GUESTS OF THE EMPEROR (SILENT CRIES)

US, 1993, 120 minutes, Colour.
Gena Rowlands, Annabeth Gish, Chloe Webb, Gail Strickland, Phyllis Logan, Judy Parfitt, Cherie Lunghi, Clyde Kusatsu, Nick Tate.
Directed by Anthony Page.

This television movie is based on a book by Janice Young Brooks. It tells the story of prisoners in Singapore in 1942 after the Japanese occupied the island. It takes various prisoners, especially a group of women, to the prisoner-of-war camp. This theme was prominent in the various versions of Neville Shute’s A Town Like Alice as well as Bruce Beresford’s Paradise Road (1997).

The film recreates the atmosphere of Singapore and also life within the prisoner-of-war camp. Audiences are familiar with this kind of story. However, the plight of the women in itself is particularly moving and there is a very strong cast of women led by Gena Rowlands.

The film was directed by Anthony Page, theatre director as well as director of many strong telemovies, especially adaptations of theatre, for example of Tennessee Williams.

The film is a fiftieth anniversary film of the events. It asks its audiences to reflect on the meaning of World War Two, of the cruelty experienced by prisoners of war, especially women.

1.The impact of the telemovie? Fifty years after the events? Audience knowledge of the stories? War memories? The experience of women in war?

2.The atmosphere of Singapore, Sumatra? The authentic atmosphere? The city itself, the sea, the roads? Prisoner-of-war camp? The musical score?

3.The different titles and emphases? The euphemism of “guests of the emperor”? The contrast with the Japanese style, the military, the commandant, the guards in the camp? The mix of prisoners, British, Australian, American? The American perspective on this experience?

4.Singapore in 1942, life, colour? The authority of the British? The presence of the Americans? Australians? People not being able to escape? The attack on Singapore, deaths? The people being caught, arrested? Transported to Sumatra?

5.The picture of the treatment, the cruelty? The treatment of the women? On the road, in the trucks? The dormitories, the clothes? The women’s possessions and the importance of them in the camp, losing them? The parades, the formalities and the women having to bow? The nature of the food? Punishments? Survival in harsh conditions? The women organising themselves? Lectures and concerts? Illnesses?

6.Peggy in herself, a strong woman? Books, letters and records? The issues of surviving? In charge? Understanding the circumstances and helping the women? Hazel? The end, her death?

7.The portrait of Hazel and her mother? The engagement? Her father? The arrest, death? Grief, the decisions? To get out of the camp? Peggy as her alternate mother? The end?

8.Beryl, British, her presence and manner? Her husband? Audrey and the baby? Sexual background? Death?

9.Dinki Denk and her presence in the camp, humour, Australian – accent and slang? Defiant?

10.The doctor, help?

11.The women, Japanese language?

12.The Dutch, the gifts, their deaths? The young girl?

13.The portrait of the commandant, his role in the camp, manner? The guards? The sadistic attitudes, torture?

14.Audience attitudes towards the Japanese, their ambitions during World War Two, the military, their treatment of people?

15.Extraordinary circumstances, difficulties, the challenge to the prisoners, the challenge to the women, those who failed, those who succeeded? A tribute to human courage?