Film: The Railway Man

[Woolgar]

Just watched this powerful and very moving film about the hell of being in, and the aftermath of, a Japanese prisoner of war camp

I know there are no Americans in it but I hope it does well !!

Nick

[feldpost 58]

Hi NIck,

I too am going to see this film, the trailers on UK TV and critics comments make this a must see for me.
My uncle was captured at the fall of Singapore, spent time in Changi Jail; then was forced to work on the Burma railway.
These awful events should never be forgotten, my uncle died at an early age due to the privations he sufferred at the hands of the IJA.

Best wishes,

John.

[Woolgar]

Hi NIck,

I too am going to see this film, the trailers on UK TV and critics comments make this a must see for me.
My uncle was captured at the fall of Singapore, spent time in Changi Jail; then was forced to work on the Burma railway.
These awful events should never be forgotten, my uncle died at an early age due to the privations he sufferred at the hands of the IJA.

Best wishes,

John.

That is very sad John.

You will find this film even more poignant

Nick

[sdesember]

I recently watched this film and found it rather interesting that the Kempetai translator, Takashi Nagase was also featured in the another film, "To End All Wars" (2001). I realised this incidentally when at the end of both films, before the credits, there were photos of the main characters, in each film, taken in the postwar period in a reconciliatory "reunion" meeting. I thought to myself the rather thin and old Japanese in both films looked rather familiar and similar. And, sure enough with a little bit of checking on imdb, the Japanese whom I found out later to be of the same name, Nagase, was indeed one and the same. What I found to be curious, though, the Nagase character was portrayed in a polar opposite in each film. In "The Railway Man", he was a rather unsympathetic and hateful to the POWs. On the other hand, in "To End All Wars", Nagase was a humane one, almost to the point of meekness. I wonder if both, Ernest Gordon and Eric Lomax, the main characters in each film, were interned in the same camp and knew each other? How about in "The Bridge of the River Kwai"? Anyone noticed any characters overlaps?