Customer Reviews

Changi

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Six young Australian soldiers are captured by the Japanese and interred in Changi prison camp. Each of the six 1-hour episodes covers one man's recollections, as they meet for their last reunion. Each of the 12 principal actors is very good (six as the young soldiers and six as their older counterparts). This is the kind of engrossing story that you'll never see on American TV. The violence of their captors is quite graphic, but the humor they use to survive offsets it nicely. I highly recommend it.

Although the story unfolds rather slowly due to the use of back flashes, it ultimately gives a vivid insight into the conditions of a Japanese POW camp during WWII. As I wathced the film, I became more engrossed in the entire story. Well worth a look.

It is a pleasure to have occasion to rave about quality of acting. In this Australian WW II gem, the actors' portrayal of the full gamut of human emotion associated with the POW experience, and with the contrast of that experience with their lives before and after, is exact, convincing at every turn, and alone makes Changi worth buying. Add to that a compelling story line, constant underlying tension, brilliantly effective use of flashback to make subtle but profound points, and the multifarious talents of the cast, and the result is a real winner. Instinct tells me that this is a bit overdramatized -- that a real POW experience, with the aura of death and threat, would not necessarily be so effectively countervailed by hijinx and camaraderie as is portrayed here. On the other hand, this Japanese/Australian conflict has been too often ignored by "mainstream" WW II movies in the U.S. And it is delightful to see that this Australian-produced item is guided by a sophisticated vision of concept and audience more similar to British productions than to the dumbed-down American media of late.

Without a doubt, this is one of the finest mini-series to come out of Australia. The acting and the writing are blended into an excellent tale that unfolds via flashbacks to a Japanese P.O.W. camp. Each of the six one-hour episodes features each man's memories of their time in the camp. It depicts how each man dealt with the extreme cruelty and violence perpetrated by his Japanese captors.

I have seen this first in the Hallmark Channel but never got to see all of it. It is an interesting depiction of the situation in the Japanese prisoner of war camp in Singapore during Woeld War 2. It is quite good, but can get dull at times.