Stories about Burma (Myanmar)
Pierre Boule, a Frenchman who was held captive by Japanese forces in Thailand during the Second World War, wrote a story about British prisoners of Japanese forces who were made to build a bridge for their captors. One of the themes in the story was a reversal of roles. British soldiers represented an empire that ruled much of the world, but found themselves taking rather than giving orders. Boule explored the same theme in a science fiction story.
In the same year that "The Bridge on the River Kwai" earned the Best Picture award (and six other awards) at the Academy Awards, Kon Ichikawa's "The Burmese Harp" won the prize for best film in a foreign language. His film, made barely a dozen years after the war, gave audiences in the United States and around the world a view of the Japanese experience in the war in southeast Asia.
People are still trying to build railroads through Burma (Myanmar).
With these films, Asian directors and actors gained some of their first big audiences in the West.