Reviews

This film is completely misunderstood. The movie is a hot mess, and to be fair you really need to have a pretty high tolerance for squealing Japanese Jr. High school girls to get through parts of Shirome. But the most important thing about Shirome is that it really isn't a horror movie, and to understand that you have to understand the films principle actresses, Momoiro Clover.

Momoiro Clover is part of Stardust Promotions, and some of the girls in the group have been in the industry since age 7. Idol's lives pretty much consist of work and group activities. These girls all went to a school for entertainers that was filled with other children who had no concept of the real world. Children in Idol groups are very good at just going along with things. A Japanese Idol has only one job, and that is to make the fans like them. They are in a constant state of fan maintenance, whether it's taking pictures for social media while they're eating lunch or participating is bizarre promotional gimmicks. So, they tend to just go along with anything, as long as they can look cute doing it.

On top of this, there is the cultural aspect of Japanese spirituality. Most Japanese follow the Shinto religion, and there is an incredibly rich cultural heritage that worships local deities and demons of all types. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 80,000 shrines in Japan, and all Japanese people respect and revere these shrines regardless of their actual religion.

Add in a director who has a bit of a sadistic side, and these are, quite literally, the perfect conditions to convince 6 girls that a local deity that may help a budding girl group on their path to stardom actually exists. Well, I should say 5 girls. But I'll get to that in a moment...

Shirome is often described as a found footage film. What it really is, is the documentary of one of the greatest practical jokes ever perpetrated on a Japanese Idol group. There is no script because the only acting consisted of not letting the cat out of the bag. In fact, the director was discouraged from making the girls act by the groups manager.

Hayami Akari was the only girl in the group with any real acting ability. She was brought in on the secret just before the scene where the girls spend the night together in the studio. They needed her to increase the drama for the rest of the girls and to keep them focused. The director also wanted something to add special effects to later. Later, Hayami was asked to collapse in the scene after the concert for the same reason.

Other than that, the film is genuine MomoClo through and through. Even the scene in the car ride is genuine. Self-introductions are a part of Idol culture and is considered to be very important for people new to the industry. The reactions to the storyteller, except for Hayami's, are genuine. Their belief (or at least their willingness to believe) that a supernatural entity would either help them or destroy them is real. The girls obvious distress in the abandoned school was real. The concert they were asking for Shirome's blessing for was a real concert.

If the story behind Shirome seems a bit cruel, I suggest watching a few Japanese game shows. Pranks are part and parcel of the Idol industry. Shirome simply documents the most elaborate example. By the standards of the usual practical jokes played on Idols for the sake of their fans, Shirome is pure genius!

Oddly enough, Grave of the Fireflies is not actually a story about war. Yes, it's set in wartime and the plot revolves around the kinds of terrible things that happen in war. However, at it's most basic level, this is a story about sin and redemption. Even so, if all you get out of Grave of the Fireflies is that war makes you sad, that's okay. I hope, with this review, to help people understand the much deeper meaning of Grave of the Fireflies.

Spoiler Alert

Aside from the opening scene, which I'll get to later, the movie isn't particularly noteworthy until the children's mother is injured in a fire bombing and is taken to a makeshift hospital in the school. Up to that point the children are just children and there's really nothing special about their lives other than they happen to be living in Japan during the war.

The scene where Setsuko is playing in the sandbox at the school and Seita tells her to watch him while he jumps up on the arm bar and starts spinning around on it is the turning point in the film. After that pivotal scene, Seita begins to make all of the poor decisions that ultimately lead to the children's deaths.

Since the film is animated to highlight the perspective of the children, it's important that Seita's love for his sister is shown throughout the film. I think it tends to make people ignore what's really going on though. We're supposed to be sympathetic about a brothers love for his little sister, but the fact remains that even though Seita believes he is doing things because he loves his sister, he compounds every poor decision he makes by refusing to accept his failure to protect her.

After their mothers death Seita's attitude changes dramatically. He begins to lie to his aunt and doesn't work. When she sells their mothers kimonos. Seita accuses her of cheating him out of food. He eventually alienates himself from the only family he has. He leaves the home and becomes a thief to feed himself and his sister. When he can't steal enough food he takes advantage of the air raids and even cheers the bombers as they fly over because the bombing made it easier for him to steal food and kimonos. Even when his sister is sick from malnutrition and he's told to swallow his pride and go home because the rationing has made it impossible to live outside the system, he refuses to go home and become a productive part of society.

Finally, when he withdraws money from his dead mothers savings to buy food, it's too late. Up until the point where it's just too late to change their fates, the children could have been saved at any time if Seita had simply chosen to act responsibly.

There is a bit of story between Setsuko's death at the end of the film and Seita's death at the beginning. The war is over. Whatever happens in the missing time, it's clear that Seita was unable to find redemption in post-war reconstruction. We know this because he dies of starvation as an outcast from society in the middle of Kobe train station. His spirit has been broken by his own sense of guilt. In the opening scene of the film he is given life saving food that he cannot bring himself to eat because he believes he deserves to die for his sins.

The movie ends with a touching scene of a healthy looking, yet obviously dead Seita sitting on the hill above Kobe, as Setsuko runs happily to meet him. She falls asleep in his lap as they look at modern Kobe in the distance. Oddly, the two people actually killed by the war, the children's parents, are nowhere to be found. They have nothing to do with Seita's guilt and are of no consequence to him as he watches over his sister throughout time. The scene is not a joyous reunion in which the children get to live happily ever afterlife. It's Seita's penance.

The cause of every relevant tragedy in Grave of the Fireflies is not war, but pride. Every terrible thing that happens to the children after the death of their mother is the result of Seita's stubborn refusal to do the right thing. This is the real tragedy, not the war in which the events take place.