The movie begins with a very strong anti-war statement from the Indonesian perspective, harking back to atrocities committed by the Japanese in their wars in this region. There is a strong warning in the narrative to learn from the past. This is the over-riding theme in the film, and it is delivered with a strange mixture of very extreme, unrelenting violence, and some pretty maudlin sentiment, thrown in for the mix.
The first copy I ever saw had fogging on any exposure of the "naughty bits", but much skin on display throughout. The focus was not on nudity, however. I had this feeling watching it, of how strange it was that the audience was allowed to see beautiful women get their heads and stomachs kicked in, but, not allowed to see the stray nipple.
Most all the other typical components of the WIP are there; whippings,cat fights, beatings, and a level of violence not seen in most of this genre. The depth of the characters and the cinematography cause me to rank it much higher than average. The pregnant heroine stripped and paraded bareback on a bony donkey around the prison yard at the beginning, is an image hard to forget. Definitely watch it, if you get the chance, but you must have a very strong stomach for such subjects.
