Grave of the Fireflies

[Duck Sauce]

Just saw it. Saddest movie I have ever seen. I know GT has something to say about it so....

Also, what are some similar anime movies that dont revolve around sci-fi motorcycles or monsters having sex with school girls.

[Pedro]

Also, what are some similar anime movies that dont revolve around sci-fi motorcycles or monsters having sex with school girls.

It's not really similar but Perfect Blue doesn't revolve around the "normal" violent anime out there.

[Gold Trumpet]

Absolute masterpiece. I hope this movie is realized for its importance someday and brings anime into the realm of serious consideration among other films.

Other favorites of anime for me include all the works of the great Hayao Miyazaki. My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service are fine films. Castle in the Sky is an exceptional action film. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are masterpieces.

Perfect Blue is an interesting Hitchcockian film of sorts, though I feel some themes were a little too overplayed.

[Find Your Magali]

Saw this over the weekend. It's absolutely shattering.

A little irony: Truffaut claimed that creating a true anti-war film is impossible because you cannot avoid making war look exciting. But here is have an animated film -- a cartoon! -- that might be the greatest anti-war film of all. ... I couldn't help but compare this film to "Hope and Glory" (a great film in its own right). In that movie, the kids get bombed out of their neighborhood, but don't lose their parents and don't get turned away by authority figures and don't starve.

But "Grave of the Fireflies" shows the stark, grim reality of what happened to Seita and Setsuko in Japan during the fire-bombing. A beautiful, cinematic film that does not couch or temper its tragedy in any way.

[Gold Trumpet]

I was actually thinking of reviving this thread with an essay in conjecture with the "best movies ever" event going on. This is the only movie I'd actually try to promote to get noticed for that event. I still may try to write something in the next day or so. This film is the only film that is a staple of my best movies list and it'd be nice to see it a staple of the general list that is about to come into existence on the board.

[Ravi]

Just finished watching it.  Beautiful, moving, tragic.  I was afraid that it would not live up to all the praise I had heard about it, but it was absolutely touching.

[noyes]

i saw this again for the second time this past sunday at the MoMa and it's even more profound on the big screen, and sadder. i love this movie, deeply. it affected me and i sustained that affection for about one good week and a half when i was invited to a birthday party and forgot about the misery. i'm not that huge of a Roger Ebert fan or anything, but the man put the film into the best perspective i've heard so far. So if you have the dvd, watch the Ebert commentary. if you don't, go buy it. and that counts for me. i just rented it. but yeah. never have i seen a film, where the unfortune and misery and subsequent death of a character (or characters) has affected me in such a human way. where the death of someone was just about on par with the death (or the feeling you would get from the death) of someone close to you. and Mamiya's score.. heartbreaking. i'm still looking for the original soundtrack. might buy it off ebay. but yeah, truly a masterpiece.

[Find Your Magali]

A gratuitous bump, in light of the latest dekapenticon

[Ravi]

So if you have the dvd, watch the Ebert commentary.

I didn't even know there was a commentary on it, since I bought it used at Movie Trading Co, which sells a lot of Blockbuster leftovers without a cover.  Thanks for the heads up, though its hard to get in the mood to watch this film...

[noyes]

Sorry, let me clarify, it's not a full length audio commentary, it's just a feature, on the set of Ebert and Roeper.

[Gamblour.]

SPOILERS

Ok, based on the praise it got here, I decided to watch this film. It's almost too sad to really feel all of it. Like, the unsympathetic aunt and the farmer that beats Seita, I really couldn't believe their lack of empathy (couldn't believe as in I was repulsed by their inhumanity). It's so brutal, the slow gradual decline of Setsuko is just unbearable to watch. I remember feeling there was so much tragedy that you almost can't relate to what they go through. The dead mother, the lack of sympathy from strangers, the starvation and struggle to survive, and these are kids too. I mean, goddamn. And I can't really get over how adorable and innocent Setsuko was. I'd just imagine my nephew going through that and it's so hard to understand how this could happen. This film was just brutal and bare, and still held that childhood carefree spirit. The ghosts watching the story was an amazing touch.