THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES - #87. Barefoot Gen (1983)

 

                “Barefoot Gen” is a Japanese war anime.  It is loosely based on the manga series of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa.  He wrote the screenplay.  As a young boy, Nakazawa survived Hiroshima and he based the series on his experiences.  The movie was part of the wave of nuclear war movies that came out in the 1980s.  This subgenre includes “The Day After”, “Threads”, and “When the Wind Blows”.  It is a subgenre that you can watch if you want to get very depressed.  “Barefoot Gen” was directed by Mori Masaki.

                The movie begins a few days before the bombing of Hiroshima.  A narrator informs us that B-29s have been bombing Japanese cities with fire bombs.  These have been “the most devastating attacks against civilians ever.”  Yet, Hiroshima has not felt the destruction.  Is it just charmed?  Gen’s father, who is not a supporter of the war effort, has a feeling that the city is being spared for something worse.  He calls the leaders “mad men” for continuing the war and tells his kids “sometimes it takes a lot more courage not to fight.”  But this is balanced with other Japanese who are still patriotic.  Gen’s family is suffering like most of the Japanese common people.  They lack food, but they are happy because they have each other.  Gen and his brother Shinji are typical preteens.  They help their father in the wheatfield and scrounge around for food.  Food is the driving force in their lives because their mother is pregnant and malnourished.  At one point, they attempt to steal some carp from an old man’s pond.  Although they sometimes get into trouble and quarrel, the duo is very appealing.  So much so that the audience gets a vibe that what is coming is going to be very hard to watch.  Get the tissues ready.

ACTING:                      B

ACTION:                      N/A

ACCURACY:                  A

PLOT:                           A

REALISM:                    A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   old school anime

SCORE:  some Japanese songs                      

BEST SCENE:  the bomb

BEST QUOTE:  Gen:  “Maybe this is what hell is like.”

                 If you are only familiar with the history textbook facts of the atomic bombing, be prepared to see what it was like for a typical Japanese family.  The explosion is awesomely rendered and what happens to the family is as harsh as you will encounter in a war movie.  In fact, we have entered horror movie territory at this point.  Although told from the perspective of Gen, the movies chronicles most of the gruesome aspects of an atomic explosion.   The movie depicts the “black rain”, the walking dead, the symptoms of radiation sickness (Gen loses his hair).  I learned that after drinking water that they begged for, the victims would die because the desire for water was the only thing keeping them alive.  It’s that kind of informative movie.  Plus we have the narrator to fill us in on the big picture.  This movie is one that people should see if they have seen “Oppenheimer”.  In fact, the narrator mentions Oppenheimer by name.

                “Barefoot Gen” is a roller coaster ride.  And like a roller coaster ride, you might want to have a barf bag handy. The movie is hard to watch at times.  There are some gut punches. It is definitely not a kids’ movie.  It sets you up by making Gen a very likeable character.  You bond with him and suffer with him.  His relationship with his family and, especially with his brother Shinji, reminds you that the Japanese may have been the “bad guys” in the war, but the Japanese common people were much like the people of the countries they fought.  Knowing what is coming makes what the family experiences more visceral.  You can’t help but think of your own family now that we live in a world with ICBMs.

                The anime is wonderful.  If you are not familiar with the style, you owe it to yourself to catch this movie.  The movie is vibrantly colorful and then switches to a more drab look after the explosion.  Animation allows for a surreal horror that a regular movie could not depict.  That includes a scene involving his family that is one of the most heart-breaking in war movie history.  Just because it’s a “cartoon” does not mean it cannot pack an emotional wallop.  With that said, it could have been even more bleak.  You are not jelly by the end.  This conforms to the theme propounded by Gen’s father.  He urged his children to be like the wheat.  You might get knocked down, but you can get back up.  To follow this theme, the movie has too much of a happy ending, but considering what it puts us through, we deserve it.

