Hotaru no Haka (2008)
Posted on May 7th, 2009
Hotaru no Haka, 2008 (movie)
[7/10]
Genre: War, Drama
Seita is a teenage boy who loses his mother to an air-raid that destroys their home as well. As a result he is forced to look after his kid sister, Setsuka on his own. The pair end up staying with their distant and widowed aunt who is struggling to survive as well, but she has her own agenda…
Firstly I’m quite glad I have yet to see the original animated film version because hearing how good it is, I bet my view on this 2008 live action remake would be coloured by opinions on the anime as well. Though it’s a rather slice-of-ww2life show, the pacing is good and the character interactions are pleasant enough.The scene where Seita finds out his mother has died and hides his emotions from his sister by running around in circles pulling the cart was very poignant. Seita is a heartwarming character who manages to put up a rather calm and collected front despite his situation and his asthma problem. Another scence that tugged at the heartstrings was when Setsuka sees a dead body on the beach and thinks the man is asleep, and Seita just tells her to look away and continues cleaning her body.
About the aunt, although she is just another person trying her best to survive in the worn-torn country, I couldn’t really stand her. She did refuse to take in Seita and Setsuka at first, but only changed her mind when she saw they were carrying some hard-to-get foodstuff and materials with them. And she blatantly lied about not knowing their mother, and even tried to sell their mother’s things. Even though she had her reasons, she should have just discussed the situation with Seita first, out of respect for his mother. I can’t say much about Setsuka because she is too young to understand what’s going on but Seita displays lots of patience with her. The scene with Setsuka pretending the stones were food was really sad… it was so harrowing to see her wither away like that… The two sibling’s little hidey hole was rundown but quaint. And the fireflies were very pretty.
For the length of the film it was a good watch. I recommend it to people who like war films without it being too bloody and violent and want more of the common people’s perspective. I’d have liked to see what happened in the end though. Maybe I’ll watch the anime version sometime since this was not bad.
Filed under: ** jdrama, ** movie, historical