own right.
Everybody knows about Grave of the Fireflies, but a few years ago I discovered the more subdued Only Yesterday and found it impressive. It stirred emotions, a true animated movie for adults.
I also enjoyed Princess Kaguya a lot. The art style alone is very different from Miyazaki's style (which I love, of course).
Barefoot Gen was also adapted as an anime movie and it's... rough. Another heart-wrenching anime related to the bombings is Grave of the Fireflies.
Not always. Here is Isao Takahata [1]:
“The response was different depending on which film was shown first. My Neighbor Totoro would make them happy, then this Grave of the Fireflies… Those who saw Totoro first didn’t want to see Fireflies to the end. Those who saw Fireflies first didn’t have that problem, and stayed to the end. The double featuring was a problem, I’d say.”
[1] http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/grave/faq.html#totoro
If you just watched Grave of the Fireflies, would you trust the second movie?
Also the crises in Totoro would be a lot heavier if you just watched a whole family die piece by piece.
Yeah but at the same time, PTSD from for example Mortal Kombat or Carmageddon can develop later in life / over a long period in time. One example, there's a pretty harrowing scene in Shaun of the Dead where one of the characters gets disemboweled. We have a 15 year old that watched that at a much younger age, didn't hit him, but when he saw it again it affected him a lot more.
I think being able to correlate and understand what's happening is a big factor in how things affect you. Films like Grave of the Fireflies apparently (I haven't watched it) hit much harder if you have kids for example.
This movie and "Grave of the fireflies" are the two movies which shook me the most emotionally. Masterpieces in their own right. Both put the horrors of war into proper perspective.
Interesting how as a teenager I would spend hours playing Mortal Combat, ripping peoples spines out, or Carmageddon and splattering peoples intestines all over the windshield. None of this prepared me for these two movies. I guess even at a younger age we're just good at separating fact from fiction.
> Studio Ghibli ... are targeting a different audience with more adult themes
Definitely for the "adult" theme part, although I'd word it differently.
While the likes of Mononoke Hime and Grave of the Fireflies should probably be handle with care (resp. violence and very heavy context) most are perfectly watchable by children (of course being mindful of what may shock or otherwise create psychological harm).
I'd argue that many of these "adult" themes are perfectly graspable by children and it's our own prejudice that we project, and that these films present them in an accessible way for children, enabling deep parent-child discussions that would help understand and structure a child and prepare them for their life to come.
I'd rather have my children watch Ghibli stuff than Disney.
But what is The Witch of Mercury really about, other than some amazing mechas, which make for cheap, amazing looking merchandising? It's about a bunch of teenagers trying to live a good life in an apparently sensible high school/military academy, and having all kinds of positive dreams... while the reality is much different. Basically every parent is a manipulative monster. Everything that appears remotely positive gets crushed 2 episodes later. It's not a series about the wonders of the future. It's all about how the world is horrible, and no matter how much you want to pretend, the adult's horror has infected your world too. So even the the Gundam series you talked about is really about a dystopia where teenagers are turned into weapons by old people, and they will, predictably, have to overturn the old ruling class.
Not that Gundam was ever all that optimistic: Good old Amuro was the poster boy for the disasters of war back in the very first series. The fact that there's cool robots is just sweetener for stories that are mostly about dealing with betrayal and despair. It's not quite Grave of the Fireflies, but it's not any less grim than, say, Evangelion.
The grim tone of Grave of the Fireflies and the equally bright and cheerful tone of Totoro made more sense to me when I found out that they were a double feature at the cinema.
My favorites were probably "Grave of the Fireflies" (warning: it's heavy and devastating), "Pom Poko" (very funny), "From Up on Poppy Hill", "Arrietty" to name a few. The fantasy-centered films are good, but my personal taste tends to lean towards the slice-of-life/coming-of-age films so that's why those were some of my favorites.
The only truly "bad" movie of the bunch is their latest from 2020: "Earwig and the Witch". It's computer generated instead of hand-drawn but it looks like a computer generated film from the early '90s. Just ugly and uninspired. And the story was not good. It had promise but did absolutely nothing with it. Very disappointing film. Thankfully, it looks like their next release (summer 2023) will be back to the hand-drawn style.
