The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2025) s01e05 Episode Script

1
They have to go now.
The camp by Three Pagodas
has lost many men.
It requires more.
Colonel orders 100 men to go.
Three Pagodas Pass is over
a hundred kilometres away.
I will send men to guide them.
I'm not concerned with them
finding their way.
Major, these men are too sick
to make that journey.
Work is slowing
by the border!
This cannot happen!
Major. Major.
I don't have
100 men to give you.
These men are too sick.
Australians should wash
like Japanese.
Okay then, then give
me soap, give me water
and I will clean them myself.
But do not send these men
to their death.
I'm not. You are to select.
One hundred!
You choose.
The men go now.
Take only what they wear.
Everything else
is at the Pass.
One hundred!
Major orders a hundred men
march to Three Pagodas Pass.
It is safest for all men
with boots to go.
Oi
Thank you, sir.
I'd love to catch up in Hobart
for a beer sometime.
I'd like that, Chum.
- Thanks, sir.
- Les
For everything.
Thank you, sir.
Who's Chum?
You kept saying his name
over and over
in your sleep last night, as if
you're talking to someone.
A boy I once knew.
And why was this particular
boy's name in your head??
I don't know.
He died in the war.
Can I take you to breakfast?
No
I'm here to say goodbye.
This was always going to
have an end date, wasn't it?
You and I
It's just
I'm just a distraction
for whatever is going
on in your head--
- That's, not true.
- Yes it is.
I've seen enough of
your nightmares to know
that whatever you've been
through, has left a deep mark.
And I just don't know if
I can take care of you.
I appreciate your concern,
Lynette
but ah
you should go.
Wake up.
Wake up hurry, wake up!
Don't be slow.
Quickly, get up.
Major!
A track joining
Siam and Burma means
we will no longer rely
on our navy for supplies.
We are independent.
For Japan's future
for the Emperor.
Forever!
Long live His Majesty
the Emperor!
Hasshal!
How are you
today, Mr. Evans?
You tell me.
Am I still a surgeon?
We do have information regarding
your malpractice investigation.
The Council has found
you not to be culpable
and for there not to have been
any unsatisfactory conduct
in the surgery of Mrs. Davis.
So what does
that mean for me?
It means that there'll be no
further action going forward,
um, you're free to
continue practising.
- Is that it?
- Yes.
Would you care to know how
we came to our decision?
No.
- Are you nervous?
- No.
Are you?
Yes.
Don't be.
Tell us we'll be alright.
Please welcome
Mr. and Mrs. Evans.
Five years, six months
and three days.
That is how long
we were apart.
Now look at us.
The thing that kept me
going throughout that time
was thinking about today
was thinking about seeing
all of your beautiful faces.
And most importantly
it was seeing Dori's face at the
end of the aisle waiting for me.
So
Thank you, again.
And
Dori did promise me a dance.
So, miracles do happen.
Hey fish. He always said
how unhappy they look.
They look unhappy to you?
Yeah, well
they're not fucking smiling.
You're free,
you little bastard.
There you go, Frank.
Choi San Min.
You have been found guilty
of having participated
in the murder of
Sergeant Frank Gardiner.
This ruling classifies you
as a Class B war criminal,
and as such, you shall be
executed by hanging
at Changi Prison tomorrow
morning at 0700 hours.
I'll fill a sandbag
to your weight
and hang it on the rope
overnight to stretch it.
That'll take away
any bounce in your rope.
With no bounce,
it'll be all over quick.
Is there anything
you wish to say?
TWO GUARDS FOUND
GUILTY OF MURDER.
I remember that neck.
Colonel.
Good to see you still have it.
How did you find me?
I heard from
Lieutenant Fukuhara.
He is considered a criminal too?
Yes.
He and Chieko
are hiding in Tokyo.
What of your wife,
where is she?
Look at all we have lost.
For what?
The beating of one man
inside a war?
Not even a man but a prisoner.
