The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto)

jac 03/01/30

Released: 1956
Length: 143 minutes [US release 116 minutes], B/W
Producer: Nikkatsu
Director: Ichikawa, Kon
Original Story: Takeyama, Michio [written in 1946]
Scriptwriter: Wada, Natto [ichikawa's wife]
Cinematographer: Yokoyama, Minoru
Music: Ifukube, Akira

Cast:

Captain Inoue…………………………………………Mikuni, Rentaro
Corporal Mizushima…………………………………Yasui, Shoji
Defense Commander…………………………………Mihashi, Tatsuya
Old Woman……………………………………………Kitabayashi, Tanie
Village Head……………………………………………Ito, Yunosuke
Kobayashi………………………………………………Naito, Takeo
Ito………………………………………………………Hamamura, Jun
Maki……………………………………………………Kasuga, Shunji
Baba……………………………………………………Nishimura, Ko

With:

Tsuchikata, Hiroshi
Mine, Sanpei
Koto, Yoshiaki
et al.
Awards: Venice International Film Festival San Giorgio Prize
                (for showing "man's capacity to live with one another"), 1956

Description:

The film is based on a novel originally written to introduce children to some of the tenets of Buddhism. As the war is ending, a Japanese soldier is sent on a mission to persuade a group of his comrades to surrender, but they choose to die instead. Profoundly affected, he undergoes a spiritual transformation which leads him to take on the task of wandering through Burma burying the war dead. Reunited briefly with his own unit just before they are finally sent back to Japan, they try to convince him to return with them, but he cannot abandon his personal attempt to redress the evils of the war.

Commentary:

For me this stands as the most powerful of the Japanese war films that appeared in the 1950's, primarily because the film makes a connection between the war and personal action. Most Japanese war films simply treat the Pacific War as a tragedy that befell the innocent. As such they do not explore how one might resist the onset of war or how one might behave in its aftermath to compensate for one's own actions. But The Burmese Harp is different: It's message is that one must assume responsibility through one's actions.

Such a view is clearly in accord with Buddhist notions of karma. It also resonates with western notions of guilt and penance for wrong actions. But guilt is often considered to be a western concept with less power in Japanese society, so its not clear that this film would be read in the same way by Japanese audiences.

The Burmese Harp is also unusual in that it was set and filmed outside of Japan. In contrast to western directors who often can't wait to go shoot pictures in "exotic" places, Japanese directors rarely shoot on location outside of Japan, and few films involve non-Japanese actors or non-Japanese settings.

Ichikawa thought this subject important enough that he remade the film in color in 1985, and the remake was the top box-office hit in Japan for that year. An animated educational version by Ishiguro was also released in 1986.