{"id":5337,"date":"2015-02-24T01:50:58","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T00:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5337"},"modified":"2015-02-24T01:50:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T00:50:58","slug":"fires-on-the-plain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/02\/24\/fires-on-the-plain\/","title":{"rendered":"Fires on the Plain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fires<\/a>
Fires on the Plain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nDirector:<\/B> Shin’ya Tsukamoto

\nWriter:<\/B> Shin’ya Tsukamoto

\nBased on the book by:<\/B> Shohei Ooka

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Nobi<\/i>

\nJapan 2014

\n87 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

War is hell! But that cliché is often contained in a more mundane frame. In Terrence Malick\u2019s 1998 The Thin Red Line<\/i> the battle for Guadalcanal is soothed by philosophical voice-overs and magic hour photography. The same year Saving Private Ryan<\/i> had Steven Spielberg seek to justify the bloody horror of war with a broader \u2018good war\u2019\/ \u2018greatest generation\u2019 frame. Clint Eastwood\u2019s twin films Flags of Our Fathers<\/i> and Letters from Iwo Jima<\/i> are remarkable for their shifting perspectives and ambivalence, but as with the HBO series Band of Brothers<\/i> and The Pacific<\/i>, there is a sense that each film is careful of its historical context. Authenticity is as much concerned with uniforms and hardware as with the lived experience of war. <\/p>\n

Fires on the Plain<\/i> offers something quite different. Shin’ya Tsukamoto presents a tubercular nightmare vision of war in all its bloody ferocity. This is an infernal internal vision. Private Tamura (Tsukamoto himself) racked with TB is a dead man walking, staggering from field hospital, where he is refused treatment, back to his unit, where he is beaten because he is too sick to forage for food. \u2018If they turn you away again, kill yourself with the grenade,\u2019 his commanding officer tells him. But some feint erotic memory keeps Tamura clinging to life and he flees into the jungle as the Americans launch another attack. <\/p>\n

Everything we see from Tamura\u2019s perspective is heightened with the same mad subjectivity that carved Tsukamoto\u2019s punk body-horror Tetsuo<\/i><\/a> a cult niche. The jungle is a painful emerald green, so gorgeously fecund and vital as to make it seem impossible that these men are all starving and rotting away. The enemy is an invisible power striking with God-like impunity from the skies, and even when the soldiers are drawn into battle on the ground they first unleash a God-like bright light onto proceedings, before the machine guns and bullets begin to churn up bodies once more. <\/p>\n

Taken from Shohei Ooka’s novel Nobi<\/i> \u2013 already filmed in 1959 by Kon Ichikawa \u2013 Fire on the Plains<\/i> tears to shreds ideas of Japanese military honour. There is scant Bushido here. All cohesion and discipline has broken down, and madness grips the tattered remnants of the army. Isolated from his unit and ever closer to death, Tamura is pushed to the extreme, stripped of everything that makes him human, wandering the jungle looking for escape. Like John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific<\/i> (1968), the film attains the power of fable as Tamura descend through a paradisiacal landscape into a realm of the dead, where the survivors are reduced to cannibalism, gnawing on each other like something from a Goya canvas.<\/p>\n

Fires on the Plain<\/i> screened as part of Black Movie Festival 2015<\/a>.<\/div>\n

John Bleasdale<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shin’ya Tsukamoto\u2019s latest film offers a horrific vision of war as internal hell.
\nReview by John Bleasdale<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[522,666,743,365],"class_list":["post-5337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-festivals","tag-japanese-film","tag-shinya-tsukamoto","tag-tetsuo","tag-war-films"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-1o5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3069,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2012\/07\/02\/kotoko\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":0},"title":"Kotoko","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Shin'ya Tsukamoto's latest film starts with an intensity that doesn't diminish throughout the film. Review by Nicola Woodham","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/review_KOTOKO-594x602.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/review_KOTOKO-594x602.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/review_KOTOKO-594x602.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3946,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/01\/03\/bullet-ballet\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":1},"title":"Bullet Ballet","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"January 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tsukamoto returns to the punchy monochrome look of Tetsuo, a style that feels apropos to this odyssey of rage and self-destruction. Review by Mark Player","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bullet Ballet 2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Bullet-Ballet-2-594x401.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Bullet-Ballet-2-594x401.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Bullet-Ballet-2-594x401.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3964,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/01\/08\/tokyo-fist\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":2},"title":"Tokyo Fist","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Shinya Tsukamoto's 1995 cult classic offers a viewing experience that will leave you exhausted, but in the best possible way. Review by Mark Player","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tokyo Fist 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Tokyo-Fist-1-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Tokyo-Fist-1-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Tokyo-Fist-1-594x395.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5862,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/10\/02\/a-snake-of-june\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":3},"title":"A Snake of June","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"October 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Although overshadowed by his 1990s body shockers, Tsukamoto\u2019s tale of sexual reawakening is one of his most powerful films. Review by Mark Player","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Snake of June","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/A-Snake-of-June-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/A-Snake-of-June-594x395.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/A-Snake-of-June-594x395.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1874,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/08\/02\/this-transient-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":4},"title":"This Transient Life","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"August 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Buddhist symbolism abounds in director Akio Jissoji's small-screen work and he had a knack for juxtaposing the fantastical with the mundane. Review by Tom Mes","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/This-Transient-Life_1_web-594x417.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/This-Transient-Life_1_web-594x417.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/This-Transient-Life_1_web-594x417.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6139,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/01\/18\/jeruzalem\/","url_meta":{"origin":5337,"position":5},"title":"JeruZalem","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The gates of hell open in Jerusalem in this tense and fun Israeli horror film. Review by Greg Klymkiw","rel":"","context":"In "Check it out"","block_context":{"text":"Check it out","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/check-it-out\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"JERUZALEM_STILL_1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/JERUZALEM_STILL_1-594x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/JERUZALEM_STILL_1-594x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/JERUZALEM_STILL_1-594x300.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5340,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337\/revisions\/5340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}