Animation · Drama · War
Japanese (火垂るの墓)
1988 · Directed by Isao Takahata · 89 min
Japan, summer 1945. A teenage boy and his small sister try to get through the last months of the war in and around Kobe, with the adult world failing around them. A hand-drawn animated drama, patient, intimate and aimed squarely at adults.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of Japanese animation and of Studio Ghibli, and a key example of animation used for realist, adult drama. It sits in the tradition of postwar films about civilian suffering.
Watch with intention
Watch how the film uses ordinary details of daily life, such as food, light, weather and small gestures, to tell a war story without any combat.
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