Bruden er Alt For Køn

An agonizing portrait of desperate Japanese soldiers stranded in a strange land during World War II, Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain is a compelling descent into psychological and physical oblivion. Denied hospital treatment for tuberculosis and cast off into the unknown, Private Tamura treks across an unfamiliar Philippine landscape, encountering an increasingly debased cross section of Imperial Army soldiers, who eventually give in to the most terrifying craving of all. Grisly yet poetic, Fires on the Plain is one of the most powerful works from one of Japanese cinema’s most versatile filmmakers.

Duro relato antibélico que narra la desesperada situación, abocada a la derrota, que está sufriendo el ejército japonés en Filipinas en 1945, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Ichikawa retrata de forma implacable, con su habitual mirada cínica y humor negro, las correrías de un grupo de soldados japoneses y su lucha por su supervivencia recurriendo a la violencia, al robo e incluso al canibalismo.

Legendary explorer Thor Heyerdal's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.

This movie has its artistic qualities. But, it is not definitely its purpose. Richet is an extremist obsessed by revolution. He tried to make a film inviting young viewers in "banlieues" to put everything on fire. For instance, cops are constantly portrayed as racist and violent, and are called enemies from beginning till end. The script tries to explain how their revolt is justified, and that true violence is the only way to escape their problems. The climax is the end: after a cop coldly kills a teenager, all his friends start to break public phones, burn cars, until a whole police unit come for the "final fight". So you might watch it to see how far violence goes, but it is dangerous to see for the minds it was made for. Richet could be sued for hate incitement.

SCENERY and sadism are the main things on display in John Frankenheimer's ''The Challenge,'' a hard-boiled action film with great hopes of becoming something more. The setting is modern, urban Japan, presented with a fair amount of realism and detail. And the story, by Richard Maxwell and John Sayles, works hard to contrast East and West, old and new. There is much about ''The Challenge,'' which opens today at Loews State and other theaters, to make the viewer sorry it isn't better.