The Burmese Harp (1956)

Original title

ビルマの竪琴

Directed by

Kon Ichikawa

Genre

drama film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 56m

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 173 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

After World War II ends, a group of Japanese soldiers in Burma search for a missing comrade. They wonder if the Buddhist monk they see playing a harp is their friend who disappeared.

melancholicsolemnreflectivecontemplativepoignanttenderquietsomber

What happens

The Burmese Harp (ビルマの竪琴, Biruma no Tategoto; a.k.a. Harp of Burma) is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. Based on a children's novel of the same name written by Michio Takeyama, it tells the story of Japanese soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II. A member of the group goes missing after the war, and the soldiers hope to uncover whether their friend survived, and if he is the same person as a Buddhist monk they see playing a harp. The film was among the first to show the losses of the war from a Japanese soldier's perspective. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 1956. In 1985, Ichikawa remade The Burmese Harp in color with a new cast, and the remake was a major box office success, becoming the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1985 and the second largest Japanese box office hit up to that time. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Thick-Walled Room (1956)
• Night River (1956)
• The Baby Carriage (1956)
• Shūu (1956)
• Gyakukôsen (1956)
• A Wife's Heart (1956)
• The Balloon (1956)
• Rangiku monogatari (1956)