Biruma no tategoto

Plot synopsis:
Private Mizushima, a Japanese soldier, becomes the harp (or saung) player of Captain Inouye's group, composed of soldiers who fight and sing to raise morale in the World War II Burma Campaign. When they are offered shelter in a village, they eventually realize they are being watched by British soldiers. They retrieve their ammunition, then see the advancing force. Captain Inouye tells the men to sing, laugh and clap, to give the British the impression that they are unaware of their presence. Instead of firing at them, though, the British soldiers begin singing the same melody, "Home! Sweet Home!." Inouye's men learn that the war has ended with the Japanese surrender, and so they surrender to the British.
At a camp, a British captain asks Mizushima to talk down a group of soldiers who are still fighting on a mountain. He agrees to do so and is told by the captain that he has 30 minutes to convince them to surrender. At the mountain, he is almost shot by the hold-out soldiers before they realize he is Japanese. He climbs up to the cave and informs their commander that the war has ended and they should surrender. The commander confers with the other soldiers, and they unanimously decide to fight to the end. Mizushima begs for them to surrender but they do nothing. He decides to ask for more time from the British, but when he creates a surrender flag, the others take it the wrong way and believe he is surrendering for them. They beat him unconscious and leave him on the floor. The cave is bombarded and Mizushima is the only survivor.
Mizushima is helped to recover from his injuries by a monk. One day, Mizushima steals the monk's robe and shaves his head so that he will not be spotted as a soldier. He begins a journey to the camp where his comrades were sent. Finding many corpses of dead Japanese soldiers along the way, he decides to bury them.
Captain Inouye and his men are wondering what happened and cling to a belief that Mizushima is still alive. Eventually, they buy a parrot and teach it to say "Mizushima, let's go back to Japan together". They have an old woman villager take it to a monk they suspect is Mizushima in hiding. She returns the next day with another parrot that says "No, I cannot go back". She also gives the captain a letter, that explains that Mizushima has decided not to go back to Japan with them, because he must continue burying the dead while studying as a monk and promoting the peaceful nature of mankind. He states in the letter that if he finishes burying all the fallen soldiers' bodies, then he may return to Japan.

Tags: anti war

Review:
`I cannot leave the bones lying scattered on the hills.'More melodramatic than his harrowing Fires On The Plain, Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp is still an excellent film and a fascinating glimpse at another perspective of the 2nd World War than the usual (myopic and infantile) Hollywood triumphalism.
As with many Japanese films from this period, from Kurosawa to Godzilla, it has an elegiac and reflective quality to it born of the shock and disillusionment that followed the war.I personally was a little uncomfortable with the first 20 minutes of the film that were a little hokey with the singing platoon trying to slip through the forests of Burma to the Thai frontier.
I do not know if either of these films was influenced by The Burmese Harp, but if they were they modeled on an excellent and moving predecessor.Akira Ifukube's score is classic and will probably sound somewhat familiar to the viewer.
The story concerns a small band of Japanese soldiers who are fighting in a remote part of Burma, unaware that the unconditional surrender of Japan took place three days earlier.One of the band, Private Mizushima (Shoji Yasui), plays a harp to wile away the time and to entertain his comrades.
But the disguise is not really necessary, as the British themselves burst into song and the two nationalities blend in an instance of peace and harmony with renditions of "There's No Place Like Home."The Burmese harp itself is a central symbol in the film that serves to define Mizushima and his quest.
"The Burmese Harp" abounds in evocative images of Burmese villagers, Buddhist monks and Japanese soldier that once seen leave an indelible impression within the mind..
Based on a novel by Michio Takeyama, The Burmese Harp was the first film that brought director Kon Ichikawa to international attention.
It is the story of Mizushima (Shoji Yasui) a Japanese soldier in Burma at the close of World War Two who is sent on a mission by his Captain to inform another unit of the Japanese surrender and to convince them to stop fighting.
Determined to honor and bury the dead, Mizushima is conflicted about remaining in Burma to live a life of service or returning to Japan to help rebuild his own country.The film takes its name from a Burmese harp acquired by Mizushima.
After watching the film for the third time, I still feel a deep visceral pang when Mizushima covers his face and runs past yet another mountain of rotting bodies he finds on the shores of the river.What's really sad is that you can't get the movie on DVD!.
Directed by Kon Ichikawa ("Fires on the Plain"), this story is set during the last days of WWII, in Burma, with a troop of Japanese soldiers.
No matter if this were a Japanese company of soldiers, or a British company, most war movies don't touch on ideas like you'll find here.
The British notify the Japanese men that the war ended three days earlier, when Japan surrendered.
This is a justly famous film and well-received by reviewers, however, I could not watch the film without a sense of ironic detachment, especially when it is a Japanese filmmaker who is making a movie about his country's soldiers during WWII, and in a spot made notoriously hot for their enemies, Burma.
The key character here who saves the film is Mizushima, the one soldier who defects to become a Buddhist priest, and is not only outstandingly musical, but also able to "look like a native" Burmese, when wearing a sarong.
Mizushima, the soldier who fails to convince the holdouts to surrender (the only reference to Japanese fanaticism), is the only one who undergoes a spiritual change by the war and who suffers any guilt: he not only rejects further killing and his life as a soldier, but he alone rejects his nationality; this is signified by his desire not to return to Japan with his fellow soldiers at the end of the war.
Nowhere in the film, except in the stance of passive resistance that the Buddhist priest is known to take, do the soldiers or the filmmakers acknowledge the aggression of their own country as the cause of the war and reason for all these deaths.
The platoon led by Captain Inouye (Mikuni Rentaro) was depicted throughout the entire film more like a Boy Scout group than WWII Japanese Imperial soldiers.
The film never dropped any slightest hint of any suffering or hardship of the local Burmese people because of the war brought onto their land by the Japanese and British.
The film concentrated on the main character, the harp-playing soldier Mizushima's spiritual awakening while disguised as a Burmese monk fleeing alone from a deadly battle in the mountain to join up his platoon which have already surrendered and been taken as war prisoners by the British army.
The film showed several times how Mizushima was shocked and horrified upon seeing dead bodies of his fellow Japanese soldiers scattered in a raven, along a river bank or in the jungle.
The story in this film seemed to tell us that Mizushima's transformation from a soldier to a Buddhist monk was solely because he saw many dead bodies of his fellow Japanese soldiers but not because he saw the mass killings on ALL SIDES, including the death of innocent civilians.
Ichikawa Kon's film had an admirable anti-war intention and message, but unfortunately it appeared it laden with the ever subtle message that says "We Japanese soldiers are good people, we never really want to do harms to others, we suffered and died just like any other war victims." Some people may think this film has a clear Buddhist teaching in it, but the way I see it, it's not a pure Buddhist altruism because I can smell the 'nationalism' hidden behind that harp..
It was the striking subtlety in the visual style that properly denoted the overall theme of the movie.The Burmese Harp is about a Japanese soldier stationed in Burma during the days immediately following the end of World War II.
After retreating to the British, the soldier - Mizushima - is sent to try and convince another Japanese troop to surrender.
He is traumatized and dedicates his life to giving them a proper burial.The Burmese Harp is the first film by Kon Ichikawa to be seen outside of Japan.
"The Burmese Harp" is the story of a Japanese soldier who gets separated from his unit at the time of the Japanese surrender in Burma.
Before I review THE BURMESE HARP, I should point out that I had previously watched another Japanese anti-war film, FIRES ON THE PLAIN ("NOBI").
So, if you like the message in BURMESE HARP, then seeing FIRES ON THE PLAIN is an absolute must.This film is set in the final days of WWII.
From then on, instead of returning, he decides to don the robes of a Buddhist monk and travel the land burying the dead and dedicating his life to peace.When it comes to the technical aspects of the film, the music is wonderful and gives a rather surreal edge to the movie.
Stacked against that monumental war drama, The Burmese Harp is feeble and puny, an elegiac ode on humanism that lacks the power of conviction.The black and white cinematography is great, it is after all a visual master of Ichikawa's calibre we're talking about.
that this film champions devotional over nationalistic collectivism in the main character and individualism over collectivism in the form of the soldiers themselves (as well as openly criticising the fascism which gripped japan with the fate of the troop on triangle mountain) is a great thing and aided the cause of pacifism in post-war japan.the use of music is likewise, as a musician, deeply moving and almost unique in film but i can not walk away from this film without feeling it is somehow problematic.the history of Japanese war crimes is well documented (the use of rape as a weapon of war, indiscriminate torture and murder) and this is side-stepped in the film.
