Forum - View topicREVIEW: Grave of the Fireflies DVD
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HyugaHinata
 Posts: 3505 |
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Exactly. I completely see the points you're making here, and perhaps his actions were due to spoiler[Japanese nationalism and how he was raised.] I don't know enough about Japanese pre-WW2 history to say anything further. Still, you'd think spoiler[he would have placed his sister's well-being over something as ephemeral as pride. Pride didn't do him any good once he was dead.] |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Indeed it does. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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spoiler[True, which helps explain why it is so tragic. Seita wanted to do the best he could for his sister but his actions lead to her death. His pride got them into that mess in the first place. But it was his lack of judgement and inability to properly assess the situation (the girl was so hungry she was eating mud for crying out loud) that kept them in that bunker long after they should have left.] spoiler[I know it is easy to get angry at Seita, but whenever I start to rage I think back at how this happened to a real brother and sister. A real boy made the same stupid and rash decisions as Seita did and lost his sister, a real girl. I am reminded that kids really are that foolish, and that this author has probably been kicking himself every day for the rest of his life because of what he did. I just can't stay angry at him when I realise how much he's had to suffer already.]
That's a pretty bold claim to make, ArsenicSteel. Last edited by dtm42 on Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:23 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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HyugaHinata
Posts: 3505 |
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I see your point. It's probably also due to the fact that spoiler[Seita lived a very cushy life until his aunt kicked him out, so he didn't know the first thing about raising a young girl, yet alone being the responsible head of the household.] |
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ArsenicSteel
Posts: 2370 |
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I've said before that the wording in the reviews have not been matching up the the rating given, so much so that it feels inflated. And if you want to be technical it's a form of deception. I admitted to understanding the most basic interpretation of my comments and my problem hinges on. |
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unready
 Posts: 400 Location: Illinois, USA |
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That's a bit sad, if true. I own the CPM "Collector's Edition," which includes an interesting interview with Takahata. He talks about his own memories of his childhood during the firebombing of Tokyo. (It's been a while since I last watched, so some details could be off.) He was about seven and went with his 14 year-old sister to the market. While they were gone, their home was firebombed, and they were sort of on their own for a few weeks before they could reconnect with their family, which have evacuated in time and survived. He also talks about showing the movie to different audiences. When he shows it to older audiences ("older" in 1988, the date of the interview, likely people like him who remember the war personally), they take away the message that the children died because the boy was unwilling to ask for help. When he shows it to younger audiences (again, "younger" by 1988 standards), they take away the tragedy that the children died because they didn't have any money. And BTW, there are no spoilers here. They're dead already in the opening scene of the movie, then the rest of the movie is told in flashback.
More than unpleasant, she took the money the children got by selling their mother's things and fed them only broth from the food she made to feed her husband and child better with it. It's a situation from which any modern child welfare agency would take them to place them in a better situation, but no such thing existed for these kids. If the boy had stayed, he might have had an opportunity to better his position, but by leaving he lost any opportunity he might have had. In a way, I think of it like a similar question ultimately posed in Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener. (Obviously the plots are different, and the stories are told from completely different points of view, but I find similarities in the nature of the stories.) In a bad situation with no good options, what's the best you could do? |
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lem
 Posts: 734 Location: Land of trying to figure sht out |
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I realize that it's a rather dark picture, I didn't use any flash, but this photo (old Canon Power Shot A590) of the screen (PS3 & 32" Samsung HDTV), reveals little by way of background detail. It's a scene from the 2002 version 
Here's the scene from the Sentai dvd on the same tv, taken with the same camera, and again without any flash 
The Region One DVD from 2002, the other R1's from CPM and the ADV Films releases all look like crap in comparison (I have the dvds). For whatever reasons, Sentai didn't offer anything else by way of Extras, but they did manage to release the best looking R1 version of it to date. The top photo obviously makes the difference in detail appear to be more dramatic because it is darker, but honestly, I can't believe you are claiming there hasn't been a clear upgrade.
His Aunt, as an adult, through her words and actions,spoiler[ was easily one of the most heartless characters in the story. After all, wasn't it Seita's Mother's Kimono's that helped her to buy some more food? yet she still made him feel like shit with her condescending tone for simply being guilty of having a need to eat. As if he could actually claim some control over the events unfolding before them. When one looks at the age of those two characters is it even reasonable to expect them to be able to readily fend for themselves in a time of peace, let alone during a time your hometown is being firebombed?] That said, I don't have any issue with the characterization of the children, they're just children. Add to all that,spoiler[ they're ones who just lost their Mother... ] But on the other hand, the adults, from the very beginning of the movie,spoiler[ with their indifferent and rather callous treatment of the young dead, and the dying is pretty lame. ] The depiction of their behavior, the way it was directed, immediately makes it a one sided deal as far as where any sympathy should be. At least I would think that it would... |
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DmonHiro
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"Seita eventually chafes under his aunt's attitude about him not contributing towards supporting the war effort, so he decides to strike out on his own with Setsuko in tow."
