Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

malcolmgsw This was one of the colour films made on location by Rank in the late fifties to get people back into the cinemas.With films like this such a move was bound to fail.The story is risible.Bogarde plays a decorated flying officer,who for no given reason is selected to learn Japanese.This despite having no declared linguistic skills.This school is held in Delhi,not the safest of places in 1943.He falls in love with teacher Yoko Tani who plays the role as if sleepwalkng.He is subsequently sent up to the front,when he is more likely to have been sent home.The ending is clearly aimed at the four hanky brigade.No wonder the Roxy closed after showing this.It died of shame.

clanciai A very beautiful melodrama of tragic love set in India in some of its most enchanting places (including Taj Mahal, of course,) under the shadow of the war with Japan. Dirk starts off escaping from them in Burma and ends up their prisoner once again. Between his ordeals he experiences an ideal romance with a Japanese girl who teaches Japanese to intelligence soldiers, one of whom is Dirk. The class sequences are almost the best of the film. Charming music embellishes the film and wraps it up in bitter-sweet romance which never gets too sleazy, since there are constant complications.It's an odd film for Dirk Bogarde and a very singular war and love story, very much akin to William Holden's war and love experiences in Korea and Hongkong, but this is both more idyllic, more intimate and more personal, since Yoko Tani is a more Madame Butterfly kind of girl, more sensitive and vulnerable, and Dirk is delicate enough to treat her with care. so he doesn't make matters worse, as he did in "Simba".The film leaves you with a few question marks, though. Whatever happened to the miserable Fenwick? You can only suppose the worst. But the worst gaffe is the tremendous mistake of Brigadier Anthony Bushell not to immediately turn back when he sees an obvious booby-trap on the road, a dreadful tactical mistake, which no qualified Brigadier would have risked committing. But then without that goof, there would have been no great finale to the melodrama.The most beautiful detail of the film is the symbology, though, which doesn't become clear until afterwards. A sign says that you may not pluck cherry blossoms while they bloom, but the wind cannot read and plucks them anyway, one of those enigmatic but most appropriate Japanese philosophical adages as a motto for the whole film.

MartinHafer Flight Lieutenant Michael Quinn (Dirk Bogarde) has seen a lot of action in the RAF and is itching for something different. So he volunteers for duty with Army Intelligence and goes to school to learn the Japanese language. However, a problem develops when a pretty Japanese language instructor, Sabbi (Yôko Tani) arrives. She and Michael fall in love and marry. So why is this a problem? Well, he never asked for permission to marry through military channels--and might result in him being severely disciplined. So, they keep their marriage a secret and hope for the best. But there are two problems. First, there is an officer who is a total jerk and could LOVE to see Quinn in hot water. Second, something is wrong with Sabbi...something she hasn't told her husband. and then, there's a third problem which comes along a bit later. What's next? Well, see the film and find out for yourself.What I appreciate most about this film is that it is unique. There must have been a bazillion war movies but so many of them have a sameness about them...but not this one. Well acted, well made and very engaging...this one's worth your time.

lcmc2000 During World War II, the beauty Aiko Clarke, was one of the several Japanese who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS). She was immortalized by one of her students, Richard Mason, the author of The World of Suzie Wong, in his first novel The Wind Cannot Read.The Japanese instructors had to be accompanied by SOAS students for their protection, on outings in London. The instructors also taught respect for Japanese culture and life. Otome Daniels's parting words to pupils leaving for India were 'please look kindly on my people'.Mason served in the Far East in the Royal Air Force as an interrogator of Japanese prisoners-of-war. He did his writing in the evenings, often in temperatures of over 100 degrees and carried the manuscript in his jeep during the Burma Campaign.