International Feature: Grave of the Fireflies

The devastating impact of war through the eyes of children creates one of cinema's most profound animated experiences, standing as Studio Ghibli's most sobering and realistic work.

• Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is directed by Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli
• The film follows 14-year-old Seita and his younger sister Setsuko as they struggle to survive after losing their mother in WWII Japan
• Originally released as a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro, creating a stark contrast in tone and subject matter
• Based on a semi-autobiographical short story where the author survived but lost his sister to malnutrition
• Currently holds 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and is widely considered one of the greatest war films ever made
• Recently became available on Netflix after decades of limited accessibility
• The complex portrayal of Seita's character sparks debates about responsibility versus impossible circumstances

Letterbox'd Synopsis: In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

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Transcript

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Introduction to Grave of the Fireflies

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment . Wait for it .

Speaker 2 0:05

Gaming . Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA .

Speaker 1 0:11

Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino . Yeah , they've got you covered .

Speaker 2 0:15

And all you gotta do is wait for it . This is the Wait For it Podcast . Hey , everyone , welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast . I am your co-host , phil Barrera , aka Phil the Filipino .

Speaker 1 0:40

And I'm your other co-host , mr Eric Almighty , and for this edition of International Feature , we decided to tackle either the best film of all time according to some people the best Ghibli film of all time to some people , but to most and I think we would agree probably the saddest film of all time , and that movie is Grave of the Fireflies .

Speaker 2 1:01

Yeah , we are back to the Ghibli well , and Eric has agreed that if this does not go well for me , then I can stop watching Ghibli films . I have given it a chance . I've watched this would be number four and you guys can stop coming up to me with well , you should try this one . I don't want to hear it , I don't . I have given this the old college try , as people would say , so I feel good about at least giving it a shot , eric yeah , now did you like it ?

Speaker 1 1:37

uh , who knows , am I gonna get yelled at , guaranteed , because phil ? Phil already wasn't feeling great and then he , he immediately said he's gonna throw verbal hands at me before we pressed record . So you at least , at the very least , have that to look forward to . But , phil , this is a movie that we've circled for quite a long time because not only does it have a hundred percent on you know not every film can say that it's really regarded as a film that is one of the best animated films and people just kind of put it in general films of all time , when you have like a top 10 , top 20 , top 30 list .

Speaker 1 2:17

Grave of the Fireflies , surprisingly , is on there quite a bit for a lot of different people , quite a bit for a lot of different people , and it's a movie , phil , that also has just such acclaim and love from outside of the Ghibli-verse , like for people that don't watch Ghibli . I tend to see them lean towards this one out of the catalog the most , which should be noted , not a Miyazaki film . So it's going to be very interesting , at the very least , to see what your thoughts were considering that information , and maybe you leaned a little bit more positively , or a lot more positively . It also could be the same old story with Ghibli films for you , so I'm going to be very interested to hear your take on it . For me , I definitely am excited to get into this because , as a film taker , just like an intake of film , this is one that has been on the agenda for quite a bit .

Speaker 2 3:10

Yeah , certainly it is a film you cannot really ignore . If you are any type in any range of fan of film , you know this is something that's going to come up no matter what . So , yeah , let's get into it here . Any brand new listeners or returning listeners , make sure you stick around to the end of the episode , we'll let you know . We can find everything Wait For Podcast related . But Grave of the Fireflies in 1988 , directed by Isao Takahata . Letterboxd synopsis .

Speaker 2 3:36

In the final months of World War Two , 14 year old Saita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid . So , Eric , there is a scene in Ted Lasso that I watch whenever I need to conjure up some emotion , when I'm doing voiceover , and I'll set the scene for this scene . Ted's mother has come to visit him and he hasn't seen her in a while Now . Ted went through a traumatic event when he was a teenager . His father passed away and Ted , of course , is a very upbeat and lovable , charming guy . With his mom it's totally different .

Speaker 2 4:30

And finally it comes to blows at the end of this episode in season three and Ted goes well , thank you for coming here and fuck you for not telling me . And his mom is like kind of taken aback , like what do you mean ? I beg your pardon . He's like thank you for making my childhood so memorable and fuck you for not making yourself better whenever dad passed away eric . Thank you for bringing this film to my attention and fuck you for bringing this film to my attention . Thank you for making me watch a piece of animated history and fuck you for making me feel the feelings I had to feel while watching this yeah , um , you're welcome obviously we're going to talk freely about this movie .

