I feel destined to like but not quite love every Kon Ichikawa film I see that isn't Tokyo Olympiad. He's got a style all his own and I can see how the films he makes have impacted people, but they never quite hit the mark for me. I'm a bit detached from a good deal of his work, but I rarely find myself disliking what I've seen.
With The Burmese Harp, he makes an anti-war film that mostly takes place after the fighting's over, and has a unique way of looking at PTSD that is quite affecting, especially toward the end. There's one soldier who goes missing from his squad, adopts the lifestyle of a monk, and then remains searched for by his ex-soldiers who all want to locate him so they can return home, officially concluding their activities in the war.
I can appreciate The Burmese Harp would've been more moving upon release, and maybe offered some catharsis (even if other parts are downbeat and show surprisingly bleak sights for a film of this age... though another Japanese movie about the aftermath of WW2, Hiroshima, did predate this one and go further in certain places).
UPDATE: I forgot Kon Ichikawa did Fires on the Plain (1959). That was a great anti-war movie, and had more of an impact on me.
I think it's a solid older movie. It holds up better than a good many films of its age, but I don't quite love it as much as some of the very best films of its type that came out roughly in this era. It's good, for sure; I just wasn't finding myself loving it.
With The Burmese Harp, he makes an anti-war film that mostly takes place after the fighting's over, and has a unique way of looking at PTSD that is quite affecting, especially toward the end. There's one soldier who goes missing from his squad, adopts the lifestyle of a monk, and then remains searched for by his ex-soldiers who all want to locate him so they can return home, officially concluding their activities in the war.
I can appreciate The Burmese Harp would've been more moving upon release, and maybe offered some catharsis (even if other parts are downbeat and show surprisingly bleak sights for a film of this age... though another Japanese movie about the aftermath of WW2, Hiroshima, did predate this one and go further in certain places).
UPDATE: I forgot Kon Ichikawa did Fires on the Plain (1959). That was a great anti-war movie, and had more of an impact on me.
I think it's a solid older movie. It holds up better than a good many films of its age, but I don't quite love it as much as some of the very best films of its type that came out roughly in this era. It's good, for sure; I just wasn't finding myself loving it.