Horrific imagery appropriately tempered by Ichikawa's style. Very little violence is actually shown, instead the film focuses on the aftermath, dead bodies, confusion, starvation, desperation, etc. At times this feels a bit too detached but for the most part it's effective in creating a horrified but numbing effect and it gets the point across that war is hell.

the main character is so ugly i had to stop watching after 20 minutes

1000

2.dunya savasi sirasinda filipinler'de savasan japon ordusunun sonu gelmek uzeredir. bu sirada verem olan er tamura curuge ayrilinca bir cesit alice harikalar diyarini yasar. tabii savas zamani ne kadar harika olabilirse. epey cesur bir antimilitarist film.

Visceral to the bone.

Basically a series of bleak, ugly, bloody vignettes of awful wartime brutality. Unfortunately, after about a half an hour I stopped caring. The narrative is incredibly meandery and runs out of steam very quickly, the characters are basically non-existent, and the visual style is compelling at times, but usually pretty standard. I liked it more than The Burmese Harp, but I wasn't really taken with it overall.

Similar in form and scope to Come and See, but better.

Frightening and gorgeous filmmaking. The cinematography is even greater than that of The Burmese Harp, and Ichikawa's direction reaches such a horrifying pinnacle of brilliance in those last minutes that you feel the urge to hold your breath as if to better behold it, making sure not to blink while your eyes continue to water. The will and innocence of the main character in this inhuman surrounding of war makes a truly heart-wrenching watch. Fires on the Plain is awful in a most beautiful way.

Though, in my opinion, it comes up short of being a masterpiece, Fires on the Plain is still an damn good film with some great, haunting imagery and themes. The movie takes a while to get up on its feet, and the narrative is slightly aimless at times, but this is made up for with some nice photography, a great lead performance and a rock-solid concept that is compelling enough to push the movie into the territory of greatness.

a bloody underrestimated masterpiece

With unbelievably haunting cinematography, a gripping story, and a charming lead character, Fires on the Plain stands as one of the best war dramas I've ever seen. A slow start may make it hard to get in to at first, but as you start seeing the turmoil these soldiers are put through it's hard not to be emotionally floored by some of the gruesome scenes. It's truly riveting and is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing movies you could possibly find anywhere. A masterpiece.

A bleak and depressing, and intriguingly stylized, look at war and survival. Riveting and bold, peppered occasionally with twisted moments of very black humor

Fires on the Plain is painful to watch. Blood, mud, dead bodies, starvation, insanity, hopelessness, cruelty, and, of course, cannibalism, make this movie a hard pill to swallow. It may not be fun or entertaining, but it's still somehow satisfying to have seen it. Fires on the Plain is the sort of movie that feels like it has to be seen.

This picture is consumed with an air of defeat, hopelessness, and eventually insanity. Ichikawa's direction is nearly perfect, delving into the basic natures of war and humanity with a genius technical touch; the photography is at once beautiful and disturbing. It's a portrait of man reduced to his most primitive and carnal state, and one of the bleakest films I've ever seen, not to mention one of the best.

Interesting as a series of well-shot, disturbing and bleak images, but I thought the narrative was weak and the film lags in places. It's an odd thing, after watching the film for five minutes or so I could pull all these interesting ideas out of it, but longer than that and I lose interest; whereas other, "image driven" (as opposed to "plot driven") films, such as 2001 or Stalker, have sustained my interest. I think the "war is hell" motif is no longer as provocative as it was for me.

Fires on the Plains is not a pleasure to watch, and not in a bad way. The punishing, riveting scenes of war are drowned out by bleak and outstanding images of the battlefield. While the photography is definetly the highlight, it's also followed up by a close second and third for a noble lead character, and intriguing premise.

A lot of movies claim that war is hell, but this one really makes you believe it.