The aftermath of the war.
We follow a woman who lives alone, and a small homeless boy keeps bothering her. Then, one day, a young soldier also comes for a visit, and she lets them stay with her for a while. All three of them are traumatized by what they have experienced during the war, and it won’t take long before they have to part ways. The young boy meets a mysterious man, and he doesn’t know if he can trust him. But he carries a gun for protection, ready to defend himself if necessary.
Shadow of Fire” is directed by Shin’ya Tsukamoto, who has crafted a solid antiwar movie. It’s a dark movie where we follow broken people who have lost their souls and minds—the war has taken everything from them.
The main character we follow is a young boy who first meets the woman, who never goes outside, and then the young soldier, who carries his own demons. He’s nice to the boy and the woman, but then one day, something dark awakens in him, and I will leave it at that.
Shadow of Fire is a movie with a lot of meaning, and the actors are great in their roles. You feel sad for them—their lives are ruined, and there is no future waiting for them, except for the young boy, who seems strong and determined. The last scene with the young boy is really sad because he is trying to do something good that could help another character, but will he get the chance before it’s too late?
The only thing I didn’t like about the movie—and I think it’s not the first time the director has chosen this solution—is that it should have had a dirtier image quality with a lot of grain. The clean digital look doesn’t work when we are so far back in time, right after the war ended. He did the same thing with Zen (2018), and he should stop doing it because the digital look of these movies doesn’t take you back in time. Shoot the movie on film or at least add some grain and dirtiness to the image quality.
I didn’t think I would like Shadow of Fire as much as I did, but it hit a nerve because of how well-written the characters are and how good the actors are. It’s a movie with a small universe, but that works perfectly because you get so close to the characters and truly understand how broken they are. They have their happy moments, but there aren’t many of them, because the past keeps coming back to knock them down, time after time, until they eventually give up.