Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 17 September

Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988)

On 16 April 1988, Studio Ghibli performed the greatest one-two punch in the history of cinema by releasing both Hayao Miyazaki’s life-affirming masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro and his colleague Isao Takahata’s powerful anti-war tragedy Grave of the Fireflies on the same day.

Ghibli’s family favourites - like Totoro, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc. – have been available on Netflix for ages but for some reason Fireflies has only landed this week.

I’ve seen some sad films in my life – Watership Down, anyone? – but Grave of the Fireflies is the most heartbreaking of all.

Based on an autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, it tells the story of two siblings, Seita and his little sister Setsuko, who are orphaned during the bombing of Kobe near the end of World War II and fight for survival among the ruins. Help from the equally desperate grown-ups is fleeting as society crumbles around them.

Takahata was a co-founder of Ghibli with Miyazaki but he spent most of his time producing and so his list of credits is nowhere near as extensive. The relative inaccessibility of his masterpiece, Fireflies, has also contributed to his second-tier reputation but he was a big reason why Ghibli became what it is.

There’s no escaping that Fireflies is a heavy picture but it is suitable for children as long there are grown-ups with them – rated M in New Zealand and Australia.

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Where to watch Grave of the Fireflies