Review of The Burmese Harp

After seeing this poetically crafted anti-war film from the recent new DVD release from Criterion, I must say there are something disturbed me profoundly. 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. They enjoyed choral singing so much as if they weren't aware that they were battling with the British army in the tropical Burmese jungle during the final days of WWII. 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. But the film never showed even once any casualty or suffering of any Burmese people, which made it appeared as if the Burmese people during the war were nothing but a bunch of on-lookers. 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.