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River Kwai

14.02°N 99.53°E2 titles

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What happened here

To supply its army in Burma, Japan built a 415-kilometre railway from Thailand in 1942 and 1943 using about 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and more than 200,000 Asian labourers. At Tha Makham near Kanchanaburi, prisoners built wooden and steel bridges over the Khwae Yai. Some 12,000 prisoners and up to 90,000 labourers died of disease, starvation and abuse, and Allied bombers attacked the bridges in 1945.

Films and series set in River Kwai

  1. Must-watch

    The Bridge on the River Kwai

    1957 · Film

    Here in the story

    1. Camp

      Colonel Nicholson refuses to let his officers do manual labour and endures the punishment box rather than give in to Colonel Saito.

    2. On the road

      The bridge is finished on time and the first train is due, while the commandos wait in the jungle with their charges set under the piers.

  2. The Railway Man

    2013 · Film

    Here in the story

    1. Camp

      Lomax builds a radio to bring news to the prisoners; when it is found he is tortured, and decades later he returns to the same place.

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