| Subject: More talk! |
Author:
Jake
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Date Posted: 14:51:51 04/28/03 Mon
I need something to distract me from homework every once in a while, and this forum is not providing that. =( Need a topic? In EALC 328 we discussed Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen as representations of the war-time experience. How do their messages differ, and which one does a better job of communicating it? I'd ask which one you liked better, but I'd be surprised if anyone said Barefoot Gen. ^_^; Here's a couple segments of what I wrote for the class:
[SPOILER WARNING]
"But there are some key differences between the two films as well. One of the biggest differences is their endings and therefore the message and/or feeling the viewer is left with after watching the films. While Barefoot Gen actually portrays more graphically horrifying images of victims of the bomb than Grave of the Fireflies does, and while Gen ends up losing his father, brother, and newborn sister, the film as a whole delivers a positive message and ends on a relatively happy note. In the end, the wheat starts growing again, Gen's hair starts coming back, and there is no mention or hint at all that the victims of the bomb will continue to suffer for years and years. The message here is the very belief that Oe criticizes the American government for holding, that the bomb would create hell, but not one from which humanity would be unable to recover. Grave of the Fireflies, on the other hand, shows that despite Seita's maintaining a determined spirit to survive and save his little sister, in the end his efforts weren't enough to hold off the effects of the nation's being ravaged by war. The view of human nature is also decidedly more positive in Barefoot Gen in the sense that the inhabitants of Hiroshima were portrayed as nearly uniformly good-natured and helpful to others; this was not the case in Grave of the Fireflies. Gen's neighbor gives them rice for free, while Seita couldn't get any rice from a farmer for trade or money. A complete stranger lets Gen get away with stealing his fish because he's moved by his story, but Seita can't even get a fair meal from his own relatives and gets beaten and dragged to the police station for trying to steal food, despite his very similar story that his sister is ill."
[END SPOILER WARNING]
"There's also a notable difference in the way the two films choose to convey their messages. Barefoot Gen is bluntly obvious in what it's trying to tell the viewer, and many scenes and lines of dialogue come off feeling contrived as a result. Rather than merely showing the viewer how horrible the bomb was and letting the viewer draw his own conclusions, the film uses the narrator or characters to explicitly voice such sentiments as "God help us. Is it possible that one bomb could have created all this devastation?" It makes its political stance clear as well, using the narrator to describe the bombings of cities as "the most devastating attack against civillian targets in human history" and using Gen's father to criticize the "stupidity" of the Japanese government for not ending the war when it was clear they weren't going to win. Grave of the Fireflies shows more respect for the viewer's ability to determine the significance of events for himself. It never points an accusatory finger at anyone, and it lets the events of the film speak for themselves without any unnecessary commentary from characters or narrator. All in all, I found Grave of the Fireflies to be a more realistic, mature, and powerful film than Barefoot Gen, although both did a good job of portraying the suffering faced by Japanese civillians during the war."
Talk amongst yourselves. :)
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