AMV - Grave of the Fireflies - Last Unicorn "Man's Road" - Enhanced
14Man, oh man.
When I first saw Grave of the Fireflies as a teenager it was one of the darkest, saddest films I had ever seen. That being said, I fully agree with Roger Ebert in that this film is a MUST see. The film is by Studio Ghibli. Makers of beloved children's classics like My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo, The Cat Returns, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Secret World of Arietty, Castle in the Sky, etc.
This actual AMV was originally created by Lee Thompson using footage from Grave of the Fireflies and the Song "Man's Road" by the group "America" for the film "The Last Unicorn" (also a great animated picture). I have recreated the video using higher quality footage.
The synergy of the song used with the muted, depressing atmosphere of the video was perfect. A symbiosis of sorrow to express to the world its depths of anguish.
Needless to say, the video itself is about 15 years old now so it was letterboxed and low resolution. I have fixed the aspect ratio and enhanced the picture quality for modern screens.
If the original creator of this video wants a copy of my enhanced video, I will gladly share! If he wants it removed, I shall do that as well! (Just provide some evidence to show you're not a troll of course)
SPOILERS BELOW (story summary)
Grave of the Fireflies is a film about 2 children (Seita and Setsuko) trying to survive in late World War 2 Kobe, Japan. The country is under siege with contant bombing raids causing the children to be subsequently orphaned when the nightly firebombs kill their mother.
They move in with their aunt, who resents them. Seeing them as an inconvenience when food is so short to begin with. Seita sells his mother's kimonos for rice and digs up supplies he buried and give them to his aunt. He keeps a small tin of fruit drop candies for his little sister and the tin becomes a recurring theme throughout the movie.
Eventually, they get sick of their aunt's overbearing personality and leave to live in an abandoned bomb shelter. They capture fireflies at night and release them inside the shelter for light. The next morning, the fireflies are all dead. Setsuko buries them and asks why they and her mother had to die.
The little amount of food they brought with them is used up and Seita resorts to stealing from the nearby farms in order to survive. Setsuko gets sick and Seita brings her to the doctor, who informs him that it is malnutrition but does nothing else to help.
In desperation, Seita withdraws the rest of his mother's savings from the bank but overhears that Japan has surrendered unconditionally and that his father (a naval Captain) is certainly dead because nearly all of Japan's navy is at the bottom of the ocean. He rushes back to the shelter to feed Setsuko but she is hallucinating and unable to eat. She dies soon after. Seita cremates her and keeps her ashes in the fruit tin.
Weeks later, Seita also dies of malnutrition as we had seen at the start of the film. The siblings are reunited and happy. They look on, surrounded by fireflies at the modern city of Kobe.
My aunt couldn't finish watching this movie because the little girl, Setsuko looked just like her own daughter.
The movie is based off of the life of the author of a book of the same name. The book and movie take some liberties. The character Seita represents him as a child, being wracked with survivor's guilt he wrote the book as he felt it should have gone.