The film subtly takes digs at the American enemy, who would later occupy the Japanese homeland. It portrays the Americans as unable to stop Filipino guerilla retribution on the Japanese soldiers who try to surrender, for often they are gunned down by the native soldiers who are in league with the Americans. For this and other matters, some critics have labeled the film as either propagandistic, in its not portraying the barbarisms the Japanese inflicted upon the Philippines, or slyly subversive in its approach to the American conduct of the war. After all, we also see the results of American barbarity- the bombing of an army hospital. Also, the Japanese title of the film, Nobi, means a caste system of servitude or slavery in ancient Korea, and it spins the film in another direction- that not only are the Japanese soldiers defeated and worn out by the war against the Americans, but they are mere pawns or puppets to the ruling class of their own country.
In the end, after some black humor involving getting heckled by dead soldiers, going through several pairs of successively worse worn boots, eventually going barefoot, and avoiding getting knifed by Yasuda, who takes Tamura's grenade, he joins up with Nagamatsu, who ambushes and kills his mentor/tormentor. As Nagamatsu starts butchering Yasuda to eat, Tamura gets the gun his comrade left behind, and shoots him dead, in a last moment of what one might call decency. Some critics interpret this as a last show of decency by Tamura, yet, in that moment, like all things in war, there is no real way to ascribe motives, for we have seen Tamura shoot a Filipina dead for no good reason, which should have- by all civilized measure, been the end of his 'decency.' Thus, I see his refusal to cannibalize more of a death wish than a life affirming gesture. Having slain Nagamatsu, Tamura then sees the smoke that has risen over the plains throughout the film- the fires on the plain that are grain husks the Filipinos burn. As he approaches them, though, he is gunned down, presumably dead.
The DVD, put out by The Criterion Collection, lacks a film commentary, which is most disappointing, since many of the new releases by the company, since it switched over to the new semi-circle C logo, also lack a commentary. Is the vaunted Criterion starting to skimp on its DVD releases? That would be a shame, for they are often an excellent supplement to enhance an understanding of the film as art, but also as history, in cases as this. The film itself looks quite good, in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and does include a video introduction by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie. Unfortunately, like many of Richie's comments and analyses of film on other DVDs, this one is rather generic. A bit more interesting is an interview segment with the still living director, as well as Mickey Curtis, who played the cannibalistic Nagamatsu, who talks of the rigors of the film, as well as his fame as a 1950s Japanese teenybopper singer. The film has Criterion's often difficult to read white subtitles- always a downer on a black and white film, and the lack of an English language dubbed track is annoying, for it would have really helped this film. The DVD insert has an OK essay by film critic Chuck Stephens.
All in all, Fires On the Plain is an excellent film that, while lacking the technical panache of a Kurosawa film, and the narrative laser of an Ozu film, is one of the best war (or anti-war) films ever made, for it takes a conceit as simple as that found in Lord Of The Flies, and overlays it upon the tapestry of the greatest conflict in human history, for the losers of that war are also stuck on an island and in charge of their own small 'civilization.' It also, interestingly, gives a glimmer into what might have been on the minds of those fabled Japanese soldiers found stuck on Pacific atolls decades after the war's end. These and many other reasons enumerated and not, make the film, if not a must see, then certainly a film one is better for having seen.
In the end, after some black humor involving getting heckled by dead soldiers, going through several pairs of successively worse worn boots, eventually going barefoot, and avoiding getting knifed by Yasuda, who takes Tamura's grenade, he joins up with Nagamatsu, who ambushes and kills his mentor/tormentor. As Nagamatsu starts butchering Yasuda to eat, Tamura gets the gun his comrade left behind, and shoots him dead, in a last moment of what one might call decency. Some critics interpret this as a last show of decency by Tamura, yet, in that moment, like all things in war, there is no real way to ascribe motives, for we have seen Tamura shoot a Filipina dead for no good reason, which should have- by all civilized measure, been the end of his 'decency.' Thus, I see his refusal to cannibalize more of a death wish than a life affirming gesture. Having slain Nagamatsu, Tamura then sees the smoke that has risen over the plains throughout the film- the fires on the plain that are grain husks the Filipinos burn. As he approaches them, though, he is gunned down, presumably dead.
The DVD, put out by The Criterion Collection, lacks a film commentary, which is most disappointing, since many of the new releases by the company, since it switched over to the new semi-circle C logo, also lack a commentary. Is the vaunted Criterion starting to skimp on its DVD releases? That would be a shame, for they are often an excellent supplement to enhance an understanding of the film as art, but also as history, in cases as this. The film itself looks quite good, in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and does include a video introduction by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie. Unfortunately, like many of Richie's comments and analyses of film on other DVDs, this one is rather generic. A bit more interesting is an interview segment with the still living director, as well as Mickey Curtis, who played the cannibalistic Nagamatsu, who talks of the rigors of the film, as well as his fame as a 1950s Japanese teenybopper singer. The film has Criterion's often difficult to read white subtitles- always a downer on a black and white film, and the lack of an English language dubbed track is annoying, for it would have really helped this film. The DVD insert has an OK essay by film critic Chuck Stephens.
All in all, Fires On the Plain is an excellent film that, while lacking the technical panache of a Kurosawa film, and the narrative laser of an Ozu film, is one of the best war (or anti-war) films ever made, for it takes a conceit as simple as that found in Lord Of The Flies, and overlays it upon the tapestry of the greatest conflict in human history, for the losers of that war are also stuck on an island and in charge of their own small 'civilization.' It also, interestingly, gives a glimmer into what might have been on the minds of those fabled Japanese soldiers found stuck on Pacific atolls decades after the war's end. These and many other reasons enumerated and not, make the film, if not a must see, then certainly a film one is better for having seen.