880-02 Biruma no tategoto [videorecording] / [Janus Films ; Nikkatsu Corp. ; produced by Masayuki Takagi ; original story, Michio Takeyama ; screenplay, Natto Wada ; directed by Kon Ichikawa].
Format:
[videorecording] /
Edition:
Standard format (1.33:1).
Publisher:
Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
c2007
Description:
1 videodisc (116 min.) : sd., b&w ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (16 p. : ill. ; 19 cm.)
Rentaro Mikuni, Shoji Yasui, Jun Hamamura, Taketoshi Naito, Ko Nishimura, Shunji Kasuga, Tanie Kitabayashi, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yunosuke Ito. English credits from subtitles. Originally produced as a motion picture in 1956. Special features (in Japanese with English subtitles, 32 min.): Kon Ichikawa interview (2005, 16 min.); Rentaro Mikuni interview (2006, 12 min.); original theatrical trailer (4 min.); color bars. Booklet includes an essay by Tony Rayns ("Unknown soldiers").
Contents:
Battalion song -- "All clear" -- Unexpected reception -- "Home, Sweet Home" -- Mizushima's mission -- Thirty minutes -- MIA -- Priest -- "Burma is the Buddha's country" -- Burning the dead -- Poor souls -- "I know now. . ." -- Burmese ruby -- "That's how Mizushima played it" -- Parrot speaks -- White box -- Inside the Buddha -- Old woman honors a request -- Song of farewell -- Other parrot -- Returning home -- "My captain and brothers at arms" -- Penitent wanderer always.
Summary:
"An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment disguising himself as a Buddhist monk ... An eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death [that] remains one of Japanese cinema's most overwhelming antiwar statements, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan's wartime legacy" -- Container.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.