Introduction
Hello everyone! We are Shui You Shui Mou. Today, are you looking to watch a great TV series? This time, we're introducing another era drama that breaks the ceiling, Three Tears in Borneo. With a total of five episodes, the series tells the story of a group of Taiwanese prisoner-of-war supervisors working with the Japanese army in North Borneo, Malaysia, at the end of World War II, who are accused of massacring prisoners of war by an international court. The series is woven together by the investigation line of "Who is the real culprit?" and explores the core conflict of how Taiwanese people sought survival and identity during the war. The series is a must-watch masterpiece for Taiwanese people, reaching new heights in terms of historical restoration, character shaping, theme exploration, and dramatic effect. In today's program, we will try to understand this unfamiliar yet deeply touching history by analyzing the main characters in the play and the fieldwork results shared by the creative team in the documentary The Drifting Sea and the podcast program 5-Minute Three Tears in Borneo.
The New Sea Brothers: Understanding the "National War" of Taiwanese Prisoner-of-War Supervisors
The New Sea brothers grew up in Kaohsiung. For different reasons, they went to North Borneo to work as employees of the colonial power in the local prisoner-of-war camp, earning supplies to send back to their hometown to subsidize their families. In the last episode, in the memory of the three brothers just setting off on the ship and naming themselves, it is revealed that they are not actually brothers but come from three different families. However, because they live nearby and can all see the sea, they took the Japanese surname "New Sea." The story focuses on their brotherly love as they support each other during the war and during the post-war trials.
Brother Hui: The Pursuit of Japanese Identity
Brother Hui hopes to break into the Japanese army circle and become a real Japanese soldier. With his active performance, he was quickly promoted from a prisoner-of-war supervisor to a private second class, managing all the supervisors. However, for Brother Hui, his future is tied to the safety of his two younger brothers. Therefore, when he was asked to only bring one supervisor to open the way, he had difficulty choosing between his younger brothers. In the end, because he left his younger brother, Dezi, it indirectly caused his tragedy. We feel that Brother Hui's identification with Japan is deeply rooted. In the army, in order to be recognized by his superiors and colleagues, he convinces himself to ignore the situation of the Chinese consul and his wife. Even after being sacrificed by the lawyer and his superiors one after another and shedding tears for his beliefs several times, he still cares about his glorious reputation as a soldier who died for his country after his death. In the end of the series, we find that before naming himself "New Sea," Brother Hui originally wrote his surname as Toyotomi, Tokugawa, Hasegawa, etc. These surnames remind us of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Warring States Period, or Hasegawa Kiyoshi, the then Governor-General of Taiwan. All three of these people can be said to be well-known figures who command the world, once again reflecting Brother Hui's ambition and ambition. Although Brother Hui's military career was short-lived and he realized the sadness of being a Taiwanese Japanese soldier, he still tried his best to shine before his death and bring light to Brother Yuan. Because whether it was true or false, Brother Hui made Brother Yuan "believe" that there were no bullets in the gun he gave him, relieving Brother Yuan of his sense of guilt. And this kind of human brilliance made him live out the meaning of the name "New Sea Hui" in the tragedy of national identity!
Brother Yuan: The Struggle for Love and Humanity
For Brother Yuan, the second brother, the job of a prisoner-of-war supervisor is a job that can fight for love. Because the naive him thought that this would be able to win the favor of his girlfriend's father, but he didn't expect that the other party had already arranged to return to Japan. When Brother Yuan came to the front line, he quickly discovered that his soft heart not only brought crisis but also was likely to drag down his brothers. Therefore, this struggle made him develop resentment and gratitude towards the consul and his wife, and also made himself almost die. It turns out that Brother Yuan, who was ordered by Brother Hui to shoot the prisoners before retreating, considered himself a murderer. Coupled with being misled by the lawyer that his sacrifice could save his brothers, Brother Yuan once lost his will to survive. It wasn't until he discovered that his younger brother, Dezi, had died and Brother Hui had been sentenced to a heavy sentence that he decided to tell the truth. And the real culprit is, of course, the camp commander who gave the order to "do what should be done." Brother Yuan should be the most human character in the whole play. He will express his dissatisfaction with Brother Hui for bullying the consul's wife. He accompanies his younger brother to listen to the sound of the waves to miss his hometown. He even asks his superiors for a clearer explanation of responsibility. He will also sympathize with the situation of the prisoners. But at the same time, you can also say that Brother Yuan is too naive. In the end, he exposed the location of the camp, indirectly killed the consul's wife, and was accused of murder by the consul. However, it is precisely because Brother Yuan still retains his kind human nature in the war that he does not go crazy and even receives the help of the young lawyer, Watanabe.
Brother Dezi: The Tragedy of a Young Soldier
For the 14-year-old younger brother, Dezi, the eldest brother, Brother Hui, and the second brother, Zhiyuan, are like the existence of a father and a mother. One teaches him how to be strong; the other teaches him to listen to the sea to miss his hometown. It turns out that Dezi lied about his age to apply for the job for his family. All along, he hopes to show himself in front of his two brothers that he can be independent and have the strength and courage of an adult. But when his two brothers are not around, Dezi can only obey orders and is forced to become a crazy perpetrator. Therefore, when he found that he was sentenced to a heavy sentence and had no one to rely on, Dezi rushed to the beach to listen to the sound from his hometown. However, he was also shot and killed in public as a fugitive.
