I watched this movie with the advance knowledge that it’s a tragedy and a tearjerker, at least according to all the comments and posts I’ve read on the Internet. I took that as a sure sign that someone’s going to die in the film and I believe it’s a huge factor as to why I delayed seeing this movie time and time again. I’m certain that everyone can attest to the fact that just knowing someone is going to die in a movie can make the prospect of watching it a drag, with the exception of action and slasher films of course, those are already a given. Well I finally took the plunge last night with the mentality of ripping the band aid once and for all, why prolong the agony right? I know I want to see this and I better do it soon before I get spoiled completely.
So imagine my surprise when in the first 10 minutes of the movie we’re immediately shown that the protagonist, Seita, dies from starvation. The spirit of his younger sister, Setsuko, makes an appearance as well. So yeah. All those thoughts and fears of being spoiled and both characters are killed at the start. The universe does loves her jokes.
The film does a great job of making you feel sympathetic to the plight of innocent civilians in a war, especially the orphans. Seita takes it upon himself to take care of his young sister after their mother dies and their father serving in the navy. Personally, I felt bad for their circumstances but a part of me couldn’t help but feel incensed at Seita’s stupidity. He makes one mistake after another and it’s his sister that ultimately pays the price. I’ve been told by friends who I ranted to about the film that I should probably give Seita a break since he was young, and that his foolhardiness only enhances the tragic ending of the story. I wish I could believe in that. Unfortunately the idea that Seita killed his sister has been seared into my brain.
Let’s start with the beginning. After their mother dies, a distant aunt takes them in despite the nationwide food rationing. The aunt was cordial and warm the in first few scenes but slowly devolves into an irate fault finder who never misses an opportunity to remind them both how food is really scarce. Things came to a boil after an innocent remark from Setsuko that drove the aunt to the edge and she demanded that moving forward both of them should shoulder their own food expenses. Now I do believe the aunt should have just ignored the little kid’s remark. She’s only five after all, or something close to it. But beyond that, Seita doesn’t really do anything to help out their cause. He doesn’t get a job or find ways to gather more food. No, he’s just content to lie on the floor and read magazines, or go swimming with his sister. Swimming? Really? In a time when unnecessary physical exertions isn’t the most brilliant idea? If I was the aunt I’d probably be pissed as well.
Seita accepts the new arrangement and used his family’s savings to buy their own food and a stove. Everything should be fine except the aunt’s nitpicking about Seita and Setsuko’s continued presence continues. Having had enough, Seita decides to move out and live in an abandoned shelter. This is his second big mistake. A ruined bomb shelter in front of a pond is no place for a small girl. Had he not allowed his pride to get the better of him and kept on living with his aunt, perhaps even help out with some of the chores and contribute something, his aunt would have had a change of heart. But alas, pride rules.
The remainder of the film are the toughest to watch. We see how the two of them physically deteriorate from the inhospitable environment and lack of food. In the beginning they dined sumptuously on rice and fresh vegetables bought by the remainder of their family savings. When that ran out they had to make do with frogs and soy beans. And towards the end, Seita was forced to steal from farmers and evacuated homes whenever an air raid occurs. He reached his lowest point when a farmer caught him stealing sugar cane and marched him off to the police station despite his pleas about needing sugar to help with Setsuko’s diarrhea. He encounters a stroke of luck when the police took pity on him and set him free but does he do the right thing and swallow his pride? Nope. He stubbornly stays in their make-shift home.
What he does instead is withdraw all of his savings and buys food and medicine. This really got to me. He had money all this time yet he lets his sister waste away in sickness? Shouldn’t he had done that earlier? His gesture proves too late as he sees his sister hallucinating and delirious in their home. He tries to feed her but she mercifully dies, free from pain and hunger.
This is a powerful film and it would be really hard for it not to touch you in some semblance. I’m still feeling really emotional and I can’t articulate how, why or what it’s effect on me. I’d definitely recommend it to every one just as a need to watch at least once type of movie. All I’m sure at this point is fuckin Seita is useless and without a doubt killed his sister.
What About Drinks? 
Okay, I’m so relaxed that I FINALLY find that there’s a person who feels the same as me.
I’m still pissed off with Setia right now; I’m REALLY PISSED OF with him. His foolishness is beyond tolerance.
