I'll go ahead and be the troublemaker. I didn't think this was especially good. Some brilliant bits, but I was regularly pulled out by:
Also, poor audio. Much of the English language is really, really hard to understand and there are no subs. The few bits I can understand are visibly (synch issues, etc) looped which is not conducive to being immersed in a WW2 prison camp.
I also found the themes of cultural variations to be both too on the nose (they talk about it directly!) and unexplored. Lawrence gets it all, but can't make anyone else (English or Japanese) understand so all conversations are just maddening. Maybe that's the point. I also thought there was a huge missed opportunity that they are in another country, and they have a fourth nationality (Koreans) as guards also. These are all explicitly true facts and... entirely ignored.
- Strange editing choices. Plenty of fades to later, fades to black even, that really knocked the tone around a lot.
- All too often by the music. Which is brilliant and immersive sometimes, but then is just suddenly tossed into a silent scene.
- Bowie. A few other acting choices are also odd, but Bowie is very Bowie. Often otherworldly, but he's explicitly (he says so in the flashback, is introduced as a soldier's soldier...) the very model of a modern British gentleman. But... he's not. He's notably weird.
Also, poor audio. Much of the English language is really, really hard to understand and there are no subs. The few bits I can understand are visibly (synch issues, etc) looped which is not conducive to being immersed in a WW2 prison camp.
I also found the themes of cultural variations to be both too on the nose (they talk about it directly!) and unexplored. Lawrence gets it all, but can't make anyone else (English or Japanese) understand so all conversations are just maddening. Maybe that's the point. I also thought there was a huge missed opportunity that they are in another country, and they have a fourth nationality (Koreans) as guards also. These are all explicitly true facts and... entirely ignored.