                “Barefoot Gen” is a must-see to understand the human dimension of what happened to Hiroshima.  It may cause you to rethink your position on whether the bombing of Hiroshima was justified.  I considered the more acclaimed “Grave of the Fireflies”, but I find this movie is more historical and does not have long stretches where little happens like in Fireflies.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

                In preparing for my eventual list of the 100 Best War Movies I still have to see a few movies that potentially could make my list.  One of those was “Grave of the Fireflies”.  It has been on my “to be watched” list for years now.  I was not able to find it on any of my usual viewing options and did not want to purchase it.  To tell the truth, I did not want to go to a lot of trouble and expense to watch a movie that I had learned was very depressing.  However, when I heard that it would be appearing in a special showing at a nearby theater, I decided that it was a chance I could not pass up and remain true to my mission. 

                “Grave” is based on a semi-autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka.  He lost his sister to malnutrition during the closing stages of WWII.  Nosaka was skeptical of making the story into a live action movie, but director/writer Isao Takahata convinced him that animation would work.  The movie was shown on a double-bill with the family friendly “Totoro” which impacted its popularity because the audience did not react well to the transition to the opposite of “Totoro”.  Many people left after the feel-good opening film rather than have their mood crushed.

                The film opens three weeks after Japan surrendered.  A starving young boy lays in a railway station.  The movie then flashes back to happier times in the city of Kobe.  Setsuko and his four year-old sister Seita are living with their mother as their father fights in the Japanese navy.  When B-29 bombers drop incendiary bombs on the city, the subsequent fires destroy the city and lead to the death of their mother.  They are forced to go live with their aunt.  She is more like a wicked stepmother than an aunt.  Eventually, Setsuko and Seita are on their own living in an abandoned bomb shelter next to a lake.  Bombs are no longer a problem, but starvation is.

                I have to admit I was disappointed in the movie.  I don’t like depressing movies, but if I see one, I expect to be depressed.  I really thought I would be crying when I left the theater.  After all, the movie is considered to be one of the most depressing war movies ever made.  It’s not like it did not have the potential to be a classic tear-jerker.  The pair of kids are very appealing and Seita is adorable.  I saw a lot of my grandkids in her so I was invested in the character.  The problem is that after the horrendous opening, the pair do not have a particularly terrible time.  Their stay with their aunt is more of an aggravation than a catastrophe.  The time by the lake is not horrific.  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop because you know there will not be a happy ending, but when it comes it is tepid.  You can argue that Nosaka was simply being true to the book, and in fact he has stated that the movie is not meant to be anti-war.  This seems to be a ridiculous statement about a movie that deals with the results of a fire-bombing that comes off as a war crime.  Nosaka claimed that the movie was actually a comment on the effects of isolation from society.  I just feel that an anti-war activist like Nosaka blew the opportunity to have people leave the theater saying “never again!” instead of sniffling over “why did the cute little kid have to die?”

                The movie is well made.  Nosaka decided not to go experimental with the animation.  The one tweak was the use of brown outlines instead of the standard blacks to give the film a softer look.  With that said, “Grave” is not memorable like “Spirited Away”, for instance.  The recurring use of fireflies (which represent souls) is a nice touch and there is an awesome scene where Setsuko and Seita use some to light their shelter.  There is also tremendous product placement for Sakuma fruit drops.  The flash backs work, but the opening that leads into them distracts from the flaws in the characterization of Setsuko.  I hate to be a jerk about this and I am not positive that Nosaka did not plan it this way, but Setsuko is to blame for the death of his sister.  I know he is just a teenager and they are prone to mistakes, but I didn’t get the impression that that was a theme of the movie.

                “Grave of the Fireflies” is universally acclaimed and is a must-see.  However, it is not as good as the similar “Barefoot Gen”.  It is definitely not a feel-good movie, but it does pull its punches.  I do not think it is one of the 100 best war movies ever made.

GRADE  =  B