+1. Even just seeing the "easter egg" in the poster of the movie that was discovered a few years back was enough to get my eyes to well up. Such an incredible movie, but not something I think I'll ever rewatch!
"‘Grave of the Fireflies’ Poster Has Heartbreaking Easter Egg Discovered 30 Years After Release": https://nextshark.com/grave-fireflies-poster-hidden/
Animated movies that I often rewatch (in no particular order):
- Spirited Away
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Finding Dory
- Up
- Tokyo Godfathers
- Akira (NOT the English dub, which completely changes the story and dialogue for the worse, and for no good reason)
- Mononoke Hime
- Ghost in the Shell (the original one)
- My Neighbor Totoro
Animated series I'll rewatch:
- Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
- Castlevania
- Futurama
- Archer
- Arcane
- Cowboy Bebop
- Ergo Proxy
- The Dragon Prince
- Hakaba Kitaro
- Star Trek: Lower Decks
Fortunately, one doesn't have to choose! I love both Miyazaki's and Takahata's work. Recently (?) there was an influx of Ghibli movies on Netflix, so I finally watched "Only Yesterday" and... I loved it! I strongly recommend this movie.
Of course there's also his powerful "Grave of the Fireflies", but I think that one is well known by all anime fans and needs no recommending.
> So why wasn't it Tokyo or Osaka?
Presumably because of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_(10_March_1945) and ... can't find the corresponding wikipedia page, but Osaka, Nagoya and Kobe were fire-bombed shortly after. The fire-bombing of Kobe is probably what wad depicted in the animation movie Grave of the fireflies.
This is not talked about much, but led to more deaths than both Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined...
to be clear, even though i ranked them, my bar for a good film is whether i'd watch it again or not, and all the ghibli films i've seen, except perhaps arrietty (i haven't seen earwig or earthsea, but the consensus seems to be against those as well), are well worth watching again and again.
grave of the fireflies is heartwrenching for sure, and absolutely worth watching again (when you have tissues and a loved one to hug nearby).
yes, spirited away is hands down the best ghibli film, for that ability to grab your spirit and transform it alongside chihiro's (the young protagonist). it's probably one of my top 5 or top 10 films of all time.
i liked mononoke, but it felt heavy-handed in comparison, so it doesn't rate as highly in my book. it would have rated way worse had disney gotten its way with it.
edit: totoro would be #2, kaguya and grave of the fireflies would be tied for #3/4, then howl's moving castle at #5, then ponyo, mononoke, and kiki's delivery service would be among the remaining top 10 spots for me.
Well, if you want Ghibli's best movie ... Grave of the Fireflies to my mind is easily one of the best movies ever made, let alone Ghili's best. I've seen it at least 3 times because I'm a glutton for punishment that way.
Grave of the Fireflies needs a warning label.
It's Schindler's List in a few important ways. 1) it's about WWII, 2) It's a gut punch, and 3) It's one of the greatest movies you only need to see once, and likely will only want to watch once.
I've told the kids they can only watch that movie once they're old enough to drink.
> Is princess Mononoke the best movie from Studio Ghibli?
As far as I am aware, most anime nerds say that Grave of the Fireflies is the best movie from Studio Ghibli (for this movie, Hayao Miyazaki was only producer and not director). But be aware that Grave of the Fireflies is a rather sad movie.
interesting, these are more 'western' than the ghibli catalog as a whole, which does have some western stories. it almost seems like they were looking for less familiar material, much like i've been doing for the past number of years by watching more 'eastern' (chinese/japanese/korean) content. still, looks like i have some watching to do!
as a sidenote, i'm happy vulture put "spirited away" and "my neighbor totoro" at the top of their ghibli rankings[0]. these two films are amazing. i wouldn't have ranked "castle in the sky" at 3, but do agree that "grave of the fireflies" and "princess kaguya" should rank highly. "howl's movie castle" or "ponyo" would probably be #5 for me. "arrietty" would be last, despite me not having seen 5 of the films yet.
[0]: https://www.vulture.com/article/best-studio-ghibli-films-ranked.html
Not that you explicitly said otherwise, but I just want to point out that Grave of the Fireflies was written and directed by Isao Takahata (RIP), who was a co-founder of Studio Ghibli and frequent collaborator with Miyazaki.
> Is that a good criteria for whether a film is good or not.
