GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 Japanese animated war drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story Grave of the Fireflies by AkiyukiNosaka The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, AyanoShiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi Set in the city of Kobe, Japan, the film tells the story of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War.Grave of the Fireflies received acclaim from film critics Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list Two live-action remakes of Grave of the Fireflies were made, one in 2005 and one in 2008 It is commonly described as an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been denied by the director The film begins at Sannomiya Station on 21 September 1945, shortly after the end of World War II A boy, Seita (清清?), is shown dying of starvation Later that night, having removed Seita's body, a janitor digs through his possessions and finds a candy tin which he throws away into a nearby field The spirit of Seita's younger sister, Setsuko (清清?), springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit as well as a cloud of fireflies Seita's spirit then begins to narrate their story accompanied by an extended flashback of the final months of World War II.The flashback begins in Kobe on 16–17 March 1945, with a fleet of several hundred American B-29 Superfortress bombers flying overhead Setsuko and Seita, the two siblings, are left to secure the house and their belongings, allowing their mother, who suffers from a heart condition, to reach a bomb shelter They are caught off-guard as the bombers begin to drop thousands of incendiary bomblet, which start huge fires that quickly destroy their neighborhood and most of the city Although they survive unscathed, their mother is horribly burned and dies a short time later Having nowhere else to go, Setsuko and Seita move in with a distant aunt, who allows them to stay but convinces Seita to sell his mother's kimonos for rice While living with their relatives, Seita goes out to retrieve supplies he had buried before the bombing He gives them all to his aunt but hides a small tin of Sakuma fruit drops, which becomes a recurrent icon throughout the film Their aunt continues to shelter them, but as food rations continue to shrink, she becomes increasingly resentful and openly remarks on how they nothing to earn the food she cooks Seita and Setsuko finally decide to leave and move into an abandoned bomb shelter They release fireflies into the shelter for light The next day, Setsuko is horrified to find that the insects have all died She buries them all in a grave, asking why they had to die, and why her mother had to die What began as a new lease on life grows grim as they run out of rice, forcing Seita to steal from local farmers and loot homes during air raids When he is caught, he realizes his desperation and takes an increasingly ill Setsuko to a doctor, who informs him that Setsuko is suffering from malnutrition but offers no help In a panic, Seita withdraws all the money remaining in their mother's bank account, but as he leaves the bank, he becomes distraught when he learns from a nearby crowd that Japan has surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers He also learns that his father, a captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy, is probably dead since nearly all of Japan's navy is now at the bottom of the ocean He returns to the shelter with a large quantity of food, only to find a dying Setsuko hallucinating Seita hurries to cook, but she dies soon after Seita cremates Setsuko's body, and puts her ashes in the fruit tin, which he carries along with his father's photograph, until his death from malnutrition in Sannomiya Station a few weeks later.In the film's final scene, the spirits of Seita and Setsuko are seen healthy, well-dressed and happy as they sit together, surrounded by fireflies The camera then moves overhead, showing the two of them looking down on the modern city of Kobe Some critics in the West have viewed Grave of the Fireflies as an anti-war film due to the graphic and emotional depiction of the pernicious repercussions of war on a society, and the individuals therein The film focuses its attention almost entirely on the personal tragedies that war gives rise to, rather than seeking to glamorize it as a heroic struggle between competing ideologies It emphasizes that war is society's failure to perform its most important duty to protect its own people.However, director Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war film In his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message." Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties Grave of the Fireflies received near universal acclaim from film critics The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating based on 32 reviews It offers the consensus: "An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works".Grave of the Fireflies made Time Out magazine's, with help from director Terry Gilliam, top 50 animated film list, where it was ranked at #12 on the list Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times put the film on his "Great Movies List" calling it, "an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation."Grave of the Fireflies ranked 12 on Total Film's 50 greatest animated films.It was also ranked at #10 in Time Out magazine's "The 50 greatest World War II movies" list.Empire magazine ranked the film at #6 in its list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies" The film ranked #19 on Wizard's Anime Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".Theron Martin of Anime News Network said that, in terms of the original U.S Manga Corps dub, while the other voices were "perfectly acceptable," "Setsuko just doesn't sound quite convincing as a four-year-old in English That, unfortunately, is a big negative, since a good chunk of the pathos the movie delivers is at least partly dependent on that performance." Lychee T: Hi guys Excuse me Can you how to get to Thanh Sơn village please? D: Sure Go ahead and turn the first left T: Thanks Are you local people here? D: Yes T: My name is Tian I'm from Nam Sach district and i'm a reporter of 14 channel I'm doing a report about the speciality fruit of Thanh Ha district - lychee D: Hi, my name is Diep and this is my friend, Huyen H: Hello Toan What can we to help you? T: I'm finding out some information of lychee So can tell me some, about its origin? H: Of course As you know, lychee is the most famous fruit in Thanh Ha, expecially is Thanh Son commune, where the first lychee tree was planted T: As far as I know, Hoang Phuc Thanh (or Hoang Van Com) is the person who planted this tree, right? H: Exactly He brought the lychee's seeds to Thanh Son and took care of it Nowadays, the tree is very old and big with the age of about 200 years old and it become the oldest lychee tree in Vietnam If you go to Thanh Son, you will see the temple of Hoang Van Com next to the tree And the local people here always proud of it so they took over the business, planted more trees everywhere to express the respect It is pass down from generation to generation T: So how many kinds of lychee and what kind is the most delicous? D: Lychee has many types and each type has different shape, taste, It is planted in many places in Vietnam but i think the most delicous is the lychee in Thanh Ha Its skin is thin, scabrous and red Lychee'c pulp is thick, full of water and very sweet It is suitable for the hot weather of summer T: Fantastic I really want to buy lychee as gift for my family and my friends Where can I buy it? D: Oh no We don't sell lychee now It is August but the lychee oftens blooms on March, and fruitful from April to June You should go here on May; and you can buy it for your family I think it will be a wonderful gift because it has plentiful vitamin so it's very good and nutritious for your health You can eat lychee as fruit, drinks or food They all are pretty good T: What a pity! OK, I will come back on May next year So how you feel about your local speciality fruit? H: I really love and proud of it Thanh Ha's lychee is one of 14 specialities fruit in Vietnam It has been exported to many countries like USA, China, India, It remind us of our country, Thanh Ha district And you know, you can't talk about Thanh Ha without talking about lychee T: Right All your information are very interesting D: We hope you will have a wonderful report about Thanh Ha’s lychee with those information And Toan, what makes you proud of your village? T: There is Chu Dau ceramic craft village It is over 500 years old It is very famous with many abundant and beautiful designs of pottery People come here to buy products for decorating or they can make pottery themselves in the workshops My father is a skillful artisan and he always proud of the tradition of my family and me too H: I'm impressed by variety of designs I'm looking forward to visiting your village D: We hope we can go to Chu Dau one time And hope you will come back soon, too T: Sure Thanks for the interesting conversation and fantastic information Goodbye  ... know, lychee is the most famous fruit in Thanh Ha, expecially is Thanh Son commune, where the first lychee tree was planted T: As far as I know, Hoang Phuc Thanh (or Hoang Van Com) is the person who... lychee's seeds to Thanh Son and took care of it Nowadays, the tree is very old and big with the age of about 200 years old and it become the oldest lychee tree in Vietnam If you go to Thanh Son, you... love and proud of it Thanh Ha's lychee is one of 14 specialities fruit in Vietnam It has been exported to many countries like USA, China, India, It remind us of our country, Thanh Ha district And