Kon Ichikawa

The Burmese Harp

The Burmese Harp

An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. Magnificently shot in hushed black and white, Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp is an eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death and remains one of Japanese cinema’s most overwhelming antiwar sentiments, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan’s wartime legacy.

Film Info

  • Japan
  • 1956
  • 116 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • Japanese
  • Spine #379

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Rentaro Mikuni
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns

    Cover by Michael Boland

Purchase Options

Coming soon, available Aug 5, 2025

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Interviews with director Kon Ichikawa and actor Rentaro Mikuni
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns

    Cover by Michael Boland
The Burmese Harp
Cast
Rentaro Mikuni
Captain Inouye
Shoji Yasui
Private Mizushima
Taniye Kitabayashi
Nippon woman
Tatsuya Mihashi
Defense commander
Yunosuke Ito
Village head
Credits
Director
Kon Ichikawa
Producer
Masayuki Takaki
Original story
Michio Takeyama
Screenplay
Natto Wada
Cinematography
Minoru Yokoyama
Lighting
Ko Fujibayashi
Sound
Masakazu Kamiya
Music
Akira Ifukube
Editing
Masanori Tsuji

Current

The Burmese Harp: Unknown Soldiers
The Burmese Harp: Unknown Soldiers

The first of his films to be shown outside Japan, Ichikawa Kon’s twenty-seventh feature dramatically raised the director’s profile.

By Tony Rayns