Grave of the Fireflies (2025 Restoration)

Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata‘s poignant animated drama GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is a devastating meditation on the human cost of war, a tale of survival as heartbreaking as it is true to life. Based on the re-tellings of survivor Nosaka Akiyuki, the film has been universally hailed as an artistic and emotional tour de force that is both beautiful, yet at times brutal and horrifying. Now digitally remastered and restored in stunning 4K, it is one of the rare films that truly deserves to be called a masterpiece

As the Empire of the Sun crumbles upon itself and a rain of firebombs falls upon Japan, the final death march of a nation is echoed in millions of smaller tragedies. This is the story of Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi) and his younger sister Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi), two children born at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and now cast adrift in a world that lacks not the care to shelter them, but simply the resources. Forced to fend for themselves in the aftermath of fires that swept entire cities from the face of the earth, their doomed struggle is both a tribute to the human spirit and the stuff of nightmares. Against all odds, the orphaned siblings must rely completely on each other and struggle to stay together and alive.

“GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation… This film proves, if it needs proving, that animation produces emotional effects not by reproducing reality, but by heightening and simplifying it, so that many of the sequences are about ideas, not experiences. It belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.” (Roger Ebert)

Sunday, July 20
Doors 12:00 pm | Movie 12:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.
Tickets HERE

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES “Hotaru no Haka” (Isao Takahata, 1988 / 90 mins / PG / Japanese with English subs) When an American air raid kills their mother in the final days of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister Setsuko are left to fend for themselves in the devastated Japanese countryside. After falling out with their only living relative, Seita does his best to provide for himself and his sister by stealing food and making a home in an abandoned bomb shelter. But with food running short, the siblings can only cling to fleeting moments of happiness in their harsh reality.

*Minors OK. Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service.
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