Broken Sun

Directed by: Brad Haynes

Starring: Jai Koutrai, Shingo Usami

Synopsis:

A short time after the end of the second world war in the Pacific, a group of Japanese Army P.O.W’s in a detention camp in Australia escape with the intention of taking their own lives to regain personal honour lost when they were captured. All but the conflicted Masaru, whose anguish and horror at the seemingly senseless deaths of his friends battles with the ingrained belief in the code of Bushido, and its demand that he take his own life or pay with his immortal soul. Hours after is escape he encounters Jack a local farmer and veteran of the First World War European campaign. Jack who, it turns out, is haunted by memories of his own war, and the ghosts of the men he knew. As well as being chronically injured by mustard gas Jack lives in perpetual guilt and loneliness and has recently begun to wonder if death would be better, except of course Christian Morality frowns upon suicide as a sin, and it is seen as a cowardly act.

While the two men wait for someone to arrive and recapture Masaru they think about the choices that they made in their wars, and the choices they have now.

Review:

The story travels, moving between Australia 1944 where the main narrative takes place to some nameless pacific island where Masaru’s battalion are about to be over run by Allied Marines, and France in 1916 where Jack’s infantry company are playing cat and mouse in no man’s land between Allied and German lines. Ranging between these three different times provided a great opportunity to experiment with lighting, direction and staging. Not only were the two different theatres of war taking place in very different terrain but they were being experienced from two very different personal perspectives. Brad Haynes’ direction of the two movements is intelligently and sensitively done. While the motivation and methods the Australian and Japanese forces have are so very different, the life and death dilemmas the soldiers face are the same.

The mud and trenches of France are shot in pale washed out and grubby colours, the colour of the men’s uniforms, and the grime on their skin merging with the soil, the majority of battle events taking place in the gloom of evening and night time. The men’s grit, professionalism and unmistakeably Aussie humour keeping them strong on the battlefield in the face of imminent death, but everyone, even some of the best Infanteers of the Great War, has a breaking point, which we see as the shells and gas threaten lives.

The Japanese soldiers, engaged in their last stand, stand out starkly against the dense green foliage. The sweat stained and worn khaki cotton uniforms tell a tale of months, years even of determination and duty, as do the exhausted postures. But it is in the utter weariness on the faces of the soldiers as they steadfastly obey their doomed orders that we see the mindset and gain some insight into what it meant to be an Imperial Japanese Soldier during those last days of a once glorious Empire. The rising desperation of the Platoon Commander, as he orders some of his remaining men to hold out against the imminent arrival of the Allied Marine Division brings him to almost draw his Katana, a glimpse into how close the Empire was, even then, to its Feudal roots.

Brad Hayne’s direction captures these differences and similarities vividly and sensitively, a cast of extremely skilled actors bring some disparate and very different characters to life, and despite the early trench scenes (only very occasionally) appearing just a little bit studioesque the Set Design is detailed and careful, and the Wardrobe has a real feel of authenticity.

The core theme of the narrative, bone deep ideological differences being broken down by shared human experience, has been explored before - many times, and with as we all know variable success.

Broken Sun attempts it with subtle artistry and robust humour.

A moment in Jack’s dusty farm ‘house’ when a ghost from the battlefield pays him a visit is startling, instead of the tannin yellow of the bush dawn, the man and a small area around him are lit with the pale ghostly moonlight of France twenty years before.

Jack’s reaction to this visitation? Aussie pragmatism in place of fear.

The clash of cultures between the two men makes no use of easy cliché, or predictable stereotype. There are moments of humour to be found in how different the two men’s outlooks are but they are only funny because of the tragedy that both men survive in. And as the men gradually come to understand each other more, a growing companionship brings out some powerful dialogue on the subject of sacrifice, guilt and honour.

Verdict:

An interesting drama, weighty and satisfying with much to consider. The ending is emotional and appropriate for the subject, don’t expect it to be easy!

7 out of 10 (Sulako)

New! Comments