Movie: The Railway Man

The Railway Man: a British drama based upon a true story.  The movie, after an opening sequence that is partly repeated later, begins in 1980.  You are introduced to Eric Lomax, played excellently by Colin Firth.  Lomax enters a train compartment and meets a nurse name Patti, played by Nicole Kidman.  Patti brings Lomax out of the shell of a life he had been living.  They marry.  The movie then gets quite interesting.  First we see Lomax’s violent nightmares.  Because he won’t share the reason for his moodiness and nightmares, Patti seeks out one of Lomax’s former army buddies, played by Stellan Skarsgard.  We learn that Lomax’s WW II experience included being a member of the British troops who surrendered to the Japanese army in Singapore.  At this point, the story becomes fascinating.  The cause for Lomax’s post-traumatic symptoms becomes clear as we watch graphic scenes of the Japanese Army’s treatment of its prisoners, which includes water boarding.  We are then returned to 1982.  Lomax learns that the Japanese translator who was present when he was tortured is still alive and appears to be financially exploiting  what occurred during the building of a railroad alongside the River Kwai (the same forced labor tale told in The Bridge on the River Kwai).  Lomax travels to Thailand and confronts the translator.  Jeremy Irving plays the young Lomax, Tanroh Ishida plays the young translator, and Hiroyuki Sanada plays the translator in 1982.  Jonathan Teplitzky directed this 108 minute film based on the book written by Eric Lomax in 1995.  This is an excellent film about events too few people know about.