Japanese Film Review<\/p>\n
Kon Ichikawa\u2019s
\nTHE BURMESE HARP and FIRES ON THE PLAIN<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander<\/p>\n
(Spring 2007)<\/span><\/p>\n The Criterion Collection has released more classic Japanese films than any other DVD distributor.\u00a0 After releasing the films of Akira Ichikawa\u2019s reputation among film scholars is not as grand as that of the other great directors in the series. This lack of recognition The French film journal Cahiers du Cinema launched serious criticism with its \u201cauteur theory\u201d \u2013 wherein the director was elevated to For the more eclectic Ichikawa, however, this sort of system limited the size of his international distribution.\u00a0 Ichikawa\u2019s films run the Criterion was wise to begin its Ichikawa releases with two war films, The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain (1959).\u00a0 Despite The Burmese Harp, based on the novel by Michio Takeyama, follows a Japanese troop in Burma at the close of the Second World War.<\/p>\n When Japan surrenders to the Allies, the soldier Mizushima (Shojo Yasui) is assigned to leave his squad and convince another troop Ichikawa tells this story from two vantage points: that of Mizushima and that of his platoon.\u00a0 In doing so, he exemplifies the struggle Ichikawa was trained as a painter and began his career as an illustrator \u2013 The Burmese Harp\u2019s\u00a0 mes-en-scene reflects this For his second war film, Ichikawa chose to adapt one of the most controversial novels in Japanese literature, Fires on the Plain by Unlike Takeyama, Ooka actually served in the Japanese army during the war and witnessed the horrors of war himself.\u00a0\u00a0 This may The narrative follows the soldier Tamara (Eija Funakoshi) through the jungles after his platoon has been destroyed by the enemy.\u00a0 In As usual, Criterion\u2019s transfers are made from pristine newly-restored prints.\u00a0 Both DVDs contain informative bonus material, Ichikawa\u2019s focus is on the human costs of war, and he avoids the jingoistic nationalism of Hollywood films of the same time period.\u00a0 It Criterion has provided a great service to film buffs with these two releases by recording Ichikawa, for he rarely gives interviews.\u00a0 In Hopefully, Criterion will continue to release his works in the U.S. along with those of all the other great filmmakers from Japan\u2019s Japanese Film Review Kon Ichikawa\u2019s THE BURMESE HARP and FIRES ON THE PLAIN Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander (Spring 2007) The Criterion Collection has released more classic Japanese films than any other DVD distributor.\u00a0 After releasing the films of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, the Collection series has now turned its attention to Kon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-364","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-5S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364\/revisions\/656"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, the Collection series has now turned its attention to Kon Ichikawa.<\/p>\n
\ndoes not rest with the quality of his films but rather with the nature of film criticism itself.<\/p>\n
\nthe status of literary author.\u00a0 Such analysis allowed film critics to connect a thematic consistency among the films in a director\u2019s
\noeuvre.\u00a0 The art house distributors of the 1950s and 1960s capitalized on this notion by marketing films according to the director\u2019s
\nname.\u00a0 Audiences would flock to the latest Kurosawa or Bergman film as a result of this \u201cbranding\u201d.<\/p>\n
\ngamut from dark comedy (Odd Obsession) to revenge drama (An Actor\u2019s Revenge) to sports documentary (Tokyo Olympiad).\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t
\nuntil the Museum of Modern Art\u2019s 2002 retrospective that American critics became seriously interested in his work.\u00a0 Indeed, critics
\nand audiences began to see his eclecticism as a strength rather than a weakness.<\/p>\n
\ntheir similar subject matter, the two films showcase the director\u2019s stylistic variety.<\/p>\n
\nto surrender to British forces.\u00a0 When the general refuses, Mizoguchi is shot in the leg and left to fend for himself.\u00a0 A Buddhist monk
\nnurses him back to health and leaves him with his robe.\u00a0 While journeying back to his unit, he encounters piles of human remains
\nfrom the war and burns them.\u00a0 He gradually associates his second chance at life with a spiritual mission to help the souls of the war
\ndead.\u00a0 In the process he becomes a real man of the cloth and vows to remain in Burma and live the life of the ascetic.<\/p>\n
\nwithin Mizushima\u2019s own soul as he is caught between two worlds: that of his nation and that of a higher spiritual authority.<\/p>\n
\nbackground.\u00a0 He films Burma in wide-angle shots, the landscaped littered with holy temples and shrines on one end, and earthly
\ncarcasses and vultures on the other.\u00a0 By shooting Mizushima as one small point on a large landscape, a visual motif that reoccurs
\nthroughout the film, Ichikawa expertly visualizes the character\u2019s spiritual burden.\u00a0 The film also has a slow and contemplative pacing
\nthat mirrors Mizushima\u2019s solemn reflection.<\/p>\n
\nShohei Ooka.<\/p>\n
\naccount for the stylistic differences between Harp and Fires.\u00a0 In contrast to the former film, Fires on the Plain offers no hope of
\nredemption for any its characters \u2013 in fact, it is one of the most uncompromising and graphic films ever made.<\/p>\n
\nBurma, the corpses littering the landscape remind Mizushima of the impermanence of life on Earth and are a key component in his
\nBuddhist conversion.\u00a0 In Fires, corpses serve a much more practical purpose as Tamara\u2019s platoon resorts to cannibalism.\u00a0 Indeed,
\nFires on the Plain is about the grotesque sacrifices that survival in war entails.\u00a0 In contrast to the lyrical and more meditative Harp of
\nBurma, Fires on the Plain is full of expressionistic touches \u2013 quick cuts, close-ups and sharply drawn battle sequences.\u00a0 The ominous
\nvolcano that hovers over much of the film is a fitting metaphor for the hell of war.<\/p>\n
\nincluding interviews with film scholar Donald Ritchie and the director himself (still working at the age of 92).\u00a0 Ritchie\u2019s interviews are
\nespecially illuminative, as he mentions the taboo nature of the war in present-day Japan.<\/p>\n
\nis this very notion that some right-wing elements find offensive \u2013 the war and Japan\u2019s responsibilities are anathema to contemporary
\npolitical sensibilities. Neither film could find studio backing today.\u00a0 In his interview, Ichikawa mentions his first-hand account of
\nwitnessing the devastation of Hiroshima and how that memory aesthetically influenced the films.<\/p>\n
\naddition to his wartime memories, Ichikawa relates his filming methods and the process of adapting literary works.\u00a0 Nearly all of his
\nmajor films were based on works by great Japanese writers and he worked closely with his wife, Natto Wada, who served as his
\nscreenwriter.<\/p>\n
\ngolden age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"