Never a word against war is spoken in this story, as the characters are all proud men of the Japanese army, but it conveys the message that war is wrong in the sincerest way.I didn't know that this movie was directed by Kon Ichikawa.
At the end of WWII, a Japanese platoon is stationed in the jungles of Burma, who have impressive singing skills inspired by their star musician, Private Mizushima...and his harp.
Mizushima's spiritual transformation from a fake monk, thief and soldier of war to that of a genuine bodhisattva warrior (a peaceful 'warrior' of wisdom, compassion and generosity) is reflected in a wonderful and unforgettable scene where his platoon assembles for choral practice in front of a large reclining Buddha statue.
This story is about Mizushima, who was in a Japanese outfit in Burma at the end of World War 2.
The company finds out Japan has surrendered in the war and Mizushima is chosen to try to persuade a defiant Japanese unit to surrender, as otherwise they will be slaughtered by the British.
To listen, for example, a company of British soldiers sing "There's No Place Like Home" and Mizushima accompany them on harp is tremendously powerful.
Kon Ichikawa's "Biruma no tategoto" ("The Burmese Harp" in English) does a good job with this.In July, 1945, a Japanese platoon in Burma gets captured by the British army.
Thus he sees his new mission in life: no longer can he be a soldier, but becomes a Buddhist monk, with the aim of healing all affected by the war.I see Mizushima as representing what Japan as a society had to do following its defeat in WWII.
This is one of the best-known and most impressive anti-war films  a companion piece to the same director's later, if more cynical, FIRES ON THE PLAIN (1959)  and, arguably, Ichikawa's finest.
 is, curiously, not mentioned at all in the interviews that accompany the movie on Criterion's exemplary DVD (though, admittedly, I haven't read the booklet).While I usually cringe at the sentimental songs that frequently crop up in Japanese films, here, this element is actually integral to the plot: the hero  a soldier thought dead, missing or AWOL  has learnt to play the titular instrument and used to complement with music the heartfelt singing of his companions (instigated by their music-lover captain for morale-boosting purposes).
Having become a monk, the soldier is staying at a Buddhist temple; at one point, while his outfit is looking for him in the vicinity, he instinctively resumes to playing the harp when they break into songbut he's determined not to return home with them (following the defeat and capitulation of the Japanese army) because of a spiritual calling by which he is to give dignified, honorary burial to the mass of dead comrades still lying around the battlefields of Burma, putrefying and at the mercy of prowling vultures.
Given the importance of music in the film, Akira Ifukube contributes a powerful and memorable score.Ichikawa had first intended to shoot the film in color, but the cumbersome equipment couldn't be carried on location  so, he stuck to black-and-white; consequently, he relied on expressive lighting to bring out all the various aspects of war such as honor, comradeship, fatigue, despair, fear of death, loneliness and, ultimately, serenity.
While there are a few harrowing scenes, they're not at the forefront as they would be in the afore-mentioned FIRES ON THE PLAIN; that film was basically a character study of a private driven to madness and cannibalism by the experience of war: as I said at the beginning, this shows the other side of the coin with respect to the effect of combat on a human being  where the inherent grimness is overcome by a selfless embrace of asceticism.
Well, whoever said it didn't see this film, which brilliantly sidesteps the problem by taking on an 'adult fairytale' (as the source book was described by its author) as a way of telling an anti war story.The film is set at the very end of the war, when the Japanese army, already routed, is persuaded to surrender.
But I think this misses the aim and theme of the movie, which is the savage waste of young lives represented by war, and how bravery in battle is nothing next to the spiritual nobility of the true pacifist represented in this film by the Buddhist monks.
If you are interested in an older Japanese language film with nice black and white images and choral music, you will love this movie.
Filled with Buddhism and the Buddhist way of life, the film explores altruism and sends a strong anti-war message that cannot be missed.
What happens next is tracked in two intertwining story lines - the first is the spiritual journey of Mizushima as he is traumatically affected by the overwhelming number of casualties he sees on his way back to the prison camp where the rest of his troop has been sent; the second is about Inouye and his men and how they use music to reconcile themselves to defeat and rebuilding their lives after the war.Considering how graphic many of the images are, it's hard to believe that the screenplay written by Ichikawa's wife Natto Wada was actually based on a young adult novel with an almost fairy tale tone.
Ichikawa shares this with him by the various songs -- particularly "There's No Place Like Home" sung in tandem by both Japanese and British soldiers and by the eerily beautiful burmese harp itself.
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.In Japan, Nikkatsu, the studio that commissioned the film, released it in two parts, three weeks apart.
a great postwar japan novel by Takeyama Michio made into a great anti-war film by Kon Ichikawa.
As the story set it's background and the time on a very specific historical event, it also borrowed not only ideas but positive ideas from other known facts of wars to remind the audience that the film wasn't created to blame the other country who has devastated Japan but to review and revise the consequences of war and the suffering of the humanity as a whole.For our hero in this film, he was battling between the urge to rejoin his friends, the opportunity of going back to his home country and the moral responsibility of taking care of the fallen comrade.
It takes place in a Burma where Japanese soldiers , and especially Mizushima, are primary characters.
It discusses the issue of patriotism, when regarding the Japanese soldiers and their surrender to the British army by the World War II.
Mizushima's troop became aware that it is way better to surrender, as British will probably attack and it will be needless death for Japanese soldiers in this War. Though some troops are agreed to surrender, there is another group that is against such decision.
Burmese Harp (1956) directed by Kon Ichikawa is an emotional and thought-provoking drama that basically reveals the difficulties Japanese soldiers had to cope with as the consequence of surrendering to British army at the end of World War II.
Meanwhile, Mizushima becomes a monk who decides to return to this motherland, Japan, only after burying the bodies of his countrymen.The movie seems to be very different from other US or European movies about the World War II.
The movie's another peculiarity is the way it demonstrates the role of Buddhism during the time of war both for Japanese and Burmese society.
The mere name of the movie, Burmese Harp, serves as a depiction of main topics illustrated in the film: patriotism, teamwork, respect, hardships of that time and more importantly hope.
In general, Burmese harp (1956) not only managed to fully convey the feelings of Japanese soldiers at the time of surrender, but also to inspire people to stay strong and maintain hope for a better future..
A well-known Japanese director Kon Ichikawa, in his masterpiece "The Burmese Harp", reveals how small groups of Japanese soldiers reacted to the end of the World War II.
All of the attempts to persuade this second group were in vain for the soldier Mizushima, the main hero of the movie, who could skilfully play the harp and accompanied the songs of his fellowmen.
When they finally managed to do so, they discovered that while feeling guilt for his failure to prevent the death of the soldiers, Mizushima becomes a monk and decides not to return to Japan unless the bodies of his countrymen are scattered in Burma.
Such elements of the movie are particularly important in a way that each of the two groups of soldiers seems to represent the Japanese spirit and a strong sense of the national identity.A harp being another central element of this film seems to serve several functions.
Director Kon Ichikawa's bizarre WWII mash-up of choral music, anti-war narrative, kinder and gentler Japanese soldiers, and Japan locations unsuccessfully masquerading as Burma makes for a fascinating film.
Basically, set during the Second World War, Japanese soldier Private Mizushima (Shôji Yasui) is the harp player in a group composed by Captain Inouye (Rentarô Mikuni) who raise morale for the Burma Campaign by fighting and singing.
As Australian captain at a camp asks Mizushima to talk down a group of soldiers still fighting on a mountain, he agrees and has 30 minutes to convince them to surrender, he is almost shot by them before they realise he is Japanese, he climbs up and informs the Defense Commander (Tatsuya Mihashi) the war is over and to surrender.
The United States emerges as top dog.Two of the major war films in Japanese post-war cinema were "Fires on the Plain" and "The Burmese Harp", both by director Kon Ichikawa.
Mizushima plays a lute, whose music becomes Ichikawa's metaphor for a humanity which is suffocated during war time.