A thin barrier separates us from chaos and anarchy

I saw the film Empire of the Sun on BBC2 at the weekend. 
 
I’ve seen the film before, five years ago, but all I remembered from that showing was how incredibly long it was.  This time I only intended to see a little of the film while I sat down briefly to drink a cup of tea.  In the event, I ended up watching all three hours. 
 
The film is very thought-provoking.  It made me think about the nature of different cultures. How brutal the Japanese were (and yet by their own standards they were acting honourably).  How important China is, and how little we understand about that mysterious country.  How fragile civilisation is, and what a thin barrier separates us from chaos and anarchy.
 
There is a sequence in the film where British people from the International Settlement (basically a European colony in the heart of Shanghai) are clothed in fancy-dress costumes, and travelling in expensive motor cars through the lines between the Chinese inside Shanghai and the invading Japanese laying siege to the city.  They’re on their way to a party in the countryside.  It’s very surreal.  The British in Shanghai were confident, untouchable, assured of their own invincibility.  And yet how totally inconsequential their fate proved to be once the war began.

There is a very beautiful song repeated at various points in the film.  Actually it’s a Welsh folk-song.  It seems to symbolise lost innocence.