Original subtitles

They have to go now.

The camp by Three Pagodas has lost many men.

It requires more.

Colonel orders 100 men to go.

Three Pagodas Pass is over a hundred kilometres away.

I will send men to guide them.

I'm not concerned with them finding their way.

Major, these men are too sick to make that journey.

Work is slowing by the border!

This cannot happen!

Major. Major.

I don't have 100 men to give you.

These men are too sick.

Australians should wash like Japanese.

Okay then, then give me soap, give me water

and I will clean them myself.

But do not send these men to their death.

I'm not. You are to select.

One hundred!

You choose.

The men go now.

Take only what they wear.

Everything else is at the Pass.

One hundred!

Major orders a hundred men march to Three Pagodas Pass.

It is safest for all men with boots to go.

Oi...

Thank you, sir.

I'd love to catch up in Hobart for a beer sometime.

I'd like that, Chum.

- Thanks, sir. - Les...

For everything.

Thank you, sir.

Who's Chum?

You kept saying his name over and over

in your sleep last night, as if you're talking to someone.

A boy I once knew.

And why was this particular boy's name in your head?

I don't know.

He died in the war.

Can I take you to breakfast?

No...

I'm here to say goodbye.

This was always going to have an end date, wasn't it?

You and I...

It's just...

I'm just a distraction

for whatever is going on in your head--

- That's, not true. - Yes it is.

I've seen enough of your nightmares to know

that whatever you've been through, has left a deep mark.

And I just don't know if I can take care of you.

I appreciate your concern, Lynette...

...but ah...

...you should go.

Wake up.

Wake up... hurry, wake up!

Don't be slow.

Quickly, get up.

Major!

A track joining Siam and Burma means...

...we will no longer rely on our navy for supplies.

We are independent.

For Japan's future...

...for the Emperor.

Forever!

Long live His Majesty the Emperor!

Hassha!

How are you today, Mr. Evans?

You tell me. Am I still a surgeon?

We do have information regarding your malpractice investigation.

The Council has found you not to be culpable

and for there not to have been any unsatisfactory conduct

in the surgery of Mrs. Davis.

So what does that mean for me?

It means that there'll be no further action going forward,

um, you're free to continue practising.

- Is that it? - Yes.

Would you care to know how we came to our decision?

No.

- Are you nervous? - No.

Are you?

Yes.

Don't be.

Tell us we'll be alright.

Please welcome Mr. and Mrs. Evans.

Five years, six months and three days.

That is how long we were apart.

Now look at us.

The thing that kept me going throughout that time

was thinking about today...

was thinking about seeing all of your beautiful faces.

And most importantly

it was seeing Dori's face at the end of the aisle waiting for me.

So...

Thank you, again. And...

Dori did promise me a dance. So, miracles do happen.

Hey fish. He always said how unhappy they look.

They look unhappy to you?

Yeah, well they're not fucking smiling.

You're free, you little bastard.

There you go, Frank.

Choi San Min.

You have been found guilty of having participated

in the murder of Sergeant Frank Gardiner.

This ruling classifies you as a Class B war criminal,

and as such, you shall be executed by hanging

at Changi Prison tomorrow morning at 0700 hours.

I'll fill a sandbag to your weight

and hang it on the rope overnight to stretch it.

That'll take away any bounce in your rope.

With no bounce, it'll be all over quick.

Is there anything you wish to say?

TWO GUARDS FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER.

I remember that neck.

Colonel.

Good to see you still have it.

How did you find me?

I heard from Lieutenant Fukuhara.

He is considered a criminal too?

Yes.

He and Chieko are hiding in Tokyo.

What of your wife, where is she?

Look at all we have lost.

For what?

The beating of one man inside a war...?

Not even a man but a prisoner.

The Australians dress up their vengeance...

...and call it justice.

Since I read my name on their list.

We have been here since the summer.

We were...

...we were to come back as heroes.

Not like this...

...like rats hiding ...inside gutters.

So... why are you here?

Sometimes I worry they are right and I feel scared.

It is not vengeance...

...I feel it is justice.

Listen.

You are an officer.

You are not a criminal.

How can there be crimes between enemies?

Look at Nagasaki. Hiroshima.

At what went on there.

Tens of thousands died.

Yet why us?

Our men hang for the death of one sergeant.

I wanted to bring you these.

How old are you there?

Nineteen.

Married in Nica - honeymoon in Hobart.

Where are the kids now?

At my mother's.

I preferred they weren't here for your visit.

- No offence. - None taken.

Thank God for the three of them.

I can't bear to be alone.

Are you married?

- Yeah. - So you believe in love, then?

- What's your wife's name? - Ella.

Mmm...

Is Ella your note, or your room?

My friend's a piano teacher.

She says that every room has its own note,

you just have to find it.

She sang up and down this house one day, and she...

A note bounced off the wall right back to her.

The most perfect hum. It was beautiful.

It made me think of Guy, and of love.

That one note that finds you even if you don't want it to.

Guy was my note...

...and I was his room...

...and now everything's... silent.

Why I like the kids around.

Perhaps you can stay until they come back.

Of course.

You know there's this place...

There's an island just south of where I grew up.

There's not a soul there.

No houses, no cars, no buildings.

Just a big old lighthouse.

Can we go there?

What do you want, Ella?

What I want I lost a long time ago.

To a war I never fought in...

...and a woman I never knew.

I thought I saw her once, you know?

When?

Soon after we moved to Sydney.

But it couldn't have been.

Don't hate me.

Oh, I don't hate you.

I think you're the loneliest man I've ever known.

You know, Rick said to me, we all played a part...

The things we did and didn't do.

And you've done nothing wrong, Ella.

Now, you're the reason we have all this.

You made it happen.

Yeah, but no matter how hard I tried you were never here.

I mean, I waited for you. I waited for you.

Through the war, through marriage, through the children.

Through your love affairs, your career, I waited for you.

I'm sorry.

So am I.

I am, I'm sorry.

So who do you think that might be?

Is it young you?

You think so? Well done.

What made you think it was me?

I can see it in the eyes.

Really?

- Hello, darling. - Hi.

Why don't you go and see the family?

Mm-hm.

Did you finish your speech?

Mm-hm.

Were you truthful?

Accurate.

As much as I could be.

You look lovely.

Thank you.

As do you.

It was Lord Tennyson who wrote...

"I am part of all that I have met".

And I thought of this as I turned the pages

of my friend Guy Hendricks' book.

For we all left part of ourselves in that jungle...

...in that mud...

...within each other.

However...

...as accurate as this book is, it is just a book.

Horror can be contained within a book...

...given form and meaning.

But in life, horror has no more form than it does meaning -

it just is.

And Guy was convinced that no matter what happened to him,

his pictures would survive.

And he was right.

Here we are...

A life's work on these walls.

Rabbit's life,

so many men's lives taken, for what?

A railway?

Of which now, little remains.

Sleepers covered in weeds.

Tracks bent and warped.

Our memory...

...is the only true justice.

It's our only defence...

...against repeating the misery of history.

And without nights like tonight, and work like Rabbit's...

...no one but those who lived it,

will remember the immense suffering.

The er... constant sorrow.

The pointlessness of it all.

Without memory...

...it will be...

Well, history's greatest crimes...

...never happened.

Are you all right?

Yeah.

- Fine. - You should go home.

Yeah...

She came to visit once.

Amy came to see you, but found your wife and child instead.

I should have told you before this.

It doesn't matter, El.

Perhaps not.

Now you know.

Mmm...

Hey...