David Bowie is captured by the Japanese and sent to a prison camp, where the British commander is a bluff, old-school sort, but the Japanese commandant, Ryuichi Sakamoto, is a believer in bushido, and the cowardice of the British soldier. Tom Conti, who spent time in Japan before the war, tries to bridge the gap, but no one believes him.

It's another of director Nagisa Ôshima's trashing of the old order in Japan, ased on a memoir by Lourens van der Post. In many ways, it reminds me of BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, with its state of mutual insanity, except unlike Sessue Hayakawa's commandant in that picture, there;s never the slightest hesitation or uncertainty on other side: right is right, wrong is wrong, and the other fellow is a filthy beast. Even Conti is insane, with his belief that he can ameliorate the situation.

Magnificent score by Sakamoto, who was embarrassed by his performance when the Japanese audience laughed at it during a screening. He was known at that time almost exclusively as a comic actor.