Message from jchan

[Anonymous]

This movie is based on a partially autobiographical book by Akiyuki Nosaka who lost his little sister during the war to malnutirtion.

"Alternately known as Tombstone for Fireflies, Grave is a very somber film about the struggle of two children to survive during World War II. Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are left to fend for themselves when their mother passes away from severe burns inflicted by the American fire-bombing of their town. Their father is serving in the Japanese navy, but the children have not heard from him in a long time, so Seita and Setsuko try staying with a distant relative. However, Seita doesn't get along well with this relative and decides to leave, taking Setsuko with him, to live on their own." http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/grave/

I watched this movie in my high school Japanese class and again tonight. The first time it was in Japanese with English subtitles and tonight it was dubbed over in English. I prefer the movie in Japanese. Japanese anime in English isn't the same. However, if you were to show it to your students, it might be easier for them to concentrate on the story more if they didn't have to worry about keeping up with the subtitles.

The movie is set during World War II but doesn't make too many specific references to it. The movie focuses more on how the war changes the lives of Seita and Setsuko. Not only do we see how war destroys physical places (homes, buildings, whole cities) but how it destroys the lives of the people living in these places. People are injured during the bombing, they loose their homes, their families, their valuables, they don't have enough food and water to survive, they depend on rations from the government and they live in fear.

Grave of the Fireflies is a very emotional movie and probably isn't for everyone. However, with the proper introduction, I would show it to my class. Because the moive is in anime, it may come across as less threatening to students but I feel it still carries a strong message.

With the war going on in Iraq, this might be a good way to get students to think about how the lives of the Iragis are changing and the daily struggles they may be going through.

Movies like this give you a little different perspective on life. [Edit by="jchan on Oct 12, 8:33:37 PM"][/Edit]