Customer Reviews

Fires on the Plain - Criterion Collection

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a film about man in extremis. Retreating, defeated batallions of Japanese soldiers in WWII on the island of Leyte in the Phillipines find themselves sinking ineluctably toward barbarism. The wounded, the desperate, the starving--all are paraded before us in Ichikawa's pitiless, sometimes bitterly ironic pageant of man's descent toward his basest impulses. The fires of the plain of the title refer to distant smoke from fires on the horizon that the soldiers see from time to time. The fires are symbols of hope of release from the carnage and despair surrounding the soldiers. The final irony is how fraudulent too this hope turns out to be. All are caught in the web of deceit, of trickery, of brutality that man in his primitive state so easily reverts to. Just about every sacred cow--brotherhood, respect, honor--is refuted. Man is both a figurative and literal cannibal, preying on his fellow soldiers, his friends. The film is harshly realistic yet surreal and nightmarish--barren landscapes of corpses, dung-eating madmen, men crawling like beasts over a trench. Ichikawa's images have a barbaric splendor and dreamlike aura, reinforced by the dissonant, percussive soundtrack with its echoes of Bartok. Not a film for those unwilling to face the extent of man's capacity for monstrosity head on; for others, it's a harrowing, deeply unsettling experience.

Over 25 years ago, I was watching a Public TV station on a Saturday afternnon in Milwaukke. They were showing a movie called "Fires on the Plain" and I watched it more out of curiosity than intent. Although the picture on my screen was fuzzy, I gradually became mesmerized as I understood what the movie was all about. The film haunted to where I bought and read the book (by the same title) by Shohei Ooka and later his worthwhile book "The Shade of Blossoms". I finally had the chance to see the movie again on IFC and was as impressed as I was the first time. It was a clear picture this time with subtitles.

"Fires on the Plain" tells the story of Tamura, a Japanese soldier in the Philipines in February, 1945; a time when defeat was turning into chaos. We witness the gradual metamorphis from civilized soldier to desperate animal as Tamura searches for a path to hope. It is a disturbing film but it is an educational film as well because of the way it allows us to examine the other side of victory.

I have always been curious about the demise of the defeated sides in WWII. Both fought well past the point of no return and suffered through incredible destruction until only a skeleton of its' empire remained to surrender. What must that have been like to experience? I have read books by Heinrich Boll that have given me something of an idea and other authors have as well. I recently finished an excellent book entitled "Japan at War: An Oral History". The eyewitness accounts of the disintegrating forces in the Philipines and other places fit the descriptions show in "Fires on the Plain". It is a disturbing portrait of a world of near-anarchy where survival is about the only instinct remaining. Truth IS stranger than fiction.

In Ichikawa Kon's film _The Harp of Burma_ the company of soldiers led by Captain Inoue, although a bit travel worn and homesick, looked at least to be in decent health and well fed in the foreign environs of Burma. However, in his film _Fires on the Plain_ the Japanese soldiers stationed on the Island of Leyte in the Phillipines are malnourished, desperate men who are willing to do anything to survive

The first scene in the film depicts Pvt. Tamura being slapped viciously by his superior. The superior is angry because Tamura returned to their regiment. a sufferer of tuberculosis, Tamura is unable to support himself and relies on the other soldiers, who can barely forage enough food for themselves, to gather food for him. Not wanting a dependent in their midst, Tamura superior sends him back to the hospital along with a few potatoes. Tamura does, however, have one more key item in his possesion: a hand grendae.

If he tires of living or is unable to, Tamura is to kill himself with the grenade. The grenade appears several times in the film. One can almost see the gears turning in his head, an inner struggle whether he wants to live or die. However, each times he decides to keep trudging along.

Tamura does in fact arrive back at the hospital, but of course he is refused. The doctors will only let men who are very near death to stay in the hospital. Tamura, unwanted in his own camp, decides to stat with a group of stragglers who have also been cast out of their respective companies. Tamura is able to make friends with these individuals at least until the Americans begin bombing the area. The doctors leave the patients, first taking all the food, to be blown up in the bombing, and Tamura and friend are separated to the four winds.

Tamura continues his travels and eventuially arrives in a small village where he kills a Fillpino girl who would not stop screaming. He also tries to kill her boyfriend, but he runs away sucessfully.

Tamura begins to care for the wounded girl, but pushes her out of the way when he discovers a hidden cache of salt. He soon continues his journey to no real destination.

_Fires on the Plain_ is a brutal film which depicts the remnants of the once powerful Japanese army struggling to survive, but without any hope of ever being truly rescued. These soldiers just want to live for a few hours longer, their primal instincts to survive much stronger than dieing in service of the Emperor. A will to survive that will even make some of them eat "Monkey Meat."

