Reflections after watching "Goodbye Fireflies".

"On the night of September 21, 2017, I died." This is the first line of the animated film "Goodbye Fireflies", and it immediately sets a sad tone for this work. . A young man in ragged clothes lay dying in a busy station, heading towards the end of his short 14-year-old life. This was Japan one month after its defeat. In a trance, the boy saw his dead sister and the summer full of fireflies. The brother and sister were happy at that time. The small iron box filled with candies, the fireflies flying in the sky, the brother holding his sister's hand and running at night, and the sister's silvery laughter all became the tragedy that was about to happen next. ruthless foreshadowing. The air raid began, and her mother died suddenly during the bombing. Faced with this sudden blow, all the brother could do was to hide the news of his mother's death from his younger sister. In the empty square, my brother worked hard on the horizontal bar for his sister who was crying and looking for sex. The two thin figures looked so thin in the sunset. Perhaps, at that moment, the brother tried to carry away all the sadness and decided to hold up a clear sky without rain for his sister on the chaotic ruins. The brother and sister took refuge with their relatives. However, the war alienated family ties, and material poverty made people indifferent to each other. More and more eye rolls and less and less rice in the bowl was a clear sign that they had to go. The brother finally decided to move away with his sister to build a home of his own. However, when he left happily singing songs, how could he have expected their irreversible tragic fate due to the war. The fireflies were flying again, but the brother and sister's misfortune kept coming. Hunger and disease became the biggest problems that troubled them. In order to prevent his sister from going hungry, his brother had no choice but to steal. He also took advantage of plane bombings. Whenever he found something to eat in the fleeing family, he would be extremely excited. . The film gives more words to this period of life, with abandoned homes and desolate wilderness. Every detail looks so real, with tranquility and cruelty, indifference and tenderness coexisting. (Original scene: My brother was caught stealing something. After being severely beaten, he was taken to the police station. The police were considerate of his situation and released him.) In a dark abandoned cave, my brother caught fireflies in a mosquito net, and they were flying all over the sky. Fireflies go out brightly in the sultry summer nights. The brother hugged his sleeping sister tightly for fear that he would lose her again if he let go. At only 14 years old, he didn't know that war itself meant loss. There is only one night in the life of a firefly, and everything passes away in the gentle summer wind. (Original sound: My sister gently buried the little body of last night’s firefly in the small grave she dug, and said to her brother: “I miss my mother very much, and my mother is also in the grave.” The brother looked at his sister with wide eyes and surprise. . ) It turns out that my sister already knew that her mother was gone, and understood the meaning of death and the grave at such a young age. Handfuls of small corpses of fireflies fell from Setsuko's hands, mixed with the soil, and turned into dust. My brother seemed to see his mother's equally fragile body burning into ashes. Death once again struck my brother's young and strong heart. The tears rolling down his cheeks may be for his mother, maybe for the fireflies, or maybe just for the fragility of life. Fireflies can only live one night. In the beautiful night, it shows its beauty to the fullest, and then falls quietly in the darkness. The harsh environment caused Setsuko to develop eczema, but they had no money to see a doctor, let alone buy medicine... In the end, the young sister could not escape the dual torment of hunger and disease, and died miserably. The day Setsuko died was also a night when the sky was full of fireflies. She smiled and looked for the happy life that could only be lived in dreams in the most beautiful scenery. When the fireflies light up again, the small iron box containing candy, the little girl named Setsuko with a silver bell-like laughter, the air-raid shelter with a swing at the door at the foot of the mountain, the fireflies flying all over the sky... All these shots evoke a sense of suffocating sadness. (Original sound: The brother calmly lit the small bamboo basket containing his sister's body, and the blood-red flames flashed in the brother's eyes that were no longer clear.) Everything is so cruel, everything is so inhumane, everything is so different in the face of war In vain. The brother has tried his best to keep his sister and himself alive, but he still can't keep his only close relative. Despair comes with night. When the flames gradually extinguish, the faint fireflies sing the most touching melody for the lonely brother. The rising fluorescent lights form warm smiles in the farthest sky. That was all of his life and all his relatives that the war took away. "Goodbye Fireflies" has a seemingly simple anti-war theme and a series of slightly dull plots. However, it is rare that an animated film can make so many viewers cry. Setsuko, the sweet-eating little kid in the film Girl, her every frown, smile, cry, and even the sound of every breath are so real and heartbreaking. In the film, life is full of suffering and pain, but death is the most beautiful ending. At the end of the film, the war is over and people return to their good lives. The weather was very good, the girls wore beautiful dresses and listened to music. In the melodious music of others, the brother cremated Setsuko. On September 21, my brother also died. In the darkness, the sister held her brother's hand and happily ate candy. Fireflies flew happily all over the sky, as if to congratulate them on finally finding happiness.

Their souls reunited in the summer night when fireflies danced, and they could be together again at that age forever. This ending may be the best. For a long time, many people have mistakenly listed "Goodbye Fireflies" in the series of works by animation master Miyazaki Jun. At the same time, they can't figure out why this deep and sad work is so different from the bright fantasy that Miyazaki Jun animations have always shown. In fact, the reason is very simple, because the creator of this work is not Jun Miyazaki, but another animation master-Kaoru Takahata. Kaoru Takahata and Jun Miyazaki met at Toei Animation. In 1974, the TV animation "Heidi of the Alps" directed by Kaoru Takahata and produced by Jun Miyazaki sold all over the world. From then on, the two masters with the same animation dream began a 30-year journey. close cooperation. From "Goodbye Fireflies" to "Heisei Tanuki Wars" and "My Neighbor Yamada-kun", Kaoru Takahata's works are always plain and affectionate, showing compassion and warmth in their simplicity and innocence. They touch people's hearts most sincerely and depict people's lives in the most realistic way. Compared with Miyazaki Jun's works, Takahata Kaoru's works are less but more refined, and their humanistic background is richer and more restrained. Here we can look at a small detail. There is an uncaring relative in Goodbye Firefly. When the brother and sister were desperate and decided to seek refuge with her, this blood relative was critical of them and spoke harshly to them. However, when the brother and sister ran away in anger, she glanced at them with nostalgia, and there was sadness in her eyes. This makes you understand her immediately and understand the helplessness and hardship of this single mother raising four children during the war. Kaoru Takahata does not portray the character in a facial expression, but cares for her with compassion. In addition, Kaoru Takahata is extremely good at discovering the beauty in ordinary and bitter life. (Original sound: The brother took his sister to take a bath, using a towel to make bubbles in the water; on a summer night, they accidentally discovered fireflies. The brother asked Setsuko to close her eyes and gave her a candy, and she waved it with happiness. Arms running everywhere.) Such a difficult environment, such a lovely sister, and such a strong and kind brother. They enjoy joy in the midst of hardship and show us such beautiful life. Therefore, when their young lives emitted a brief light like fireflies in the sky and then left us, our hearts were shocked in an extraordinary way. War is like a dark night, life is fragile in the darkness, and the innocence abandoned by the war is like a firefly in the long night, emitting a faint light and will inevitably wither in the desolation. "Goodbye Firefly" is the most realistic of all Ghibli's animated works and the only one that directly faces the evils of war. The young protagonist in the film is undoubtedly a victim of Japan's war of aggression. Through this unique perspective, it makes people understand It clearly sees the cruelty and harm of war, accuses the pain and suffering caused to civilians by the aggressive war launched by Japanese militarism, and calls for sincerity, kindness and eternal peace.