GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
This week’s movie:
I’m writing this recommendation because I’m a firm believer in symmetry.
During my many years of studying Physics, I’ve developed a deep appreciation of symmetry in nature - of balance. I don’t believe much in God – but if I did, Physics would be his playbook, his Bible. Physics describes the rules that God himself follows right down to the atomic level. You want to know how he created the universe? Physics tells you. It describes the basic building blocks that form every rule and law of nature from the microscopic to the cosmological. For every particle there is an antiparticle. For every equation there is a symmetric (or antisymmetric) equation that link different phenomena. Balance is key. You eat a balanced diet for good physical health. You balance work and play for good mental health. For every action there is a reaction. For each heads there is a tails with equal probability. The only reason we tolerate evil is because we know there is also good to balance it. Wax on ………wax off.
What all this got to do with this week’s video recommendation? Nothing - except………..
A couple weeks ago I recommended the film Across the Universe. It was an upbeat movie, celebrating the joy of love and music and being alive. It was meant to make you feel good about yourself and say, “Life is great. All is right with the world! Koo-koo K’choo!”
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is the other side of the coin. It’s the anti-particle of a feel good movie. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a feel-bad movie - it just probably won’t pat you on the back of the hand and say ‘there there’ and make you feel good - and you’re not likely to say “All is right with the world.” by the time it’s over - because sometimes it’s not.
First, you may notice from the photo that it’s an animated film. “Oh! So it’s like, what? …..a cartoon?” Yes……..it is like what - a cartoon, but not like any you’ve ever seen. It is, without a doubt, one of the most emotionally devastating films, animated or otherwise, ever made. Film critic, Roger Ebert, in his review writes, ” Grave of the Fireflies is an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation.” You can read his entire review here. Animation expert, Ernest Rister, compares it’s emotional impact to Schindler’s List (which was made some five years later), and wrote, “It is the most profoundly human animated film I’ve ever seen.”, and I imagine he’s seen quite a few.
The story is an adaptation of the novel “A Grave of Fireflies”, by Akiyuki Nosaka, and is based on his own experiences: A teenage boy and his very young sister find themselves orphaned and homeless near the end of World War II, when their town of
The film was animated by Isao Takahata, who with longtime friend and collaborator, Hayao Miyazaki, founded Studio Ghibli of Japan. Studio Ghibli is responsible for many of the very best in animated features, such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away from FranksFilms past recommendations. Whereas
“Geeeez, Frank. This sounds really depressing. Why would I want to watch such a downer of a movie and feel depressed all day?”
Because.
Because most of the time it’s not depressing at all. Because between the beginning where you find that the main characters have died, and the end where the main characters die, there are many moments of joy and beauty. Because there are moments of play and of many little victories. In fact, much of the film is funny and heartwarming. Even though you know the fate that awaits them, you want it not to be true, and I think this is largely what gives it such incredible poignancy – you try not to think that they will eventually die.
……..and because of balance. You can’t subsist totally on a diet of romantic comedies, or teenage comedies, or action adventure ….comedies. Balance says you must also see films like ‘Schindler’s List’, and GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES.
This is widely considered an anti-war movie. However, this message isn’t rammed down your throat. No one person or side is held up as responsible or maybe everybody is. War is no stroll through the fun house – unless that fun house is in an abandoned haunted theme park in a Stephen King novel. This is one very intense, emotional, joyous, sad, powerful, and beautiful film. I challenge any breathing, feeling person not to be moved by it. Is it a tear-jerker? Hell yes! So what? Don’t be such a baby!
Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s an animated movie. This is a serious film, depicting serious events. The fact that its semi-auto-biographical makes it all the more compelling. If you’re looking for a movie to share with your small children, this might not be the one. There is no profanity, or adult situations (I don’t consider war to be an adult situation. War affects children no differently than adults.), but children have a deep-running sense of injustice, and the eventual fate of the main characters may haunt them for a long time to come (it may haunt you too, for that matter). However, it is an important enough film to be a ‘must see’ for teenagers and older. If you do watch with younger kids, watch it with them to talk them through it. Quite often they’ll surprise you as what they can understand and deal with.
Now, if you’re teetering on the edge of deciding whether or not to see this film, I direct you to 10 different film critics – each with their own reactions. Feel free to follow the links to their reviews.
- Roger Ebert: Ebert’s my ‘go to’ reviewer when I’m looking for insight into what makes a film good. He speaks at length on GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES – watch the video here.
- FranksFilms: Me. I’m my own ‘go to’ guy when I’m trying to decide whether or not I like a film. I liked GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES even though it made me feel sad. Refresh this page to read my review.
- Gene Siskel: I know he’s dead but, through the magic of the internet, he can speak to us from the grave …………………………………………of the fireflies. You probably saw that coming.
- John A. Nesbit: Reviewer for Old School Reviews. Cried like a baby for the entire second half.
- Jürgen Fauth: Reviewer for ‘about.com’. Like it so much that decided maybe anime not so bad after all. Decided back after seeing Pokemon, the Movie.
- New York Times: Gave such a great review that people went to the theater to see it in droves. The next day marked the Great Facial Tissue Shortage of 1988.
- bdod5489: I have no idea who this is. But had trouble typing his review because keyboard kept getting salty wet.
- Tasha Robinson: Reviewer for the A.V.Club. Didn’t want to like it because it risked looking like one of those anime nerd chicks – but couldn’t help herself. But, damnit! She ain’t watching no DragonballZ!
