XXV:10) Isao Takahata, HOTARU NO HAKA/GRAVE of the FIREFLIES (1988, 89 Min)
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November 6, 2012 (XXV:10) Isao Takahata, HOTARU NO HAKA/GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988, 89 min) Directed and written by Isao Takahata Based on the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka Produced by Toru Hara Original Music by Michio Mamiya Director of Photography…Nobuo Koyama Edited by Takeshi Seyama Animation director, character designer…Yoshifumi Kondô ISAO TAKAHATA (October 29, 1935, Ise, Japan) has 21 directing credits: 2003 Winter Days, 1999 My Neighbors the Yamadas, 1994 Pom Poko, 1991 Only Yesterday, 1988 Grave of the Fireflies, 1987 The Story of Yanagawa's Canals, 1982 Sero hiki no Gôshu, 1981 Jarinko Chie (TV series), 1981 Chie the Brat, 1979 Akage no An (TV series), 1974 Arupusu no shôjo Haiji (TV series), 1973 Panda Kopanda Rainy Day Circus (short), 1972 Panda! Go Panda! (short), 1971-1972 Rupan sansei (TV series, 15 episodes), 1971-1972 Apache yakyûgun (TV series, 3 episodes), 1969 Môretsu atarô (TV series), 1968 Taiyou no ouji Horusu no daibouken, and 1963 Okami shônen That’s the night I died’ we know that this will not be your typical Ken (TV series). Studio Ghibli offering. The boy is Seita, and he and his younger sister Setsuko are orphaned after a firebombing, indiscriminately targeted Nobuo Koyama has 8 cinematographer credits: 1990 Like the on their town, claims the life of their mother. The film follows their Clouds, Like the Wind, 1990 Maroko, 1989 Urusei Yatsura: Tsuki ni struggle to survive in war-torn Japan. Hoeru, 1988 Grave of the Fireflies, 1987 Urusei Yatsura: Yume no Despite the unforgivable atrocities committed by the shikajin, Inaba-kun tôjô! Lum no mirai wa dô naruccha!?, 1987 Black Japanese Imperial Army during the second world war, the Magic M-66, 1981-1986 Urusei yatsura (TV series, 184 episodes) experiences of the Japanese people have been much overlooked. The and 1986 They Were Eleven. siblings’ suffering is observed dispassionately by the adults around them. Temporarily taken in by a cruel aunt, who is barely able to Melanie Cheung: The Quiet Master: Isao Takahata contain her resentment of having to feed them, they decide to make a No other director is more renowned or celebrated in the home in an abandoned shelter and adopt a feral life. world of anime than Hayao Miyazaki, head of Studio Ghibli, whose One would not assume anime would be the most appropriate imaginative vision brought us Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle medium for a film about war, however Takahata’s genius is in his and Ponyo to name just a few of his superlative films. exploitation of our assumptions about the medium, and this is what Isao Takahata, Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli co-director, does gives Grave of the Fireflies its power. Scenes move from lighthearted not inspire the same familiarity. In fact, mention Takahata to non to harrowing in a few heavy heartbeats. Setsuko’s playful chase of a anime-buffs and you are likely to be met with a blank stare. Yet crab on a beach is sharply disrupted by the feet of a corpse poking out Takahata is responsible for some of the most inspired and critically- from under a bamboo mat. After Seita is beaten by a farmer for acclaimed anime films ever made. stealing food, the weary, sympathetic but ultimately hopeless From the opening moments of Grave of the Fireflies/Hotaru intervention by a policeman highlights how precarious their situation no Haka when a teenage boy informs us, ‘September 21st, 1945. is. Takahata—GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES—2 The popularity of Grave of the Fireflies has been slow- personal works. His films are not only stunning to look at, but also burning, not helped by Studio Ghibli’s inexplicable decision to deeply true, human and existential dramas whose messages reach out initially release it in conjunction with My Neighbour Totoro (the two and pierce the soul, which is the most you can ask of any film. films were also made at the same time with Miyazaki and Takahata fighting over animation staff). Roger Ebert declared it to be one of the greatest war films ever made. It is devastating, unsentimental and conveys its story with haunting beauty and integrity. Its message transcends its geography and demonstrates the brutal ability of conflict to ebb away at the human spirit. As such it should be necessary viewing for those who justify, and take us into war on the pretence of doing good. Only Yesterday/Omohide Poro Poro, released in 1991, is the only Studio Ghibli film made explicitly for an adult audience and, outside of Japan, has an even smaller following than Grave of the Fireflies. The film follows Taeko, a single office worker from Tokyo, as she travels to holiday on her sister’s in-law’s