Giovanni's Island (Mizuho Nishikubo)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://iv1.lisimg.com/image/9227161/740full-giovanni%27s-island-poster.jpg

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i20rGNN-3A

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3178174/) / wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni%27s_Island) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/giovannis_island)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTt2JVauDE8

[Philip J. Fry]

Really, really good film. A bit of a hybrid of Grave of the Fireflies and In This Corner of the World, it manages to get it's own identity by leaning a bit more into themes of colonization, family and hope even in the worst of conditions. This, I felt, was more prominent in the first act of the film, where we're introduced to the small Japanese island Shikotan, a land of simple fishermen which, after WW2, is invaded by the Soviets, and among the inhabitants of the island, we two young Japanese siblings befriending a Russian girl who's family has essentially taken over their house. This dichotomy manages to creation several layers of tension growing from the language barrier faced by the three kids, the cultural clash that's constantly rearing it's head over and over and this friendship being in the cross-hairs of this wartime setting. What I found particularly effective of this half is how even-handed the film is at portraying the Russian invaders and the Japanese villagers, opting to not make the former overly malicious and even really pleasant and "normal" at times while making the latter very resilient as people, always looking to rebel, even in small ways, which makes the core friendship of this half more tragic and doomed and also makes the transition into the more tragic second half (now with the kids fighting the elements and disease at an internment camp) more seamless than, for example, Corner of the World.

Ultimately, it's a very effective war film that has a really good balance of heartwarming moments (the scenes between the kids an the Russian girl, particularly the cute quasi-romance between the girl and the older brother are fantastic) and the harrowing realities of war.