The Burmese Harp (film)

The Burmese Harp
Directed by	Kon Ichikawa
Produced by	Masayuki Takagi
Written by	Michio Takeyama (novel), Natto Wada
Starring	Rentarō Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Jun Hamamura
Music by	Akira Ifukube
Production company	Nikkatsu
Distributed by	Brandon Films (USA)
Release date	Part I: 21 January 1956 Part II: 12 February 1956 (Japan)
Running time	143 minutes (Japan) 116 minutes (International)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

The Burmese Harp (ビルマの竪琴, Biruma no tategoto^?, a.k.a. Harp of Burma) is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. Based on a children's novel of the same name written by Michio Takeyama, it tells the story of Japanese soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II. A member of the group goes missing after the war, and the soldiers hope to uncover whether their friend survived, and if he is the same person as a Buddhist monk they see playing a harp. The film was among the first to show the losses of the war from a Japanese soldier's perspective.

The film was nominated for the 1957 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1985, Ichikawa remade The Burmese Harp in color with a new cast.

Private Mizushima, a Japanese soldier, becomes the harp (or saung) player of Captain Inouye's group, composed of soldiers who fight and sing to raise morale in the World War II Burma Campaign. When they are offered shelter in a village, they eventually realize they are being watched by British soldiers. They retrieve their ammunition, then see the advancing force. Captain Inouye tells the men to sing, laugh and clap, to give the British the impression that they are unaware of their presence. Instead of firing at them, though, the British soldiers begin singing the same melody, "Home! Sweet Home!." Inouye's men learn that the war has ended with the Japanese surrender, and so they surrender to the British.