Skip to main content

Film Review - Railway Man

Stars - Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman

Inspired by real events circa WW II.

Story of a rail enthusiast Brit, Mr. Lomax, who has served in the second war in SE Asia.  He is living with the nightmares of being tortured by the Japanese Imperial Army as a prisoner in their camps in Thailand.  The movie is based on the story of these British soldiers that were humiliated and made to slave to build the railway line from Thailand to Burma (now called Myanmar).

Today there are luxury train rides available on this route starting from Singapore in the south going all the way north into Myanmar that cost a pretty pound.

Colin Firth plays the role of a signal engineer that has stood up to the brutal interrogations and beatings when his cadre is discovered to be building a secret radio in the camp.  Memories of the treatment at the hands of Japanese soldiers has kept him suffering deep inside for decades until he runs into Nicole Kidman's character on a train journey in the English country.

She later becomes his wife and helps him fight the fear and depression that he has kept bottled inside.  He makes a trip to the camps in Thailand again to confront one of his captors who has been providing guided tours of the area.  Scenery of the bridge over the river Kwai - which I visited few years back - is one of the key shoot locations in this film.

After threatening the Japanese translator (army soldier) who had assisted his military command's wishes to extract information from Lomax using brutal techniques decades ago, Lomax discovers that they both have suffered in their own way and it is time to bury the hatchet.  He forgives the Japanese man and eventually becomes friends.

Both good actors with Colin Firth again dominating in his role of Mr. Lomax brings a wonderful tale of deep suffering and forgiveness to the silver screen.

Definitely a must see.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

Charges attract

It is said that opposites attract meaning people with contrary viewpoint sometimes find chemistry to be together.  But I'm referring to a modern twist where people are merely attracted towards a common place because their uber communication device aka smart phone is about to die.  The charging station. From airports to hotel lobbies or even bathrooms, when in need they are attracted to this power outlet like moths to a flame or a junkie to a needle. A whole new business of supplying these hyper connected folks is now born whose lifesaver product is a backup charge. Asian tourists perpetually carry a phone sized battery pack stuck to their latest Apple phone updating their status to folks in Hong Kong or Shanghai or Bangalore as they pose for selfies with weird facial expressions and fingers pointed out in a letter V. Vain? PS:  I dis'charged' my blogger duties making this insightful observation as my phone is about to breathe it's last and my flight gets call...