Speaker 2 5:18

it's as old as me , being great , for the fireflies book came out in 1988 , so allegedly this is the first time in a while where I watched a film , of course , saw the events of the ending and you know everything that happens within the last 20-30 minutes of the movie and then immediately went back to rewatch the beginning because of course , then you really understand , you know what is happening there and I felt worse about it but I , like , had to know and I was like I , I knew I had to immediately go back and and feel differently , knowing what I knew at the end , which is why I had to go back and watch the beginning and I don't feel good man .

Speaker 1 6:11

Yeah , weird , I uh , I would agree with that . It's not a movie I think you probably want to watch more than once , but I would say it's a movie everyone should see at least once , and that that kind of like myth around it or like that's not even really the word I'm looking for , but that type of aura around it is really what drove me to wanting to finally watch it , and there were a couple of factors at play here . Number one it's not quite a late to the party , because I feel like a lot of people feel have not seen this , like even people that love Ghibli films . This isn't one that I hear a lot in those circles and in anime in general . Again , it's really more people who like love film that have ended up seeing this or putting this on their radar .

Speaker 1 6:56

Number two this movie , as of 2025 , is more accessible than ever . It came to Netflix this year . It also , around the time of this episode , either entered or is exiting theaters . So this is going to be a movie that I think is going to be talked about even more so now than ever , and that's why I thought it was just such a perfect , especially because of the setting of the movie , the theme , the thematics of the film .

Speaker 1 7:22

All of that was just a perfect concoction for international feature , and although we are going to talk pretty freely , phil , I can already tell we're really wanting to hold off on some of the core spoilers for that reason , but I think at some point we probably will have to discuss that . So I would just implore you , if this is a movie that's been on your radar at all , there's literally no excuse to not watch it , and I would absolutely encourage you to check that out before we really dive into the nitty gritty of the story , the plot , some of the circumstances and where our characters end up . Phil , that out of the way though , I mean , there's just so much to discuss , and I think we have adopted kind of a new format of maybe picking like three things each that we wanted to highlight . So I think we'll probably do that for this episode and kind of see where that takes us .

Speaker 2 8:14

Yeah , definitely . I do want to shout out our friends Corey and Ivan , because I did inform them . You know that I the emotions that I was going through watching this film , and Grave of the Fireflies is a very important movie in the history of Ghibli because without it it probably does not exist in the way that it does now . They wanted to make my Neighbor Totoro and I think the studio essentially stated because they take place around the same time frame and the studio essentially wanted a more realistic depiction of what it was like during this time for people in Japan . So they made Grave of the Fireflies , which allowed Totoro to be greenlit . Now I believe I have those things in the correct order , corey , ivan , please let me know if I have them a little bit misconstrued .

Speaker 1 9:02

But yeah , like it should be noted as well that they both released at the same time . Yes , yep .

Speaker 2 9:10

Crazy double feature .

Speaker 1 9:12

Crazy , double feature yeah .

Speaker 2 9:13

Grave of the

The Cultural Significance of Ghibli

Speaker 2 9:14

Totoro would be the t-shirt .

Speaker 1 9:16

Yeah , very much , the Barbie , the Barbenheimer of that time .

Speaker 2 9:22

Yeah , grave of the Totoro walked so Barbenheimer could fly . But , yeah , also , like you mentioned , it was a very difficult film to find for a long time . Until very recently it was one of the most difficult films to own . According to Corey barring , this year it had never been streamed and they went about two decades in between printings and it was very , very small uh , that this was um , that there was . This was printed as well , so it was a um . So if you are thinking about seeing it and you have not yet , it is also releasing in theaters . On which date eric ? Uh , relative to this episode , because this episode we're recording this on august 5th and I believe the it comes out in theaters is it 10th through the 12th ?

Speaker 2 10:02

I believe okay , so by the time this episode yeah , sorry , we'll have exit yeah , so it's okay .

Speaker 2 10:09

But yeah , but , if anything , you can watch it on netflix , so definitely implore you to do that . But yeah , let's uh talk about some takeaways here , eric . Um , where do I want to go ? First , I would like to know how you felt , eric , about Seta , because there is a lot of discourse online about this character , I think , depending on I don't know , because I see a lot of arguments from a bunch of different ways and , at the end of the day , it's like he's a 14 year old kid and they went through unspeakable tragedy .

Speaker 2 10:51

And this is another really sad note . I learned because this is based off of true events from the director , and I think what I learned is that the boat that Saita and Setsuko's father was on actually had , like , been sank months beforehand , so he was already dead during the events of this movie . I was like fantastic . Thank you so much , corey , for telling me more information , for more sad information . So I think the discourse about Saita and his decisions , of course , the one major decision that really doomed them . Essentially . I'd like to know how you felt about that , because obviously , watching it unfold , it is very frustrating , but also it's like what do you expect out of a 14-year-old . It was just really strange to see so many people have so much aggression towards him .

Speaker 1 11:37

Yeah , I think I'll be careful how much I spoil because of the theme of this episode , kind of featuring this to people who may not have seen it . It's going to go to my last point though , so I am going to revisit that in a little bit more greater detail . I would say this movie puts these two characters , these two young characters , in just impossible situations in you know Japan , with bombings happening . It's just like the normal thing , like there's a throwaway line where the sister is mentioning um Setsuko is mentioning like she hates going to shelters , and that was something .

Speaker 1 12:17

On watching a couple of different reviews I think it was Chris Stuckman's review of this movie where he made a comment about that Like , oh , wow , like , after watching it you kind of realize she , she , she's used to this , this is like what she's used to , this is the life that she's come to know at such a young age , and I think it's really tough because you have this brother sister dynamic .

Speaker 1 12:39

That I think works really well and is actually one of my first points I wanted to touch on was how effective that relationship is towards the buy-in for you to sit through such turmoil and emotional angst . It's done really well and you really buy into their relationship , but more so , to your point , like it's not just a brother-sister dynamic . It almost turns into like a parental situation where he has to take care of her . And that's what I mean by like an impossible situation , just like absolutely astronomical odds against them in the situation they're in . And you know , on top of that , on top of that , you got to have a bitch of an aunt . You , it's just not right . It's just not right . So maybe the ultimate villain in some people's eyes I will come back to that point because I don't think she's as much of a villain as people maybe took on their watch through . And we'll kind of get into that when we talk about seita's responsibilities and maybe lack of accountability .

Speaker 2 13:47

Yeah , to touch on the aunt , it was obviously very frustrating to watch but at the same time , in the circumstances that they are in , I'm not excusing her behavior , but I'm sure that behavior was very prevalent during that time , like , imagine , you know , I'm sure a bunch of nieces and nephews became orphaned and like people that were already in dire circumstances , taking on additional mouths to feed . Some of the things that she did obviously are very , very sketchy and , again , I'm not a fan of her overall just demeanor and towards them to begin with . But there is a like level or layer of understanding as to some of her actions , but it doesn't . It doesn't mean that we like them for sure . Yeah , well . So , yeah , I'm excited to kind of revisit that here in a little bit . Eric , what was your first takeaway ?

Speaker 1 14:45

Yeah , so mine was definitely the sibling relationship .

Speaker 2 14:48

Oh , that's right , that's right .

Speaker 1 14:49

But I can go to my second and we can kind of pivot from there . Obviously , some of those impossible odds we were talking about is the war that is happening in Japan , all of the bombings and just that whole setting of time , and this isn't the first movie to cover that topic and it hasn't been the last since . This isn't the first movie to cover that topic and it hasn't been the last since , but it's just so jarring to see it from , I guess you would say , the viewpoints of children and it just , I think , was really effective in that setting . There were things , phil , that were absolutely haunting in this movie because they chose to be in such a volatile environment , like the fact that this was again we complain about Ghibli movies , like having to maybe watch a YouTube video afterwards .

Speaker 1 15:38

I definitely watched several after the movie and hearing things of like how they would do the bombs that would just set up as much fire as possible to these wooden houses , but a lot of them wouldn't like combust . So you even saw in , like the film , there are just these missiles , these flame missiles , lying on the ground everywhere and obviously there's the correlation with fireflies and you know , we'll kind of talk about maybe that scene a little bit , which is devastating , but that , absolutely being the thematic focus point , a lot of people look at this as like an anti-war movie . I didn't feel that , but what I did feel it displayed was just the absolute desecration that's left after war has happened and during , and that absolutely made it such a gripping story for me to really be able to enjoy . Interested to see if you have any thoughts on that and then we can kind of lead into your second takeaway .

Speaker 2 16:38

Yeah , from what I could see is that , like this really made people . It was shocking to a lot of people to see just how like , gritty and realistic this film was . It really made people like alter their sense of how they looked at animated films . Because of course you know , when you think about animated films you think of children's films . I hope nobody in the 80s took their kids to this wonder , like not knowing what it was . I just wanted to google really quick , like what movie , what animated films came out in the 1980s ? Like we're talking about films like the land before

The Portrayal of War and Suffering

Speaker 2 17:14

time , which in and of itself is pretty devastating , but then , as we talked about my neighbor totoro , um , what were some of the disney films that came out ? So we have like american tale transformers . These are the kind of movies that probably parents are taking their kids to and then you see something like this .

Speaker 2 17:30

I certainly am not going to see this in theaters , like we alluded to earlier . I don't think I could sit and watch this again , let alone object myself to it on a large screen , although I'm sure seeing it in that large screen would be quite the experience . But yeah , this does actually kind of tie into my next take . So this worked out perfectly . But , yeah , just the devastation . And not only that , eric , I think also the , the non-chalant chalantness of the adults too , who have , of course , been , are very used to living in this world . It's it's one thing that we're being , we're watching this through the eyes of the kids , but when we see certain moments where it's being , where we see a glimpse of how the adults are handling it the aunt , the doctor , the subway worker in the very beginning , like it's just such a not carefree way that they're going about it , but it's like this is you know , what do you expect ? Like this is this is life , and that is equally as haunting as what you're discussing too with the depiction of war .

Speaker 2 18:33

Mine is these are all tied into animation and , of course , with ghibli , that's just a given at this point . No matter what I felt about the ghibli films as films , I've always praised the animation . You guys can go back and listen to those . My takeaway from animation wise was the food , because ghibli is so like everything I mean even in , you know we're talking about , of course , um , uh , spirited away and some of the and so many of these other films where food is such a focus and it's . It's this delicacy , obviously , and like this really lavish thing that she like , uh , something to be celebrated , and here every grain of rice is important , everything that they come across stealing crops having to result to catching their own food a little bit later in the film , and it was just crazy to see the use of food done so differently in this as opposed to , again , how fantastical it is in other Ghibli projects .

Speaker 1 19:32

Yeah , I think that's absolutely something that you could take away from the film the lack of fancy visuals and enticing enchanted worlds . This movie is not that , which , I guess , is what we were hoping Walking into this . I'll kind of add this little piece to the discussion before I get to my final point , which is , phil , this movie is so different from any ghibli film you've seen so far the three that you've seen spirited away , porco rosso , the boy and the heron . For me , this is distinctly different in both the way it tells its story , the setting , and , while it still has that Ghibli feel visually like you're kind of alluding to , it is different For Takahata's work .

Speaker 1 20:20

Who is the director for this one ? And by all means , let me know how to pronounce the first name , but I'm going to go with what I think I could pronounce . Takahata is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli , and this is not the only Ghibli film he's done . It is one of the most notable ones out of his filmography . Though , phil , are you gonna consider watching another Ghibli film if it's under his umbrella , or would you give a Miyazaki film another chance , maybe like a Princess Mononoke with more of an adult or serious theme ? I want to know where your thoughts kind of lie , now that we know you at least have positive thoughts about this film .

Speaker 2 20:59

I think I would consider it , but not anytime soon . So like I'm out of all of them , like the ones that I have been most open to watching again is Princess Mononoke , and everyone keeps saying I'd like Ponyo , so maybe I'll just watch Ponyo , I don't know . I don't know or either that or Totoro , just to have the juxtaposition of both these films coming out at the same exact time doing that , so yeah yeah , would consider it , but again I'm not in any rush .

Speaker 2 21:32

But as far as jumping back into Takahata's work , certainly because of how much care he put into this you can really tell there is like a there is a sense of personability with this , that he is tied to this story , knowing that the original author , of course , based it on , you know , scenes with what happened with his own sister , and it seems like takahata really took the care to portray that here . So I would certainly consider it , but I'm not in any rush that's understandable .

Speaker 1 22:04

uh , the reason I asked is because , unlike I , don't think any Ghibli film has a hundred percent on rotten tomatoes , takahata has three . He has Grave of the Fireflies , a film called Only Yesterday , which released in 1991 . So just a few years after , which has quite a couple of names in here actually , those names can't be right . And then finally , the Tale of princess kaguya , released in 2013 , which is a film I've had on my radar just in general . So , yeah , that'll be really interesting and I think if we ever went back to the miyazaki , well , it would be mononoke . So I will absolutely put that on my radar at some point in the future . Maybe this is something going into next year where we look at revisiting that . But I wanted to ask that because , phil , this might be the part where you know we've kind of talked freely about the film without diving into exactly what happens at the end , and you know what we learned at the beginning of the film . That's going to be my third and final point , so this will probably be the official spoiler warning . If you have not left already because you haven't seen the film , this is your time to do so . Uh , they both die . They both die . Obviously , we learn at the beginning of the film that uh Saita is going to die and then we see uh Setsuko's death later on due to the malnourishment , and she very quickly passes . Like it's not something they really focus on , which I don't know that I loved as much . We'll kind of talk about that here , maybe in this discussion .

Speaker 1 23:41

I'm going to go back to what she asked originally , though , about Saita and the discourse there . I mean , it's definitely his fucking fault . I mean we , we can cookie cutter however we want to cut it . He is a young child who should not have been in that situation . But my opinion for what I feel for that character , is that he didn't really other than dying , which maybe is the biggest consequence . I don't really feel there were a lot of consequences for , like the absolute mistakes that he made that led to Setsuko's death , and it was just stuff like he kind of seemed like almost privileged in a way when you first meet him . He's got this naval dad you know naval officer dad . The way he handles the mom's death not great with Setsuko , I think uh really wasn't awesome , yeah , cute to feed her like the drop , the , like the candy drops or whatever the candy fruit drops , whatever they were .

Speaker 2 24:42

Fruit drops .

Speaker 1 24:42

Thank you , yeah , great to feed her the fruit drop , the fruit drops . But again there were like a lot of signs that she was gonna start to be malnourished and stuff . And then like with the aunt , I get she sucks , but kind of validated a little bit Like I'm not responsible for y'all , really , like rations are low and I mean like I get the apology thing is like probably a cultural thing . But there was almost like a sense of pride with Seita where he just wouldn't do it and then he had a chance to go back and doesn't do it for the sake of his sister . And there's a . There's a line the aunt mentions where it's like you're old enough where you should be contributing , and I don't ever feel like he tried to contribute . You know he's stealing from crops , he's doing what he has to do to live , but it wasn't enough .

Speaker 1 25:34

I feel like there were moments where this is where the film kind of lost me towards the end , lost a couple of brownie points for me . I love their relationship , brother and sister , but when that dynamic changes , I can't help but to look at Seda with a different pair of glasses , a different pair of goggles on , and my opinion of him changed by the end of the film . Did you feel that at all ? Am I off course at all from what you were feeling when you saw this ?

Speaker 2 26:03

It's hard to really like because it was his fault , this is his fault and and some of the things you're alluding to , like um not contributing and also being overly reliant on money that he did not he that he had . He should not have been in control over . Um seems like he also had access to those funds way sooner , which he he should have done , but at the same time , those decisions should not have been left up to him . However , in this setting , it's pretty much every person for themselves . So again , like I mentioned earlier , like taking in two additional mouths to feed and these people , you know , these kids essentially becoming her responsibility , which shouldn't be , I'm sure , culturally , I'm not sure how it works over there , and so over here , a sibling or a relative will step up , but that's in instances where there is a tragedy , something happens to their parents and then they go live with them .

Speaker 2 27:13

But , like in an instance where we're talking about rationing out supplies , rationing out food , you're living under distress every single night , waiting for those sirens to go off . You got to take care of your own , take care of your own . So I understand , like , the frustration and the discourse towards Saita , but at the same time , I am very cognizant of the fact that he is a kid and he shouldn't have had to make those decisions , but

Saita's Choices and Responsibilities

Speaker 2 27:39

I mean it . Just it was what it was . He had to become that parent . So , yes , there were many missteps along the way , but those were intentional and not surprising when you think about it from the lens of oh , this is a 14 year old kid . He shouldn't have to be making those decisions , he was forced into making them .

Speaker 1 27:56

Yeah , that's completely valid , completely valid , and I think you can have both sides of the coin as far as conversations go , and I think that's why I don't view it as like a full on negative . But , you know , I did walk away kind of feeling that way by the end . It was like just like damn , like that's just . I know the circumstances sucked and that that's not something he should have had to be responsible for , but he was , you know , and the actions that he , that he took , the actions that he took , were definitely what led to , you know , setsuko passing away , definitely what led to you know , setsuko passing away . So , uh , and and ultimately ended up being his demise as well , which is , I believe , on the short story it's based on , is the one major change they made . Uh , because obviously , you know , he , he goes on to live and writes the story , uh , that we ended up watching here . So , phil , what is your final takeaway , before maybe we throw out any other mentions or discussions ?

Speaker 2 28:53

uh , before we scored and everything yeah , the last thing which was probably saying that it's one of my favorite parts or that I enjoyed is so strange when it comes to this film and that'll be reflected when we talk about scores .

Speaker 2 29:09

But I just really enjoyed the sense of like a spiritual presence like him re-watching his actions and then , like I said in the beginning , I went back and immediately re-watched the beginning with a heavy heart and just absolutely shattered to pieces and just seeing that , especially like the framing device with like seita and setsuko's spirits , kind of like again rewatching everything , and I like that the use of their spirits is not used as like something in like horror related . It was used as a device for like it's a lingering memory , like they're still around and and I think it's what makes it even more haunting is maybe they're re-watching this , all play back and realizing what they could have done differently and you know things would have been . They still would have been around today . So , as someone who you know obviously very much leans into like that spiritual realm , uh , when it comes to interests , I really like how they use that in a non-horror fashion , non-traditional horror that's what I'll say , because it is still horrifying and that was definitely one of my favorite parts of the film .

Speaker 1 30:19

Yeah , that's great . That's great . I think I would agree with that . I would also add that the use of the fireflies in a lot of the scenes , like with the fireflies and the bombing , and just like some of the allegories and the comparisons there , were just really , really impactful . Obviously , I'm going to walk away from this film , remembering the you know why do why do fireflies die so soon ? Line that that shit is sad , sad as fuck , so sad .

Speaker 2 30:47

I know we don't do a tagline tagline , tagline for international feature , but it would just be brave of the fireflies , sad as fuck pretty , pretty straightforward .

Speaker 1 30:58

I mean , we probably could have avoided doing a whole episode and just said that , but I don't know man it is sad as fuck , but , like I think what , why we both liked the film ultimately is that it just has a lot more to offer than that . Is it a movie that I plan on watching ever again ? No , but I did want to ask you before we go to scores Phil , how did you watch this ? Did you watch this in sub ? Did you watch this in dub ? I watched it dub because if I ever plan to watch both , I can't watch dub last . It never works in my favor . I'm a little bit too overly critical , so I watched it in Dub . But I did go back to pivotal scenes to hear how it sounded in Sub . And I will say , if I was to ever watch this movie again , it would be in Sub , because I was very interested to hear it in Japanese , given the topical nature of the subject at hand . Where did you end up landing on your decision to watch it in either dub or sub ?

Speaker 2 31:57

I also watched it in dub and had that exact plan to do what you just said , but I could not .

Speaker 1 32:04

Emotionally . I was like I can't .

Speaker 2 32:06

I'll revisit them later , maybe like months down the line , but I did watch it in dub as well . Yeah , I saw that there was really like I can't . I'll revisit them later , maybe like months down the line , but I did watch it in dub as well .

Speaker 1 32:12

Yeah , I saw that there was really like , when we talk about credits for the film , there's really only four major characters that are really credited in this film or that are the focal point , and two of them are our main characters .

Speaker 1 32:23

So once I heard enough of their dialogue I was like I'm going to probably just commit to this because it's not like sometimes with dubs they can be overall great but a couple of few bad eggs . But I tend to find you could tell really quickly with a smaller cast whether or not you're going to vibe with it or not , and then you could kind of back out of it early enough into the watch through where you can start over without it feeling like a big chore . And that's kind of where I ended up . As far as watching it in dub , I enjoyed it . I thought it was pretty well done . I think it was a redub from the original as well , if I did my research correctly . But with all that being said , phil , we need to talk about not only how this movie has been received , what our scores are and where , in the many international features that we've done so far , this movie lands .

Speaker 2 33:13

Yeah . So , as you alluded to earlier , eric , as far as Rotten Tomatoes score , 100% on the tomato meter , 95% on the popcorn meter , an unprecedented 8.5 on IMDB , which we always talk about , is probably the most critical , like the most difficult one to score high on , and then currently a 4.5 on Letterboxd . As we mentioned earlier , it's regarded as one of the best films of all time and again it is responsible for the Ghibli that we have here today . So for those of you that are big fans of those films , thank Grave of the Fireflies . So , eric , I ended up giving this a four , which is far and away the highest score I've ever given any Studio Ghibli project and , because of where it sits historically and because of those themes that we discussed here today , it certainly is one of the most impactful films I have ever seen that I hope to never see again ladies and gentlemen , we got them , we got them , we got them crazy .

Speaker 1 34:24

I do believe that's the only ghibli film that you've seen that you've given over a three .

Speaker 2 34:31

So , like evening them all out , it's still pretty low as far as overalls yeah , as far as overalls go . The Firefly is doing a lot of heavy lifting .

Speaker 1 34:38

You definitely made up with that score . I actually went a little bit lower than you did . I ended up at a three and a half . This movie is really close to being a four for me , like a movie that I feel like I can show anybody . I just feel like the movie I don't want to say ends anticlimactically . But everyone just talks about how sad this movie is and I think , is it fucked up to say it could have been sadder , like a little bit sadder ? Is it fucked up to say it could have been sadder , like a little bit sadder ? Is it fucked up to say I'm not really sure ? Okay , yeah , I'll just have to eat that one . What more sadness do you want

The Spiritual Elements and Symbolism

Speaker 1 35:14

?

Speaker 1 35:14

So again , some things like Setsuko's death like just kind of happening like . So , like almost nonchalantly . I was thinking there'd be more of like a devastating scene . Obviously , you know , with saita , this is again part of his character . He's like very somber , like we don't ever really like , even with his mom , with , uh , setsuko , his , I mean , he gets kind of emotional about his dad in a way , but almost in an angry , selfish way . It's . I think it's saita's character specifically that I mentioned earlier . I kind of had to dock it a few points and that's what it is . It's like one . I do think there are some moments that could have hit a little harder for me , and then Saita's character specifically . I just maybe upon a rewatch I'm a little bit more forgiving .

Speaker 1 35:57

This movie's probably a 3.75 . In reality I had to round up or down and I just chose to round down because when I walked away from the movie I was thinking about it actively . I will always think about this movie , but then I will always think about some of the things I didn't like when it came to that characterization . And yeah , that's kind of where I landed on Grave of the Fireflies subject to change , but that's a good score in the grand scheme of things . Of where I placed it , it's pretty much smack dab in the middle of our list . We've seen 35 or listed 35 movies on Letterboxd . I see that's probably half , almost the exact halfway point . A little bit is 19 . So right in that little realm in the middle of this list , right below another war film All Quiet on the Western Front and right above , I'm Still here . This is my highest ranked three and a half movie and I re-evaluated it today as I was really stewing on it and that's where it ended up landing in the final spot .

Speaker 2 36:58

Phil , I believe you are somewhere close to that as well on your list mine's higher actually and we're getting to the point in this series where if we there's like a first-time listener here and they hear like grave of the fireflies , 19 , or in my case I have it at 13 , right behind anasia 2 , hi nana and in front of I'm still here and old boy , and it's going to be like people are going to hear 13 or 19 for one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time and not know the other movies that are on this list . So if you are a new listener , we definitely implore you to check out our letterboxd personal pages , both me and eric's , which is in our link tree . So , yeah , I have a number 13 , um , right amongst those those . Every other film I mentioned on that list is also listed as a four .

Speaker 2 37:48

So , yeah , that is where it sits amongst another film I never want to watch again an old boy , probably , oak chuck . Yeah , there are some heavy hitters and that's why , like international film has been so great to watch , because it has been so heavy hitting and of course , not that films that we have over here on our side aren't that , but like so many of them that we just missed out on when we were younger . And it has totally reframed the films that we want to watch now , like 20 years ago we wouldn't have watched the banshees of Inishirin or past lives , even RRR we might've missed out on . So again , we , we , we speak the praises about the series all the time , but I just want to do that because we never want to watch this . Forget 20 years ago , 10 years ago .

Speaker 1 38:35

Yeah , and thank you for allowing us one more shot at a Ghibli film Again , I just I .

Speaker 1 38:43

Once we got over three for miyazaki films , I was like I I just think , if there was ever going to be a time yeah , if there was ever going to be a good time for us to do this movie , it was topical because of everything I mentioned about this year and how accessible it is . It's regarded in film circles as one of those films you must see and that sticks with you for a long time , and I would agree although I don't agree with necessarily everybody's scores being like five out of fives this is one of the top 10 , 20 , 30 best films of all time . I do agree with those two statements . This is a movie you absolutely should see at least once and it truly is an experience that , again , you just really should check out if you can . So , now that it's accessible , I recommend you just really should check out if you can .

Speaker 2 39:30

So now that it's accessible , I recommend you do so . Yeah , eric

Final Thoughts and Ratings

Speaker 2 39:33

, thank you for talking to me about the themes and overall reception to this movie , and fuck you for making me talk about it for 45 minutes .

Speaker 1 39:39

Yeah , yeah , I'll just take that one on the chain . It's fine , it is totally fine , but that's our episode , guys . There are absolutely some other things we could dive into , I think , with this movie , but I think we kind of covered most of it under this new format phil and , honestly , maybe we did kind of cover everything without uncontrollably sobbing .

Speaker 2 39:59

So watch something happy next month , please .

Speaker 1 40:02

Patrons , weight watchers , if you're , please give us something happy like respectfully , we just watch k-pop demon hunters that's true , that is true you're being a little , I need to watch k-pop demon hunters tonight okay , I didn't ask to do man of steel this month . You did that . Just remember that . You followed . You followed a a uh , fictional 9-11 Katrina event with the Bravely Fireflies , yeah , so I don't know what to tell you about that . And then we're following up with LA . Noire Jesus , crazy month , crazy month .

Speaker 2 40:41

So yeah , hey , if the podcast ends after this month , you guys know why . You guys know why we're going to tap out , but we are . The podcast ends after this month .

Speaker 1 40:45

you guys know why . You guys know why we're going to tap out , but we are definitely tapping out for this episode . So , Phil , if you want to take us in the home stretch , I think this is a great place to end it .

Speaker 2 40:54

Yeah , thanks so much , guys , for joining us for another episode of International Feature .

Speaker 2 41:00

If you're brand new to the podcast or if you're a returning listener and you just need a reminder of where you can find everything WaitForPodcast related , it is right there in the show notes under the Linktree link . You can find us on social media , the most important place to keep up with us being Instagram , tiktok , our growing Discord community , where you can take place in heated debates that happened earlier here today , and you can also keep up with us over on Twitch , where we are streaming a lot , including the aforementioned LA Noire that Eric just talked about . So if you want to support the podcast , you can do a couple of different things , of course . Youtube like share , subscribe and head over to Apple Podcasts and Spotify . Leave us those five-star reviews . It is incredibly beneficial and helps get more eyes and ears on the show . But if you are looking to get some behind-the-scenes content episodes early and also have a hand in influencing our content , eric will let you know how you can do all of that before wrapping us up .

Speaker 1 41:53

So that group that Phil is talking about is our Patreon and patrons of the show . Like Briar T3 , kato , vintage Macaroni , corey from the World is my Burrito and Nick Casbarro , the author of the Vidularium series . They are supporting us every single month in return for behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one . Earlier this year , we had a patreon month where patrons are able to pick different shows , movies and or games for us to do on the podcast , and that month is going to be October second time around this year . We're really excited to be incorporating that with this particular community . We'd love for you to be a part of it and give us your suggestions , but if you're not able to or not in a position to do so , all the free stuff absolutely helps and we truly appreciate you doing that . With all that being said , my name is Mr Eric Almighty . That is my co-host , philip Filipino , and , please don't forget , we release new episodes every Wednesday and all you got to do is wait for it .

Speaker 2 42:59

This is the Wait For it Podcast .