KING RAT

Corporal King is an anomaly in the Japanese prison camp. One of only a handful of Americans amongst the British and Australian inmates, he thrives through his conniving and black market enterprises, while others, like upper class British RAF officer Flight Lieutenant Peter Marlowe, struggle to survive sickness and starvation while trying to retain their civilized standards. King recruits Marlowe to act as a translator, and as they become acquainted, he comes to like King and appreciate his cunning. King respects Marlowe, but his attitude is otherwise ambiguous; when Marlowe is injured, King obtains expensive medicines to save Marlowe's gangrenous arm from amputation, but, despite the fact that he stays by the sick man's bedside, it is unclear whether he does so out of friendship or because Marlowe is the only one who knows where the proceeds from King's latest and most profitable venture are hidden.

However the lower-class, seemingly incorruptible, British Provost Lieutenant Grey has only contempt for the American, and does his best to bring him down. Then Grey has to deal with an unrelated dilemma when he accidentally discovers that the high-ranking officer in charge of the meagre food rations has been stealing. He rejects a bribe and zealously takes the matter to Colonel George Smedley-Taylor. To his dismay, Smedley-Taylor tells him the corrupt officer and his assistant have merely been relieved of their duties and orders him to forget all about it. Grey accuses Smedley-Taylor of being in on the scheme, but the tampered weight he presented to the Colonel as evidence has been replaced, so he no longer has proof of the crime. Smedley-Taylor offers to promote him to acting captain. When a troubled Grey does not respond, Smedley-Taylor takes his silence as consent.

King starts breeding rats and selling the meat to British officers, telling them it is mouse-deer. When a pet dog is put down for killing a chicken, King has it cooked and he and his friends secretly eat it. Although they protest when they discover the origin of the meat, they ultimately relish it. The stakes are raised when they acquire a diamond to sell. The Japanese commander reads a scroll while a junior officer translates for the senior British officers, informing them that the Japanese have surrendered and the war is over. The prisoners celebrate – all except King: he realizes he is no longer the de facto ruler of the camp. King manages to squelch a premature attempt by resentful underling First Sergeant Max to reassert his rank and authority, but that only delays the inevitable.

Weaver, a lone British paratrooper, appears seemingly from nowhere to liberate the camp. After disarming the guards he attempts to talk with the prisoners of war, most of them are in a state of shock; King is the only one who responds. Though King is polite and deferential, Weaver almost immediately becomes suspicious of his clean and healthy appearance compared to the other prisoners and promises not to forget him. When Marlowe speaks to him before King's departure from the camp, King belittles their friendship, saying "you worked for me, and I paid you." The Americans are put on a truck. Marlowe rushes to say goodbye to King, but is too late and the truck drives off. When Grey makes a disparaging remark, Marlowe replies that Grey should be grateful as it was his hatred of King that kept him alive.

The Japanese surrender and the prisoners are liberated, leaving King stripped of his influence as the camp's social order dissolves.

The ending underscores the impermanence of power built on circumstance; King's dominance evaporates once the external threat (the camp) is gone, exposing the transactional nature of his relationships. This conclusion forces a reckoning with what, if anything, endures from the alliances and ethics forged in captivity. The final moments suggest that survival skills are not always transferable to freedom, and that the cost of moral compromise lingers.