A fresh young nurse sent to the front in China finds herself the nighttime prey of hungry soldiers. But Nurse Nishi is less naive than she seems (this is an Ayako Wakao specialty), and before long she finds a way to harness her own desire and compassion to awaken the dead hearts of two soldiers-one, an amputee, the other, a morphine-addicted surgeon. The latter's makeshift surgery gives graphic meaning to the wartime euphemism "theater of operations." Masumura is working in the Fuller mode here, with a few skilled setups to suggest the field of wounds, moments of shocking tenderness amid bloody hell, and dialogue that hurls pointed missiles. The invasion of China is portrayed as a nightmare where Japan's folly meets China's manpower. Soldiers are the arms, and when the arms are (literally) amputated, the men are retired, far from scandalous view. But the pulse still beats. "Through the fierceness of its expression, sex becomes the symbol of the will to live," eminent critic Tadao Sato wrote of this controversial film. (JB)