Fires on the Plain - Criterion Collection (1962)

A Ridiculous Portrayal of War

This movie is overdramatized and ridiculous. How can a person who has been malnourished have the strength to scramble around evading an enemy force? Try not eating and drinking small amounts of dirty water for a week and see how strong you are at the end of it. If you really want to experience war then get off the couch and go see it for yourself then talk about the evils of war.
October 25, 2008

Not brutal to view, at times unconvincing portrayal, but the story is there!

Fires on the Plain, 1959, is the gruesome story of Japanese soldiers during World War II. The film depicts the horrors of war, the psychological torment of survival and mainly cannibalism. Some viewers feel this is brutal, but we are not subjected to anything beyond normal war pictures depicting horrors. Although the real-life story of Japanese wartime is brutal, clearly, by today's movie standards, the film is mild.

Director Kon Ichikawa, Japanese film director, died in February 2008 at 92. His other popular war film was "The Burmese Harp" 1956, which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It appears as if his latest filmmaking was 2006. Ichikawa was compared to Kurosawa, but not quite there. Fires on the Plain takes place in the Phillipine jungle and the wide camera shots are excellent. The subtitles are well placed below the image, thus allowing clear reading, although at times, we are shorted of translation.

After a soldier, Tamura, is rejected by his own army, he is ill with tuberculosis, not worth anything for the army, not sick enough for the hospital, and is sent with potatoes and a hand grenade. He is equipped to either survive, bombing explosions, hunger, thirst, or he can kill himself.

Unconvincing portrayal
Folks, I have seen hundreds of foreign film, including wartime, but the minute I saw the opening scene, the slap across the face, I can't help but notice that I was not going to see great acting! First, the slap was the kind that "clearly misses", contrasting against the sound effect which is that annoying high-pitched slap sound.

The feral dog pounce
This scene, a dog pounces on the soldier, but the viewer can clearly see how a dog was held, then perched out onto the soldier, hardly convincing.

Actors lack character and emotion in the face
Many of the actors, including the main actor, lacked that character in the face. That's all we the viewer need, is that character in the face, the emotions need to bring depth to tell the story. Also, the actors, when trudging along the plains visibly appeared as if they were acting.

Other than the acting scenes, the plot was there, the message about wartime Japan was disturbing!....Review of Videotape. Rizzo
September 8, 2008

Gears of war

Here is the war machine, in violent motion, ready to grind down the pieces of a tattered soul...

There is nothing romanticized or sensationalized here. This is the most monstrously appalling and bleak war movie I have ever seen. It might not have the blatant, visceral gut-punch of MEN BEHIND THE SUN. It doesn't have the startling, gory effects or chaotic frenzy of the opening scene in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Plus BLACK SUN: THE NANKING MASSACRE was most likely plastered with more challenging, brutal, and alarming images.

But FIRES ON THE PLAIN soaks up the emotional wreckage and leaves a sad, hollow void behind. There is a heavy dose of death and desperation that will rattle you to the core. It harnesses some dreadful truths and outright shameful implications that exposes a past that many dare not acknowledge.

It takes place in the Philippines, near the end of WWII. The story focuses on Private Tamura, a Japanese soldier suffering from tuberculosis. He is considered a hindrance to his troops, plus the hospital is already crowded with people in far worse condition than him. Branded an outcast, he embarks on a desolate journey just trying to survive.

This is quite a harrowing character study. It is frightening to think just how low man will plummet when pushed to extreme limits. Heartless murder, theft, betrayal, rape, cannibalism...once our humanity is stripped away, our ruthless nature is depressing.

Director Kon Ichikawa is a master storyteller, not to mention gutsy. Surprisingly, he also injects some clever snippets of humor in here too, which undeniably breathes a certain energy into an otherwise dismal picture. Ichikawa once stated that Walt Disney and Pier Paolo Pasolini were his favorite filmmakers. Both of their influences are prevalent here. Just a bold, beautifully shot B&W film, based on the award-winning '52 novel by Shohei Ooka. September 5, 2008

This picture turned me off because it was so real.

The picture was very well done. I gave it away to a friend because it turned me off because it was so real. If people saw this film there might be less war. January 20, 2008

a devatating anti-war film

This film, long delayed in coming to DVD, is difficult to watch, for it portrays how war dehumanizes those who participate in it, especially if they are unlucky enough to be on the losing side. While hard to watch, it should be watched, especially by those who glorify war and wear their easy and rampant patriotism on their sleeve. The plot follows a Japanese soldier suffering from tuberculosis as he stuggles to survive in a strange country as his unit and his army dissolve into chaos, privation, and, ultimately, cannabalism and death. Beautiflly photographed, with clear, updated subtitles. A must for any serious film buff. May 20, 2007

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