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Rating:  - Loriann Ringgold
This is a must see movie about a group of women taken hostage during the Pacific Campaign of World War 2. Their Japanese captors are cruel and less than civil throughout their confinement. This is based on a true story. The performances are stellar. I would recommend this to be seen in a family setting with discussion after the movie.
Rating:  - Please, spare me the reptile.
I am disturbed greatly by this film. Glenn Close is entirely unbelievable as a prisoner of war... more, a bourgeois / socialite / horror. The only thing that made me smile throughout the film was the lesbian subtext of Cate Blanchett and Frances (uber-german stoic) McDormand's relationship.
Rating:  - Long overdue story that needed to be told
It amazes me that so much has been said about the unjust internment of Japanese people in the U.S. during World War II, but so little has been said about the INFINITELY more brutal internment of innocent civilians in Asia by the Japanese at the same time. This film could not have done a better job dramatizing these events according to mainstream Hollywood standards. There's probably some sugarcoating of events, but not as much as I would have expected.
Rating: - Music to melt the heart
A chance viewing - the DVD is not yet available in Europe - and one of the most heartrending stories to come out of the Far Eastern sector of World War II; there have been many tales of derring-do and bravery among soldiers captured by the Japanese, but nothing to match the indomitable spirit of these innocent American women (and children) imprisoned after the fall of Singapore. Their "vocal orchestra" (NOT a chorus, as their director, played superbly by Glenn Close, insists), achieves the seemingly impossible task of transcribing over 30 works, including Dvorak's New World Symphony (we hear a condensed version of the slow movement with a modern Dutch chorus on the soundtrack) via the prodigious memory of one of the prisoners, a British missionary (Pauline Collins), and through their performances in the camp transform the violent relationship between captor and captive into something approaching a human understanding. Nothing is held back in portraying the initial brutality, which makes the contrast with the quiet and unquenchable optimism of the inmates (in spite of many differences of temperament and background) all the more stark.
A splendid supporting cast (Cate Blanchett, Frances McDormand); 2 hours of compelling viewing.
Rating: - how could it happen
I know a lot about the things that has happened in the former Netherlands-Indië, now Indonesia. Never heard about women and childeren from Singapore in the camps of Sumatera. It's shocking.
I recommend every one who is interested in WW2 in Asia and especially Neth. Indië to buy this DVD. No technical problems.
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