World War II · Film · 1959
Fires on the Plain
野火
A sick Japanese private, rejected by his unit and by the field hospital, wanders the island of Leyte as the defeated army falls apart from hunger.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Interior of Leyte
Sent away with a few yams and a grenade, Tamura drifts between his starving unit and an overcrowded field hospital under shellfire.
Stop 2: Road to Palompon, western Leyte
Key location
Joining a column of ragged soldiers heading for the evacuation port, Tamura sees the army reduced to its last and darkest choices.
What really happened
US forces landed on Leyte on 20 October 1944, and the naval battle of Leyte Gulf destroyed Japan's ability to reinforce the island. By December the surviving Japanese troops were cut off without supplies and ordered to gather at the west-coast port of Palompon for evacuation that mostly never came; tens of thousands died of combat, disease and starvation, and there were documented cases of cannibalism.
The film adapts Shōhei Ōoka's 1951 novel; Ōoka had served as a soldier in the Philippines and was captured on Mindoro in January 1945. Kon Ichikawa filmed it in stark black and white, and it remains one of the most unflinching Japanese films about the war.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- 野火
- Directed by
- Kon Ichikawa
- Countries
- Japan
- Languages
- Japanese
- Released
- 1959
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Pacific
- Themes
- Combat
