March
2007
Fires on the Plain (1959) – Kon Ichikawa1
Fires on the Plain (Nobi) is one of the most powerful Anti-War movies I have ever seen. Which is surprising because it’s not about the war itself, as the soldiers hardly do any battle in the film. Taking place in the Philippines near the end of WWII, it is very a bleak and uncompromising look at abandoned Japanese Imperial soldiers trying to survive in a harsh environment, but without any hope of ever being truly rescued. The Japanese have clearly been beaten, but because of the insane logic of Bushido they cannot allow themselves to consider surrender. They are near starvation, stuck in a foreign land that does not want them, and collapsing under the weight of superior American firepower.
At its core, the film is about how far humans will go to maintain their own existence. The lead character Tamura is a good soldier who can’t abandon his humanity, though he is as frightened and lost as his comrades. Before he departs for a hospital that will reject him as too healthy, Tamura is given a hand grenade by a superior who recognizes the hopelessness of their situation and advises Tamura to kill himself. But the will to survive, along with the fear of death is too strong. Is he willing to deceive, murder, or even resort to cannibalism like some of his comrades have just to live a little bit longer?
This is one of those films that will stick with you for well after you have seen it, as it is horrifying in its depiction of these events. It’s a truly powerful film. Ichikawa produced a stark representation of the victimization of soldiers by a confluence of bad political decisions and cultural pressures.
