Studio Ghibli’s haunting masterpiece Grave Of The Fireflies will stream on Netflix in September, and here’s a new trailer.
Aside from Threads – a film we wrote about in detail here – Studio Ghibli's Grave Of The Fireflies is one of the most harrowing, dark, depressing films you can choose to sit through. It is also gorgeously animated and a fascinating historical document.
The film was released in 1988, the same year as Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful My Neighbour Totoro. In fact in Japan the two films were played together in what must be the most tonally jarring cinematic double bill in history.
The synopsis reads as follows:
Grave of the Fireflies follows the story of Seita and Setsuko, two young Japanese siblings, living in the declining days of World War II. When an American firebombing separates the two children from their parents, the two siblings must rely completely on one another while they struggle to fight for their survival.
Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata wrote and directed the film, adapted from Akiyuki Nosaka’s Naoki Prize-winning 1967 short story of the same name. A BFI Classics book on Grave Of The Fireflies was released in 2021, it’s well worth reading if you want to learn more about the context of the film; you can read an extract at Little White Lies.
Read more: My Neighbour Totoro | The animated classic’s genius lies in its simplicity
The voice cast includes Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi.
We cannot overstate how genuinely, soul crushingly sad Grave of the Fireflies is. A masterpiece, yes, but one that should be approached with caution unless you’re in the right mood, and even then, be prepared. Or at the very least have several sitcoms and the Laurel And Hardy boxset to cheer yourself up afterwards.
Grave Of The Fireflies will stream on Netflix from the 13th September.
Watch the trailer below:
