Grave of the Fireflies
24 April 2008
It’s been a really long time since I’ve tried making a post about anything. The spring season just started, I’m watching a little more than half a dozen shows and just downloading anime left and right, including an entire batch of Satoshi Kon films that I haven’t seen (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress) and then I remembered, I’ve been meaning to watch Grave of the Fireflies, one of those canonical anime movies, for the longest time. What better than time than now, when I have three school projects overdue, to finally watch it.
So, where do I start? I have so much to say, yet nothing at all. Someone a really long time ago told me Grave of the Fireflies was a sad movie. After watching it, I sorta went, “Bummer.” and just cried and cried and cried. You kind of just sit there and watch, and you know what’s coming, you know that Setsuko is going to die, you already know that Seita is dead, in fact, it’s the first thing that happens. When the man, I have no idea what to call him, with the mop flings the empty can of fruit drops into the field and Seita’s spirit picks it up and gives Setsuko one, I was ready to weep. Just that one scene, accompanied with such heartbreaking music, I was ready to just cry about five minutes into the movie.
That’s perhaps the most painful thing about the movie, you already know exactly what’s going to happen, you just have to watch. Setsuko’s voice is so innocent, her mellifluous cries of joy to her wailing sobs, screaming for her mother covers such a range of human emotion. Tucked in there, between all the death, the fires, the grief and pain, are these moments, these incredible moments between Setsuko and Seita. When they’re taking a bath together, when they’re moving away from their aunt, ferrying their things from the house to the shelter, when they’re watching fireflies in the cave, they were just the sweetest things. But that feeling, that feeling of doomed inevitability, hung over everything like American bombers carpeting the cities with bombs, like the smoke rising from the smoldering remains of their home. It was just really, really damn painful because you knew they were going to die and you couldn’t do a damn thing about it!
Their aunt, their aunt was a terrible person. There was something about her that really irked me. Her whole attitude towards Seita and Setsuko made me want to punch her. The whole you don’t do anything for the war effort, the whole you’re a lazy slug thing, god, I wanted to rip off her head! It was their mother’s kimonos you sold for the rice! I’m tempted to say that it’s her negligence that got them killed in the end, but it’s also that little bit of pride on Seita and Setsuko’s behalf. The old farmer urging to go back to their aunt and just deal with it is completely ignored and instead, Seita resorts to stealing.
Everything that happens just exposes mankind at its worst, because no one, no one really bothered to stop and help these kids. There was a war going, everyone thought of saving themselves, and that’s completely understandable. There’s something tragic about all of it, about their lives, about our lives and about all the little things we do. I, admittedly, wouldn’t have stop to help them either and that’s the worst part. In the end, when the family living across from the shelter returns home, safe and sound, having a home to return to, for one, they don’t care that Seita and Setsuko ever lived in the those shelters. In fact, that one thought that ran through my head was that they might think the shelters marred their beautiful view.
It’s really odd, but every time I so much as even look at rice, I’m going to think of Setsuko. Everything anybody does is too little, too late. That shot of the rice and eggs, sitting in the rain, there are just things, and I emphasize things, about this movies that’s going to haunt me. I don’t even have words for it anymore, just things in this movie, they just clump together like the fruit drops sitting at the bottom of the tin can and every once in a while one clinks out and you realize, my god, you’re human.
In the words of Roger Ebert, who surprisingly reviewed this movie as well, “Yes, it’s a cartoon, and the kids have eyes like saucers, but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.” I’m going to add that it belongs on the list of not only the greatest war films, but the greatest films in general. The thing that always gets me the most is, strangely enough, sometimes anime comes closer to anything even remotely human than we give it credit for.
what affected me so much with this film is being American we’re never showed how the other side felt. To the victor goes the spoils and the history. In history class (in high school) we are showed that the Japanese were ruthless monsters. I had honestly never seen anything that portrayed the Japanese During WWII as humans, thats what affected me the most. Seeing what hardships they went through, seeing that innocent children were hurt so badly cause of a stupid war. Grave of the fireflies is an amazing film, and i as well was surprised to see Roger Ebert review it. Yet he was correct in saying that it needs to be on the lists for best war movie. Yet the fact that it’s an anime is what keeps most war buffs here away. My own father is a big WWII movie buff, and he still hasn’t seen this film! I guess this means i have to tie him to a chair later and force him to see it!
@Dancing Queen – I’m a bit of a war buff myself and that’s one of the main reasons why I watched the movie. It’s rarity indeed to see the other side of the war. German and Japanese perspectives are so overshadowed by American and Allied fanfare, a film like this is vital. I’m not saying that we should tie your father to a chair, but I’m all for him seeing the film! Just because it’s animated doesn’t mean it’s for kids, or can’t carry the same emotional gravity as any other movie.