THE BURMESE HARP (Biruma No Tategoto) (1956) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Kon Ichikawa

Written by - Natto Wada (based on the novel by Michio Takeyama)

Starring - Rentaro Mikuno, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tanie Kitabayashi

"One of the greatest Japanese films of all time. KON ICHIKAWA's THE BURMESE HARP has lost none of its power throughout the years and significance as an anti-war film. 

Its story takes place during the final days of the Second World War. A group of Japanese soldiers hangs on, inspired by Private Mizushima’s Burmese harp playing make their way to an internment camp for repatriation. One of the private volunteers tries to persuade another group to surrender, and says he will follow them to the camp once the mission will be completed. But when he fails to appear, his comrades desperately search him, eventually realising that Mizushima has undertaken a compelling spiritual journey inspired by the horrors of the war which he sees on his way to the camp. 

This journey is what drives the film to its stature as a sublime and poetic cinematic masterpiece. THE BURMESE HARP meditates deeply upon its themes with an air of ponderous solemnity that translates to the big screen in a downright metaphysical way. It uses dialogue sparingly, carried instead by thoughtful silences and an impactful visual language, aided by the excellent majesty of the Burmese landscape, but also by its powerful pictorial allegories. 

ICHIKAWA's film is a sense-enhancing experience also makes an ingenious use of music, the music of the titular harp, which is enchanting. All of this contributes to a masterful handling of the film's etheral atmosphere that requires no blatant immediacy, shock value or violence to take an anti-war stance that is both haunting and effective as well as persuasive to this day."

War, Japan