The beginning (before they move to their aunt) and the Setsuko part are the most touching part of this movie.
It’s a bit disappoinment tho when the movie began projecting Seita’s egoism with his pride.
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I feel instead of him just trying to prove a point and in the act killing his sister he shouldve just dealt with the aunt until he was stable enough instead of getting mad and tortureing his sister for it and also killing her when he saw she had no food and saw her slowly dieing she shouldve went back to the aunt and apologized or listened to the doctor and found a way to get her better food than pumpkin and frogs.
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I couldn’t blame him for letting his sister die for malnutrition but we clearly watched that he had a money to atleast buy some fruits or vegetables for her sister even just once every 3 days but he didn’t. I think he is not matured at that time. But seeing a sibling who has a stomach ache due to malnutrition will make me go to my Aunt and swallow my pride just to make a sibling alive. But we can’t do anything about that because that’s already happened we can’t change it
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The double suicide was intentional by the author as the author blame himself for the death of his sister to malnutrition when he was 14. But I agree in reality two orphan living in foster home with brother teaching working age should not be this bad. But the author and his 2-year old sister’s situation was actually a lot worse compared to the fictionalized novel he wrote. The novel/anime was intentionally made to not make sense.
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Ur the only person who feels as me I recommended to my friends this movie but they say is animated movie bla bla bla and i have watched this movie for 5 times and i have cry in this movie cuz im so emotional and i highly recommend this movie from whole world around i love this movie so much and no one have no idea haven’t watch it. Yet
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He is a child himself… You can’t expect him to make the smartest decisions in a situation like that.. the movie is based on real story.. can’t hate on any of the characters, hate the people who put the profit of war over innocent children’s lives.
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He is just a kid. And, did you have the same life like him? I am guessing No.
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He is just a child so his thinking is just a child also I dont know how far youll gonna do to live your younger sister.Shes just a baby and the reason of her malnutrion is shes lack of milk from her mother and Seita cant do anything about it.You dont have sympathy he cant make a job because his age is not suitable but also because of his pride.
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I understand what you are feeling but look at it this way. In the movie the characters had their aunt, clothes to trade, family savings to spend but in reality, majority of the children had nothing. This is what the auther tried to show. If he showed them just showed them being homeless and orphan after the bombing then it wouldn’t be much of a movie you get me? So don’t think about the plot of the movie or the choices Seita made, but think about the inevitable death they had to suffer. However, I do understand how you feel, and most certainly if I was Seita, I wouldn’t have left the house.
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It’s supposed to be like that right? I’m going to copy and paste a comment I found on a review that explains it more.
‘In Grave of the fireflies, these situations that ‘could’ have been avoided are the whole bases of the movie. Isao Takahata said in many interviews how the movie is mainly about the mistakes of the brother, not anti war, hell the author himself wrote the book to cope with the loss of his little sister (like setsuko) as he believes it was his fault. in the end his pride kills him (not returning to aunt and refusing to believe he could not take care of his sister), which is the moral of the movie.’
This person explained it really well. It’s been done on purpose to get the reader to understand the frustration the ‘real’ brother probably feels for being the cause of death to his younger sister. When you do something wrong, you spend hours nitpicking your actions to see how it could have been avoided and the answers of that usually frustrate you. idk how to explain it further sorry.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that and explain that side. I didn’t know that aspect and I suppose going by those metrics, then the movie did its job if it elicited that exact reaction from me.
Cheers!
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You do realize that Seita is a child, right? He’s at most 14, do you remember how much of a dumbass you were at 14, could you handle this much at 14? No, you couldn’t. Not to mention this movie is based off the book by the same name. An autobiographical book. Seita was a person and so was Setsuko and the shit in the movie happened to him. How dare you make the man feel more guilt than he already has. He killed himself off in the book out of guilt, he knows what he’s done.
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“could you handle this much at 14? No, you couldn’t.”
Seita didn’t have to handle that much. Literally the point where he’s being dumb, you do realize this, right?
So the author wrote this book because he felt guilty, made the brother character to be guilty because of it,basically meaning he agreed with the blogger, and you here throwing around insult like you know better than the author?
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To me, Seita is the prime example why when there’s a divorce, custody goes to the mother. Many men are too prideful to be caretakers. Also, the fans are more concerned about how sad and tragic the whole situation is to actually hold seita accountable for his actions, that’s what baffles me the most. If it was a female character failing to take care of her younger brother, the reactions would not be so mild.
