[TinyRedLeaf]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this title

Grave of the Fireflies

Spoiler for reviews from Amazon.com:

I generally don't cry at movies. I love any movie that can move me enough to shed a tear or two. Grave Of the Fireflies is not one of those movies. In those movies even though I'm sad the final scenes leave me with a residual hope that while some tragic event has just occured the charecters involved will grow and live better. Grave of the Fireflies doesn't do this. There is no hope or possiabilty of things getting better. This is Life at it's cruelest. Life that will never get better. This movie doesn't move you, it shatters you.

"Grave of the Fireflies" ("Hotaru no haka") is one of the most powerful anti-war films I have ever seen, which means that it has no competition when it comes to emotional impact in terms of animated films.

I'm a Japanese woman in my early forties. I first watched the film when it was first released in the cinema, and several times since during the subsequent years; I've always been moved, but not to the point of bawling. That's perhaps because I'm of the generation with parents telling me their firsthand experiences of this period, of hunger and death and desolation; so, although this story is deeply poignant, I was not surprised or shocked by it.

But upon learning by chance how highly this film was reviewed here, I decided to watch it again. Was moved again. And after wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I turned off the DVD and got up to make dinner. You must understand, this is the time in Japan when the rice crop of the year is harvested, and reaches individual homes. This is the one and best time in the year for great rice. And in my kitchen, there was an unopened big bag of freshly-harvested rice, waiting for me. I opened it, saw the bright, milky white pulses, almost glowing luminescently. And I started to cry. Sob. Bawl. A bag of rice made me bawl. That's what this film does to you.