The Wind Cannot Read Reviews

Bogarde, a Royal Air Force officer in Burma during the early days of World War II, is transferred to India to learn Japanese so he can become an interrogator of prisoners of war. He falls in love with his instructor, Tani, the daughter of a Japanese liberal who fled his country during the rise to power of Tojo and his militants. The pair do a lot of sightseeing and, because the RAF would refuse him permission, they secretly marry. Soon after, Bogarde is sent to the front and in short order is captured by the Japanese. Tani joins All India Radio, beaming British propaganda to the enemy. Bogarde listens intently from the camp where he has been tortured and humiliated. One day, though, Tani doesn't broadcast, and Bogarde learns from fellow prisoner Lewis that she is suffering from an incurable brain disease. Determined to see her again, Bogarde, with Lewis, stages a daring escape. They make their way through dense jungles back to their own lines. In Delhi Bogarde is reunited with Tani and reaffirms his love for her just before she dies a lovely soft-focus death. A routine sentimental wartime romance is saved from maudlin excess by Bogarde's sincere performance and the exciting prison camp and escape sequences. Bogarde was just about the biggest star in Britain at this point, and his indenture to Rank, which had kept him in bland, lightweight juvenile leads like the "Doctor" series, was soon to end.