HOTARU NO HOSHI (FIREFLIES: RIVER OF LIGHT)

Japan, 2004, 101 minutes, Colour.
Hajimi Miwa.
Directed by Hiroshi Sugawara.

Hotaru No Hoshi is a fine Japanese film with a humane touch. The focus is on a teacher and the experience of the school system which is so tight it does not allow for creative teaching. It is a critique of the style of Japanese education that forms everybody in the same way. However, the teacher wants to establish a project, get the students involved in cleaning a river so that the fireflies, traditionally present, can return. His students are very supportive. This is a film that challenges old ideas of education and also offers of the contemporary theme of respect for the environment.

1.The audience for this film? Children, adults? Teachers? Parents? Japanese? International?

2.The ecological issues, water, the creatures, preservation, conservation?

3.Spirituality issues: the firefly myths, nature, the cosmic repercussions, stars and light, the mating of the fireflies, the three days of existence, the end – and the glowing?

4.The city, work, Miwa and the old man? Work, the discussion about the fireflies?

5.The musical score, especially the piano themes, the orchestrations?

6.Education, the teaching, the tests, the eggs?

7.Miwa, his age, experience, hopes, moving to the city, teaching the children? The authorities? The lack of reaction in class, the mess, the principal? Authorities and the staff? The sport, the three-legged race, falls, the nursing?

8.The lonely girl and her mother, the snakes? The fireflies – and the change in her? And her mother at the end?

9.The firefly project, the children’s response, excitement, going to the river, learning by experience, the passing of the seasons and their reactions?

10.The river, the contemporary construction, the opposition to the project, the adults and their decisions, the petitions and their being rejected, the postponement? The head of the school?

11.The teacher, the pleas, with the staff, the offer to resign, the role of the headmaster?

12.Moving, the children, continuing the project, during the different seasons, the beauty of the seasons, their challenge, the ups and downs?

13.The adults and the supporting cast, the nurse, the staff, the farmers, the workers?

14.The build-up the climax, waiting, hoping? The epiphany of the lights? The parents’ response? The children’s?

15.The film’s message, as a fable and its effect? Hopes for the future?