Aftermath of Goodbye Firefly.

"On the night of September 21, Showa 20, I died."　　This is the first line of the animated movie Goodbye Fireflies, and it immediately sets a sad tone for the production.　　A ragged teenager, his breath dying, lies in a station where people are coming and going, heading towards the end of his short life at the age of fourteen, a month after the defeat of the war in Japan.　　In a trance, the boy sees his dead sister and the summer when fireflies flew all over the place.　　At that time, his brother and sister were happy. The small metal box filled with candies, the fireflies flying in the sky, his brother running in the night holding his sister's hand, and his sister's silvery laughter all became the relentless prelude to the tragedy that was about to unfold next.　　The air raids begin, and mom suddenly passes away during the bombardment. In front of this sudden blow, all brother can do is to hide the news of mom's death from his young sister. On the empty square, my brother performed the bar for my sister, who was crying for ***, and the two skinny figures looked so thin under the setting sun. Perhaps, it was at that moment, the brother tried to carry all the sadness, decided in the chaos of the ruins for his sister to lift a piece of the clear sky does not rain it.　　The two siblings joined their relatives, but the war had alienated them, and the lack of material goods made them even more indifferent to each other. More and more blank stares and less and less rice in their bowls clearly show that they must leave. The brother finally decides to take his sister and move away to build a home of his own. But while singing a song and leaving happily, could he have anticipated their irreversible and tragic fate due to that war.　　The fireflies flew again, but the siblings' bad luck kept coming. Hunger and disease became the biggest problems that plagued them. In order for his sister to be able to stop starving, his brother had to steal, and it was while the airplanes were bombing, and whenever he found something to eat in the family he was fleeing from, he was overwhelmed with excitement. The movie gives more ink to this life, the abandoned home, the desolate wilderness, every detail looks so real, between tranquility and cruelty, indifference and warmth coexist.　　(Soundtrack: The older brother is caught stealing, beaten up and then taken to the police station, where the police are sympathetic to his situation and release him.)　　In the darkness of an abandoned cave, the brother catches fireflies into a mosquito net, and the fireflies fly brightly in the sweltering summer night. Brother will be sleeping sister held tightly for fear of letting go of the hand will be lost again. Only 14 years old, he did not know that war itself means loss.　　There is only one night in a firefly's life, and everything passes in the smoky summer wind.　　(SOUNDBITE SCREEN: The younger sister gently buries the tiny body of last night's firefly into the small grave she dug, and says to the older brother, "I miss my mommy, and my mommy is in the grave." The brother looked at his sister with wide-eyed surprise ;)　　It turned out that my sister had already known that my mom was gone and understood the meaning of death and the grave at such a young age. A handful of the tiny bodies of fireflies fell from Setsuna's hands, mingled with the dirt, and turned to dust, and it was as if the older brother saw his mother's equally fragile flesh burning to ashes. Death struck his brother's young and strong heart once again, and the tears that rolled down his cheeks at that moment may have been for his mom, or for the fireflies, or maybe just for the fragility of life's unbearable vulnerability.　　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 made Setsuko eczema on the body, but they had no money to go to the doctor, not to mention the money to buy the medicine ...... Finally, the young sister did not escape the double torture of starvation and disease, and died tragically.　　The day Setsuko died was also in a night full of fireflies, she contained a smile, in the most beautiful scenery to find that only in the dream can live a happy life.　　When the fireflies are lit up again, the small metal box containing candy, the little girl named Setsuko with her silver bell-like laughter, the air raid shelter at the foot of the mountain with a swing set in the doorway, and the fireflies flying all over the sky ...... all of these scenes give rise to a breathtaking feeling of sadness.　　(Original sound footage: the brother calmly lights the small bamboo basket holding his sister's body on fire, the blood-red flames flickering in the bottom of the brother's no-longer-clear eyes.)　　Everything is so cruel, everything is so insensitive, everything is so futile in the face of war. The brother had fought so hard for his sister and himself to survive, but he still couldn't keep his only relative. Despair comes with the night, when the flame gradually extinguished, the ghost of the fireflies for the lonely brother sang the most touching melody, one after another rising glow in the farthest sky into a warm smile. That was all that the war had taken from his life, all his loved ones.　　Goodbye Fireflies", a seemingly simple anti-war theme, a series of slightly bland plot, however, there are few animated films can make so many viewers shed tears, knuckle, the film that love candy little girl, her knitted brows smile, cry, and even every breath sound is so real, heartbreaking. In the movie, survival is full of suffering and pain, while death is a most beautiful ending. At the end of the movie, the war is over and people are back to their good life. The weather is beautiful, the girls wear pretty dresses and listen to music, and to the lilting music of others, the brother cremates Setsuko. On September 21st, brother also died. In the darkness, the sister took her brother's hand and happily ate sweets, and the sky was full of fireflies flying happily, as if congratulating them on finally finding happiness. Their souls were reunited in the fireflies flying summer night, they can be together again, forever that age, such an ending may be the best.　　For a long time, many people mistakenly listed "Goodbye Fireflies" in the series of works of animation master Jun Miyazaki, and at the same time could not figure out why this deep and sad work is so different from the usual bright fantasy of Jun Miyazaki's animation. The reason is simple: the creator of this work is not Jun Miyazaki, but another animation master, Kaoru Takahata.　　Kaoru Takahata and Jun Miyazaki met at Toei Animation, and in 1974, the TV anime "Heidi of the Alps", directed by Kaoru Takahata and produced by Jun Miyazaki, was sold worldwide, and the two masters, who shared the same dream of animation, began a 30-year close collaboration.　　From "Goodbye Firefly" to "Heisei Civet War", "My Neighbor Yamada", Takahata Kaoru's works have always been easy and affectionate, in the simple innocence of compassion and warmth, the most sincere touching the heart, the most realistic portrayal of people's lives in the joys and sorrows, compared with Miyazaki Jun's works, Takahata Kaoru's works are less but more sophisticated, more humane and introverted.　　Here we can look at a small detail. In Goodbye Firefly, there is an indifferent relative. When the siblings are desperate enough to turn to her, this relative by blood treats them with a lot of criticism and bad language. However, when the siblings left in a huff, she looked at them fondly, and what came out of her eyes was actually sadness. This makes you instantly understand her and the helplessness and hardship of this single mother trying to raise four children in the midst of war. Kaoru Takahata does not portray the character in a faceless manner, but rather cares for her with compassion.　　In addition, Kaoru Takahata is extremely adept at finding the beauty in ordinary, bitter life.　　(Original sound footage: a brother takes his sister for a bath, making bubbles in the water with a towel; on a summer night, they accidentally discover fireflies, and when the brother tells Setsuko to close her eyes and gives her a candy, she runs around waving her arms in happiness.)　　Such tough circumstances, such a sweet sister, such a strong and kind brother. They enjoy joy in the midst of hardship and show us such beautiful lives. So when their young lives left us after radiating a brief light like the fireflies in the sky, our hearts were shaken beyond measure.　　War is like a dark night, life is fragile in the darkness, and the children's innocence abandoned by the war is just like the fireflies in the long night, emitting a weak light, and will inevitably wither in the bleakness. Goodbye Fireflies" is the most realistic of all Kipling's animation works, but also the only one to face up to the evils of war, the film's young hero is undoubtedly a victim of Japan's war of aggression, it is through this unique perspective, so that people can clearly see the cruelty of the war and the scourge of the war, accusing the war of aggression initiated by the Japanese militarists to the civilian population to bring pain and suffering, and call for sincerity, kindness and eternal peace. peace.