However, even in this bleak film there are some signs of humanity. Tamura although tubercular and emancipated willingly shares his few rations and his precious salt even when he has little. There are moments of semi friendship between Tamura and the stragglers, and also between Tamura and another soldier named Nagamatsu, however, the outlook is bleak for our pleasant spoken Tamura.

Based on a novel written by Ooka Shohei.

This excellent movie is a powerful and disturbing depiction of a defeated Japanese army unit on Leyte in 1945 trying to make its way across the island to possible safety. Starvation plagues the men all the way until cannabalism is resorted to. Eiji Funakoshi is magnificent as the emotionless man at the center of all this misery: he has TB and consequently nobody wants to eat him, and when he's finally had enough of this wretchedness he surrenders in order to get something to eat - and is gunned down. Although graphically horrifying, it's not exploitive; in fact, there is something almost dignified about these men caught up in a living hell. Our attention is riveted on Funakoshi and his quiet, distant, yet intense portrayal of a man trying to hold his humanity together in a piece, and at the same time somehow survive. More than an anit-war movie, it's more about surviving hell when the fire's going full blast and there's no way out. It's the kind of "grace under pressure" that Hemingway couldn't imagine in his worst nightmare. A magnificent and unforgettable movie.

"Fires on the Plain" is not a film you forget once you've viewed this descent into madness and hell: And the nature of man's primal instincts that befall a group of Japanese soldiers on the island of Leyte in the Phillipines. The year is 1945, and Japan has been for all intents and purposes defeated. The soldiers that do remain in the Pacific Theatre have been cut off from any and all resupply by the once, but no longer, powerful Japanese Imperial Navy. In the Phillipines, the Japanese Imperial Army has been reduced to nothing more than a ragtag army hiding out in the jungles. One of them is Private Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi).

This is more than an anti-war film, it is a film of survival in defeat, and the primal nature of man to survive. Directed by Kon Ichikawa, one of the first scenes depicted is the vicious slapping of Private Tamura by one of his superiors. His crime? For having the audacity to return to his unit. You see Private Tamura is suffering from tuberculosis; as are many other soldiers; and his superior is angry that the private can no longer fend for himself; and instead must rely on his fellow soldiers who can barely fend for themselves. The unit is suffering from a shortage of food, and it's difficult enough for them to find food for themselves, let alone a weakened soldier.

The superior sends him back to the hospital with a few potatoes: and also in his possession is a hand grenade to kill himself with when he can no longer continue. Tamura constantly struggles with this: should I live, or die? However, when Tamura arrives at the hospital, he is refused: Only those near death are allowed in this hospital. Tamura must make a choice, unwanted in his own unit, and not allowed in the hospital, what is he to do? He decides the best course of action is to organize a group of stragglers who have also been let loose from their units. When the Americans begin bombing the Japanese, however, Tamura races off on his own.

He comes across a small village, and it is here that a very ugly encounter ensues with the native Filipino's, whom the Japanese army have treated harshly during their occupation. There nothing but hatred for the Japanese army by the local population who have endured years of brutal occupation. The film shows the brutality of the war, and how the Japanese army, who have deserted these stragglers to fend for themselves, live what remaining days they have left. For many, it is pitiful.

The film shows the viewer the true nature and horror or war. And director Ichikawa shows the viewer that underneath the veil of a once boastful and victorious army, what is left are no more than the primal instincts of survival at all costs: Even if for only another day, or another hour. Many in the Japanese army have now descended into the cannibalitistic animal whose primal instincts of survival even mean the preying on of ones own fellow soldier: which they refer to as monkey meat. This is a brutal film, and Ichikawa deserves credit for filming a subject that is rarely acknowledged or mentioned in Japan. Highly, highly recommended. [Stars: 5+]

It is told with certain frequency the most remarkable film against the war in the fifties was Paths of Glory . Undoubtly , that film is one of the most powerful anti belic films ever made , but notice you are watching the war as an ego war ; a inner confrontation between the different command chain . Moreover , there were two devastating movies in this decade : Night and frog of Alain Resnais (1955) of France and this film (1959) is the most desolate and merciless portrait about the war in the Eastern World .
The powerful and brutal depiction of the inhumanity of war when a soldier , as a part of the retreating Japanese Army will find the hell in the middle of the Philipine jungle . The appropiate words are out of context . Watch and compare by yourself . The intensity and degradation level the human being can descend under specific circunstances.

