Friends to the last
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Friends to the last (Alternative title: The Harp of Burma) |
| Original title | Biruma no Tategoto ビ ル マ の 竪琴 |
| Country of production | Japan |
| original language | Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 116 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kon Ichikawa |
| script |
Michio Takeyama (based on the novel) Natto Wada |
| production | Masayuki Takagi |
| music | Akira Ifukube |
| camera | Minoru Yokoyama |
| cut | Masanori Tsujii |
| occupation | |
| |
Friends to the Last (Alternative title: The Harp of Burma ) is a Japanese film from 1956. It tells the story of a Japanese company in Burma at the end of the Second World War . At the Academy Awards in 1957 , he was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film section . The film is based on the novel of the same name by Takeyama Michio .
The film was originally released in two parts in Japan: the first part ( ビ ル マ の 竪琴 第一 部 , Biruma no Tategoto: Dai-ichi-bu ) with 63 minutes on January 21, 1956 and the second part ( ビ ル マ の 竪琴第一 部 , Biruma no Tategoto: Dai-ni-bu ) with 81 minutes on February 12, 1956. These 144 minutes were later cut into a one-piece of 116 minutes.
action
In July 1945 the Inouye Company was in retreat in Burma. She wants to get through to the Thai border. Your captain Inouye enjoyed a musical education, his company practiced choir singing and instructed private Mizushima Yazuhiko to play saung .
After Japan surrendered, the company went into British captivity. While the company is on its way to the prison camp in Mudon , Mizushima is selected by his captain for a special mission:
A Japanese unit is holed up in a mountain cave and does not want to give up. At the request of the British Army, Mizushima is supposed to get them to surrender; he is given thirty minutes to do that. But the unit refuses and Mizushima is shot at together with her. He survived seriously injured. A Burmese Buddhist monk takes care of him and nurses him back to health.
Mizushima steals his robe and sets off for Mudon. The Burmese people help the supposed monk to survive the rigors of the hike by donating food to him. On his journey he repeatedly saw the unburied corpses of Japanese soldiers, which he initially buried; but later he gives up this undertaking. In Mudon he happens to be attending a funeral of an unknown Japanese soldier, whom the British hospital staff pay their last respects in a Christian style and with song. Mizushima decides not to return to his company and instead to bed the corpses to rest.
But the company and especially the captain are very interested in Mizushima's whereabouts. Although it is very likely that he died, encounters with a young local monk and with harp music played in Mizushima's style always give rise to hope after a reunion.
When the company is allowed to return to Japan, its members try to convey a message to the monk with the help of a talking parrot, which they succeed. It turns out that it is indeed Mizushima and he doesn't want to come back to Japan with me. On the crossing to Japan, the captain reads Mizushima's letter to the company aloud, and the company is moved by his plans. At the end it is also shown which company member accompanied the film as the narrator.
Remake
In 1985 the director filmed the book again.
criticism
The Lexicon of International Film rates friends down to the last as a "[very] impressive anti-war film, shaped by [sic] a strange, symbolic imagery and humanitarian commitment."
Web links
- Friends till the last in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ ビ ル マ の 竪琴 第一 部 . In: allcinema. Retrieved February 13, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ ビ ル マ の 竪琴 第一 部 望 郷 篇 . In: 日本 映 画 デ ー タ ベ ー ス . Retrieved February 13, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ ビ ル マ の 竪琴 第二部 . In: allcinema. Retrieved February 13, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ a b ビ ル マ の 竪琴 第二部 . In: 日本 映 画 デ ー タ ベ ー ス . Retrieved February 13, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ a b http://www.zweitausendeins.de/filmlexikon/?sucheNach=titel&wert=25527