Product Details

• Format: Animated, Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Central Park Media
• VHS Release Date: July 23, 2002
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303026249
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #527,460 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE! THIS IS A CARTOON VERSION OF THE CLASSIC FILM, March 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Harp of Burma, The - Pt. 1 & 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Take note before you buy this video. It is not the 1956 classic film by Kon Ichikawa. It is an animated version. I am sure that the rave 5 star review from Charlottesville above is intended to refer to the Ichikawa version. I think someone got their wires crossed on this one. If you can find the Ichikawa version anywhere, buy it. It is a true anti-war classic - right up there with Kubrick's "Paths of Glory."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving; the heartbreak of the Japanese war dead., February 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Harp of Burma, The - Pt. 1 & 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie shows the, for Americans, unusual theme of the heartbreak of the men lost in WWII by the Japanese. Very moving. This film will not be quickly forgotten. One of the 5 best Japanese films, right up there with Seven Samurai and Sanjuro.

4.0 out of 5 stars Stirring animated adaptation of famous Japanese novel, August 4, 2003

By 

Brian Camp (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harp of Burma, The - Pt. 1 & 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is an entry in "Animated Classics of Japanese Literature," a 1986 Japanese TV series of half-hour adaptations (some multi-part) of famous Japanese novels and short stories of the last century and a half. This two-part version of Michio Takeyama's novel, "The Harp of Burma," is greatly condensed, coming in at a total running time of 48 minutes, in contrast to Kon Ichikawa's live-action film version, THE BURMESE HARP (1956), which was 116 minutes.

Still, it remains a moving and gentle story of the scars left by World War II on decent men called up to fight. Here a battalion of Japanese soldiers is held prisoner by British and Indian units in a Burmese work camp following Japan's surrender. One of the soldiers, Mizushima, is lost after a volunteer mission to get Japanese holdouts to surrender. The other battalion members ponder Mizushima's fate and lament his loss until one day they see a passing Burmese monk who looks just like him. In Part 2, their efforts to communicate with Mizushima yield mixed results, although they eventually learn the full story behind this heart-wrenching transformation.

While the character design is, like all the other entries in this series, a little too simple for a story of this stature, the overall animation and design, particularly the background work (jungle, temples, Buddhist statues, prison camps, villages), serve the story well. It's all told simply, directly, gracefully and with great feeling.

One aspect that needs to be singled out is the stirring use of music and songs. Mizushima plays the harp of the title quite beautifully and it's used in the later stages of the story as a means of subtle communication with his comrades. The Japanese men sing as a choir quite often, including a Japanese version of "No Place Like Home." In one stunning scene, the Japanese men sing it in unison as they prepare for an attack by the British and Indians, only to be regaled by the English singing the song, in English, back to them, a prelude to the news to the Japanese that the war is over.