Movie Scene Review of Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

A tragic film about a young boy and his little sister's struggle to survive in Japan during World War II. Overall the movie might be sad but it contains many happy and hopeful moments which the siblings spend together. Personally I quite enjoyed watching this movie. 

Director: Isao Takahata 

Production company: Studio Ghibli 

Screenplay: Isao Takahata 

Chosen Scene: 

The Scene which I chose for the movie is the part where Seita and Setsuko move out of their aunts home and into an abandoned bomb shelter. The scene starts around 48:23 seconds into the movie and ends around 51:16 seconds. This scene captures one of the  happy moments in which the good relationship between the siblings is shown. For the first time they are free from their horrible careless aunts  who only used them for her benefit. The siblings are now dependent on themselves and enjoy their first day together at their new home, the bomb shelter. 

Characters:

Seita is a fourteen-year-old boy who has a calm, dedicated  and caring personality and is a devoted brother towards his little sister Setsuko. His military clothing-like uniform looks plain and ordinary in colour. He is the first person to be revealed in the scene. 

Setsuko is Seita's younger sister who has a bright bubbly energetic personality who in a way gives Seita a sense of hope whenever she is around. Unlike her brother her clothing has bright colours. She is the second person to be revealed in the scene. 

Seita and Setsuko's aunt has a selfish unkind personality, as she gives out to the siblings constantly while using their money to provide for her own family. She doesn't even seem to care when they leave her house. She wears plain ordinary housewife clothes. 

Farmer: He is just an ordinary kind farmer who lend Seita a small waggon to bring his stuff from their aunts house. The farmer enters the scene around 50 minutes into the movie and  around 1.77 seconds into the scene. 

Settings:
The bomb shelter is the first place they are at in the scene and it has two little empty rooms and has a lake in front of it. It then shows them running past rice fields and they then search for things in ruins of a building which they then bring back to the bomb shelter surrounded by nature. The siblings then are outside of  their aunts house packing their bags to bring to the bomb shelter. Once they arrive at the bomb shelter they leave once more to get food at the farmers place.

Mise-en-scene:
The fact that they are moving into a bomb shelter and that they look for stuff in ruins of houses all are linked with the war theme. The ordinary plain clothes which the characters wear suggest that they are poor during those times. There is strong contrast between life and death in this movie. The war representing the death and downs of live and the siblings are like a representation of love, hope and life. The siblings continue to struggle to survive even though they have lost their close family and home. Having each other was enough for them to want to continue living. Despite there being war, life continues, that's what I thought after watching this movie. Even when humans die, nature will not. Throughout this scene there is a strong sense of hope.


Camera Work:
Here are a list of the camera shot from the scene in order:

1. Side Profile of Seita's face
2. Medium shot of the siblings
3. Wide shot
4. Medium close up of Setsuko
5. Medium close up of Seita
6. Camera follows the siblings from left to right
7. Wide shots of siblings looking through remains of what used to be a building
8. Extreme wide shot of the characters arriving at the bomb shelter
9. Medium shot of Seita putting a bag of their belongings onto a waggon
10. Wide-over shoulder view shot of the aunt looking at the siblings packing
11. Medium shot of Seita' and his aunt's profile talking 
12. Medium shot from the front of the characters
13. Wide shot of Seita walking off screen away from his aunt
14. Over shoulder view of the aunt looking at the siblings leave
15. Medium close up of aunt
16. Wide shot looking from the inside of the bomb shelter to outside
17. Wide shot of the camera following Setsuko
18. Medium close up of Setsuko standing half sideways
19. Medium shot of Seito
20. Wide shot
21. Camera zoomed in on the waggon
22. Wide shot of farmer working and siblings in the background
23. Medium shot of farmer
24. Camera follows siblings walking from right to left
25. Wide shot of Seita and Setsuko 
26. Medium shot of Setsuko's profile
27. Close up of Seita's hand pouring rice into e pot
28. Wide shot of siblings standing in water fishing nuts
29. Close up of nuts in a bowl and Setsuko's feet
30. Over shoulder wide shot of Seita throwing sticks towards his sister 
31. Wide shot of Setsuko picking up sticks on the floor
32. Low angle shot of Seita trying to start a fire
33. Medium shot of Seita breaking a parsnip over his knees
34. Wide shot of Setsuko preparing the dinner table (which is a piece of wood on the floor)
35. Close up of the hot pot getting more cut vegetables thrown into it. 
36. Wide shot of siblings looking at each other  as they wait for their food.
37. Worms eye of siblings looking down
38. Camera zooms in on the rice

Sound and Music:
Apart from the characters speaking and sound effects there is only a little bit of music in the background. The gentle, calming, happy music plays slightly louder when the characters aren't talking. A friendlier atmosphere that suits the great relationship which Seita and Setsuko share is created through the playful music playing int the background. I especially love the laugh of the little girl it sounds so realistic.

What I liked/ Didn't like:
Over all I have no complaints about this movie, it's very good. Despite the struggle to survive the characters spend happy moments together. The movie shows a strong contrast between love and war and the up and downs in life. Even in the darkest of times Setsuko was like a light of hope for Seita.

Here is the full subbed movie:

Dubbed version: