I was an adult when I watched it. I still regret that decision.
I’ve seen it referred to as “The greatest film I’ll never watch again.”
Me too, but I rarely see regret for having seen it the one time they did.
It’s the best movie I would never recommend to watch. Unless you really want to feel miserable afterwards.
Close second is Requiem for a Dream.
Irreversible and Loveless are stellar movies that are VERY rough recommends.
Oh god and Nightingale. 10/10 but holy shit the amount of rape…
Did you know its based on a book written as a semi self biography.
When I found out its not just sad fiction, the story hit a little harder.
I can’t bring myself to rewatch the damn thing, how can I expose my children to it?!
I didn’t know people were opposed to showing Grave of the Fireflies to kids. I always thought it was one of the better war movies to show to kids because there isn’t much explicit violence and the main characters are children.
I think some folks are just opposed to thinking it’s good for all kids when obviously the material takes some amount of maturity and empathy.
I’m definitely not taking the stance of “every child needs to see this film”, but I AM of the opinion that kids should occasionally be presented with something that might make them uncomfortable or try to instill empathy as a good thing that they should strive for. Yeah, it might be difficult for them, but that’s why they should have a parent/support system readily available so they can process and learn from it, instead of watching it at 2am alone in a dorm room and crying until 5am like I definitely didn’t do ahaha ha ha…
Yeah, that seems to be a good point. Maybe kids around the age of Seita would understand it better.
There’s a rightwing push in Japan to censor Barefoot Gen in schools because even though the Japanese civilians are depicted as victims, it ostensibly anti-war and they want more military spending. I wouldn’t be surprised if Grave of the Fireflies is in their crosshairs as well.
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Depends on how old your kids are… Are they old enough to understand suffering and loss? Then it’s time to make your kids suffer and lose some of their free time in order to learn something important; like any good parent!
You’d rather have kids do it when they’re supervised and have love and support then when it is suddenly thrust upon them with no warning, that’s for sure.
No, they should have an older sibling who gives them a copy as a prank and all their friends come over to watch it.
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Ahem… The film is rated…
- USA: Not rated by the MPAA. Considered “suitable for all audiences” on the Central Park Media VHS release. TV-PG on the Sentai Filmworks release.
- Germany: 6+ (Apropriate for ages 6 and up.)
- France: Tous publics (General Audiences)
- India: U (Unrestricted public exhibition, suitable for all ages.)
- Hong Kong: Level 1 (Suitable for All Ages.)
- Canada: G and PG for Quebec and Manitoba respectively.
- Japan: G
- Saudi Arabia: PG
- Singapore: PG
- Italy: T (Recommended for persons of all age groups.)
- Taiwan: 0+ (Suitable for all ages)
- Netherlands: 9 (Ages 9 and up)
- Nigeria: PG
You’d know that if you read the post! Funnily enough, it also links out to an neat article discussing a study showing parents aren’t reading scary stories to their kids… And why that’s bad. Here it is just in case ya need it! Heck, on other bits of social media, I heard about schools showing kids the movie in 5th to 6th grade, in the US even!
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its not meant for children, German fairytales aren’t either
Woah there! German fairy tales were meant for children! That’s explicitly their target audience.
The whole point was to scare the children into behaving a certain way. Like, “don’t go wandering off alone. Bad things can happen!”
If you just tell your kid that they won’t listen. However, if you tell them a story about how kids that wandered off alone into a forest got cooked and eaten by a witch then maybe they’ll stick to the village (and be wary of strangers).
Even though it’s a fictional, animated depiction of what happened near the end of the WW2 it’s depicting something that actually happened. I don’t think there’s going to be any problems in regards to separating fiction from reality with this movie.
If anything, the movie is tame in comparison to the actual, real-world devastation of nuclear war.
A roflcopter parent
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My child at age 8 knew exactly what the reality was when her great-grandmother died and saw us all grieving.
She knew exactly what the reality was when, at age 9 and 14 respectively, she saw our cat had to get injected with fluids every day just to live, and our dog had to get euthanized.
She knew exactly what the reality was when in elementary school two kids died in a house fire and she knew them.
I would probably agree that typically only a teenager and above could properly appreciate a movie such as Grave of the Fireflies. And I completely agree children should not be purposefully traumatized, but not all of them have the luxury of being sheltered from traumatizing experiences. Some could handle such a movie and understand what is going on. But to be fair, I have never shown this particular movie to my kid.
Read the whole post, give it a serious shake. It cites child psychological studies, shows how kids today are healthily handling stories like these in Japan, and even acknowledges secondary trauma and avoiding triggers for already traumatized people. There’s a lot of nuance when you get past the title.
A skim of the article shows that it was not written from the viewpoint of a parent having to calm a hysterical crying child after having watched the movie. GotF is an emotional gut-punch even for adults. Incredibly powerful film, but that means it has to be treated with care and respect. That doesn’t mean it can’t be shown to children, but anyone who does so needs to be prepared for the consequences.
(As for me, I was in grad school when I saw it. I’m glad I did, but I don’t think I will ever be able to bring myself to watch it again.)
The second paragraph literally discusses creating a self care plan surrounding watching the movie. It links out to several studies by child psychologists and articles discussing watching scary/sad media with kids and how to do so. It shows examples of how kids are interacting with stories like this safely. It recommends showing kids things like this in safe environments so they don’t suddenly come to you broken and scared when horrors are thrust upon them when they are alone or unsupervised.
As a kid, I was “trolled” with fake links that sent me to beheading videos online. Tons of folks I know watched 9/11 happen live in their classrooms. Hell, the post talks about how pictures and videos from Gaza keep showing up on feeds on Instagram and TikTok. The whole point is parents should do that work and teach kids these skills and that it’s okay to ask for help if they run into an emotional brick wall BEFORE they hit the brick wall.
But this is why ya shouldn’t skim! Read deeply! (P.S. I wrote the post, I’m also literally a parent. If that matters to you.)
I probably shouldn’t be posting when I feel too awful to concentrate, either. Apologies.
I don’t cry often, but this movie, damn…
Well shit, a Studio Ghibli movie I haven’t seen. I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend. My wife and 16 year old have already said they are down for it. Not sure if I want my 9 year old to sit in on this.
I’m not sure how old you are to get this reference, but you might be setting up your kid for a Watership Down/Bambi’s Mom moment with this one. This movie is probably the saddest movie I have ever seen. I’m actually near tears just thinking about it even.
Yeah no thanks i dont want kids to cause a great flood of tears
you have to eat soybean, not good healthy rice.
But we (will) have ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ at home…
