Biruma no tategoto (1956)

Director:

Kon Ichikawa

Writers:

Michio Takeyama (novel)
Natto Wada (writer)

Release Date:

28 April 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | War

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Buddhist | Surrender | Soldier | Dead

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Rentarô Mikuni	...	Captain Inouye
Shôji Yasui	...	Mizushima
Jun Hamamura	...	Ito
Taketoshi Naitô	...	Kobayashi (as Takeo Naito)
Shunji Kasuga	...	Maki
Kô Nishimura	...	Baba (as Akira Nishimura)
Keishichi Nakahara	...	Takagi
Toshiaki Ito	...	Hashimoto
Hiroshi Tsuchikata	...	Okada
Tomio Aoki	...	Oyama
Nobuteru Hanamura	...	Nakamura
Sanpei Mine	...	Abe
Takashi Koshiba	...	Shimizu
Tomoko Tonai
Tokuhei Miyahara	...	Nagai

Also Known As:

Harp of Burma
The Burmese Harp (USA)

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Burma

Company:

Nikkatsu

Trivia:

Kon Ichikawa said the original novel was treated as a fantasy, but he chose to eliminate that aspect of the story.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The 'British' officer in charge of the funerary cremation repository speaks with a decidedly Australian, not British, accent.

Quotes:

Subtitles: [Last lines] The soil of Burma is red, and so are its rocks!

Movie Connections:

Remade as Biruma no tategoto (1985)

Soundtrack:

Hanyuu no Yado

A Japanese elegy

This is a film about the immediate aftermath of war from the perspective of the defeated. A Japanese company exhausted by their retreat through the Burmese jungle learn of their nation's surrender. At the request of their allied captors one of their number, Mizushima, agrees to journey to a mountain stronghold where another company is still holding out and engaging in combat. He tries to persuade his compatriots to lay down their arms and narrowly escapes death when they are massacred after refusing to give in. Appalled by the carnage around him, Mizushima decides not to return to his colleagues or country. Disguised as a Buddhist monk, he embarks on the task of laying to rest the war dead that would otherwise fall prey to the vultures. There is nothing in the way of plot beyond this. "The Burmese Harp" is that rare thing, a war film that does not rely on action. Rather does it attempt to define the innate dignity of a former aggressor attempting to salvage some sort of meaning through reparation rather than taking the comfortable course that peace can offer. Ichikawa's tender tribute to a form of saintliness sometimes totters on the tightrope of sentimentality and oversimplification - did ever weary soldiers sing more beautifully! - but by the end the message overrides all doubts. We are witnessing a proud expansionist nation coming to terms with collapse and attempting, through the powerful symbol of Mizushima, to expiate its past. Ichikawa made this film towards the end of the golden age of monochrome. that of Welles, Reed, Wyler and Ford. Like those giants he gives us wonderful closeups. "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.