CAST

     Ferdinand Meringolo    Daniel Edward Crowley

            Oliver Allen    Adam Palin

    Johnathan Wainwright    Marushchenko Dmitry

           Bob Rosendahl    Daniel Adrain

            John Moseley    Jimi Andersen

          George Tomecko    George Christopher

       Joe Bill Chastain    Marzaganov Khamid

       Rodriquez Gregory    Thomas Jay Stanley                

                    Neil    Mathieu Urbain Fernand Jaquet

   Ben Skardon    Andrew Lane Cawthon

     Ishikawa    TAKASHIMA SHINICHI

         Satou    TSUKAGOSHI HIROTAKA

     Matuta    YONEOKA HIROSUMI

                Atushima    Li Sheng

              Gao Dechun    Lv Huanliang

               Li Lishui    Wang Boqi

                  Farmer    Gao Jinlei

           Peasant woman    Li Xue

Richard L. Anderson Biography

While a teen growing up in St. Louis, Richard L. Anderson fell in love with the movies.  Unfortunately, there were no film companies there, so he took the long train ride to Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood.  After graduating from the Cinema Department at the University of Southern California, Richard found that there were no directing jobs for a young man with big dreams and no experience, so he got his first job in the professional industry in another field—sound editing on dubbing a Chinese kung-fu film into English.  

From there, he worked his way up through the ranks on many low budget films, sometimes as a film editor, but primarily as a sound designer, until he finally graduated to A pictures, such as “Star Wars” (1977) and “Star Trek: the Motion Picture” (1979).  During the 1980’s through 2011, Richard supervised the sound editing on many of Hollywood’s biggest hits.  Along the way, he won an Oscar for his work on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) and received two other nominations for “Poltergeist” (1982) and “Daylight” (1996).  He also won an Emmy Award for the Steven Spielberg directed TV show, “Amazing Stories” (1985) and five Golden Reel Awards for the above three pictures, as well as “Predator” (1987) and the animated classic, “The Lion King” (1994).

But Richard still wanted to make his own films, so he quit his successful sound career to concentrate on writing and directing.  Since then, he has written several feature film scripts and directed a few films, including a giant screen, 3D film about Genghis Khan, titled “Temujin” (2011), shot on location in Mongolia.  He is currently developing a suspense/science fiction film and a TV series about a Chinese detective, while waiting to direct the Hollywood version of this story of American POWs in Mukden.

Opportunity, Perspective and Structure

by Director Shen Haofang

The documentary film <Behind Bayonets and Barbed Wire> took “ Mukden Allied POW” established in Shenyang 70 years ago as the entry point to develop the plot. The film told the stories of POWs by interviewing the former prisoners or their relatives, combining recreation of their experiences and historical records. This documentary also tried to structure an unique WWII panorama by presenting the little-known stories to the audience.  

With the precious “opportunity” and special “perspective”, the relevant “structure” is required to reflect the grand structure of World War II. Without such grand structure, people could not be awaken from the meditation and suffering by the misery of the POWs. Without such grand structure, people could not sense the changes of world shape after the ending of war 70 years ago.  The in-depth exploration of this subject has realistic significance. To show this story to the audience is the creating purport of the movie.

 As a Chinese director, it’s a rare experience to tell this story by standing at the critical of the 70th anniversary of the ending of WW II.

Director's Statement

Director Richard L. Anderson’s comments on the film.

As a student in school, I always loved history.  It was never just dusty old dates to me, but rather, it was the story of people’s lives, often doing amazing feats—just like in the movies.  So when I was hired to write a script for a narrative film about the fascinating story of Allied POWs, who were imprisoned in Mukden, China by the Japanese during WWII, I jumped at the chance.

Since 2015 was the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, it was decided to first make a documentary version of this story to catch this historical date.  Though we did not have a long schedule, producer Liu Yangeng expertly put together a team of Chinese filmmakers, headed by veteran director, Shen Haofang, to capture the actual stories of some of the men, who lived through this difficult time.  We planned our project through email and Skype from both sides of the Pacific.  Then, with the help of Ao and Pat Wang’s Mukden Remembrance Society, we were put in contact with former POWs still living in the U.S.  I flew to Washington DC to see what film and photos I could find in the U.S. National Archives and there met Director Shen, face to face, along with his skilled team when they flew in from China.

What followed was a fascinating journey, as we all traveled a winding path across the U.S. to record the stories of this amazing group of men.  They are all in their nineties and varied in the quality of their health, but they all still had an indomitable spirit.  But our journey was not always a happy one.  Some men, who were scheduled to speak with us, became ill and canceled, after we had traveled a long distance to meet them, and one passed away not long after we interviewed him.  But this adversity only spurred me on that we must get their life stories on film since they are all disappearing quickly. 

Director Shen, who speaks Japanese, interviewed a number for people in Japan, including a former male army nurse, who had worked at the Mukden camp, to get the other side of the story.

Then, inspired by these men’s stories, we edited historical film from that period with filmed recreations of their stories—many shot in the actual camp and its buildings (now a museum)—to tell the extraordinary tales of men pushed to their limits by cruel jailers and how they fought back in any way possible. 

These men, often called “The Greatest Generation”, lived up to their reputation and revealed to us incredible stories of death, hardship, resistance, and their ultimate victory.  I am proud to have met them and only hope that they, and their families, will enjoy this film as much as I do. 

Richard L. Anderson