Release Details

Title: Burmese Harp - Criterion Collection
Release Date: 03/13/2007
Label/Distributor: Criterion/Image
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Prebook DVD: 02/05/2007
Retail Price: $29.95
Genre: Art House & International Cast: Rentaro Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Jun Hamamura, Taketoshi Naitô, Kô Nishimura, Hiroshi Tsuchikata, Sanpei Mine, Yoshiaki Kato, Sojiro Amano, Yôji Nagahama, Eiji Nakamura, Shojiro Ogasawara, Tomoko Tonai, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yûnosuke Itô, Shunji Kasuga, Tanie Kitabayashi
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Running Time: 116
DVD Video Options: Black & White, Subtitled, NTSC
DVD Audio Options: Japanese, Original Language; English, Subtitled
UPC Code: 715515022729
An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close World War II and finds harmony through song. A corporal, 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 statements, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan's wartime legacy.