I knew going in that this would not be a jolly holiday flick. It's about prisoners of war, after all. Still, I could think of no more appropriate season to watch it.
In 1942, British Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti) remains a leader among the POWs at a camp in Indonesia, serving as a bilingual liaison relatively amiable to the Japanese officers, especially the otherwise harsh Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), who says the title. But neither Lawrence nor Hara is as focal as rebellious new POW Major Celliers (David Bowie) or even Captain Yonoi (Ryuchi Sakamoto, doubling as the composer), who, for all his strictness, tends to show Celliers favor, apparently for a reason he'd rather not admit to himself....
Yeah, you may have noticed my use of the "LGBT" tag. Oddly enough, there's no compelling evidence for Bowie's character fitting it. If Yonoi's unspoken desire is not enough, the first scene sees a guard punished explicitly for sex with a POW, who is punished to a lesser degree on suspicion that he welcomed it. This is not the kind of story that could have been told on screen when WWII was recent.
Alas, the majority of interactions between the POWs and the Japanese are as hostile as you might expect -- possibly worse than in Bridge on the River Kwai. At least, I found it more harrowing than BotRK, except for the finale. And it's no more action packed.
The bulk of the conflict amounts not so much to being on opposite sides of the war as to the Brits and Aussies disapproving of Japanese customs, such as seppuku, with the Japanese in turn deeming their prisoners devoid of honor. Even Lawrence, despite thanklessly urging his fellows to see things in other lights, objects vociferously to most of the brutality, including treating all the hospitalized as malingerers. I have to say that the filmmakers don't try hard, if at all, to convince viewers that the practices are less barbaric than Lawrence perceives. Yonoi can talk of discipline all he likes; it doesn't add mercy.
Many summaries bring up the fifth player, Australian Captain Hicksley (Jack Thompson), the official POW spokesman who fears losing that position to Celliers. He doesn't actually feature prominently in many scenes; sometimes he's just someone to talk to. Only toward the end does he have a noticeable impact on the plot.
Fairly late in the movie, we get an extended flashback to Celliers' youth, when he let down his kid brother at a time of need. He still feels guilty about it. I suppose the scene is important for character development and viewer sympathy, but to me it looks out of place and distracts from the present scenario.
Perhaps the best thing about MCML is the distinctive score, which gave Sakamoto his big break. Unfortunately, he hated his acting in it. I didn't really notice, but I guess the acting in general is hit and miss, partly since director Nagasi Oshima gave more detailed instructions to the Japanese actors. Bowie took pride in his own performance, not without reason.
If you feel like seeing a POW picture in which no escape attempt is made, this might be your best bet. Just don't expect consistent enjoyment.
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