The Australians
dress up their vengeance
and call it justice.
Since I read my name
on their list.
We have been here
since the summer.
We were
we were to come back
as heroes.
Not like this
like rats hiding
inside gutters.
So why are you here?
Sometimes I worry they are right
and I feel scared.
It is not vengeance
] feel it is justice.
Listen.
You are an officer.
You are not a criminal.
How can there be crimes
between enemies?
Look at Nagasaki.
Hiroshima.
At what went on there.
Tens of thousands died.
Yet why us?
Our men hang for the death
of one sergeant.
I wanted to
bring you these.
How old are you there?
Nineteen.
Married in Nica -
honeymoon in Hobart.
Where are the kids now?
At my mother's.
I preferred they weren't
here for your visit.
- No offence.
- None taken.
Thank God for the three of them.
I can't bear to be alone.
Are you married?
- Yeah.
- So you believe in love, then?
- What's your wife's name?
- Ella.
Mmm
Is Ella your note,
or your room?
My friend's a piano teacher.
She says that every room
has its own note,
you just have to find it.
She sang up and down
this house one day, and she
A note bounced off the wall
right back to her.
The most perfect hum.
It was beautiful.
It made me think of Guy,
and of love.
That one note that finds you
even if you don't want it to.
Guy was my note
and I was his room
and now everything's
silent.
Why I like the kids around.
Perhaps you can stay
until they come back.
Of course.
You know there's this place
There's an island just south
of where I grew up.
There's not a soul there.
No houses, no cars,
no buildings.
Just a big old lighthouse.
Can we go there?
What do you want,
Ella?
What I want
I lost a long time ago.
To a war I never fought in
and a woman I never knew.
I thought I saw her once,
you know?
When?
Soon after we moved to Sydney.
But it couldn't have been.
Don't hate me.
Oh, I don't hate you.
I think you're the loneliest man
I've ever known.
You know, Rick said to me,
we all played a part
The things we did and didn't do.
And you've done nothing wrong,
Ella.
Now, you're the reason
we have all this.
You made it happen.
Yeah, but no matter how hard
I tried you were never here.
I mean, I waited for you.
I waited for you.
Through the war, through
marriage, through the children.
Through your love affairs,
your career, I waited for you.
I'm sorry.
So am I.
I am, I'm sorry.
So who do you
think that might be?
Is it young you?
You think so?
Well done.
What made you think
it was me?
I can see it in the eyes.
Really?
- Hello, darling.
- Hi.
Why don't you go
and see the family?
Mm-hm.
Did you finish
your speech?
Mm-hm.
Were you truthful?
Accurate.
As much as I could be.
You look lovely.
Thank you.
As do you.
It was Lord Tennyson
who wrote
"I am part of all
that I have met".
And I thought of this
as I turned the pages
of my friend
Guy Hendricks' book.
For we all left part of
ourselves in that jungle
in that mud
within each other.
However
as accurate as this book is,
it is just a book.
Horror can be contained
within a book
given form and meaning.
But in life, horror has no more
form than it does meaning -
it just is.
And Guy was convinced that
no matter what happened to him,
his pictures would survive.
And he was right.
Here we are
A life's work on these walls.
Rabbit's life,
SO many men's lives taken,
for what?
A railway?
Of which now, little remains.
Sleepers covered in weeds.
Tracks bent and warped.
Our memory
is the only true justice.
It's our only defence
against repeating
the misery of history.
And without nights like tonight,
and work like Rabbit's
no one but
those who lived it,
will remember the
immense suffering.
The er constant sorrow.
The pointlessness of it all.
Without memory
it will be
Well, history's
greatest crimes
never happened.
Are you all right?
Yeah.
- Fine.
- You should go home.
Yeah
She came to visit once.
Amy came to see you, but found
your wife and child instead.
I should have told you
before this.
It doesn't matter, El.
Perhaps not.
Now you know.
Mmm
Hey