The entire film is very depressing, due to its visceral depiction of the horrors of war.
The entire film is extremely bleak and depressing in tone and will definitely stick with you after watching. Easily one of if not the most sad and depressing movies ever made.
Many of the "real world circumstances" of WWII wartime Japan are addresses here in as serious a way as any movie of this genre. Hunger, starvation, death, loss of family members and so on are seen here.
Dead and rotting bodies are seen throughout the film.
A boy is seen dying in a train station.
One scene of a few characters walking through a makeshift hospital (an elementary school), where the patients are seen wrapped in bandages, some screaming out in pain.
Two funerals, where the bodies are burned over fires in caskets.
The film is very emotionally intense, especially the ending, which is very upsetting.