Biruma No Tategoto (aka The Burmese Harp) (1956)

At WWII's end in Burma, a band of Japanese soldiers attempt to cross the border to Thailand when they receive word the war is over and they surrender to the British. But a private (Shoji Yasui) is asked by his captain (Rentaro Mikuni) to attempt to persuade a group of Japanese soldiers, still fighting in the mountains, to surrender. When that attempt proves a disaster, he dons a Buddhist monk's robe and begins his own spiritual journey. Kon Ichikawa's exquisite film is both lyrical and grieving as it probes the nature of human suffering amongst the mysteries of mankind's propensity for war. Far from being an "in your face" anti-war treatise, Ichikawa almost leisurely lets the protagonist's conversion from solider to monk take place as he brings to the forefront the lush Burmese vistas (superbly photographed in black and white by Minoru Yokoyama) and Akira Ifukube's moving score (one of the best Japanese film scores I've ever heard) to move the story forward. One of the most powerful pieces of Japanese cinema, the film was nominated for a best foreign film Oscar (losing to Fellini's NIGHTS OF CABIRIA). Apparently, Ichikawa remade the film in color in the 1980s.