Tamura is separated from his unit because he is suffering from Tuberculosis, but his disease is more representative of the disease that war inflicts on all its victims. Ichikawa's camera captures the hopelessness of the situation both in close-up and long shot. Tamura's odyssey is a chronicle of human misery and depravity. Fires on the Plain is an unflinching chronicle of the horror of war and some of the images are extremely disturbing. The source material for Fires on the Plain is quite good and consequently the image plays very well on laser.
Contrast ratios emphasize the power of the widescreen compositions.
Night scenes are powerfully depicted with the glow of light creating a aspect of horror to the surrounding devastation. The monaural sound is somewhat thin but it is noise free. For those lucky few with fully adjustable projection systems, you can adjust the position of the image to achieve your full widescreen view.