Grave of the Fireflies My Personal Reactions Essay

Yet again this is another state of war moving picture. But unlike so many Ameri nookie blockbusters that treat hold up sol go onrs as heroes (such as Pearl Harbor, We were soldiers, Windtalkers, etc.), this single addresses wars uncivilised impact on fair civilians, especially children. With the war on Iraq presently undergoing, this point has all the more relevance. Under the same American bombing, vindicated Iraqi children argon in a flash suffe butt on skilful as much as Seita and Setsuko in this cinema waste suffered, and even more, for the Iraqi large number and land rich person long cognise the horrors of p everyplacety, hunger and dictatorship.This essay, with at the ascendant a brief summary and an elaboration of iii classic scenes in the movie, is going to present to you the three dimensions of the complex intuitive feelingings that the movie provokes in my emotional state on a personal level and thus tries to offer an exclusive yet hopefully worthy view point for those interested in the movie. digest and Three classic scenesGrave of the Fireflies is based on a semi-autobiographical halt by Nosaka Akiyuki ab come in the final stage of his sister, and is a very hearty known book in Japan. The movie itself is to the highest degree a teenager boy named Seita and his 5-year-old sister Setsuko, and how they try to survive in mainland Japan after the totality of their port town, Kobe, is destroyed by American fire bombings. Their mother dies in brief after the fires argon put out, in a graphic and moving scene at a community hospital. Their father is in the Navy, and unbeknownst to them, has already died in battle. Unable to tell Setsuko that their mother has died, Seita lots her with him to live with their Aunt. The Aunt, however, cares fine for them, and barely feeds them. Seita eventually takes Setsuko, and leaves their aunts house for a dug-out hold dear by a pond, where he struggles hopelessly to find m whizy and items t o patronage for aliment. It all spirals downward in a tragic, yet foreseeable, path to a heartbreaking end, which is slow-suffering death for both chum salmon and sister. in that respect are three scenes in the movie that I find particularly striking and mean do most in delivering the themes of this movie. One is when afterthe siblings use the fireflies to sort out the cave, Setsuko is seen the next morning burying the dead insects, and as she tells that she knows her mother has died and is now also in a grave, she asks with her two large sparkling eye shadowed and barred by the horrors of war, Why do fireflies arrive to die so quickly? Another comes after Seita carries his niggling sister to the hospital and is informed that his sister is starving and deprivations food, he is somber for a moment murmuring food, then in a abrupt burst of desperation, cries out Where am I supposed to get food?These two questions stabbed my heart like spears the moment I heard them. These are questions that never really need to be answered simply they nevertheless need to be remembered. In the last scene, the ghost of Setsuko lays sleeping comfortably in the lap of her older brother, while he gazes at the night cast away over the skyline of a fully modernized city. As one critic elaborates on this last shot, and here I quote, They live on, though the world has forgotten them, and will continue to live on forever, know their story. They see not forgotten the past they cannot. And neither should we.Troubled, Moved, and PityIn fact this is a feeling any human being would have after watching this movie. The story the movie tells is heart-rending enough, as could be well seen from the above description and elaboration. However, the movies strength is not in the story, but in the untold. From the time Seitas ghost appears after his death in a train station at the beginning of the movie, the attestor is haunted by the remembrance of what is to come as he retells his story . There are times when the viewer is allowed to forget about the future, but only when for a little while, as Seita and Setsukos reappearance brings them stern to the dingy reality of their impending deaths. A feeling is created that some ghosts (like Seita and Setsuko) are simmer down living, breathing great deal, and are cursed to watch their agony over and over again. In a scene where Setsuko cries violently for her Aunt not to take her mothers kimonos and sell them for food, the screen pans slowly and purposely out of view of the main characters, where the orange glow of Seitas ghost appears. He covers his ears and cringes at his sisters tears, almost crying himself, but can do nothing to stop them.Even the few heart warm up scenes in the movie are interrupted by the truth of what the brother and sister face. There is a scene about a half hour into the movie where Seita takes Setsuko to the beach for the offset printing time. It is a beautiful exhibit of sibling love, a nd flashbacks of warm memories from their family enter the story. They are all too brief, however, as Setsuko soon discovers a dead body from the war wrapped in straw. Seita tells her the man is asleep, and they do not go to the beach again. Another disquiet scene is of Seitas ghost watching himself carry his sleepy sister on his back, about to enter his Aunts house for the first time. He watches, knowing full well what will come of it, but unable to stop it.Indeed, as Roger Ebert, the famous critic for Chicago Sun-times, wrote in his review essay of the movie, one of Grave of the Fireflies greatest gifts is its patience shots are held so we can think about them, characters are glimpsed in clubby moments, and atmosphere and nature are given time to establish themselves. The movie does not try to create a dramatic plot or atmosphere rather it narrates the story out simply and directly, giving the livelihood an amazingly realistic touch and mood. There is time for silence in almost every scene and between scenes. And in these silences allowed for meditation we the auditory sense are deeply troubled by the horrors of war, moved by the beaut and spirit the siblings display while confronting these horrors and at the same time we feel great shame for their tragic fate. be a ChineseBeing a Chinese, I found myself at times revolting to the movie in the course of viewing, mainly because, I think, it narrates through a Nipponese military familys point of view and takes a great pity upon the Japanese people. I thought to myself How about the cities you bombed and the villages you burned down? You deliberately invaded other countries and you massacred other peoples at will. During World War II, thousands upon thousands of Chinese people not only died from poverty and hunger, they died as victims to your soldiers barbaric slaughtering-for-fun-and/or-competition craze, and as experimenters in your notorious chemical weapon labs.You raped ourwomen and murdered our chi ldren, what right have you got to make such a movie and complain to the world about your miseries in a war largely initiated by your own judicatures greed for power and resources? Some of the characters remarks in the movie I find offending, like Daddy will make them pay for this, corroborate our country and motherland, We surrendered? The great Japanese Empire surrendered? etc. alike the portrait of the impression of the boys father being loving, trusty and brave somewhat angers me. In this movie, the father is the only soldier of the characters involved, and wherefore to some extent he represents the Japanese military. This has some effect in creating the false impression that the Japanese military is upright and is only argue their homeland. Moreover, I cannot help thinking that if Seita was but a dozen long time older, he would have been fighting somewhere in the Asias or the pacific, tormenting innocent people of other countries and serving the fascist greed of the Japane se government.nostalgic MoodStill I admire many of the movies beautiful scenes. I believe that the scene of numerous fireflies dancing in the dark and around the brother and sister will remain one of animations most memorable scenes and it tickles every childs heart with wonder. The way that the siblings capture fireflies and set them free indoors their final is the most peculiar yet fascinating way of illuminating I have ever seen. The effect it produces is overwhelming imagine sleeping inside such a net - Just as the movie shows, it is just like sleeping under the starry sky in the dissipate air In fact many of the movies scenes ring familiarly with my childhood memories. I remember vaguely when I was meek I also went out after dark with my peers to capture fireflies I also crushed the firefly the first time I act to hold one in my hands.To me, many of the movies displays of inborn landscapes and field views accord to South Chinas beautiful countryside scenery. It resembles my hometown as I remembered. Nowadays things are unfortunately different. Industrialization and modernization have robbed todays children the privilege and pleasure of swimming in little ponds and catching fireflies and grasshoppers on summer nights. In fact I have never ever seen a firefly when I go back every summer since I came to Beijing. Forme personally, thereof, the movie in some regard counts more as a nostalgic one remembering profound old days than a war movie with profound meanings.