Shadow of Fire (2023) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★ 5

  Shinya Tsukamoto saw COME AND SEE and was like "What if I made my own version, but in bombed-out Japan following WWII, filmed it for almost nothing, and the kid was half the age? Yea, that should be cool and totally horrifying."

  Watch me discuss it more here: youtu.be/n1SXnJ_Jtho

• Review by Realkinoshit ★★★★ 1

  TGHFF2023 #9

  Shinya Tsukamoto truly shines with Chu Ishikawa; this duo never fails!

  I never expected Shinya Tsukamoto to direct an anti-war film! Perhaps he felt compelled by recent international war issues. The film's overall style is notably gentle compared to his previous works (Chu Ishikawa's musical score is excellent; initially, I was unsure who composed it because the style is a bit different – I thought if he passed away, they might find someone to emulate his style, but that wasn't the case). It even reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki's films, just more realistic and brutal.

  The entire cast delivered outstanding performances, with Shuri standing out to me. Shuri (not the MCU one 💀) portrayed a woman who, due…

• Review by Josh Lewis ★★★

  Since Fire on the Plains (2014) and Killing (2018), legendary Japanese cult filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto—more commonly known for his grotesquely textured, sexually repressed science-fiction and horror films—has found himself obsessed with and lost in the tormented ruins of post-war Japan. Shadow of Fire specifically concerns itself with the innocence of a child (Oga Tsukao, only ever referred to in the film as “boy” or kid”) trying to navigate and work for basic needs like food, shelter, and family in the still-charred environment of a local ramen house turned brothel visited by traumatized WWII soldiers. Conceptually, the instinct would be to compare what Tsukamoto is doing here to Elem Klimov’s apocalyptic and nightmarish Come and See (1985), but in truth this…

• Review by DamRibeiro ★★★★½ 12

  O que resta depois da guerra se não apenas ruínas, assim somos apresentados a essa obra comovente e profunda de Shinya Tsukamoto, em uma cidade no Japão que começa a se recuperar após a Segunda Guerra Mundial um bar em ruínas se mantém de pé atreves de uma mulher que ganha a vida vendendo seu corpo, seu sofrimento para além desse trabalha se estenda a uma grande perda, porém sua humanidade ainda se encontra presente no meio de tanta confusão, quando encontra um pequeno órfão chamada por ela de ladrãozinho tentando furta sua casa se estabelece um vínculo com o garoto que aos poucos vai permanecendo no lugar junto dela, mais se tratando de um filme do Tsukamoto essa obra…

• Review by mdfmdf ★★★★½ 1

  People characterize Tsukamoto’s approach to his period pieces (digital, handheld, modestly budgeted) as being a subversion of genre conventions. I don’t think that’s wrong, but I’m also interested what these formal choices say about history itself.Other ostensibly “anti-war” movies* can’t resist relishing in fetish-y historical detail, or inserting some amount of majesty and awe into their sweeping pans of wartime devastation. Tsukamoto’s barebones framing rejects all that. The one time Shadow of Fire does pull back to reveal the scope of things, it’s not one of the monumental war tableaus that are so common in the genre - it’s a screen full of barely legible debris and ash

  by chance I happened to sit in the seat directly behind Tsukamoto…

• Review by Will Sloan ★★★★

  As Ruthless (1948) is to Citizen Kane, this is to Come and See.

• Review by Max Ahoy ★★★★ 13

  The goat has returned

  People erased within mere moments

  No voices heard,

  No cries uttered,

  Stilled silence

  Only reminiscence being their charred silhouettes

  Imprinted all across the vast valleys

  Shadows of that unholy flame linger

  Their fellow man forced to march on

  Within a land with nothing to offer

  Expect more streams of sorrow

  Is this hell?

• Review by meyi☆ ★★★★½

  tsukamoto just doesn't miss

• Review by Moresbi ★★★★

  "Hokage" aka "Shadow of Fire" was unsettling, rather compelling (and relatable) and somewhat enduring (no matter how many wars or traumas, we won't ever learn).

  The plot should be quite effective. Unrelated but I couldn't help thinking that maybe, in the future, people might be talking about Shinya in a similar way we talk now about Kon Ichikawa and others, which is quite interesting, when we're talking about "The Iron Man" here ^_^ One thing I always try keeping in mind is how "artful" he is, in a one-man band/show kind of way (just check him and his "gemini" in the credits :D). Suffice to say, more than happy to (finally) have another Shinya production available \m/

  Pretty solid acting…

• Review by NOT LEVANA ★★★★★ 5

  Horrors of war that cannot end with war. A family structure inflicts itself on people with nothing left to imagine. The scar of the bombs is a disease on her face errupting from the damp of her room. The boy carries a gun. He does not want to let it go but he will.

  This is the only movie I have time to see at tiff this year, such a special experience to see the newest film of Shinya Tsukamoto, an auteur whose works have meant so much to me, on the big screen with the director himself present. A memory I will cherish.

• Review by Ben ★★★★½

  JAPAN CUTS 2024

  The legendary Shinya Tsukamoto follows up his Fires on the Plain adaptation and Killing with another anti-war story. In Shadow of Fire, Tsukamoto focuses on the lives of a woman who lost her husband and child during WWII, a young boy who lost his parents throughout the devastation, and two veterans. Tsukamoto expressed in a Q&A after the film's screening that around ten years ago, he felt deeply concerned that Japan and other countries worldwide were on the brink of violent action and war. This fear of his has only intensified over this past decade. Given the current political climate just about everywhere, the eruption of new wars, and the escalation of long-lasting conflicts, Tsukamoto was sadly…

• Review by August ★★★★

  The weight of violence bearing down until it crushes you.

  The third in a trilogy of films following Fires on the Plain (2014) and Killing (2018), Tsukamoto explores the legacy of war and conflict continuing after its supposed end. This feels like a true and honest attempt at an “anti-war” film—in that it refuses to valorize or portray the fighting outright. Instead, we’re left to linger on the after effects and the suffering left in its wake—the people who lost their homes and family, soldiers who are left traumatized and dealing with the guilt and ramifications of their actions, and most importantly, children forced to grow up in world the previous generations have failed.

  This is Tsukamoto operating in a slow and melancholic mode. Probably his least instantly gratifying, but revisits will tell if it’s a major work.