Fires on the plane illuminates the plight of Japanese soldiers all but abandoned in the Philippines toward the end of World War II.

Trying to evacuate with no clear command structure, no resources, and no food, their imperial armies scattered and lawless.

Director Khan Ichakawa went to remarkable extremes to make this film back in 1959.

Actors were underfed and mistreated in order to pull off performances that look authentically

crazed and starving.

The film follows Private Tomura, whose tuberculosis makes him too weak to fight.

His commander offers him a choice, get admitted to the overburdened field hospital, or commit

suicide with a grenade.

When the hospital is destroyed, Tamura sets off on an odyssey across the island,

encountering soldiers in varying states of starvation and insanity.

Americans are glimpsed only briefly,

and the Japanese appear to envy their wealth

more than hold any animosity.

The film climaxes with an extended setpiece

involving two other soldiers

who have conspired to kill Private Tomura using his own grenade and then to eat him.

After escaping, Tomura is finally killed approaching the fires on the plains, which have fascinated him throughout the film.

This profoundly agonizing story resonated with us as a remarkable work of art.

It's also the first foreign language film on the podcast. Tune in as we look on as another culture meditates on its own relationship with war and suffering.

Try a little salt on today's film, Fires on the plane. Welcome to friendly fire.

It's a show.

Yeah.

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