fires on the plain 1959 (ed Criterion)

In February, 1945, during last days of the Battle of Leyte, elements of the Imperial Japanese army have been abandoned by their leaders and deprived of food and supplies. Command and control has disintegrated, leaving individuals and small groups to their own devices in order to survive the rapidly deteriorating situation. Shuttled between his unit and a field hospital, a tubercular Private Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) is forced to strike out on his own, hoping to avoid starvation and the tightening siege by American forces. Seeing his fellow soldiers slaughtered while trying to escape or surrender, the increasingly desperate Tamura bonds with Yasuda and Nagamatsu, two opportunists who barter tobacco for food and other provisions. While they live on "monkey meat," Tamura is confronted with the price he must pay in order to survive.