polemical) prefigurations of the Japanese new wave, has always had a gift for crystallizing contradiction." The black humor employed by Ichikawa has also often been the subject of comment by others. It has been claimed that Eiji Funakoshi was fundamentally a comic actor. The noted Japanese film critic Tadao Sato points out that Funakoshi does not play his role in Fires on the Plain'' in the usual style of post-World War II anti-war Japanese films. He does not put on the pained facial expression and the strained walk typical of the genre, but instead staggers confused through the film more like a drunk man. Sato says that this gives the film its black-comic style which results from watching a man trying to maintain his human dignity in a situation which makes this impossible. Quandt notes that Ichikawa's wife, Natto Wada, wrote the script to the film and contributed this sardonic wit. Audie Bock says that this black humor, rather than relieving the bleakness of the film, has the effect of actually heightening the darkness. See also List of submissions to the 32nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film References Bibliography External links Fires on the Plain: Both Ends Burning an essay by Chuck Stephens at the Criterion Collection ''Cinema Then, Cinema Now: Fires on the Plain' a 1993 discussion of the film with Paul Schrader, hosted by Jerry Carlson of CUNY TV 1959 films 1950s war drama films Films set in 1945 Japanese war drama films 1950s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Pacific War films Japanese occupation of the Philippines films Films based on Japanese novels Films based on works by Shōhei Ōoka Films set in the Philippines Golden Leopard winners Films directed by Kon Ichikawa Films with screenplays by Natto Wada Films produced by Masaichi Nagata Films scored by Yasushi Akutagawa 1959 drama films Japanese World War II films 1950s Japanese films