FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

DIPLOMA IN OFFICE TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

BA132

COMMUNICATION FOR OFFICE PROFESSIONALS

OBM210

MOVIE ASSIGNMENT:
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988)

LECTURER’S NAME:

NURFAZNIM BINTI SHUIB

PREPARED BY:

NAME ID

MAISARAH BINTI MUNIS 2022614062

GROUP:
KBA1322G
 TABLE OF CONTENT

NO. TOPIC PAGES

1.0 Acknowledgement 1

2.0 Synopsis of the Movie 2

3.0 Messages from the Movie 3

4.0 Connection / Relationship with Communication for Office 4-8

Professionals

4.1 Foundations of Interpersonal Communication

4.2 Culture and Interpersonal Communication

4.3 Perception and the Self and Others in Interpersonal

Communication

4.4 Verbal Messages

4.5 Nonverbal Messages

5.0 Suggestions and Comments 9

6.0 Conclusion 10

7.0 References 11

8.0 Appendices 12 - 13
1.0 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, I would like to praise to Allah SWT for the blessing and strength

to finish this assignment. Peace and prayers be upon His Final Prophet and messenger

Muhammad, the ideal role model for human beings.

I would like to thank to our Honorable Teacher, Nurfaznim binti Shuib because

without her guide this assignment cannot be done properly like this. She always gave a

support I needed to successfully accomplish what was required for this assignment.

Any attempt at any level cannot be satisfactorily completed without the support and

guidance of my parents and friends. My heartiest thank to them for helping me directly or

indirectly to complete this assignment.

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2.0 Synopsis of the Movie

Grave of the fireflies is a famous animated film released in 1988 directed by Isao Takahata.

This movie got lots of great reviews for its heart wrenching and traumatising storyline it was

set in Japan during World War ll and shows the impact of war on the lives of civilians through

the perspective of children named Setsuko a 4-year-old girl and Seita a 14-year-old boy. The

movie starts when their mother dies in the firebombing and their father was at war, after their

home gets destroyed, they have no choice but to live in an abandoned bombed shelter. The

anime shows the everyday fights of a brother and how he tries to fight against all odds just to

collect some foods for his little sister as the story progressed it will break your heart into

pieces. The movie holds a strong anti-war message and show how cruel the world is but at

the same time showed us how fortunate we are to have a family and home. At the end of the

movie its clear that the bond between them is what sustains them through the darkest time.

Despites the tragic storyline, Grave of the Fireflies is known as a masterpiece of animation

and has won numerous awards over the years.

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3.0 Messages from the Movie

Few messages we could interpret from this movie are family is the most important

thing in our life and we should protect it at all costs. We could choose Seita’s effort in

protecting Setsuko as example, Seita was beaten badly by a farmer after getting caught red

handed trying to steal some sugar cane to heal her little sister who is suffering diarrhoea and

starvation. This show how he’s determined and would do everything in guarantying

Setsuko’s happiness and comfort. Seita’s love for his sister and her adoration for him is what

helping them living through all this misery.

Besides, Grave of the Fireflies is famous for their World War II theme and hold a very

strong anti-war message. In this movie we could view how war destroys civilians and affect

the innocence as well even after the fighting has stopped, Seita have to take care of Setsuko

after their parents die from bombing. Both of them suffered from starvation, homelessness,

prejudice and emotional turmoil. Looking at Setsuko’s point of view and how she’s just a

child wanted to be love and experience life at the fullest but was surrounded by nightmare

instead. As the nightmare slowly unfolding, she could only watch them in confusion and

terror.

Finally, the last message is the importance of compassion and empathy for others.

Lots of people refuse to help them because they are more focused on self-preservation

instead of the community, they both suffered miserably from starvation because of people

unwillingness to lend a hand. Their aunt is one of the examples, when Seita and Setsuko

first show up they were greet warmly by their aunt but after she realise there are no benefits

in taking them in she starts turning them in, her lackness of compassion and empathy forced

both Seita and Setsuko to find a new place to live which is an abandoned bomb shelters.

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4.0 Connection / Relationship with Communication for Office Professionals

4.1 Foundations of Interpersonal Communication

Some connections that I have spotted in this movie is Foundations of Interpersonal

Communication which is in chapter 1. Interpersonal communication is the verbal and

nonverbal interaction between two or more than two interdependent people. One of the

scenes that’s related with one of the elements of interpersonal communication called source-

receiver. To be simply put, source formulates and send messages while receiver perceives

and comprehends messages. The term source-receiver emphasizes that both functions are

performed by everyone in interpersonal communication. In this movie at the duration of 5:18

shows that Yokokawa ( Seita’s and Setsuko’s mother) as a source approached Seita and

told him to go to the shelters because there’s bombing attack. Seita who acts as a receiver

quickly done his job and bring his little sister to the shelters with him.

Next connections that I have noticed for chapter 1 is effects. Interpersonal communication

always has some effect on one or more persons involved in the communication act.

Affective effects are changes in your attitude, values, beliefs, and emotions. At duration of

15:46 in this movie it shows a changed of emotions on Seita’s face after knowing that her

mother was involved in bombing attack and in critical condition.

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4.2 Culture in Interpersonal Communication

Connections that I have found for chapters 2 Culture and Interpersonal Communication is

ageism culture. Ageism cultures refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we

feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age. In the film,

both Seita and Setsuko’s are subjected to ageism due to their young age. They both

struggle to find food and work, and they are often treated as a burden or nuisance. For

example, at the duration of 39:14 in the movie, their aunt refuses to give more foods to them

because she thought they doesn’t deserve it as much as people who are working hard for

the country meanwhile her daughter and husband receive rice as their meal, Seita and

Setsuko only got plain soup. This shows that despite their innocence, they still faced

challenge because of young age and have impact their limits and opportunities.

