Discover

is a 1959 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. The screenplay, written by the director's wife, Natto Wada, is based on the novel ''Nobi'' (Tokyo 1951) by Shohei Ooka, translated by Ivan Morris as ''Fires on the Plain'' (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1957).

Contents

Plot

Critical Reaction

Awards

Primary cast

External links

Plot

Set on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, in the winter of 1945, as Allied forces cut the Japanese off from support. The Japanese army, with barely any weapons or ammunition, has been told to fight to the death or commit suicide. Private Tamura, malnourished and sick, tries to find his way across a devastated landscape, killing only by accident, avoiding death only by chance. Tamura comes across a couple of other soldiers headed to the town of Palampon from where it is rumored they will be evacuated. In an attempt to cross a heavily traveled road at night hundreds of Japanese are gunned down. In the morning, the Red Cross arrives and Tamura plans to surrender but watches as a Filipina guerilla soldier in an American jeep guns down survivors of the attack. He again begins wandering. Delirious with hunger Tamura comes across his comrades who claim to have survived on “monkey meat.” Tamura eventually heads towards the fires he sees, trying to find someone normal. He is shot dead.

Critical Reaction

Critics have appreciated the film's stark but beautiful cinematography and bleak tone, seeing in the film a condemnation of war. Some wondered if Ichikawa intended a message of redemption, although others point out that the film omits much of the Christian imagery of the novel. One critic suggests that “only when Tamura finds acceptance, rather than expecting the world to conform to his Confucian expectations, does he finally find peace (and death), as he realizes that he cannot live in the world.” [1] The tone is in contrast with Ichikawa’s Burmese Harp, also set in World War II, and his Enjo, set in Occupation Japan.

Awards

In 1960, the film won the Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography, the Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actor (Eiji Funakoshi) and the Mainichi Film Concours for Best Actor (Eiji Funakoshi), all three in Tokyo. In 1961 it also won the Golden Sail at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Primary cast

★ Eiji Funakoshi as Tamura

★ Osamu Takizawa as Yasuda

★ Mickey Curtis as Nagamatsu

★ Mantarô Ushio as Sergeant

★ Kyu Sazanaka as Army surgeon

★ Yoshihiro Hamaguchi as Officer

★ Asao Sano as Soldier

★ Masaya Tsukida as Soldier

★ Hikaru Hoshi as Soldier

External links

★

★ ''Fires on the Plain'' at the Japanese Movie Database

★ Criterion Collection essay by Chuck Stephens