Fires on the Plain

Fires on the Plain (Nobi, 1959) is Kon Ichikawa's harrowing war drama, which you can watch online on iFILM. It's late 1944 in the Philippines: Japan has already lost the campaign, the officers have been evacuated, and the infantry is left to die on the island of Leyte.

Private Tamura has tuberculosis, so nobody wants him around. The field hospital throws him back toward the trenches to save its medicine, and his unit pushes him out to save its rations. Alone, he drifts through mud and jungle with no ammunition and no food, past corpses and other abandoned men. Starvation drags the survivors toward a line that, once crossed, strips away what makes them human.

Adapted from Shohei Ooka's novel, Ichikawa's film is one of cinema's bleakest anti-war statements — no heroics, no score, no comfort, just stark black-and-white images. It isn't background viewing and isn't for the squeamish; it's a slow descent that lodges in your memory. Stream Fires on the Plain (1959) online on iFILM.