- Jon Turner: Reviewer on the Studio Ghibli website. He may be more than a little biased – what do you think?
- Aaron V.F. PICAR: I don’t know who this guy is either – but he has a great website dedicated to using GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES as a classroom teaching tool. If you are considering watching it with your children, this site provides guides and topics for discussion.
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is a serious film that seriously deserves serious consideration. I’m serious here!
Seriously - enjoy this film.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I saw a live action film a few years back with a similar theme, called Nobody Knows. A young mother moves into a small apartment in Tokyo with a 12 year old son. Unknown to the landlord, she also has three younger children, whom she has instructed to not leave the apartment or let anyone see them or they’ll lose their place.
Unfortunately, because of the pressure and because she’s young and because she’s totally irresponsible - she abandons them (she says she’ll be back) and leaves them to fend for themselves. They have a similar struggle for survival as the siblings in GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. Also based on a true story.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
[…] course I was only six, but still …… so what? I also teared up a bit for Grave of the Fireflies, and Love Story, and Ghost, and My Girl, and Bambi, and Pandora’s Box, and The Bridge to […]
May 20th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
[…] course I was only six, but still …… so what? I also teared up a bit for Grave of the Fireflies, and Love Story, and Ghost, and My Girl, and Bambi, and Pandora’s Box, and The Bridge to […]
June 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I understand your devotion in physics but Ive got a few questions for you?
but before asking I want to clear it out that Im not anti-science and all for anarchy and all those stuff. Its just that these questions are bothering me and I want some one to reflect on it.
wel here goes
if u think that physics is the answer to all then tell me this:-
where is the symmetry in life of a person who spents most his time in hard labour and then gets nothing in return other than economic and social oppression from so called “the superiors”?
where is the balance of a person who is mentally ill?
or are u saying that symmetry exist in a class of people where if someone is feeling the pain of life others are enjoying the happiness!
if thats the case then who controls this symmetry.
we believe in god because we think that he/she can answer any of our questions right?
then why is it that physics cant answer the “why” question of life.
i am agnostic about GOD but i am disturbed by the way the universe is
“costant struggle” as I would say well if it sounds pesimistic then i cant help it cz thats the way I feel right now.
why cant physics (or any science for that matter) answer the reason of having instincts and rationality at the same time?
why there is a need of having balance.
we are conditioned in such a way that we think that logic, balance and equation can solve anything.
but ages ago there were other explanations that satisfied human kind in the same way. how can we accept this to be true?
if some one comes with a new theory which beyond logic and equation then we are going to chuck the present state of theories as outdated just as we did before!!
then what is THE TRUTH?
human kind have developed in a number of ways and i am not opposing their crations but then what was the need for all that if still 38 wars are being fought all across the wars. so does that mean that the world or rather the universe, which is so unrest with meteors erupting and stars destroying and getting born etc, is never at balance or does the death of one and the birth of another equifies themselves and then creates a balance.
I am not in any state of argument so dont be annoyed with my question. nothing personal just that these things are bothering me.
ohh by the way i agree to your review more or less on the movie grave of the fire flies and truly its a must watch movie.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hey Kre-zay! You ask all the difficult questions. Fortunately, I have all the hard to understand answers. Physics has two important concepts that are relevant.
Think about an ordinary every thing - let’s say the air in your room. The air is made up of gas molecules (mostly
nitrogen and oxygen) that are too small to see. Any one molecule will obey the classical laws of physics. It will
travel at a certain speed, bump into the wall and bounce off, bounce into other molecules and bounce off. Not all
molecules travel at the same speed. Some are pretty pokey while other tear along at breakneck speeds. Knowing what
any one molecule is doing will tell absolutely nothing about the air in the room.
When you look at many molecules, what you find is the following. If you graph the kinetic energy (related to speed)
of all the particles, it looks like the familiar bell curve we remember from school. The center of the bell curve
is the average energy (the C+ of energies). This average energy represents the temperature of the air - in fact
“temperature” is defined by the average energy of the collection of molecules. The point is that there is balance
here. Fast particles are balanced by slow particles. The behavior of individual particles is relatively
unimportant compared to the behavior of the system (called the “ensemble average”).
This can sometimes seem unbalanced since the fastest particles carry the greatest percentage of the system energy.
This is exactly analagous to the distribution of wealth in the world. The richest 5% of the people have 40% of the
world’s wealth. Unfair - but statistics is what it is.
The other concept is “antisymmetry”. When you look in the mirror, you’re looking at a left-handed version of
yourself (or right-handed if you’re left handed. If you’re ambidexterous, you don’t generally don’t cast a
reflection). That’s antisymmetry. For every type of particle there is an antiparticle that has exactly the opposite properties. For everything you can think of, there is the exact opposite - that is antisymmetry, which is symmetry nevertheless.
Whenever you have a large population, you are going to have normal Guassian (Bell Curve) distributions and you are going to have symmetry (which includes antisymmetry).
And your fianl question: what is THE truth? There is no absolute truth. We often think of science as precise and exact and the truth about the nature of the universe, but that’s deceiving. Science is only a way in which we can describe what we see. The fact that our view of the world changes in very significant ways from one century to the next suggests that what we think we know now will seem pretty foolish a hundred years from now - maybe less. You might think why do we even bother studying science if none of it is true, and it all will change sooner or later. The best reason is that we will never get to the next level until we thoroughly exhaust the current world views …..plus, each new revolution brings we a better understanding of how we perceive the world.
Anyway, that’s it! Hope this gives you food for thought …………or not.