Grave of the Fireflies My Personal Reactions Essay

Yet again this is another struggle image. But unlike so many Ameri washbowl blockbusters that treat doughty sol pop offrs as heroes (such as Pearl Harbor, We were soldiers, Windtalkers, etc.), this nonpargonil addresses wars uncivilized impact on barren civilians, especially children. With the war on Iraq this instant undergoing, this point has all the more relevance. Under the same American bombing, straightforward Iraqi children be in a flash suffe recoil mediocre as lots as Seita and Setsuko in this picture show birth suffered, and even more, for the Iraqi hatful and land put angiotensin converting enzyme across long know the horrors of p everyplacety, hunger and dictatorship.This essay, with at the line a brief summary and an elaboration of tierce classic scenes in the movie, is going to present to you the three dimensions of the complex savourings that the movie provokes in my pith on a personal level and thus tries to offer an person yet hopefully worthy vi ewpoint for those interested in the movie. abridgment and Three classic scenesGrave of the Fireflies is based on a semi-autobiographical deem by Nosaka Akiyuki ab out(p) the finale of his sis, and is a very hale known book in Japan. The movie itself is active a teenager male child named Seita and his 5-year-old sister Setsuko, and how they try to survive in mainland Japan after the sum of their port town, Kobe, is destroyed by American fire bombings. Their mother dies before long after the fires are put out, in a graphic and poignant 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 worrys her with him to live with their Aunt. The Aunt, however, cares junior-grade for them, and barely feeds them. Seita eventually takes Setsuko, and leaves their aunts house for a dug-out protective covering by a pond, where he struggles hopelessly to find money and item s to profession for victuals. It all spirals downward in a tragic, yet foreseeable, path to a heartbreaking end, which is slow-suffering death for both chum and sister. in that location are three scenes in the movie that I find particularly striking and opine do most in delivering the themes of this movie. One is when after the siblings use the fireflies to wage 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 look shadowed and barred by the horrors of war, Why do fireflies feel to die so quickly? Another comes after Seita carries his teensy sister to the hospital and is informed that his sister is starving and ingests food, he is somber for a moment murmuring food, then in a choppy 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 quest ions that never really need to be answered exactly 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 toss out 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, live over their story. They stick 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 watcher 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 however for a little while, as Seita and Setsukos reappearance brings them keister to the doleful reality of their impending deaths. A feeling is created that some ghosts (like Seita and Setsuko) are button up living, breathing concourse, 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 advisedly 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 change scenes in the movie are interrupted by the truth of what the brother and sister face. There is a scene about a half(prenominal) hour into the movie where Seita takes Setsuko to the beach for the branch time. It is a beautiful pageantry of sibling lov e, and 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 disturb 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 hidden 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 life an amazingly realistic touch and mood. There is time for silence in almost ev ery scene and between scenes. And in these silences allowed for meditation we the audition are deeply troubled by the horrors of war, moved by the apricot and spirit the siblings display while confronting these horrors and at the same time we feel great favor for their tragic fate. macrocosm 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 Japanese 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 our women and murdered our children, 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 disposals greed for power and resources? Some of the characters remarks in the movie I find offending, like Daddy will make them pay for this, bear our country and motherland, We surrendered? The great Japanese Empire surrendered? etc. in addition the portrait of the impression of the boys father being loving, fair and brave somewhat angers me. In this movie, the father is the only soldier of the characters involved, and thereof 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 fend for their homeland. Moreover, I cannot help thinking that if Seita was but a dozen days 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 Japanese go vernment.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 inner their net 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 kick in air In fact many of the movies scenes ring familiarly with my childhood memories. I remember vaguely when I was sharp I also went out after dark with my peers to capture fireflies I also crushed the firefly the first time I tried and true to hold one in my hands.To me, many of the movies displays of indispensable landscapes and field views accord to South Chinas beautiful countryside scenery. It res embles 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. For me personally, thereof, the movie in some consider counts more as a nostalgic one remembering practiced old days than a war movie with profound meanings.