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4.3 Perception and the Self in Interpersonal Communication

Another connection that I’ve spotted in this movie for Perception and the Self in

Interpersonal Communication which is in chapter 3 is self-esteem. Self-esteem is a measure

of how valuable you think you are, there’s three types of self-esteem and one of them that

that this movie show is behavioral self-esteem which refers to verbal and nonverbal

behaviors such as your disclosures, your assertiveness, conflict strategies and your

gestures. At the duration of 40:51 Setsuko’s show a nonverbal behaviors which is face

expression and a gesture that she’s jealous of the relationship the kid have with their family.

Overall, the gesture Setsuko’s make is showing disliking of her current situation.

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4.4 Verbal Messages

Moving onto my fourth connections which is Verbal Messages in Chapter 4. Verbal

Messages are those sent with words, and it doesn’t refer to orality, which consist of both oral

and written word. Verbal Messages are divided into 10 basic principles and this scene

related to one of those principles which is messages can deceive. In this scenario at minutes

16:51 we could see that Seita is lying to Setsuko about their deceased mother, lying refers to

act of sending messages with the intention of giving another person information you believe

to be false. We could count this type of lies as Prosocial Deception which mean to achieve

some good by protecting Setsuko’s feeling.

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4.5 Nonverbal Messages

Next connections that we will be discussing from this movie is Nonverbal Messages which is

in chapter 5. Nonverbal Messages is a communication without words and conveys more

meaning than verbal communication. The scene from this movie related with one of the

nonverbal messages sections which is body messages. Body messages or body gestures

are classification in kinesics or the study of communication through body movement. Body

messages are divided into five and the one I have chosen is Adaptors which mean to satisfy

some need and usually occur without conscious awareness, they are unintentional

movements that usually go unnoticed. Adaptors are divided into three and for the scene

above its related to Alter-Adaptor meaning the body movement you make in response to

your current interactions, for example at hours 1:00:13 Seita unconsciously protects

Setsuko’s from a gun shooting.

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5.0 Suggestions or Comments

Type here 5 suggestions/comments you get from this movie. Put in different paragraph.

While grave of the fireflies is always being called as masterpiece, I have spotted few

weaknesses that need improvement. My first suggestion for this movie is fixing the visual

effect, while Grave of The Fireflies animation being amazing the visual effects still need

improvement compared to the new animation standard, few viewers might find this movie a

bit outdated since it was made in 1988, nevertheless updating the visual effects to current

standard will make it more interesting and emotionally powerful.

Moving on to my second suggestion for this movie is adding more background on

characters. The film starts without any explanation on their characters whereabout we only

got to know a little bit about their pasts. Therefore, some viewers are unable to appreciate

and empathize the characters while watching the movies. By adding a few flashbacks about

their pasts or dialogue that provided more about the characters will definitely be a great

addition.

Next, adding more cultural context. Grave of the Fireflies takes a specific time which

is in World War II, while it still includes few cultural details, this would have been more

amazing if they added more cultural details to help viewers in understanding the social,

cultural, and historical context of Japan. Cultural context means including information about

Japanese society during this specific era, for example, political condition, social norms and

cultural traditions. This could help viewers who may not have direct knowledge or

understanding of Japanese historical in better understanding of this movie.

Finally, making this movie suitable for kids. Grave of the Fireflies contains lots of life

lesson that are suitable for both adults and children but the downside for this part is it

contains a little bit too much of violence since the movie revolves around World War II. This

movie does not sugarcoat the cruelness of war, the graphic of death, destruction and human

suffering, kids will have a hard time processing the heavy theme. With that being said this

movie is more suitable for teens and adult.

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6.0 Conclusion

Overall conclusion I could make for this movie is its definitely worth watching and I would

highly recommend this to everyone who’s a fan of heart wrenching troupe. This movie holds

a lot of unforgettable moments and scenes that show a devastating impact of war on

innocent civilians. As someone who don’t usually cry over movies much, I would say that

the ending of Grave of the Fireflies movie will bring you down to knees with tears and the

ending is unlike other movies I have watched. Every part of this movie give different

messages for example Seita’s willingness to do everything for her little sister Setsuko shows

how strong and important family bond is, this scene touched my heart and make me

appreciate every little thing in my life. The film animation is breath taking and its music and

voice acting successfully leave lots of viewers an emotional impact, I would say that this

movie is a must watch and prepared a box of tissue before watching.

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9.0 References

link for the movie

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

https://youtu.be/S2P0DqJSHaY

Chen, H. (2018). Grave of the Fireflies: The haunting relevance of Studio Ghibli’s darkest
film. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43695803

Gates, J. (2022). Why ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ is the saddest Japanese Movie Ever Made.
Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/7-reasons-why-grave-of-
the-fireflies-is-the-saddest-japanese-movie-ever-made/

Riedel, L. A. (2022). Grave of the Fireflies; a Movie Analysis. Diggit Blog.

https://www.diggitmagazine.com/blog/grave-fireflies-movie-analysis. .

WHO Team. (2021). Ageing: Ageism. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news

-room/questions-and-answers/item/ageing-ageism.

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10.0 Appendices

10.1 Poster

12
10.2 Casts

Seita Setsuko

Kiyoshi Yokokowa Seita and Setsuko’s

(Seita and Setsuko’s Aunt

Mother)

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