See, this is why I never liked this movie. It's really hard to care for someone when they caused all their misery themselves. It's his fault that his sister had to suffer because of his stupid pride. I don't buy the whole "Oh, the heartless adults" argument. It was wartime, being fair and kind is not really the main concern, survival is. Yeah, the aunt took the money, but who's house were they living in? Who's food, however bad, were they eating. The aunt wasn't never obligated to take them in in the first place. So what, she should have let them keep the money to do god knows what with it when they needed food? Sorry, but Seita gets zero points from me. And I don't care this was based on a real-life story, it's still nobody's fault but his. Being young and stupid isn't a good enough excuse when you get your baby sister killed. |
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Ryu Shoji
Posts: 671 Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom |
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I first saw Grave of the Fireflies some years ago (must be more than five) and I have not watched it since - it's an incredibly powerful movie.
Yes, we can all say that Seita brought it upon himself and his sister, that he should have just sucked it up with his aunt and whatnot, but then you have to remember - they are children. Children aren't going to be the most rational of people, especially after they had just lost their mother. It's a very sad story, but when you remember that these were partly based on true events, it becomes an absolutely horrific tragedy. I would say that everyone has to see this movie at least once, to give them a true insight into the tragedies war can cause (even indirectly). Probably the most powerful film I have ever seen. |
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noigeL
Posts: 149 |
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Why do you think he's lying? What would Theron stand to gain by lying? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18195 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'm putting and end to this now, Arsenic Steel. Whether you agree with the way we do things or not, the "Overall" ratings are still ratings of how good the movie as a whole is in subbed or dubbed form. The weakness of Setsuko's performance in English is harmful to the overall quality of the movie but hardly outright destructive; hence, I felt that only a single step drop in the "Overall (dub)" grade was warranted. Those who claim that the dub as a whole is terrible are vastly overstating the case, because everyone else in the English dub sounds just fine. Dropping the "Overall (dub)" grade to a B or C or whatever else you're looking for here is not warranted because the dub simply isn't that bad, and on the rare occasions when I have knocked a dub that much, it's been for consistently bad performances, not just a single one (even if it is a key one). If you want to disagree and think I'm being too soft on the dub, that's fine; you'd hardly be the first person to accuse me of doing that with dubs. Claiming that I'm outright lying implies that I have ulterior motives here, though, and that I won't tolerate. Concerning comments about the remastered picture quality: I didn't notice that big a difference when I looked at them before, but I didn't watch both this copy and my Collector's Edition copy completely through, so I will look at this again.
I never got anywhere near as strong an emotional reaction from Grave as from the peak scenes in AS - but then, we're comparing a story which just lays it all out there with one that is finely-tuned for such a purpose. |
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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You're funny. 
But, in all honesty Key, this is one of the best reviews you've made in a long time if simply for treating this movie like an anime movie than just another great mark in cinema. The mentioning of all the grey elements; spoiler[how Keita himself is just as much to blame] and the overall careful explaining brings to light how people can be angered just as much as saddened solely based on whatever position they wish to take, but there's one scene that I still don't get, if just because I've only watched the movie in dub. The part when Keitaspoiler[ gets released from the officer and Setsuko is waiting for him. She says something and the music makes a sharp shrill as if something horrible has happened. I've just interpreted this as Setsuko having an overall understanding of their situation.] Does the dub omit something the subs clarify better? This part has always confused me, but I can get hung over minute details if the overall picture is that good. Wish Takahata could make one more film before we lose another hero of anime. |
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_V_
 Posts: 619 |
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While others better versed in Section 23's current releases can find screenshots better than I can, I will add my voice to this and say....yes, the picture quality in this remaster was drastically better than any previous version.
Particularly during dark night scenes, which now have a truly shocking amount of background detail that was not visible before. Please check this. I mean the difference in picture quality was so noticeable, that I really think you might need to update this review to take it into account (given that the review flatly says that the picture quality hasn't improved at all ). "WTK" made a thorough set of comparison shots on another forum, but here are two example pics he made. They particularly highlight how the screen brightness in night scenes was fixed: ADV's most recent release: http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3164/vlcsnap2012030221h38m48.png Section 23's new release: http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1797/gotf3.png . |
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WTK
Posts: 4053 |
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I actually did post in the ANN forums: link. Below are the round-up of the screencaps. And here are additional screenshots (not by me) from the Sentai Filmworks release: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 |
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Ingraman
Posts: 1077 |
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Ah... You did. ^^; I've never ventured into the "industry" branch of the ANN forums, so I've only seen your posts on AoD, blu-ray.com and FP. Heck, I rarely bother to venture out of the "talkback" section here. |
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