I don't rewatch films as a rule but I do sometimes rewatch films with people who have not seen that film.
There are films like Dancer In The Dark, Grave Of The Fireflies, or Dogville that I simply cannot watch a second time because of the precise, agonising emotional turmoil they create. I will recommend this experience to everyone, and they too will watch it only once and recommend it to others.
Then there are films like Taken that I would never watch because they are dreadful, hateful trash.
I would consider the former list to be beautiful, painful exceptions to the idea that a film that can be watched endlessly is a great work. And even then I might be persuaded to watch them with someone I really loved. Perhaps. Though I'd have to love someone a lot to willingly watch through the end of Dancer again.
I would not be so enthusiastic about spending time with anyone who joyfully rewatches Taken.
>I'm saying that the difficulty should adapt to meet the players where they are to maintain a challenge for them. (...) You could say, well, there IS an easy mode; just spend days grinding out levels. That kind of sucks, though.
That is not the only option. Summon other players. But you understand the contradiction of what you're saying, correct?
>[goes on to write a paragraph that could be used as the definition of gatekeeping]
I think you should rethink what gatekeeping actually is, because I'm not sure you know it. I'm not gatekeeping you out of Grave of the Fireflies if you tell me you don't want to watch a sad movie and I suggest against it. It would be gatekeeping if I said 'if you beat the game with summons you didn't actually beat Dark Souls', and it's not something I would say.
Going off the tangent here, Grave of the fireflies was the most depressing movie I ever saw. Number two on my list, Requiem for a dream, is a distant second.
As a rule, I avoid depressing content and was wholly unprepared for the emotional pounding I got.
Watch (both) if you haven't, they're great movies, but brace yourself.
There was a bonus track or something on an anime called “Grave of the Firefires.” It’s been forever since I saw it, but it was a discussion about post WWII Japan and how the anime industry came to be - Disney influence, why so many characters have a distinctly Western appearance, etc. It really was fascinating to watch.
(Edit: grave, not graveyard. Added link to his review of the film.)
[0] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-grave-of-the-fireflies-1988
Adding my yea to the mix.
For one, anime enables storytelling on a level and scope that would ordinarily be too expensive for real film production for most stories told. As an aside I think we're about to see a whole new level of mind-bending "realism" afforded to lower budget productions with tools like UE4/5.
You could argue that "animation" in general does this, but the particular (myriad) stylization choices in Japanese animation carry a fairly unique appeal. I think this was borne of a long-existing cultural tradition of prolifically illustrative literature.
For my part I had family that liked DBZ and similar ilk. The over-the-top-ness blinded me to the appeal as it just felt blah to me. It wasn't until I encountered more serious, darker themes in GITS, SEL, and others that I really grew attracted to the artistic potential of the medium.
I personally feel that art, in whatever form, is validated by making the observer feel something. Even if it makes them feel disgusted, annoyed, inspired, becalmed, horrified, and so forth. Given this, I value anime (or storytelling in general) that knocks me over the head with the emotional intent of the storyteller. It's really hard to get right without being heavy-handed (thus diluting the effect).
Two amazing examples come to mind: "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Ghost Hound"
Grave of the Fireflies is semi-autobiographical and will mess you up for days afterwards. Kind of like Bjork's "Dancer in the Dark". Both do an excellent job of forcing you to take a perspective that most will (fortunately) never have to endure in real life.
Ghost Hound touches on frankly f'ed up themes that an adolescent is trying to cope with. It engages supernatural elements that honestly at times practically noped me out for the imagery and setting alone. Of course this is animated fiction but the way the viewer is pulled in to the story with the protagonist was so well done that you can forget the medium to a degree. Highly recommended.
(Don't read/watch anything about these before watching if you can avoid doing so. Best to come in unopinionated.)
On a side note, I found SEL polarization to be very telling. Some people absolutely hated Serial Experiments Lain, while others like me were drawn to the bizarre reality of the story. I think the fact that this medium can be so polarizing validates my claim that this is art.
Watch them all, there is something to appreciate in all of them. I would just put a trigger warning before Grave of the Fireflies, one of the saddest movies ever; everything else is pretty cool. The only one I’d pass on is The Cat Returns, but some people love it...