This bleak and despairing film about the ragtag remnants of the retreating Japanese army on Leyte is an examination of human beings stripped of every vestige of culture and values, reduced to simple and barbarous survival. It is unsparing as it follows one tubercular soldier ousted from his unit, ousted from the hospital, joining equally pathetic and emaciated soldiers either sick, misfit, or otherwise lost and all starving as they make their way to a final gathering point for the defeated army to somehow rally. It is a march straight into Hell and a descent into madness and ultimate brutal animal existence.

From the opening closeup slap in the face, this film is an assault on the senses, photographed beautifully in black and white, with unforgettable images of a landscape of death and destruction. Made in the post-war Japan that had formally renounced war and was populated by veterans, both military and civilian, who had seen this kind of carnage first-hand, one wonders if such an uncompromising vision could be presented today.

Not for everyone, this is a film that will not be easily forgotten in its relentless portrayal of war stripped of any martial exhaltations and the wasteland created by the devastation of both the human social contract and, ultimately, the human soul.

Though the very beginning of this film is rather wooden, with a rather unnaturally long expanse of exposition to set up the main situation, this film as a whole is a wonderfully dark study of man's dehumanization through war. Tamura, an unwanted Japanese soldier fighting in the Philippines, finds himself expelled from the army hospital, that considers his TB not worth their time, and sent back again from his unit, who consider him too weak to dig trenches or dig up food and so don't want him wasting their supplies. He is alone with a few yams and a grenade. Tamura is trying to fend off starvation with a crew of fellow hospital rejects when the Japanese efforts go horribly bad and a general retreat is called.

From here, the film follows Tamura and his encounters as he and his fellow soldiers are brought to the brink of desperation and starvation and go to any lengths to survive. Men are reduced to walking corpses, or clans to protect their own interests. A taste for monkey meat develops, and the darkness gets only worse.

Kon Ichikawa's film is appropriately dark and thoughtful, though I find the critical references to Kurosawa somewhat cheap--Kurosawa's cinematography is usually much more broad and portrait-like, while Ichikawa's film is more stark and impersonal at the right times, close and almost claustrophobic also when it needs to be. Give this film the benefit of trying to set itself up for 15 minutes or so, and you will see a masterpiece as wise as _Saving Private Ryan_ without all the frivolous glitz.

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.

In Ichikawa Kon's film _The Harp of Burma_ the company of soldiers led by Captain Inoue, although a bit travel worn and homesick, looked at least to be in decent health and well fed in the foreign environs of Burma. However, in his film _Fires on the Plain_ the Japanese soldiers stationed on the Island of Leyte in the Philippines are malnourished, desperate men who are willing to do anything to survive.

The first scene in the film depicts Pvt. Tamura being slapped viciously by his superior. The superior is angry because Tamura returned to their regiment. A sufferer of tuberculosis, Tamura is unable to support himself and relies on the other soldiers, who can barely forage enough food for themselves, to gather food for him. Not wanting a dependent in their midst, Tamura superior sends him back to the hospital along with a few potatoes. Tamura does, however, have one more key item in his possession: a hand grenade.

If he tires of living or is unable to, Tamura is to kill himself with the grenade. The grenade appears several times in the film. One can almost see the gears turning in his head, an inner struggle whether he wants to live or die. However, each times he decides to keep trudging along.

Tamura does in fact arrive back at the hospital, but of course he is refused. The doctors will only let men who are very near death to stay in the hospital. Tamura, unwanted in his own camp, decides to stat with a group of stragglers who have also been cast out of their respective companies. Tamura is able to make friends with these individuals at least until the Americans begin bombing the area. The doctors leave the patients, first taking all the food, to be blown up in the bombing, and Tamura and friend are separated to the four winds.

Tamura continues his travels and eventually arrives in a small village where he kills a Filipino girl who would not stop screaming. He also tries to kill her boyfriend, but he runs away successfully.

Tamura begins to care for the wounded girl, but pushes her out of the way when he discovers a hidden cache of salt. He soon continues his journey to no real destination.

_Fires on the Plain_ is a brutal film which depicts the remnants of the once powerful Japanese army struggling to survive, but without any hope of ever being truly rescued. These soldiers just want to live for a few hours longer, their primal instincts to survive much stronger than dieing in service of the Emperor. A will to survive that will even make some of them eat "Monkey Meat."

However, even in this bleak film there are some signs of humanity. Tamura although tubercular and emancipated willingly shares his few rations and his precious salt even when he has little. There are moments of semi friendship between Tamura and the stragglers, and also between Tamura and another soldier named Nagamatsu, however, the outlook is bleak for our pleasant spoken Tamura.

Based on a novel written by Ooka Shohei.