Never So Few

Published on Jan 9, 2015

Recognition of Kachin people who sacrificed their lives for Allied Forces during WW II in the fight against Japan. But today, American and British governments conveniently forgot Kachin people's plight caused by successive Burmese government since its independence in 1948.


Never So Few is a 1959 CinemaScope war film, directed by John Sturges and starring Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen, Richard Johnson, Paul Henreid, Brian Donlevy, Dean Jones, Charles Bronson, and Philip Ahn, and featuring uncredited roles by renowned Asian actors Mako, George Takei and James Hong. The script was loosely based on an actual OSS Detachment 101 incident recorded in a 1957 novel by Tom T. Chamales.[3] Sinatra's role as Captain Tom Reynolds is based on the real life of an OSS officer and, later, a Sangamon County, Illinois Sheriff, Meredith Rhule.[4][5]

Plot

Shot on location in Burma, Thailand and Ceylon, the film follows Captain Tom Reynolds (Sinatra) and his fellow OSS operatives, Captain Grey Travis (Lawford) and Corporal Bill Ringa (McQueen), leading Kachin natives in fighting the Japanese in Burma in World War II despite a lack of support from their commanders.

In 1943 Burma, a unit of American and British forces under the Office of Strategic Services joins with the native Kachin to hold back the Japanese Army. The unit, under the joint command of American captain Tom C. Reynolds and British captain Danny De Mortimer, with guidance from Kachin leader Nautaung, remains frustrated by their grueling duty, limited supplies and lack of medical care.