I've been toying with watching this really sad movie called Grave of the Fireflies for about ten years. I discovered it on TV Tropes as an example for something, read the description and cried. It's a Studio Ghibli film about two children trying to survive on their own in Japan during World War II.
I've heard it described by people as "The best movie you'll never watch again". Apparently it was released in theatres alongside My Neighour Totoro, which is a slice-of-life film with almost no conflict or stakes. The idea was that you'd watch it after Grave of the Fireflies as a pallet cleanser.
I couldn't find it on any streaming services. I actually bought a DVD player expressly so that I could watch this movie. But right after I got the player, it released on Netflix.
Timing was still a challenge. Lee-Anne said that she was not interested at all in watching it. I needed to find a time when I could handle being emotionally wrecked.
Well, Lee-Anne was away this weekend for Thanksgiving. I had to stay home because I was/am sick, and somebody needed to be available for the landlord to do some handyman stuff. We also have a statutory holiday today so I didn't have to worry about bringing emotional baggage to work the next day.
What I'm saying is, I finally watched the movie yesterday.
One of the saddest aspects of Grave of the Fireflies, conceptually for me, is that it's semi-autobiographic. I thought this to be true of the filmmaker, Isao Takahata, but it is actually originally a short story written by Akiyuki Nosaka. The author was alive and had input in how the movie was created, however.
Apparently Nosaka intended the 14-year-old eldest brother, Seita, based on himself, to be the story's villain. He credited the death of the four-year-old younger sister, Setsuko, to be a conclusion produced by Seita's pride.
That's not how audiences saw it though. They saw a child put into an impossible situation who did everything he could for his sister and falling to tragedy nonetheless.
The idea that Nosaka felt so bad for what happened to his sister, that he achieved fame and wealth after transcending the horrors of war and poverty, and then used his influence to shame himself as an apology to his deceased sister, is soul-crushing. I think this hits hard for me specifically, as an elder brother that grew up financially vulnerable.
I was surprised to see the movie starts with Seita's death. Literally, his disembodied spirit states the day and circumstances that this happened. Oh, and something that I didn't expect is that the date given is September 21st. That's MY BIRTHDAY! After steeling up the nerve to watch this thing, I was spooked and felt like I was being spoken to directly.
It's a weird place to start the story though, as it gives an odd sense of relief. We know what happens to the characters, so even if it's sad, this cuts the tension later when things are uncertain.
Seita dies homeless on the city streets of malnourishment and exposure to the elements, surrounded by youths in similar circumstances. We see his spirit join Setsuko's, who is smiling and waiting for him. It pans out to show they are surrounded by fireflies. You could say its a Grave of Fireflies. Not very subtle with the symbolism.
I'm glad that whoever was responsible for this showed Seita and by extension Nosaka the kindness of him being greeted with a smile by his sister. It acknowledges that she wouldn't hold resentment against him.
Because I'd read so many descriptions of the story, there wasn't too much left to surprise me. I knew that both their parents die, that they get taken in by an abusive aunt, and that Seita opts to have him and his sister try and rough it on their own, resulting in Setsuko's eventual demise. This is the decision that Nosaka most regrets, attributes to pride, and blames himself for causing the death of his sister.
The thing that most surprised me about the movie was that, I kind of understoof where Nosaka was coming from in feeling the need to apologize. I'm kind of confused at the easy way people used the term "abuse" to describe the aunt's behaviour. I was expecting something much more overt, but instead she's just mostly rude.
After their house burns and their mother is killed in a bombing, the two siblings turn to their aunt for support, who takes them in. At first, she is full of sympathy and affection, but over time becomes colder and more critical.
She's delighted by Seita's resourcefulness, as he had buried some food under their house in case they'd need it later. The aunt also sells their mothers kimonos to buy rice. After this, and with their father failing to return any letters, the children don't have a means of contributing. They become just two extra mouths to feed, causing tension.
She accuses Seita of laziness for not going to school, which is unreasonable because the place he was enrolled in burned down. As resources dwindle, she starts feeding them lower quality food than what she gives her husband and daughter, because they go to work and school respectively. To her credit, she also eats the lower quality stuff.
But it's tough because the money used to buy groceries comes from the deceased mother's kimonos. Setsuko points this out, causing the aunt to say that if they don't like it, they can prepare their own meals. This prompts Seita to scrounge up enough money to buy his own oven and learn to cook. The aunt views this, I would argue correctly, as a slight against her.