Generally speaking, Isao Takahata’s movies are more experimental and unique; his very last work, Kaguya-hime Monogatari, is incredibly beautiful but the animation is completely different from the “traditional” Ghibli style.
My wife and I have been going through the films from the beginning. We're only up to '95 and they've all been great so far.
I think that (in the US at least) Isao Takahata's works are underappreciated. I only knew him for Grave of the Fireflies (which is the best movie that I will never watch again). For example, Pom Poko is a wonderfully bizarre film that I'd suggest anyone watch.
Nuking the Japanese was just the culmination of rather horrific methods used by the US against Japan.
Another one the US was quite keen on is firebombing (aerial incendiary bombing of urban areas). Grave of the Fireflies is a movie well worth watching that provides a depiction of the effect of war on society.
Grave of the Fireflies is a devastating and a timeless tail. Even the most jaded viewer, immune both to sentimental schmaltz and posturing brutality in cinema, finds their resistance slipping away as they watch. Many cite it as one of the most beautiful and devastating films they’ve seen, and it has become something of a cliché to say it’s a film you cherish and never want to see a second time because of its impact.
The 13th floor. I liked it better than Matrix because it touched upon the ethical issues dealing with AR and potentially sentient simulated beings.
12 Monkeys. Probably my favorite time travel movie, and the trouble with fate.
Grave of the Fireflies. Probably the saddest movie ever made, touching on so many aspects of human suffering.
Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run). It's been done so many times, but not as well as here.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Body". The show itself was basically mindless entertainment that I almost stopped watching, UNTIL this episode. I've never been thrown so much. If you're going to experience it, you MUST watch the entire series up to and including that episode to understand why it's so powerful, and you must not read anything about that episode beforehand.
Grave of the Fireflies I'm calling the most sad anime ever. It is indeed a wonderful movie. I had a friend say "oh have you ever seen that really depressing anime?" and I immediately said "Grave of the Fireflies?" Nailed it!
Going in a slightly different direction, the two saddest films I have ever seen are 火垂るの墓 / Grave of the Fireflies (1988 - Ghibli - Japan) and Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanad / Hush! Girls Don't Scream (2013 - Iran). In both of them you can feel the exact moment when the protagonist loses hope and it really hits you.
Both of them deserve a pretty strong warning--I guess the second one more of a true "trigger warning" and the first just a warning of how sad it is. You cannot get them out of your head after you have seen them.
Miyazaki was not involved in Grave of the Fireflies. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata.
Oh God, Threads. The article is right, that really is one of the bleakest movies ever made, right up there with Grave of the Fireflies and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. I didn't even encounter it until long after the Cold War had ended, and it still made a huge impression on me; I can only imagine how people viewing it in Britain in 1984, at the height of Reagan-era confrontationalism, must have felt.
The TV series that was broadcast just a little before that was also pretty remarkable [1], it involved Miyazaki, Isao Takahata (who later made "Grave of the Fireflies") and Masaaki Osumi, who was in charge of the first few episodes which have a really special jazzy and cool feeling, which I've only seen reproduced at the same level in "Cowboy Bebop" which was made more than 20 years later.
Also, the opening scene of the even later Lupin the 3rd TV series dubbed in Italian will forever be one of my best childhood memories. I don't know how they managed to do it but sometimes the Italians were able to create opening scenes that were even better than the original ones in Japanese, a very hard feat to accomplish as the latter were also very good.
[1] https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=886
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKmzwpALHg4
The movie "Grave of the Fireflies" is a depiction of the incendiary bombing of Kobe and its aftermath.
After watching it, I found myself challenged to explain why the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are considered worse.
It's here if you haven't seen it yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vldWhL5JQxg
Hmmm... I'd be interested to know more about this. Its going to be fairly hard to fight this I suppose. The US does have a powerful military interest* to be doing this, but I've not read about them actually doing so.
* To understand why, watch the movie Grave of the Fireflies. Or watch Indy Neidel on youtube talk about the "turnip winter"
I watched Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), alone, sitting it my in-laws' condo in Tokyo back in 1991. To this day, it remains one of the most emotionally wrenching film experiences of my life. The only movie I've ever cried through. I consider it the best "war" film I've ever seen.
I have enjoyed nearly every movie Studio Ghibli has produced, especially early films like Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä and Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta but Hotaru no Haka has a special, honored place at the top of my list.
