DIRECTOR'S CUT: Therapist Reacts to GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (Studio Ghibli)
Added 2023-01-16 16:00:06 +0000 UTCHow do you make meaning out of your life and find joy when things are not getting better?
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are watching a movie you dared us to watch, Grave of the Fireflies. In Jono’s words, this movie is inspiring, wholesome, and devastating all at the same time. They talk about the themes of hoping for a better tomorrow and the cost of war, particularly for civilians. They also compare the Disney/U.S. perspective of animation being for children and staying innocent vs. the Studio Ghibli perspective of the wonders of childhood that result in us growing up. This movie captures the best and worst of humanity, and while it’s a vegetables movie (important to watch), it’s still engaging and beautiful… and we’ll probably never watch it again because it wrecked us.
Comments
I don't know if I'll ever watch this movie again because it's so upsetting to me. That scene where she is sick and hungry like and is close to dying, and her brother is trying to get help for her. I just can't watch that again.
Gandalf The Grey
2024-05-15 21:19:37 +0000 UTCNothing to add here. Thanks to Ghibli Studio to create such a movie that captures the price of war and thank you for covering this movie.
Nelly Stein
2024-03-24 12:14:17 +0000 UTCI don't understand. I watched many if not most of your reactions about very moving subjects, and for this reaction I'm just crying out loud. I can't control myself. I don't get it, I'm just weeping. I'm not supposed to cry, I'm supposed to be listening to this on the side while doing other stuff. Why oh why do I have such a visceral reaction to this. It doesn't make sense.
Ron C
2024-02-20 23:49:21 +0000 UTCMy grandmother was living in Akashi during this time, and saw the Hiroshima atomic bomb literally blow Hiroshima off the map. She would tell me ever since I was little, with no hesitation and in specific explicit detail, the horrors of living in Japan during WWII. She would tell it and retell it to me, maybe to push through the pain of living, of starving. So much so, that it was like I had lived it with her if secondary trauma is a thing. When we watched this movie together, just hearing the sirens and watching the firebombing had me thinking “oh, I remember this, it did look like this, it sounded like this.” Then I catch myself thinking “wait a minute, you weren’t alive during this, how can you say you remember this?” I glanced over to my grandmother who was watching this almost with a blank stare. I then knew what she was thinking and was quite worried that this was going to be traumatic for her. After it was over I asked if she was alright and she said that it brought back memories that she had forgotten. I never forgot that look, and because she was so explicit about telling me her childhood years, I knew exactly what she meant. My older sister and her child had no clue because they were not close to her enough for her to tell them the horror stories of war. No one in my family was. Every time I see this film, I remember my grandmother, (she passed away in 2017). This was true to her story as well.
Melissa Exton
2023-08-26 23:20:28 +0000 UTCWith this I can only think of the care and sacrifices my mom and big brother made to take care of me during really hard times. Once again I'm a bucket of tears over here.
Lynettra
2023-02-16 15:49:52 +0000 UTCWell said.
Cinema Therapy
2023-02-08 15:09:51 +0000 UTCThe reality that this is happening right now in modern times to modern day children is why this story needs to be told. Studio Ghibli did an incredible job and us all being crying puddles on the floor proves it. When we are moved hopefully we are moved to action and become the change that makes the difference for even one tiny human. Support charities that go to places where children are suffering from the effects of conflict. Let’s hope we can change the patterns of our past mistakes. I’m not crying you’re crying!
Christina Ferreira
2023-02-08 10:00:07 +0000 UTCClicked on this making a false assumption that Ghibli = fantasy/light hearted. Gonna need to watch this. Just…not today. Oof. As a war veteran, I couldn’t stop watching as it felt disrespectful. But wow, packaging something as ugly war into the loss of childhood. Pure and gut wrenching. Thank you for crying with me.
Wendy Darling
2023-01-23 23:21:14 +0000 UTCGrist for the mill!
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-20 21:46:26 +0000 UTCThanks for airing this BEFORE I got to talk to my therapist this week. 😭
McReadsALot
2023-01-19 21:31:48 +0000 UTCFor real, though.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-18 16:42:35 +0000 UTCMash was a great show!
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-18 16:42:27 +0000 UTCYou're very welcome!
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-18 16:42:12 +0000 UTCWe watched Grave of the Fireflies in my 8th grade English class, and I'm really grateful that we did. It's an amazing movie. Thanks for covering it!