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This was based on a true story. The person who wrote it was, basically, “Seita”, and the author wrote it about the death of his sister (“Setsuko”).
Also- the kid is 14, his mother just freaking died, he has practically nothing, his village got bombed out, his dad is off at sea fighting in the army. He has nothing except for his little sister, emotionally (Ya think he wants to let her starve?). Anyway, this kid has been through some trauma at only fourteen. So I gotta say- CUT HIM SOME SLACK!!! I’m just guessing here, but have you ever had your mom die when you were 14? your village bombed? Yeah.
If he swallowed his pride and went back to his aunt- (Who does not, coincidentally, have a whole storeroom full of food ready to share) he still would’ve starved.
Oh, and another thing- getting a job? When your entire village burned down, and you have to look after your four year old sister, and even the people with jobs (like the Farmer) are on the brink of starvation? Hm, that should help a lot! Yeah, let’s just go and ride to the next town over, so we can work in some factory and get paid in money, and then buy somebody’s LAST FIVE TOMATOES off of him, which he’ll totally sell to us!
And at the end of the movie, you can tell he really regrets what he’s done. He has no will to live. He just dies. He doesn’t want to continue without his little sister! And did you see how hard he tried, before it was too late? Seita was just utterly dejected. HE BLAMED HIMSELF! so you don’t have to blame him too.
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Trust me there were a lot of opportunities he missed out on. When he moved out of his aunt’s house he didn’t alert the authorities about the rations, which he could have if he weren’t so stupid, which would have helped him to continue to get his rations. There were job opportunities during the time and place. As seen there were fields tended to by men working alone. He could have lent a hand in exchange for some food to sustain, instead he steals.
The author, as mentioned in another comment, wanted to highlight his bad decisions and his pride that led to his doom… I’ll leave a link for further reference…
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I highly agree with you. I feel so bad for both of them; Seita and Setsuko. But can we talk about dedication though?? That’s big brother goals right there. But the whole getting a job thing, going to school; because everything is gone, what ya gonna do?? I do get the other side’s view though, maybe he could’ve stayed and helped around the house or contribute to something, just to get the aunt to stop bitching and actually show some sympathy and understanding in their shoes. But I see, he didn’t help cause his main focus was on his sister and making sure she was happy.
When I saw the movie, I just couldn’t with the opening scene. It was just depressing hearing how he was breathing, seeing how he just deteriorated and said her name on his final breath. UUggghh!! But after reading the comments, I see now…..he wanted to die. He purposefully starved himself, even when the person offered food when he was dying. He was guilty wanted nothing to do with living because of his choices and wanted to be with his sister, and of course, out of this crazy world. And they looked happy in their afterlife. But yea, he’s still a kid. People need to cut him “some” slack.
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I dont think your thinking Seita is one a child he cannot get a job two he was trying his hardest to help his sister and in the movie the doctor didn’t give much help so what more could he do he had nobody his mom died his dad died he was alone dealing with a 4 year his school was bombed so he couldn’t go to school and his aunt treated them like crap why would he want his sister in an environment like that where she feels like they are a pest Seita did as much as he could but he couldn’t save her it wasn’t his fault all that he did for his sister was amazing.
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Seita’s cousin was going to school so not all schools were bombed. All he did for his sister was get her killed.
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I agree with you to an extent. You are totally right in being frustrated with Seita’s character and choices. I believe those emotions are exactly what the film was trying to evoke. It was based off a semi autobiographical novel and Seita serves as a representation of the author and his guilt regarding the death of his younger sister. The film was meant to be a form of healing and coming to terms with his past. Obviously he survived in real life, but the death of Seita as well in the film demonstrates the sense of regret he felt as well as symbolizing the death of his happiness. He knows that his choices ultimately killed his sister. However, as a child he made decisions in an attempt to keep Setsuko happy. The montage of Setsuko at the end of the movie exemplifies this idea and serves as Nosaka’s reason to come to terms with himself. He made her happy while she was alive, and knows now that she was thankful. He likely never forgave himself, but at the end of the day he cannot alter what he did. This film is not supposed to be some glamorized story of survival that satisfies you in the end. It is not mere entertainment. It is a real situation that happened to more people than just these two kids.