Rest in peace, 高畑さん
I have the same. I cry in every Ghibli movie, even if they're fun to watch. I cry even when I think about Totoro flying around the big tree, I cry when I remember how Kiki can handle the world and her own life all by herself and I cry when I think about the killer robots of Laputa helping the little animals and plants to survive on that killing machine.
And I don't usually cry in the movies.
And yes, Grave of the Fireflies is tough.
Edit: Or that train crossing the flooded plains. Uh... We should not forget Joe Hisaishi's part in this.
Edit2: Or how Porco can't face love after being part of the war as a pilot.
I have a mixed perception of his films (I absolutely hated 'Grave of the Fireflies' on multiple levels, loved many of his other films, and disliked or felt ambivalent about others), but he was a man who really cared about the craft, and that's getting rarer and rarer in the anime industry. I consider this a great loss.
Indeed, “Grave of the Fireflies” was the first ever, and so far only, movie that has brought me to tears. If anyone ever questions if an animated movie can ever convey emotions like “real” movies, think of this masterpiece.
Actually the movies you cite are all Miyazaki.
Takahata directed Grave of the Fireflies, Pompoko, my Neighbors the Yamada and others.
Grave of the Fireflies is a movie I can't think of watching again. Extremely beautiful but also emotionally exhausting.
I really enjoyed Only Yesterday. But I tend to like "slice of life" stuff.
I'm assuming that a lot of people will be commenting about Grave of the Fireflies. It's a stunning movie, but I felt a much greater connection to My Neighbors The Yamadas. I found it to be such a delightful movie, full of small family moments. Very few actual crises, very few actual stakes, but so wonderfully realized.
It's a great loss.
Grave of the Fireflies is a legitimate classic, but might not be recommended for your daughters due to high risk of emotional trauma. Pom Poko and Princess Kaguya are more family friendly, but Takahashi's films are generally less accessible than Miyazaki's.
Excellent movie, but the Grave of the Fireflies does not talk about the end of civilization as we know it, so it's a little out of topic.
I nominate Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies"
It's a great movie, but if you are going to watch, I highly recommend that you don't watch it alone and that you have something "fun" planned afterwords - maybe a fun dumb movie like The Hangover, play with your dog in the park, etc. Do not watch it by yourself and then go to bed. It is really haunting.
If we're trading recommendations of harrowing things to watch, may I nominate Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies", the story of two children trying to survive in Japan towards the end of the Second World War in the face of a callous, indifferent world.
The only animated feature that is guaranteed to make this grown man weep like there's no tomorrow.
>I think this is simply reflective off Miyazaki's view of what animations should be represented at all
> He's not a fan of the grotesque, creepy, or disquieting.
Studio Ghibli has produced lots of work that's grotesque and disquieting. He's not against representing them.
Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies come to mind as films that show the grotesque in a way that there's a strong human spirit endowed in the animation.
Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting to compare Germany with Japan in that case. Japanese cultural memory and historiography intensely remembers the suffering of civilians from famine, firebombing, and nuclear weapons [1] (but rarely from the military itself [2]), but even suggesting that German civilians suffered unnecessarily from strategic bombing in Der Brand (2002) earned Jörg Friedrich, a German historian of Nazi war crimes, widespread censure.
[1] Grave of the Fireflies is a gorgeous, heartbreaking film. Highly recommended!
[2] See the discussion of Okinawa in http://apjjf.org/-Mark-Selden/3173/article.html
Grave of the Fireflies http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/
This film steers into "Grave of the Fireflies" territory, something that may be great, but you have trouble watching it once without weeping.
MAJOR SPOILERS!!! wtf! no spoiler warning at all. Grave of the fireflies was one of the few Ghibli films I hadnt got around to seeing yet. Plot is totally spoiled in the first few sentences. fuck you author!!
Don't forget Isao Takahata another founder of Studio Ghibli and director of Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Yet have to see The Tale of the Princess Kaguya which is discussed in the article but the drama Grave of the Fireflies is a masterpiece to me. The only truly beautiful film in my memory which I bitterly regret having watch. To me the best movie to give you the feels of World War II, even more than acclaimed titles like "The Pianist" or "Life is Beautiful". A must see.
