Grave of the Fireflies: poetic, hopeful, harrowing

"Even in the darkest of nights, the glow of a firefly can still be seen: to find joy in the hopeless, to take nothing in life for granted"

A rare Studio Ghibli entry to the WSC canon, Grave of the Fireflies is on par with the likes of Come and See in its grim depiction of war’s pure terror. Impressively, it does so with little depiction of active violence, bar the occasional air strike. Perhaps more impressively, it achieves all this while still being, for the most part, an overwhelmingly heart-warming film.

I find Grave so interesting amongst the largely cute and uplifting films of Studio Ghibli, not because it's so uniquely depressing, but because it manages to be both uplifting and soul-crushing all at once. Watching the events of the film is an act of emotional endurance because of its unconventional beginning: every scene has an invisible timer ticking down in the background, every flame of happiness in the eyes of its characters cooled by our knowledge of the inevitable to come. Yet, despite the hopelessness of it all, Seita and Setsuko march on and keep smiling. And amazingly, the same happens for the viewer. I know what's going to happen, but I choose to stay, keep watching, and keep feeling it all.

There's a degree of truth to the statement that every 'happy' scene is rendered heartbreaking by the opening of the film, but the opposite is also true. To see determination, faith, and joy in our protagonists despite it all is so powerful and genuinely uplifting that one is reminded of the invisible timer in the background of their own lives: if they can enjoy their time, however short, however difficult, then why can't I?

In its darkest moments, this film is truly harrowing, but it's in its careful balance between pain and levity that it really shines. Beyond its anti-war message, it serves as a stirring reminder that even in the darkest of nights, the glow of a firefly can still be seen: to find joy in the hopeless, to take nothing in life for granted.