Danielle Dupuis
2023-01-17 23:06:58 +0000 UTCYour comments remind me of the quote from Hawkeye in MASH where he says that war is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is worse. I don't remember it exactly but basically, only those who deserve to suffer go to hell, but it is the innocent who suffer most in war.
Emily Powers
2023-01-17 19:54:28 +0000 UTCSending hugs out to anyone who needs them right now. 💜
Harlequin Herveaux
2023-01-17 19:30:58 +0000 UTCYeah, it's a one and done. It leaves a lasting impression, no doubt.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-17 15:57:46 +0000 UTCOh wow. Yeah, Totoro shouldn't been paired with Spirited Away or something.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-17 15:56:42 +0000 UTCOh, it's a trip for sure!
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-17 15:56:02 +0000 UTCMe: Maybe the CT version won't be as emotionally destructive as the movie. Me after watching: crying worse than Alan. I'm gonna need a bit.
Neurotic Cow
2023-01-16 22:43:28 +0000 UTCI've seen this movie twice and it was no less devastating the second time. That instance I saw it at the cinema as a double feature with My Neighbour Totoro, as it was originally presented on release in Japan and hoo boy is that some tonal whiplash.
Tom Painter
2023-01-16 21:04:21 +0000 UTCMan, I was already emotional today! Such a beautiful movie though.
Sarukana
2023-01-16 19:18:46 +0000 UTCI have read the book, it is a short novel. it is actually not better than the film because it is an autobiography (the main character in the film). He is not a writer but he wanted to share his story in honour of his sister. It is very factual, not poetical nor lyrical. Still very poignant.
Meilin
2023-01-16 19:13:30 +0000 UTCYou'll have to take a mental health day off.
Karrie
2023-01-16 18:42:21 +0000 UTCI have not read it but the book is usually better. It does explain why it is so different from other Ghibli movies, particularly those from Hayao Miyazaki.
Karrie
2023-01-16 18:40:42 +0000 UTCI saw this movie in high school and I have a few movies I will never watch again (like Schindler’s List, 12 Years a Slave, Blue Valentine) and this is not only one of those films but I would gladly watch any of the others before I watch this again. The beauty it shows is so breathtaking and the ugliness it shows is so devastating and heart wrenching. Too much. But like you guys said, definitely required watching for everyone. Thanks for this.
Kevin Scofield
2023-01-16 18:34:49 +0000 UTCThat is the proper response, lol.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:33:57 +0000 UTCIt's phenomenal.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:33:47 +0000 UTCDo I dare read the book?
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:33:36 +0000 UTCIt's a heavy-hitter, for sure.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:33:21 +0000 UTCGood thinking.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:32:55 +0000 UTCAmen.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:32:46 +0000 UTCYeah, both Alan and I think we'll show it to our kids when they're old enough and that'll be it. It's devastating.
Cinema Therapy
2023-01-16 18:32:28 +0000 UTCSame. Only I decided on tea this morning
Sara Brannon
2023-01-16 17:45:13 +0000 UTCI saw this film a few years ago, and it's probably one of the top heaviest-hitting films I've seen yet. I've never watched it again, but I agree everybody should watch this. I'm certainly showing it to my daughter when she's old enough.
Lady Lost
2023-01-16 17:43:16 +0000 UTCWar is horrible. Every nation that initiates or responds to aggression will see terrible things happening to civilians. So long as we live in a broken world, we will sadly continue to see this again and again. Japan committed atrocities against civilians. The US committed atrocities. The right or wrong of this can barely be argued at a strategic level, and certainly falls apart at a tactical level. We can only pray that something miraculous happens to forever change this tragic pattern.
Bravehome
2023-01-16 17:09:14 +0000 UTCYeah, I'm not gonna watch it at work. I'll be a mess afterwards.
Loki Dokey
2023-01-16 17:04:56 +0000 UTCWatched this for the first time in October and I’ve been desperately waiting for this episode ever since! 😭😭😭
Sean Goettsche
2023-01-16 16:56:11 +0000 UTCThat "No Place Like Home Song" is almost like a trigger for me now and takes me me back to those scenes of Setsuko alone. *Side note: It is a based on the book movie.
Karrie
2023-01-16 16:29:28 +0000 UTCThe only Ghibli film I think I may only ever watch once. The fact that there's still so much beauty in this I think makes it all the more devastating because you can't only be sad or angry when you watch it. It's an amazing film
DJ Woods
2023-01-16 16:23:22 +0000 UTCSat down with coffee, loaded up the ol' Patreon, saw the title on this at the top of feed."Ooohh GAWD..."
Gryff
2023-01-16 16:21:21 +0000 UTC
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