The first time I watched
Grave was close to the last. I really felt almost nothing from the film.... No, actually, that would be wrong. I felt they were trying far, far too hard to elicit a sympathetic response for the characters. The kind of cloying, emotional manipulation that I'd come to mistrust from films that have been made to an agenda and/or rhetoric, rather than for the purpose of telling a story. About the only part that really resonated was the final scene.... But it wasn't enough to save the film for me.
It isn't a film you're supposed to
enjoy, but that doesn't mean films with Bad Endings should fuel a need to erase your only copy and replace it with
Yousei Hime Ren.
I got more out of Takahata's
Only Yesterday, and even admire his efforts on
Akage no Anne.