The Battle in the Court: The Japanese Lawyer and the Australian Prosecutor
Australian military prosecutor William Kerr requested an international court to investigate the truth after discovering a large number of massacred and buried prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp. For him, witnessing his comrades-in-arms die and be injured with his own eyes made him more determined to hold the Japanese accountable. But he didn't expect that the witness would point to the Taiwanese prisoner-of-war supervisor, New Sea Zhiyuan. However, New Sea Zhiyuan's low rank made William feel suspicious, so he successively convicted the three brothers in the process of unraveling the mystery... In fact, William's motivation for prosecution is not only for the truth but also because some of the officers in the prisoner-of-war camp have already died in battle, making his pain of revenge nowhere to be released, and he can only turn his anger towards the remaining soldiers, which also indirectly caused the death of the younger brother, Dezi, and forced Zhiyuan to come out and retract his confession. Let William insist on continuing the war in the court and finally convict the commander.
On the other hand, there are three Japanese defense lawyers who are competing with William in the court. The first is the leading old lawyer, Takahashi, who has witnessed the process of the Meiji Restoration and the development of militarism, which makes him worried about the future of the country. Therefore, for him, sacrificing Taiwanese people is the "best interest" in this legal offensive and defensive battle. Compared with Takahashi's stability, the middle-aged lawyer, Kobayashi, because he has fought in World War II, under his tough mask, he hides more fear and helplessness about the war. This makes him know better than anyone else that the truth of the massacre is not important, because the victorious country only wants revenge, and the defeated side has no chance of winning in the court. So Kobayashi has already given up struggling and can only use the military orders he is familiar with to ask Brother Hui to come out and take the blame. The last young lawyer, Watanabe, because his twin brother died in the war, but he was able to escape by pretending to be nearsighted, he has a deep sense of guilt towards his compatriots who were prosecuted. So when he found that his professionalism was useless in an unfair trial, he decided to at least save Zhiyuan, who was misled... Looking at the above three lawyers of different generations, they represent three emotions in post-war Japan, namely, worry, anger, and shame. Of course, in the interaction mode with the three brothers, it is also like the method of a good cop and a bad cop, which stimulates Brother Yuan and Brother Hui to see the current situation clearly and choose to speak for themselves.
The Battle of Humanity: The Consul and His Wife
Luo Jinfu is the consul of the Republic of China stationed in Sandakan, North Borneo. He, his wife, He Jingyi, and their 11-month-old baby were captured by the Japanese army and forced to work in the camp. After the war, because Luo Jinfu had the closest interaction with the supervisor, New Sea Zhiyuan, he was not only hurt by the other party and lost his finger but also misunderstood that the other party shot and killed his wife and children. Therefore, he accused New Sea Zhiyuan of being the only real culprit in the massacre. However, at the moment of the final trial, Luo Jinfu received a notice from the government that all Taiwanese Japanese soldiers should be treated as nationals and should not be tried in an international court. But because of his personal experience and his lack of understanding of Taiwanese supervisors, Luo Jinfu insisted on the trial result and let these people who belong to the same country as him be sentenced to death. But ironically, because of the chaos of the war and the distortion of human nature, Luo Jinfu will never know that it was he who notified the US military and indirectly caused the death of his child. He will also never know that his wife and children have been taken care of by New Sea Zhiyuan for a long time. And the relics in his hands were also preserved because of the other party's selfishness.
Compared with Luo Jinfu, He Jingyi, because she was taken care of by New Sea Zhiyuan many times, after being humiliated and her child was killed by a bomb, she lost her will to survive and instead hoped that New Sea Zhiyuan would kill her. So when she was finally thrown into the trench, she thanked Brother Yuan as if she had achieved her wish. But she didn't know that her image and notebook had become Brother Yuan's sustenance during the war. Even though they only had a short interaction, the two became each other's hope to survive... In fact, Luo Jinfu and his wife are based on real prototypes in history, that is, Zhuo Huanlai, who is known as an anti-Japanese diplomatic martyr, and his wife, Zhao Shiping. However, the creative team mainly referred to the plot of the prisoner-of-war supervisor, Ke Jingxing, helping the consul's wife, and the rest are newly developed settings. It turns out that at that time, Ke Jingxing found that Zhao Shiping was too poor to feed her baby in the prisoner-of-war camp, so he exchanged cigarettes for eggs and secretly stuffed food to her. This struggle is also shown in the process of New Sea Zhiyuan helping He Jingyi in the play. Later, Zhao Shiping survived and expressed her gratitude to Ke Jingxing through her descendants. But the consul, Zhuo Huanlai, unfortunately, finally died in the prisoner-of-war camp. In the development of the three of them in the play and the prototype story, we can't help but think that if we were to become any of the three of them today, would we make different choices? Would we go to the fate of the characters in the play or the historical prototype? In any case, the creative team's re-setting of these prototype characters is very reasonable. Not only does it maintain the dramatic tension, but it also focuses on the current time axis to deepen the original human battle that it wants to present. We think the design is very wonderful, and we quickly bought the script book to relive the plot!
Conclusion
After watching today's program, do you have a better understanding of the historical background of Three Tears in Borneo? In fact, there are more supplements in the documentary The Drifting Sea and the podcast channel 5-Minute Three Tears in Borneo, such as why the Japanese army built a camp in North Borneo at that time, or the coincidences and opportunities that occurred during the production process. Welcome to leave a message below and tell us your thoughts!