Smith Grave Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies was a real bummer to watch. I can't say that I've ever seen a movie that is so comprehensively depressing. It would be one thing if there were a single instance in which the main characters experienced fortune, but there isn't.

From the word go, the two main characters, Setsuko and Seita, are thrust into an unfamiliar family dynamic. In beginning of the film the children lose their mother in a United States air raid on Japan. From this point on Seita is responsible for providing for himself and his little sister. Naturally, the fourteen-year-old Seita seeks out support from his aunt (his dead mother's sister). At first, Seita's aunt seems happy to take care of the children. It seems that she considers it a prideful deed to care for the homeless children of her supposedly critically injured sister. When Seika reveals that he and his sister are, in fact, orphans, their aunt changes her tone. At this point she begins to criticize Seita's unemployment and accuses the children of leeching her family's resources. Their aunt even begins to scold them for enjoying themselves through activities like playing piano in the middle of the day. I lived with a lady like this while i was evacuated for hurricane Katrina. It was great that she let us use her house, but she was a total bitch.  There were like four kids at her house and she wouldn't let us use the computer or do anything fun like swimming. Idk that lady burns me up. I had to put up with her boring nonsense for two weeks until I relocated. Relocating, however, was great. I moved about an hour away to my other cousins' house where we got to do all kinds of fun stuff. My cousins were my age, so moving provided a great opportunity for peer to peer discourse and activities. We did fun stuff like jumping bike into lakes and climbing trees. I enjoyed it. The bottom line is that children need distractions in times of crisis. When parents aren't present it becomes difficult to make that happen because they don't have free time. too bad.