| Subject: Re: More talk! |
Author:
LrdDimwit
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Date Posted: 05:40:06 04/29/03 Tue
In reply to:
Jake
's message, "More talk!" on 14:51:51 04/28/03 Mon
>"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. :)
Now why would I want to do that? Maybe Dayton can shed some light on this "talking to yourself" thing...but he seems to be busy doing this whole "work" "thing", so I'll have to see if I can talk to me (him?) later...
In any event, I had only barely heard of Barefood Gen before reading this post, but now I'm fairly convinced I shouldn't bother--you're probably right, Grave of the Fireflies sounds better. Plus, even given what little I know of Japanese politics (read: "slightly above 'absolutely nothing'"), Barefoot Gen seems revisionist. The bias against surrendering was so strong that it took two nuclear weapons to give Hotohori a good enough excuse to surrender, as I understand it. It ties into the same reason the Japanese were so cruel to American POW's--it fit into their whole mindset that surrender is worse than death, an extreme dishonor. And that bit about "the most devastating attack against civilian targets in human history"? Describing the bombing of a city? Oh, please. The Japanese did plenty that was just as bad, and let's not forget this little thing the Germans had going on the side. And what happened to the Native Americans.
... I could continue that list there, but I think I just about ran that point into the ground.
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