NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective disc.

ADDITION: Criterion 4K UHD (August 2025): Criterion have transferred Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain to Blu-ray and 4K UHD. It is cited as a "New 4K digital restoration" with "one 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features". The Blu-ray is also sold separately. We reviewed the Criterion DVD back in 2007 HERE. The new transfers are significantly darker showing more grain textures. Ichikawa's direction, informed by his background as a painter, employs stark black-and-white cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (The Burmese Harp, Play It Cool, Blind Beast, The Red Angel) to evoke a nightmarish, expressionist hellscape: wide shots of corpse-strewn fields resembling apocalyptic vegetation, blurred lines between reality and hallucination, and meticulous framing that uses empty spaces and contrasts for formal splendor. The camera remains impartial, like a forensic observer, avoiding emotional manipulation through quick, quiet deaths and absent grand battles - effects are budget-constrained, with off-screen bombings relying on sound for impact. The visual style of Fires on the Plain is a triumph of expressionism, transforming the Philippine jungles into an apocalyptic tableau that mirrors the protagonist Tamura's inner collapse. The resulting 2160P has sharper facial details on the emaciated soldiers and more immersive wide shots that emphasize isolation and despair. Compared to the previous DVD edition, which showed minor scratches and artifacts, this restoration appears pristine, making the visual horrors even more visceral while maintaining the film's expressionist beauty.  

Like 4K UHD transfers of The Long Wait, I, the Jury, and many others below, Criterion's 2160P transfer of Fires on the Plain does not have HDR applied (no HDR10, HDR10+, nor Dolby Vision.) We have seen many other 4K UHD transfers without HDR; Mondo Macabro's Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf, Cult Film's Django 4K UHD, Umbrella's 4K UHD transfer of Peter Weir's The Last Wave, Radiance's Palindromes, and Criterion's 4K UHD transfers of Killer of Sheep, Chungking Express, Winchester '73, The Mother and the Whore, I Am Cuba, The Others, Rules of the Game, Branded to Kill, In the Mood For Love, Night of the Living Dead, and further examples, Masters of Cinema's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Kino's 4K UHDs of Bob le Flambeur, Last Year at Marienbad, Nostalghia, The Apartment, For a Few Dollars More, A Fistful of Dollars, In the Heat of the Night, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Koch Media's Neon Demon + one of the 4K UHD transfers of Dario Argento's Suspiria.  

NOTE: We have added 52 more large resolution 4K UHD captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray and 4K UHD, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Yasushi Akutagawa's (Gate of Hell, An Actor's Revenge) score is occasionally melodramatic, but the film's power lies in visual texture: cascades of carnage, swarms of flies, and surreal visions that prefigure the Japanese New Wave. Wada's script boldly adapts the novel, stripping religious elements for visceral force, while Ichikawa infuses bleak humor - e.g., a soldier's gallows wit from a puddle - to breach the divide between comedy and shock, creating a disturbing, uncompromising tone that leaves audiences emotionally hollowed. It was influenced by Dmitri Shostakovich and Russian film music, delivering an "effective music score" that complements the production values without overpowering the narrative. Occasionally melodramatic, the music underscores moments of irony and despair, such as Tamura's futile odyssey, evoking a sense of inexorable doom. Ambient sounds; the crunch of boots on mud, ragged breaths of starving men, and occasional bursts of gunfire or explosions punctuate the isolation. These elements create a "feverish" auditory texture, mirroring the visual fever dream and reinforcing themes of dehumanization - cannibalism's horrors are implied through subtle, unsettling noises rather than graphic excess. The uncompressed monaural soundtrack offers a clean and faithful reproduction of the film's original audio, capturing the subtle nuances of Akutagawa's occasionally melodramatic score alongside the sparse, impactful sound design. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray. and Region FREE 4K UHD.

Criterion's 4K UHD package duplicates the 2007 DVD's special features - both on the accompanying Blu-ray disc, starting with a dozen minute introduction by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie, who provides historical and thematic context to Ichikawa's anti-war masterpiece. A 20-minute program features archival interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Mickey Curtis, offering personal reflections on the production challenges and the film's unflinching portrayal of human degradation. The set is rounded out by an essay from critic Chuck Stephens in the included booklet, delving into the adaptation from Shohei Ooka's novel and Ichikawa's stylistic choices. Nothing new.

Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain stands as a seminal anti-war film adapted from Shohei Ooka's 1951 semi-autobiographical novel, which draws from the author's own harrowing experiences as a soldier and prisoner during World War II. Unlike Ichikawa's earlier pacifist work The Burmese Harp (1956), which offers Buddhist redemption amid war's ruins, Fires on the Plain plunges into unrelenting despair, portraying war not as a heroic endeavor but as a force that strips away civilization, leaving only primal survival instincts. This black-and-white masterpiece, produced by Daiei Studios, earned critical acclaim, including Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director and Cinematography, and a director's prize at the 1961 Locarno Film Festival, influencing later anti-war cinema and even inspiring a 2014 remake by Shinya Tsukamoto. The film's gore, though tame by modern standards, retains a "raw grittiness" that shocked 1950s audiences, with make-up and costume design adding historical realism to skeletal soldiers and acts of cannibalism. Overall, Criterion's 4K UHD edition of Fires on the Plain stands as an essential upgrade for cinephiles, elevating one of Japanese cinema's most powerful anti-war films through a meticulous restoration that respects its grim poetry. Though the supplements could be more expansive, this dual-format set (with a 4K UHD disc and Blu-ray) is a worthy addition to any collection, reaffirming Ichikawa's vision as a timeless indictment of human suffering - highly recommended for those prepared for its unrelenting intensity. Absolutely recommended.

Gary Tooze