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Poster for Fires on the Plain

Fires on the Plain

1959 · 1h 45m · Not Rated Drama, War
Directed by Kon Ichikawa

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Overview

In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
100%
Tomatometer
Fresh

This downbeat but fervent pic goes much further than the accepted war masterpieces in detailing humanity in crisis, and the spark left in one man. Production one of the most searing comments on war yet made.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

Packs a powerful antiwar message. As with Eastwood's Iwo Jima, it dispels the myth that every Japanese soldier had the suicidal desire to die for his country.

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
Fresh

The performance of Eiji Funakoshi as the straggler cannot help but make you feel a terrible sense of the human waste and pathos represented in the ruin of this poor man.

Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh

No other film on the horrors of war has gone anywhere near as far as Kon Ichikawa's 1959 Japanese feature.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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