Fires on the Plain(野火)

Name: Fires on the Plain
Genre: Drama, War

Japan · 1959
1h 48m
Director Kon Ichikawa
Starring Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Mickey Curtis, Mantarō Ushio
Genre Drama, War

As the Second World War draws to an end, the survivors of the Japanese Army in Leyte are abandoned by their command and face certain starvation. A private with tuberculosis attempts to stay alive amid the squalid conditions and desperation, despite orders to commit suicide if the next hospital turns him away.

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What are critics saying?

The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young

Not an easy watch but a highly rewarding one.

Slant by Fernando F. Croce

The scabrous fury of Fires on the Plain feels closer to the heart of the notoriously hard-to-pin-down Japanese director.

Detroit Free Press by John Monaghan

Packs a powerful antiwar message. As with Eastwood's Iwo Jima, it dispels the myth that every Japanese soldier had the suicidal desire to die for his country.

100

Variety by Staff

This downbeat but fervent pic goes much further than the accepted war masterpieces in detailing humanity in crisis, and the spark left in one man. Production one of the most searing comments on war yet made.

100

The Guardian by Xan Brooks

Brilliantly bonkers and bloody.