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“ He had money all this time yet he lets his sister waste away in sickness? Shouldn’t he had done that earlier?”
If you had paid attention in the movie rather than spend your time ridiculing a newly orphaned child, you would have known that he DID try to buy food for Setsuko earlier in the film when he attempted to trade money for rice with the farmer. The farmer said no because it was the middle of a war, and there was no such thing as the free market anymore, the government had already rationed all the food, but because Seita and his sister had left his aunts house, they didn’t get the rations that other families had. People weren’t able to buy food until Japan had lost the war, and we SAW Seita buying food for Setsuko the moment he was able to, even attempting to feed her watermelon moments before her death. Satsuko herself knew that he had no other options, and thanked him with her dying breath. All of Seita’s choices were from the effects of war, losing both of his parents, and having an aunt that seemed to not care about their well-being, not selfishness or pride. He tried to do what he could to keep his sister safe.
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Actually she went to work if you payed attention (not being mean 🙂 ) she said that her daughter and husband work ever day for our nation 💀
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Your reaction is very revealing as it shows how people always tend to view something produced by another culture through the lens of their own. Japanese audiences who watched the film were far less critical of his decision not to go back to his aunt, as they understood how to do so would have been a grievous blow to his honour, particularly as a man in what is still a very patriarchal society today, and was even more so then. Also, buying the food at the end was a last desperate move which used up the entire life savings of his family. It would only have kept them going for a few days before they started to starve again. That reinforces the point the farmer makes that you can’t survive outside the system. Only the very wealthy could feed themselves indefinitely using the black market.
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I don’t think he should be condemned he is just a kid and he went through a lot but you also shouldn’t justify his actions they were bad and lead to bad things, why not just learn from his mistakes and others so you can avoid the situation he went through that’s what the film meant to me.
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I think what seita did is just make sure they can survive at least until their father back, seita is just 14 years old kid. The shit in here is there is no humanity of people in there
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I think going back to his aunt’s house wouldn’t be a good idea, because his aunt wasn’t helping them, she was stealing their food. She stole the food they got from their father being a soldier, she stole the food they got from changing his mother’s clothes. His aunt is a idiot
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The filmmakers set out to make the characters more real then in your typical movie. They are flawed people who make mistakes. They never showed Seita trying to live with aunt despite the way she treated them or trying to get a job. That would have made him a much noblier character. That he did everything in his power to save them and still failed because of the harshness of the situation. Instead he made stupid mistakes because he’s a kid and doesn’t know what he’s doing and that’s why they both die. The story is a lot more tragic that way and Studio Ghibli loves turning the tragedy up to 10 in a lot of their films (When Marnie Was There, The Wind Rises, etc.)
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The movie is based off a short story by a guy named Akiyuki Nosaka. Nosaka wrote the book as a tribute to his sister who died the same way as Setsuko and because he felt really guilty since he was the reason why she died. You guys probably feel the same way he did looking back at his life.
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He is 14ys kid and don’t know anything except to keep his sister happy, we can say anything about him and his decisions because we know how it ends, he just wants to live happily with his sister but don’t know how
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I agree with ur points wholeheartedly.And thats what came to my mind when I watched this film.It could have impacted me more if Seita would have tried his best to save his sister,but his pride and idiocy bested him.
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He could have saved his sister
But we all are forgetting something people of older times have a lot of pride they don’t swallow their pride even at the face of utter hardship or even death. I live in India and people in the villages have the largest pride. They work so hard i couldn’t even think of doing ( my body won’t allow it too ) though I do gym can run for 2 km in a single run. But still if you offer any of them free money they won’t even touch it . There was even an old story about a guy who wanted a cow his hole life but dies while working hard and laboring himself but he doesn’t once blames his life situations his family members ( who were contemplating about him ) and making him loose his money and belongings. And the landlords who were making him forcefully pay more which was and maybe still is the story in most parts of very rural areas.This story is named godan meaning donation of cow to the already rich brahmins by the family in which a person died. And other story about a teen who stopped eating food and died of malnutrition after he was acused of adultery with his stepmom.
The kid in the movie was relying on the last dime his mother has left he thought it will come in handy if anything goes bad that’s why he didn’t swallow his pride till the end.
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Nah I can’t believe I’m reading this, it’s a fucking kid
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