Blast from the Past: Fires on the Plain (1959)
This Japanese war film by director Kon Ichikawa was criticized for its violence and morbid themes, but in the years since its release it’s become more highly regarded as a chillingly realistic depiction of war.
The screenplay, written by Natto Wada, is based on the 1951 novel “Nobi” by Shōhei Ōoka, translated as Fires on the Plain.
Grade: A (**** out of *****)
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Theatrical release poster
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Ichikawa has said that the film’s central themes is existential, literally and figuratively, the struggle between staying alive and crossing the ultimate low.
Narrative: Setting and Premise
In February 1945, the demoralized Imperial Japanese Army on Leyte is in desperate straits, cut off from support and supplies by the Allies, who are in the process of liberating the Philippine island.
Private Tamura has tuberculosis and is seen as a useless burden to his company, even though it’s been reduced to a platoon in strength.
He is ordered to commit suicide by grenade if he is unable to get re-admitted to a nearby field hospital. A sympathetic soldier gives him several yams from the unit’s meager supplies.
After the hospital is bombed, he flees and eventually witnesses the horrors of war, including death, murder and cannibalism.
Spoiler Alert:
The last scene is particularly horrifying and disturbng: Tamura t heads towards the “fires on the plains,” desperate to find any individual who is leading “a normal life.”
He slowly walks forward, as the Filipinos shoot at him, and the last shot depicts a bullet hitting Tamura and his collapses lifeless to the ground.
Cast
Critical Status: Then and Now (Test of Time)
In his review, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote “Never have I seen a more grisly and physically repulsive film than ‘Fires on the Plain,’” but critics have reversed course over the years and hailed its brutality.
