Religion Has NO Place In A Hospital. Yes, Catholic Hospitals Absolutely SHOULD Be Forced To Perform Abortions

Religion has NO place in a hospital. Yes, catholic hospitals absolutely SHOULD be forced to perform abortions against their will, especially if they're providing emergency healthcare. Shut the fuck up. Healthcare professionals take a vow to care for their fellow man whether they agree with the individual's decision or not, this is taught in medical school. If they're discriminating, by ANY measure, they need to be prosecuted full stop.

"September 21st, 1945. That was the night I died."

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988)

Dir. Isao Takahata

Grave of the Fireflies and Selfishness

Both Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies do an excellent job depicting the tragedy and destruction of war. However, while Barefoot Gen focuses more on documenting how the Hiroshima bombing physically hurt the people of Japan, documenting death and sickness and disfiguration; I believe Grave of the Fireflies is an example of how war affected the people psychologically.

Although many people come together in times of adversity, sharing their struggles and depending on each other in times of need, hardships can also cause people to become self-centered and unsympathetic out of their own fears and worries. In a time where so many people are suffering from death and starvation and homelessness and loss, very few people had any sympathies or resources to share with Seita and Setsuko. One of the most prominent ways we see this is with their Aunt. Although she should be a pillar of comfort for them, someone who will love them and grieve with them and take care of them without bitterness, instead we see the opposite. She not only begrudges them for staying in her household, but leeches upon their resources, steals from them, treats them differently than her husband and daughter, is indifferent to their suffering and their well-being, and makes them feel as though they are a burden, despite just being children. We see this theme of selfishness continue in others, though perhaps not quite as strong, as Seita gets more and more desperate for food and resources. When Seita steals food and offers everything he has to trade so that his sister might be taken care of, people are unsympathetic, simply stating that they need the resources more, or outright assaulting him. People see him and Setsuko struggling and yet they do nothing.

In the center of war and destruction and selfishness from others, Seita is a figure of selflessness, doing anything and everything in his power, to take care of her and keep her alive. However, time and time again, his selflessness often costs him or ends up being all for naught. When he tries to keep Setsuko from the reality of their mother’s death, his aunt has no care for her innocence and tells her about it anyways behind his back. When trying to make her happy at their aunt’s singing songs with her and comforting her in the night and encouraging her to it, they both just get rebuked for it. In trying to have Setsuko grow up in a place where she’ll be happy, he ends up having to sacrifice their security. When trying to get food for her so that she’ll live, he gets beaten up and yelled at. And even when he spends every resource he has to get her more food, Setsuko is already too far gone. And in her death is the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back, with Seita finding himself with no other reason to live or go on.

While we most often associate war with death, Grave of the Fireflies shows us that the destruction of war does not stop there. War brings suffering and hardens once sympathetic hearts and above all it takes. It took people’s open generosity, the siblings’ security, their innocence, and in the end, it took Setsuko too.

"From this Eden, we descend, leaving behind the paradise we once knew. In the shadow of our fall, we carry with us the memory of its grace and the eternal journey to find our way back."

Thought I'd take the man back to eden🦋🌱

Wow, it's so delicious 😺😅

Part 2 of Ghibli studio movies I watched recently.

2. Grave of the fireflies.

Movies about individuals suffering through war always make my spirit wrench. With its great animation and plot Grave of the Fireflies takes a journey which almost made me cry and gets so much worse when you find out that the author who based it on his own life wrote the book as an apology to his sister.

You know how it ends from the first scene, knowing from the first scene didn't make it less impactful the death of Setsuko just took my heart and stomped it but the struggle they live throughout the movie and the hope they develop for each small victory is devastating.

ಥ_ಥ

I've read that the movie is commonly seen as an anti-war film, but that both the director nor the author of the book on which it is based did not aim at that.

On the director's intent:

Director Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war anime. In his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message."

The message seems to be that Seita had his romanticized image of him and his sister vs the world which was unrealistic. He needed to see that caring for Setsuko and providing what was best for her meant spending time finding work and helping around his aunt's house, not spending all of his time with Setsuko and being her personal hero. But because he didn't do this he was being selfish by resigning himself in his boundless love for his sister and withdrawing from the world. When his sister dies from malnutrition it is because he refused to see that he couldn't provide her enough food even when he was reduced to stealing. It seems implied that if he'd returned to his aunt, apologized, and just started doing whatever work around the house or out of it he could find, they would have been taken care of and Setsuko would have survived.

But another way of seeing this is Seita is a 12-year-old boy who made a bad decision while in a situation that no 12-year-old boy should ever be in. He was placed in that crisis because of the war. He was trying to survive the way he knew how, and psychologically he must have been so traumatized.

While Grave of the Fireflies is punishing, it is not relentless. There are short, beautiful interludes in this film, serving to remind us that even in life’s most dire moments, we are still capable of experiencing joy and wonder. But these bursts are fleeting, and as the story heads towards its emotionally shattering conclusion, they only make what is to come even more unbearable.

Among the strongest statements that Grave of the Fireflies has to offer is that optimism is often a luxury. Life will have its way with us one way or another, whether we deserve it or not. What makes the film such an influential piece of work is the sense of foreboding that hangs over Seita and Setsuko at all times. The human spirit can be boundless, but it can also only take so much.

The firefly became a haunting symbol of the film as it represents both the deadly fire bombs that wrecked the children's city but as well as an icon of hope and perseverance.

This film will always be a reminder to the post-war generation about the atrocities of war even if it wasn't meant to. The innocence of Setsuko was crushed by the cruelty of war. I love this film with its carnage and small moments of beauty, which makes the carnage all the more heartbreaking and will always have a place in my heart.