Reviewed by: Alex Miller
Kon Ichikawa, 1959 / "Kill yourself only if you have to."
Although this is technically the 2nd Criterion Collection film we have reviewed (after Videodrome), this is the first in our “Criterion Review” series. If you don’t know what the Criterion Collection is, it’s basically a company the strives to release important classic and contemporary films while giving them the highest possible treatment. Crtierion DVDs/Blurays are known for their high quality video transfers, outstanding cover art, and exclusive bonus features. Here is a complete List of the Collection. Now without further adue let’s take a look at today’s film “Fires on the Plain”!
Some people go to the movies for pure entertainment. Others go because they view film as a form of artwork that can be both deep and moving. I think film can be either one or both. This film, while entertaining to me, is dark and depressing. It is definitly art, however. This is a WWII movie from the Japanese perspective, released in 1959. It follows starving Japanese soldiers in the closing days of WWII when the only thing more scarce than food is hope. While it doesn’t try to make any political statements regarding that particular war, it is definitly an anti-war in general film. In the included interview, Director Kon Ichikawa states that he wanted to show the horrors of war at every possible opportunity. He himself was from Hiroshima, but he was away when the atomic bomb hit. He came back to see the utter destruction which he says, “no words can describe”, believing his family had been completely wiped out. Luckily he later found out that at least some of his family had managed to survive, but I think he channels this moment of total despair into the movie. (more…)
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