farm in the country. Along the way Taeko recalls events from her childhood and much like real memory the film moves between the present and Taeko’s seemingly random and inconsequential recollections of her childhood Wendy Goldberg: Transcending the Victim’s History: Takahata self. There is a touchingly awkward encounter with a boy who has a Isao’s Grave of the Fireflies crush on her. ’Rainy day or cloudy or sunny day, which do you like?’, Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), a film directed by he asks her. Takahata Isao in 1988 and based on the Naoki Award–winning short We know nothing of what happens of the boy after this but story by Nosaka Akiyuki (published 1967), was paired as a double that seems besides the point. The thrill of such a small and private feature with Miyazaki Hayao film, My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no moment translates beautifully. An episode involving the family’s first Totoro).1 These two films, however, could not be more dissimilar. encounter with a fresh pineapple is played out in humorous detail Miyazaki’s work is a gentle fantasy of childhood imagination in the from their initial excitement to disappointment at the taste of the pastoral setting of 1950s Japan, a time seemingly untouched by war. underripe slices. Grave, on the other hand, set in Kobe 1945, in the waning days of The injustices that seem particular to our experiences as World War II, is a realistic drama, focusing on the suffering and children are acutely conveyed: Taeko’s hopes of acting in a university eventual starvation deaths of fourteen-year-old Seita and his four- theatre play are destroyed with a curt comment from her father; her year-old sister, Setsuko. The film opens with Seita’s sore-ridden, struggles with maths results in her mother declaring her to be ‘not emaciated body falling over in a train station. His voice, emanating normal’. It is through these intimate, empathetic moments that from a spirit bathed in red light, tells us that on September 21, 1945, Takahata reaches us. he has died. A worker looking through Seita’s belongings finds a The animation, as expected from a Stuido Ghibli piece, is beat-up tin can, which he throws into the bushes. Pieces of bone roll astounding, most notably a scene where the family pauses from out which turn into Setsuko’s spirit, likewise cast in red light. She picking safflowers to observe the rising of the sun with a quiet prayer. sees her brother’s body and rushes to go to him, but she is restrained The childhood scenes are evoked with the dreaminess of a and then joyfully reunited with his spirit. The film then retraces how watercolour painting. the two of them reached their moments of death. Only Yesterday serves as a beautiful study of the bittersweet Grave unflinchingly examines how these children suffer. nature of nostalgia: that potent mixture of regret and longing. We are The tragedy of this realistic depiction is compounded by the fact it is not blank states. We are a culmination of everything we have partly autobiographical. The author, Nosaka Akiyuki, was separated experienced before and despite our best efforts to move on from the from his family during a bombing raid and was the only caretaker of past, it remains omnipresent. The more we strive to understand the his sixteen-month-old stepsister, who eventually perished from past, the less we comprehend its meaning. malnutrition under his care. Critic Igarashi Yoshikuni argues that In Taeko, Takahata has drawn an incredibly complex and “writing for Nosaka was a form of exorcism” and that by killing off strong female character. On the surface she is accepting but it is clear his proxy, Seita, he attempts to assuage his guilt over his sister’s she is dissatisfied and unsure of where her future leads. Yet she also death.2 Likewise, Takahata Isao became drawn to this project not only has the courage not to capitulate to expectations of her. for the critical acclaim of the original story (as well as by Miyazaki’s Late in 2011 Takahata announced that he had begun work on urging and assured financial backing) but because he, too, with one of a new project though no further details were offered. Given his his siblings was separated from his family for two days during a previously stated preference for reality over fantasy, it will be firebombing. He calls it “the worst experience of his life.”3 interesting to see what he produces. Though it should be noted that he In addition to these autobiographical moments, with their was also responsible for Pom Poko, a tale of raccoons with the ability painful examinations and unsuccessful exorcisms, is a biography of to transform into humans. Japan’s recent past—a defining era for generations of Japanese who Most importantly his new project may bring Takahata’s lived through the time of the war and for those born after.