Fires on the Plain (Nobi)
Directed by Kon Ichikawa
Written by Nata Wada from a novel by Shohei Ooka
1959/Japan
Daiei Studios/Kadokawa Herald Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
Quartermaster: Kill yourself only if you have to. Here are some rations.
There are some images I would rather not have indelibly etched upon my memory. This film contains several.
It is February 1945 on Leyte in the Philippines. MacArthur has returned and the U.S. is engaged in a mopping up operation. PFC Tamura has TB. The hospital sent him back to his unit with a few yams. His squad commander doesn’t want an extra mouth to feed either. He hands him a grenade and tells him if the hospital won’t take him back Tamura should kill himself. Tamura is nothing if not dutiful but he can’t quite bring himself to suicide.
The hospital won’t take anyone who can still walk. Tamura spends the remainder of the film wandering, sometimes alone and sometimes with companions. All are slowly starving to death and resort to increasingly horrifying acts of barbarity.
I loved Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp so I was looking forward to his other acclaimed WWII film. From the blurb, it sounded like Tamura would be a noble figure like the hero in the former film. Instead, Tamura is merely the least repugnant of survivors who are alive only because of their ruthlessness. I couldn’t help feeling pity for the men, and the images are stunning, but the whole thing is so hellish that I can’t see watching this again.
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