IMHO Isao Takahata is the primary reason why an end to Studio Ghibli doesn't make sense despite Miyazaki bitter vision of the Studios. For those who know Miyazaki's temperament it's not a big deal. My interpretation is that he would have wanted the Studios to be as true, ambitious and fantastic as a Ghibli movie. Well by visiting/knowing the Studios, I bet most of us would be quite taken aback by the lovely people and the atmosphere reigning there.
A friend once described Grave of the Fireflies very aptly: "It's like watching Schindler's List while chewing broken glass, but without the refreshing salty taste."
And it is truly a great film.
I still remember my first watching of Grave of the Fireflies. It was gut wrenching, brutal, and to be honest, depressing and demoralizing to the point of wanting to slash your own wrists at the pain and suffering that people went through after the war (especially the orphans).
It's a great film, but getting myself to watch it is seriously tough each time.
I wish there was another animator out there who would/could do something remotely close to what he did for his studio.
If you haven't seen any Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki films, I highly recommend them. The animation is unique and gorgeous. The stories involve conflict with nature or mistaken antagonists, not evil caricatures. While many of the films contain violence, it rarely resolves things. Also, most Studio Ghibli films have strong female leads. I think Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises are the only ones with male protagonists.
In all, Studio Ghibli's works are a refreshing contrast to the romance-obsessed princesses and 3D talking animals so often put-out by Disney and Dreamworks. Even if you're an adult, they're enjoyable to watch.
Perhaps some casual Miyazaki fans were confused about why Grave of the Fireflies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies) was not mentioned in this article. It was animated by the same studio but was not written or directed by Miyazaki.
I like that you ask for mindfck movies. They definitely hold a special place in my heart. A lot of the entries here have been very sci-fi. I tend to like more historical or present-day dramas with great acting that expose some sort of undesirable human behavior, but I snuck a sci-fi movie on the list ;). You can't take the nerd out of the cinephile!
There Will Be Blood - No "great movie" list is complete without a movie that stars Daniel Day Lewis. Go watch all his movies if you want to see what it's like to take acting to the extreme.
(M) The Spanish Prisoner - Probably my favorite suspense movie, along with a Hitchcock or two like Vertigo or Rear Window. This is one of David Mamet's best, in my opinion. All these random things happen in the beginning of the movie that make you question why they bothered mentioning them, and then the catalytic action ties it all together expertly.
Pirates of Silicon Valley - This is the lightest contribution on the list, but probably the most relevant to HN. For what it's worth, both Woz and Bill Gates have described their portrayals as fairly accurate.
Alien - Definitely plays out more like a space horror film than an action movie like the sequels, the acting and suspense is fantastic, not to mention the costume work that went into the alien on the part of HR Giger (if you want a true mindfck, skip the movies and go read his website--terrifying).
Grave of the Fireflies - I wanted to include an animated film on my list, but I really had trouble deciding between Interstella 5555 (Daft Punk's Discovery set to an anime with no talking whatsoever. Great concept) and a Pixar movie (personal favorite: Up). I went with this because I figured you've probably seen Pixar movies. Grave of the Fireflies is a super depressing Ghibli film about the aftermath of the Kobe fire bombings in WW2. The way the movie shows the horrible living conditions and bleak outcomes of the two main characters (the boy is in his early teens and his sister must be around 4 or 5--I can't recall). The movie manipulates your emotions more than any other film I've included on this list. I don't think I've ever had as strong an emotional reaction to a movie as when I saw this one.
My favourite:
Let the right one in (the original version), beautiful atmospheric movie: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1139797
Other recommendations:
City of God, harsh but realistic: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0317248
Barefoot Gen, shock and awe, made me cry, IMHO better than Grave of the Fireflies: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0085218/
The Chaser, breathtaking thriller: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/
The Andromeda Strain, now this is real SF: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0066769
The Man from Earth, good low budget SF: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0756683
Castaway on the Moon: funny movie about a man that 'bootstraps' his life on a 'stranded island' after a failed suicide attempt: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499666/
I saw the devil, violent but very good thriller: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1588170/?ref_=sr_1
You are critizing Pixar films for having something in common? In animation we have different styles, Akira, Wall-E, Cindarella, Mononoke, Belleville, Grave of the Fireflies all very different, from different studios and directors. All Pixar productions have a certain common feel and common themes, just like eg. all Tarantino films.