Fires on the Plain (DVD and Book)

After looking at the book description on the front of the Mountain View Reads Together brochure, a colleague told me about a book he read and recommended, "Fires on the Plain." When I googled it, I found that a film was made (in 1959) based on the book that was restored and reissued just this year. The MV library has the 2007 DVD.

It's a tough film to watch. I advise watching the video introduction by Japanese-film scholar David Richie to help understand the film's relevance. The booklet that comes with the DVD is also interesting.

The book by Shohei Ooka was originally published in Japanese in 1951, and the English translation was published in 1957. A new edition was published in 2001.

I'm reading the book now, after watching the film. I often like a book better than its film version. Maybe it's because I usually read the book first and have to imagine everything, and the film doesn't match what I imagine. When I watch a film first, I often can't forget the images I've seen in the film, so it's a different reading experience.