If you thought Japanese animation was all horny teens and laser guns and rocketships, prepare to have your mind blown by a tragic tale of wartime and lost youth (Grave of the Fireflies). And if you thought French star Alain Delon was known only for his work for art-house directors like Luchino Visconti and Jean-Pierre Melville (and for appearing on the cover of The Smiths? The Queen is Dead album), get ready to watch him buckle his swash (Zorro).
HIGH: Grave of the Fireflies (Section 23; $19.98 DVD, $29.98 DVD)
WHO?S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka.
WHAT?S IT ALL ABOUT: Teenage Seita and his young sister Setsuko are on their own after their mother dies in the firebombing of Tokyo in the waning days of World War II. There?s never a good time for children to be separated from their loving parents, but there are few junctures of history worse than being in Japan in the final months of that bloody conflict. The two do what they can to survive, but hopelessness is hard to overcome.
WHY IT?S SCHMANCY: My friends in the cartoon biz love to say ?Animation is not a genre,? so even though this is an animated movie, and one about kids no less, Grave of the Fireflies is an intensely moving (and often disturbing) film that?s definitely not for the youngest of viewers. Director Takahata doesn?t have the PR in the Western world of his Studio Ghibli partner Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro), but he?s made two movies (this one and Pom Poko) that leave me a sobbing wreck every time. Fireflies deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with other antiwar classics like Forbidden Games and Spirit of the…
Cinthia Moura Claudette Ortiz Coco Lee Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru Daisy Fuentes Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick
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