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Following my previous Indie review of She’s The He, I feel we all need a palette cleanser. It’s time for some manly men.
Enter Prisoner of War.
Warning: the following paragraph is packed so full of testosterone that it should only be available on prescription.
Prisoner of War is a World War Two prisoner of war movie starring Scott Adkins as a downed British Wing Commander forced to fight his Japanese captors in staged three-on-one martial arts battles while plotting a jailbreak during the Battle of Bataan. Throw in a couple of hot Filipino nurses and an iconic plain white T-shirt that magically dirties and undirties itself from scene to scene, and it is a recipe for the best movie ever made.
I mean…it’s not, but it sure sounds good on paper.
Spoilers ahead.
Prisoner of War begins in 1950, where a bearded James Wright (Adkins) has tracked his former captor Benjiro Ito to a dojo in Tokyo. Ito’s son runs the dojo, and immediately sets his students on Wright. It’s the first of many well-choreographed fight scenes and an opportunity to showcase just how badass Wright is.
I was going to criticise the scene for the fact that the students attack Wright one at a time, but on reflection it makes sense. These guys have honour and are testing themselves individually. And failing.
The legend of the fist
Flashback to 1942, where we spend most of the movie. Wright is clean shaven so he can pass for being eight years younger. After crashing his plane in the Bataan peninsula, Japanese troops capture him, but only after he dispatches a few of them in masculine fashion.
The troops bring Wright to Ito, who immediately orders him to be beheaded. But guess what? He’s Scott Adkins. He kills the executioners like a male and escapes, only to get caught in a net and captured by Ewoks. Sorry, I’m getting my movies confused. There is a net though.
Back to Ito, where he puts him in a fight against a guy known as ‘The Beast.’ The Beast is not that big – the name doesn’t suit him – but he is badass, and we see him easily dispatching a group of guys before confronting Wright. He seems like a real threat and not your average entry level bad guy.
Anyway, Wright kicks him once and sends him back through puberty in the wrong direction. Wright clenches his fist and it charges up with mystical Japanese tradition. He one-punch kills the guy by bringing his fist down on his head like God’s gavel.
Ito could execute Wright in response, but he chooses not to. He recognises game. Also, Scott Adkins starred in and wrote the movie. He’s going nowhere.
Battle of wills
To be clear, Prisoner of War isn’t a superhero movie or anything. The first move isn’t supernatural, but more like the five-finger death punch from Kill Bill. Ito tells Wright that the move is forbidden. Ooh, sorry, Mister World War Two Japanese camp commander. The Geneva Convention forbids a whole lot of things, too, you know, but here we are.
Instead of killing Wright, Ito cuts his cheek with a sword, like in The Princess Bride, and vows to kill him tomorrow, like in The Princess Bride.
What follows is a repetitive battle of wills between Wright and Ito that is loosely reminiscent of The Bridge on the River Kwai, except with less whistling.
Ito makes Wright fight, Wright wins, Ito lets him live but kills a red shirt Filipino as a warning, Wright plots with his fellow captors, Ito finds out and makes Wright fight, Ito lets him live but kills a red shirt Filipino. You get the idea.
At least Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai had a motivation for torturing Alec Guinness but keeping him alive. He needed him to agree to build a railway bridge because a train was coming. Ito keeps his motivation close to his chest, even in the face of protests from his men.
I think he just loves Scott Adkins. Who wouldn’t?
The legend of the white T-shirt
I haven’t seen Scott Adkins in much, but he does a good job in Prisoner of War. He brings presence and sincerity to the role. Think Ryan Reynolds without the irony. Scott Adkins doubled for Ryan Reynolds as Weapon XI in the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I thought was noteworthy.
The supporting cast of prisoners are competent, but the characters themselves are underdeveloped. The breakout star is Scott Adkins’ white T-shirt, which is bloodstained, clean, lightly soiled and heavily soiled, seemingly at random.
Bruce Willis had 17 vests for Die Hard, each one more soiled than the last. That’s how you do continuity. Maybe Scott Adkins scared the dirt away with the piercing power of his stare.
Prisoner of War is too long in the edit. Scenes could use a trim to tighten things up and build momentum. The strongest element of the film is the fight scenes, and there should have been more. The downtime between fights slows momentum and the escape planning gets in the way. Just make a fight movie. Make the prisoners fight each other. A lot of potential drama is left on the table.
The production values are good for an indie production, but it lacks grit. This dark period of World War II simply looks too clean. I’m assuming this is due to digital cinematography and modern lighting techniques. The campaign to bring back grain (and tropical diseases on set) starts here.
The final jailbreak is chaotic with some solid elements and some implausibility. Then we’re back at the dojo in 1950, where Ito’s son asks Wright to do the fist move on him. I won’t give away the ending, but the dojo scenes bookend the movie well.
Overall, Prisoner of War has its good points and bad points, and ultimately ends up somewhere in the middle. Take another half a star for Scott Adkins.
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