I have just posted a comment on "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" directed by Nagisa Oshima in the early 1980s. The main originality of MCML does not lie in its subject, as other films have dealt with Prisoner-of-War camps under the Japanese rule, the most famous of them remaining "The Bridge on the River Kwai" by David Lean (1957). As MCML is a much more recent film, it might be considered as a more realistic approach to the daily life in a camp under such circumstances; yet realistic films on this subject appeared as early as in the 1950s with works like "A Town like Alice" directed by Jack Lee, which was rejected in its time by the Cannes Film Festival for its shocking content and violence — a sharp contrast with often romanticized productions where war has a glamorous aspect. "A Town like Alice" is also original for it tells war from the point of view of women, and women in conflicts are often ignored by war movies.

It has been years now since I watched "A Town like Alice". I remember it as a good and honest film about the conflict with the Japanese in the Far East. Virginia McKenna as a British nurse and Peter Finch were both convincing. It may be not the best film on WWII, yet it has an authenticity and favors a psychological and realistic approach to the characters than can attract many viewers, not just war movies freaks.

By the way, the title is a reference to the town of Alice Springs, where the story ends.

A Town Like Alice (1956)

A remarkable movie, completely under everyone's radar, about a group of English women in Asia during World War II. They suffer under the hands of the Japanese not as prisoners, quite, but as refugees caught between captors. Having nowhere to go and no one to protect them, they end up walking and walking, through jungle and no-man's land, past actual POW camps and through native villages, until gradually they start to die from the hardship.

Mixed into this really vivid and heartbreaking drama is a love affair between a passing Australian soldier and one of the women. The man is a prisoner of the Japanese who seems to have some freedom because he can fix things for them, and he crosses paths with the women a few times over the years.

Years, yes. The movie moves quickly through a long period of war. This is the real war for most people, the occupation by the Japanese and their arrogance, and the patience and impotence of ordinary people. It is told with alarming frankness. I mean, it's still a movie from the 1950s, not a documentary, but the plainness of the actors, the relatively low budget of the film, and the location shooting all make for a convincing final product. It's amazing, at times, and heartwarming as much as heartwrenching. There is even the one terribly good Japanese soldier trapped by the same bigger circumstance of a war that was not his doing.

The one known actor here is Peter Finch, who is marvelous, even though his role is limited. He is meant to be a bright spot in the life of this woman, and he is wonderfully bright and cheerful (a true Aussie stereotype that we all love).

The book that inspired the movie is widely regarded to this day, and was written by Nevil Shute, who heard about a group of Dutch (not English) women shuttled about by the Japanese in Dutch Malaysia during the war. It turns out that they were not usually made to walk, but Shute's misunderstanding of the story led to the main drama of the book and later movie. The crucifixion of prisoners by Japanese soldiers (shown in the movie) is substantiated, however, and it's a gruesome final turn of events for the plot.

There are few movies of this post-war period that really deal with ordinary suffering by ordinary people in Asia during the war (the suffering of civilians in Europe or Britain is fully shown, by contrast). This one does it well, very well. A wonderful surprise.

Shown in flashback this film tells of the wartime experiences of Jean Paget, a young secretary working in Kuala Lumpur when the Japanese invaded Malaya. She flees south towards Singapore with her boss, his wife and their three children, one a babe in arms. They don't get very far before they are captured by the Japanese along with several other English families who were waiting for a boat. The men are taken into custody and the women are told that they must march fifty miles back to Kuala Lumpur where they will be put on a train south. When they get there, there is no train and they must walk south again; each time they get to were they have been told to go the Japanese tell them they can't stay there and must walk somewhere else. On one such walk they encounter a couple of Australian prisoners who have been forced to maintain and drive a lorry for their Japanese captors. Jean befriends one of them, Joe, and as they get to know one another he talks about the town he lives in; a small town near Alice Springs in the middle of Australia. As their treks continue people start to die; from exhaustion, from illness and even from a snake bite. Sometimes things look a bit better such as when Joe steals some chickens for the women; this only serves to lead up to a particularly gruelling punishment where the women are forced to watch as the Japanese crucify him.

The way the film was shot let us know that Jean would survive the war but that didn't make the film any less gruelling; certain characters who one would expect to survive a film like this don't which comes as quite a shock. It was good to see that the Japanese weren't all depicted as monsters; the unnamed Sergeant was not unkind to them although the same cannot be said of Capt. Sagaya who was a brute. The environment they had to walk through was just as brutal with snakes, no clean water and malarial swamps to be crossed before they could get to safety. The beautiful Virginia McKenna does a fine job as Jean and Peter Finch is also good as the happy go lucky Joe. Thankfully after the long and arduous trek through the jungles of Malaya there is an upbeat ending which I won't spoil. This film is will worth watching for anybody interested on movies about the war; it is certainly different from most as there is no combat to speak of.