This is a film that retrospects and reflects on World War II with a modern perspective, which is a bit similar to "The Reciter". The Second World War ended long ago, but the victims who were trapped in it have never come out. Whether it is the perpetrator, the victim, or the relative family members, they are all tortured in the aftermath of the war. And the way to alleviate is only forgiveness, only love.
As a film adapted from social reality, it has always been difficult to balance between video stories and historical reality. The performance of "Railroad Labor" is not very good. This is related to the original memoir of Lomax, the prototype of the story. There are difficulties in adapting, so that there are large jumps between the characters in the movie, and the characters of the secondary characters are not perfect enough. Colin Firth's powerful acting skills can only be used to hold the audience, but the inner drama is not fully developed, so he somewhat squandered the skills of the Oscar actor.
Let's sort out the story of the movie first.
Single middle-aged woman Patricia (Nicole Kidman) ran into a man Eric Lomax on the train and fell in love. When Patricia married Eric, settled with him in Australia, and entered his life, it happened that there was a shadow in his heart. It turned out that Eric was originally a telephone operator for the Australian military during World War II. Because of the Japanese occupation of Australia, he became a Japanese prisoner of war due to the defeat. However, the Japanese army obviously did not abide by the Geneva Conventions when treating the prisoners of war. Instead, the prisoners of war were all drawn to Southeast Asia, and they became laborers on the Burma-Thailand Railway built by the Japanese army. It has become commonplace to endure super-intensive work every day, lack of food and clothing, and face all kinds of beatings and scolding. As a result, the death rate of workers is extremely high. Eric Lomax was used as a maintenance worker by the Japanese army because he was well versed in traffic, and his salary was a little better. Because of his involvement in railway construction, Lomax fell in love with the railway and went around on the railway leisurely, and because of this, he met Patricia, which is also a kind of small perfection. This is something.
At that time, in addition to the desperate work of the Lomaxes, in fact, the entire World War II battlefield had undergone tremendous changes. Especially on the European battlefield, the Allied forces have fully counterattacked the Axis Group, and the Nazi Group has fallen into the final crisis. On the Pacific battlefield, the U.S. military is pressing harder and harder and has already bombed the Japanese mainland. At this time, Japan only launched a large-scale offensive on the battlefield in China, and opened up north-south traffic. At the same time, it has built large-scale construction projects in the jungles of Southeast Asia to consolidate its limited victory. Lomax undertakes this kind of work. Under the strict supervision of the Japanese army, coupled with the work beyond the limit, the prisoners of war were miserable. But the battle never stopped. Lomax and their comrades used their technical power to form a small radio station between their work. Although they could not communicate with the outside world, they were able to receive news from the outside world. News from NBC and other news came from this, and the news of the Allied victory is enough to bring great hope to the prisoners who are in desperation. It made them feel that the war was about to end and they could be rescued immediately. This hope gave more prisoners of war the confidence to persevere.
But there was always darkness before dawn, and the radio was finally discovered by the Japanese. In order to keep the friends safe, Lomax took the initiative to stand up, admitting that he planned the formation of the radio station and assembled it by himself. Lomax’s bravery and courage saved his comrades, but he himself fell into the mad torture of the Japanese, and various tortures made Lomax bitter. The Japanese wanted to know the secret behind the radio station and used various methods to torture Lomax. However, Lomax persisted and failed to make the Japanese wish. In the end, the Allies arrived as scheduled and came to the construction site and rescued the detained Australian soldiers. However, the unbearable torture still left a heavy shadow on Lomax’s psychology, which caused him to fall into a nightmare for the rest of his life. During this period, and often wake up, the body will twitch together, and the pain is abnormal.
Patricia takes care of Lomax, watching his pain, but can't do anything. Finally one day, Patricia discovered that one of the Japanese soldiers who had tortured Lomax was still living near the original construction site. This prompted Lomax to seek revenge, and finally, the two sides of the violence sat face to face. When the US military arrived, Nagase, the Japanese military policeman, pretended to be an interpreter, so he escaped a disaster and was not sent to a military court as a war criminal. But when Nagase followed the Allied forces to excavate the graveyard of the dead prisoners, his soul was finally shaken. Then he believed in Buddhism and began his life of atonement. Stay here and act as a guide in the war museum established locally, introducing you to those unbearable years.
It was not until Lomax’s arrival that Nagase finally had a real chance to face his atrocities and a real atonement. Lomax had planned to kill Nagase as soon as he arrived, but when he faced Nagase in front of him. Finally, still did not start. He finally realized that in order to truly let go, only forgiveness can resolve the silt in the hearts of both parties. Only love can make the world truly peaceful.
This was a painful process of letting go. For Lomax, it was really hard to let go, but he finally did it. After many years, Nagase’s atonement was finally forgiven and forgiven by the parties involved. Lomax and Nagase eventually became friends and kept in touch until the end of their lives.
The time span is too long, and the adaptation of the film has brought difficulties, making the whole film not so easy to play and not so smooth. At least, it is much worse than "The Reciter", and in terms of acting skills, it has not been able to fully explore Kate Winslet's acting skills like the "Reciter". But the theme to be conveyed behind the story is clear. To love eternal life, only forgiveness can exchange equality between people, only forgiveness can make oneself feel at ease, and only forgiveness can liberate the enemy.
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