Montealegre - Harp of Burma

The Harp of Burma or The Burmese Harp is a famous and simplistic film based off the novel by Michio Takeyama. This film is somewhat of a pro peace rather than a war movie. By nature, humans do not really want to go to war. People would be much happier without happenings like war, but sometimes it is not something that not all people get a say in, unfortunately.

I think a big and connecting factor in this film was the music. The music displayed a lot of emotion throughout the movie, for both sides. Music can be interpreted as what emotions sound like. So, I feel that the movie utilizes music in order to connect the audience with the characters in the movie. Mono no aware is a also reflected throughout the film. The troop speak of how singing and music help them to be content. They sing because they know at any moment they could be gone. I believe it was a nice way to incorporate mono no aware, because of the beauty you heard from the men as they sang despite what could happen at any moment.

The men are separated from their friend Mizushima, who plays the harp. In the end their friend does not rejoin them even though he greatly yearned to. Mizushima felt that it was needed to stay and help preserve the honor of the deceased comrades. Death was something that struck had a big impact on his life; Mizushima decided to change his ways and stay due to the bodies that he saw. He knew that he had a duty to them. In the film, Letters to Iwo Jima death plays a big impact as well. I like the way they showed the other perspective for the WW2, because living in America we never get much of a chance to see that view. I only was able to see a couple scenes, but from the scenes that I saw I could definitely feel the heavy and feelings of desperation. I thought it was a interesting factor that the young man at the end of the movie was able to stay behind, because “everything happens and threes”. He was able to escape death one last time. Also, I’m glad he did not burn the suitcase, but actually buried it instead. Because of this, we were actually able to gain insight.