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Grave Of the Fireflies | Full Length Reaction!

🕑 Added 2020-10-09 00:06:56 +0000 UTC

Comments

Skywhale

I realize that some previous commentators have expressed what's on my mind before me, but I'll go ahead and say it fresh here. I'm saying this as a Male (39). I first watched this when I was 23, and I think I had roughtly the same sentiments as I do now. War is absolutely unfair to everyone. Keita needed to grow up beyond his years to take care of Satsuki properly. He may have been what.. 13ish? Still, when it comes to wartime, most people who are also struggling with the times would agree that that's old enough to find a way to contribute. That's what it came down to. Keita, while trying to take responsibility for is baby sister, also could not grasp that he needed to join the adulting scene and pitch in for the good of his family. His father's relatives did take them into their home, provided a room, and everything. What was required of him was to contribute. Take his elder cousin for example. She, while still in high school, found a part time job for the country to help the effort. Keita had the opportunity to find something, Anything, that might help bring home a little bacon (as the saying goes). He was old enough, and capable enough. Yet still, he wanted to hang on to his own childhood and wanted to be carefree like the boy he and always been. He wasn't ready to face responsibility like others in his age group had to do. When you said 'no one helped them', I disagree: His family totally helped him, but he clung to his own childhood and didn't help himself by becoming part of the society- as much as that was during hard times. It's because of his childish pride that he thought he could skirt the collective and live life as he saw fit, and it killed his sister and himself. In my mind, the point of the story is how absolutely unfair War is. It created this scenario for Keita and -arguably- made him fail - with deaths as a result. Blame Keita? Maybe, but blame War too. He could have done better. The World could have done better. But it didn't. ;_; edit: (additional thoughts) Don't get me wrong tho. I cried when I saw this, and still got choked up a lot watching with ya. It's just so unfair what happened to Keita and Satsuki's life (and their mom, too). But that's just the nature of war, and any situation where difficult times arise. People just HAVE to stand up, tighten their belts, and march ahead with what's necessary to make ends meet. Kick, scream, cry. But still the world is going to starve you unless you rise to meet it and overcome. Keita was called... and sadly failed. I think that other boys and girls of his age group did rise to the occasion of a Nation at War and become young men and women before they were ready, and turned out alright. It's just how things go. I think at the end of the day, just saying "but they were so young" just doesn't' cut it sometimes. Cruel World is probably the theme of this movie.

Skywhale

War is worse than Hell. In Hell, everyone is guilty. In war, children are victims too. Notes: in the 40s, most of Japan (even Tokyo) still had mostly wooden architecture. When intel of such reached the United States, they realized that explosives weren't necessary in the air raids. Just fire. September 45 (the day Keita passed away) was only a month after the pair of nuclear bombs that brought Japan to weeping knees waving a white flag.

M F

I have been wanting to watch this movie for the secondth time for many months now and i had been dreading it... this was incredibly hard to go through again

VKunia

I see. After watching the film and looking into it the days following I realized a lot of people thought Seita to be in the wrong and honestly, I do see it but at the same time - him being a child himself and with how uncaring his aunt was, I wouldn't be surprised if she let them starve when they ran out of food. I guess with that mentality it can be seen as "Freedom yet happy vs Tied down but miserable" . And as selfish as it was, Seita chose freedom in order to be happy with his sister :( I think he sort of knew he was unable to care for her but was selfish in that aspect and was too proud. I just can't really speak because I can't imagine ever making the proper decisions as a child LOL I will definitely not be watching it anytime soon, or ever again. I'm not sure. But all I know is that I will never forget it, as well as its underlying true stories. Thank you for your thoughtful comment Khalid.

Khalid خــآلــْد

Seita was wrong about some things, as he believed that money could solve all his problems, although the old man told him that money was not very important in time of war and gave him advice to return to his aunt and apologize to her, but he refused and caused malnutrition to his sister until he lost her, I can't imagine the feeling of losing the last person in your family, especially your little sister. How painful it is. Before burning her, he decided to take the candy box and put his sister’s remains in it. That candy box was always with her It means a lot to both of them. In the end, the cleaner found Seita dead and the last word he pronounced it before he died was his sister's name ''Setsuko'', which is the scene of the beginning of the movie then He took a candy box from him and threw it, a deep and painful movie, I could not bear the feeling of pain, especially since such stories may happen in life, whether because of wars or other things, I enjoyed and grieved watching this wonderful movie, but I also will not try to watch it again so that I do not feel sad and empty again. Thanks for the movie.

VKunia

I said this exactly going into the movie LOL

VKunia

Good luck... It really is heartbreaking, and the longer you go after watching it the more details you realize in the film that make it hurt that much more. It stays with you. :(

VKunia

Maybe we should take a bit of a break from the sad films and resume them after a break 😅I don't know how many tears I can possibly shed LOL

VKunia

Oh my goodness, I can only imagine.. War is a horrible thing that affects every single person whether they be on the front lines or back home. It's horror and I hope we can learn from our past mistakes. I will never forget this movie.

VKunia

YES PLEASE DANNY 😭😭😞

AnTonio

I agree, the next few movies should be heartwarming and not heartbreaking! Im glad that Ponyo won as the next movie. I hope that now more Movies from Takahata will win, like Pom Poko, Only Yesterday or the Yamadas!

Freikugel

Commenting again to say, but maybe we should take a break from these heartbreaking films.

Danny Johnston

Oh man, it finally happened! I just want to give you a hug after watching this! I'm definitely gonna be voting happy movies from this point on!

Cor Gi

I was too late. I was going to warn you. I saw this film back in 97 and had not watched it again till now. It was not a good feel. It was even harder when I actually lived in Japan 40 mins from Hiroshima. The A-bomb dome, and the peace museum were somber reminders that what happened in Japan back in WW2 must never happen again.

iHatePiano

I haven't been able to bring myself until now, but I think I can watch this with you. I recommend you to watch "In This Corner of the World" in the near future. The story takes place in Hiroshima around the same time as "Grave of the Fireflies." It would sadden you, but not the way "Fireflies" does. It's beautiful, so sad, sometimes funny, in some places horrific, but ultimately hopeful.