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| Cover art taken from imdb.com |
Throughout the entire movie, you can see the brother-sister bond holding strong through everything. Seita never once forgets about Setsuko's well being, and in fact, it's his entire purpose for the film. His survival depends on the survival of his last family member, Setsuko. From the beginning he is always carrying Setsuko and taking care of her, he also does all that he can to make sure she is happy. The small happiness that he runs out of is the fruit drops. Nearly all of them are eaten by Setsuko, which is fine with Seita because her happiness is his happiness. Seita even starts becoming desperate by stealing food for his sister, and looting houses as the residents evacuate for fire bombings. Setsuko feels the same for her older brother, as she always tries to help out around their home which is a bomb shelter. She cleans the shelter out, and makes mud food for herself and Seita. She doesn't know dirt is not edible, but despite that, she never forgets to make Seita a portion as well.
Society isn't as kind as the brother-sister relationship. You see that most people are indifferent to death during the movie, and it's probably caused by the war. Even children are not sheltered during the war time in this movie, because the aunt takes out her frustration on Seita and Setsuko. She gives them less food and crap quality portions at the dinner table. Even after Seita tell his aunt about he didn't want to tell Setsuko about their mother's death, she goes and tells Setsuko behind his back and complains when Setsuko cries at night. The aunt obviously can't piece two and two together. Another scene that illustrates this is when the farmer catches Seita stealing food, and even gives the reason and evidence that Setsuko is sick and needs food. The farmer goes on to beat Seita senseless, and even takes him to the police. The policeman doesn't do anything to Seita, which is good and bad because he didn't get arrested, but he also didn't get any help. A similar situation happens with a doctor who diagnoses Setsuko with malnutrition and that she needs is food, but he does nothing to help her get better.
The children are ephemeral and immortal because their lives are so short compared to the average life span of a human being, but they live on looking back on their past. The two children have extremely hard struggles during their short lives and eventually die without anyone caring except each other. "Mono no aware" comes into play here because the film is the last struggles of the two children, and it is a beautiful thing to see. The film shows them looking back on the past and future, just observing. This is a way to say that even though we don't remember them, they remember us. Eventually people will all die because it's an inevitable fact, so somewhere in the world, there are graves for everyone.
One thing that you really pointed out of the movie was how monotone it was. The mood could have been sadder than what it was. Most movies today would have really expressed how hopeless a situation is. Although like you mention, maybe that’s how it really was back then during the was. However, I really think that it should have been more dramatic. I mean if someone mother passed away, they’re not going to get over it very easily. On the other hand, maybe the two sibling’s relationship kept the two at peace. Once Seita found out about the mother’s death, he realized that he had to stay focus for his sister. He had to quickly become an adult for his Setsuko. This means that he had to provide for her in any way he could. Like your blog stated, when all hope was lost, he had to find food for her in anyway he could. Even if that meant stealing for other people or homes during the bomb raids.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with you in how the movie was monotone. For me it was very well done, for example how the movie started with the death of Seita and that you know when Setsuko dies Seita will die. What I mean by this is that their death was inevitable, but there were ways to stop it thought the entire movie.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I agree with is how the brother and sister relationship shown in this movie was more than anyone could realize. They not only protected each other but they cared for each other, to the point that Setsuko didn't want to be away from Seita.
Another thing that reveals this, which you mentioned, is how they are each other’s world and when Setsuko dies from malnutrition, so does Seita in the train station.
Also like you I was very surprised by the bombing. It was not like anything you would expect, since people now days are used to more explosions. But in the end the result was the same devastation, sadness etc.
Maybe the movie wasn't monotone. Nevertheless i do like what you say about how at one moment there is a town and in the next, theres all rublle. Thats the nature of war. One moment you have something, lives, families and the next theyre all gone with a flash. Just imagine like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those two places pretty much leveled out in 3 seconds.
ReplyDeleteI also like the way you connected Seita's happiness with the gumdrops, that could also be taken as their vitality. As the movie progresses you don't only see the gumdrops run out. you also see how the can deteriorates until the point of rust. however, when setzuko picks up the can, it goes back to how it originally was and they even share a gumdrop. they pretty much now live forever.