THE BURMESE HARP Movie Review

Harp of Burma
Birumano Tategoto

Director Kon Ichikawa's exquisite, heartfelt 1956 film—set in Burma at the close of World War II—is the story of a Japanese private who finds himself emotionally unprepared for Japan's defeat, as well as for the unimaginable death and destruction around him. Almost instinctively, he undergoes a religious experience that causes him to refuse to return to his defeated homeland, choosing instead to remain behind and face the massive task of burying the dead. The private's obsession at first seems a kind of national penance, in which an individual suddenly awakens to the results of a collective madness; as it continues, however, The Burmese Harp becomes a universal act of grieving for the human and emotional toll taken by all wars, on all sides. In addition to the private's obsession, Ichikawa himself was reportedly obsessed with committing Michio Takeyama's novel to film, and despite the praise and near-classic status with which it was greeted, the director chose to make the picture yet again in 1985.

NEXT STOP … Enjo, Fires on the Plain, Rhapsody in August

1956 115m/B JP Shoji Yasui, Rentaro Mikuni, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tanie Kitabayashi, Yunosuke Ito; D: Kon Ichikawa; W: Natto Wada; C: Minoru Yokoyama; M: Akira Ifukube. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘56: Best Foreign-Language Film. VHS, LV CVC, TPV