I can feel such seething wrath behind Seita's quietness during all the accusations of laziness and excuses for their poor treatment. Even though it was a boneheaded move to flee the safety of a home because your caregiver is rude, I get it. I also hate being put into positions of grattitude toward people who feel entitled to treat you poorly due to your forced dependence.
And even if I do view this as a critical mistake, I'm not confident that the aunt was going to keep them indefinitely. She kept rationalizing their circumstances as character flaws, she floated ideas that there were other relatives that could take them, and she was distancing herself from them. Seems like she was internally preparing herself to cut them out. When Seita tells her that they're moving out, she seems surprised and wishes them the best, but she doesn't ask where they're going.
At first, their life camping seems great. They have some kind of shelter (never found out what it was, they call it "the cave" but it looks man-made), bedding, a clay oven, and Seita proves to be very resourceful. With the temperate weather and bounty of nature, survival seems better this way.
Eventually resources become a problem. We see Seita fall into a life of casual crime. It starts with stealing food from farms, and eventually from peoples' houses during air raids. It's pretty tough to see Seita running toward the dropping bombs, cheering for the enemy soldiers to continue their assault. This is what killed his mom and burned their home, and it has become an opportunity for theft.
The frequency and normalcy of getting bombs dropped on them is something woven into the story throughout. There's also a pervasiveness of obnoxiously positive adults trivializing circumstances "I'm glad my house burned down! Now we're all in this together!"
Setsuko reveals that she knows their mom is dead, and that her aunt had told her while they were living together. Seita had been telling her that she was in the hospital getting better. He had even hidden her ashes, not wanting to break the news to his sister.
A farmer that knows their situation tells them that all they can do is go back to their aunt and apologize. Seita just thanks him for his time. It's not even an option for him. I will say that Setsuko never once indicates regret in deciding to leave their aunt, not even when things are at their worst. Those kids really, really hated her.
Eventually Setsuko falls ill. Seita takes her to a doctor who says she's just malnourished. I'm not sure this guy did his due dilligence. Certainly she's malnourished, but she also seemed kind of medically complex, with a pre-existing skin condition that had gotten worse at the very least.
In his desperation to get nutritious food, Seita learns that the war has been over for some time. Japan had lost, surrendered, and his father's fleet had been fully wiped out almost at the onset. This seemed like it was the most probable situation since he never returned any letters, but having his dad's death confirmed hits Seita hard.
It also feels kind of condemning that the war had been over for some time but nothing had gotten better. There was a feeling that these two just needed to hang on until this bad thing that ruined their life was over. But peace had been reinstated in Japan, and they still had nothing and no one to turn to.
It's not long after that Setsuko passes. It was a small mercy that Seita was there with her when it happened. At one point Setsuko no longer asks for food, and instead just wants company. Seita's not as willing to give up and leaves to get groceries. I thought it would be a final twist of the knife for Setsuko to die alone after her request for his presence. But Seita gets back in time and feeds her watermelon which she enjoys, before falling asleep never to wake again.
Overall the movie did live up to its hype. Not much time has passed, but I find I keep refecting on it. Like I said, I knew enough about it already that there weren't too many ways that it could surprise me. The main thing that I didn't expect was how not-that-abusive the aunt was. I can see why the story writer has regrets, and I can also see how he made those decisions.
I was also surprised at the choice of starting the story with Seita's death, and confirming Setsuko's by showing her ghost. As I mentioned, it made the rest of the movie a little more degestible. If they hadn't started that way, the audience would be more engaged with every glimmer of hope, and their deaths would have happened after we'd gotten to know and care for them. I don't know why they decided to go easier on audiences, I think it might not have been the wisest choice, actually. It didn't change much for me though, because I knew both of the siblings were going to die before I watched the film.
But I was happy at the choice to depict them as being back together in the afterlife, walking among the fireflies.
Edit:
Reflecting back on the movie, it occurs to me that when the aunt accuses Seita of having other family members he could go to for support, he stays quiet. I think there's a non-negligible chance that he really didn't want to rely on extended family at all and opted to live in the cave without looking at other options. This might be an additional regret of the author.
Some of the scenes where they are camping are extremely happy. I think that on reflection, knowing that those joyful times would result in his little sister's demise must make Nosaka's survival guilt that much worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment