What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #36

I didn’t necessarily find the film all that great, but at the same time it wasn’t all that bad. There is a great sequence in the rain of which Roger Ebert, a great admirer of the film who provides an audio commentary on the official Criterion edition, mentions in his essay on the film writes:

His shots are direct, but often beautiful. Notice the way he handles an argument between the old actor and his mistress. The camera does not move. They are on opposite sides of a narrow street. It is raining in between them. She walks back and forth with a red umbrella. Break this up into dramatic closeups, and you’d shatter it. The space and rain between them is the visual counterpoint to their feelings.

One other thing Ebert mentions, and actually made me happy to see someone else thought the same, was how the score reminded of him of Tati’s M. Hulot’s Holiday. While I didn’t have a specific Tati film in mind, that is exactly what I was thinking. Ebert refers to the score as “lilting and nostalgic,” and I would definitely go with lifting, but rather than nostalgic I would add “festive” on top of my earlier description calling it jovial. This was the main reason it felt like a comedy for much of its early moments.

However, as to my overall opinion of the film, Ebert writes so passionately about director Yasujiro Ozu it would seem I should seek out more of his work before coming to a final verdict. Much of the acting seemed rather stiff to me, but the storytelling certainly worked. Neither outweighed the other, which is why I feel so moderate on the whole thing, but perhaps some of Ozu’s other work will give me some insight into what I otherwise missed.

While the two films aren’t exactly alike; in fact Iwo Jima has the feel of Hollywood while Fires on the Plain will turn your stomach at the depravity of human kind and the depths people will go. Iwo Jima, no matter how dark you think it gets, is child’s play compared to Fires on the Plain which is an immediate slap in the face as a tubercular soldier is condemned and sent back to the hospital from which he came as he is not wanted in his present company. When he arrives at the hospital his company is bombed and the hospital not too long afterward. He is left to roam the countryside in search of food and relief all while carrying a grenade he was given and told if the hospital won’t help you, just kill yourself.

This film is grisly and unrelenting. Men turn to cannibalism and that isn’t all they eat as they reach between their legs for a mouthful all while claiming Buddha is on his way to save them. Just typing that again makes me cringe.

To see how director Kon Ichikawa starts the film with fury and never slows down from there, hit play below and watch the opening 5:48 of the film. If it doesn’t convince you to give this one a shot, I would be surprised, but make sure it’s a night where you’re prepared for realism and not necessarily in need of entertainment in the traditional Hollywood sense.