Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [DVD] [1983]

This emotionally powerful film has excellent performances from all the lead roles. I would give it five stars, if it weren't that the DVD transfer were so poor. The image has low contrast and the soundtrack has some noticable breaks and other noises. See this movie, but be warned about the "Second Sight" edition.

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is a film which covers many things, on many different levels- the simplest being that of a war film. However to dismiss it as such would be to do an injustice to this superb bit of film making.

The tangled tensions of this prisoner of war camp make for riveting viewing as two cultures clash between their views of honour. The sergeant (Takeshi Kitano) cannot reconcile his friendship with Lawrence (Tom Conte) with his view of Westerner's being weak and dishonourable. In one particulary memorable scene Kitano declares all Englishmen to be homosexual, and thus views his superior's deeper relationship with Bowie as suspect

The strange subliminal attraction between Celliers and Yonoi adds another depth to this already layered film, as Yonoi fights to understand what can give Cellier's such courage to face death without Yonoi's reassurance of Samurai ancestors.

Sakamoto gives a moving performance of a man displaced from time, longing for the simpler times of war and honour, caught in a limbo between his attraction to celliers and his need to do what was right.

The music was beautiful and the cinematography excellent. I highly recommend this film for anyone even if you are not interested in war films- I'm not myself

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence was a joint venture between a Japanese and Western team. The film is directed by Nagisa Oshima, in what would be his first English language production. Despite working in a language that was not his own, Oshima has managed to produce a stellar work, that is subtle, powerful and moving.

The story takes place in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp on Java in 1942. This camp is run by Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto), an uptight and strict soldier who is obsessed with honour and the samurai code of bushido. He looks down on all members of the camp as dishonourable cowards, as they chose to surrender rather than commit suicide after defeat. One prisoner of this camp is Col.John Lawrence (Tom Conti), a man who has spent many years in the Far East. He is a fluent Japanese speaker who can converse with the camp guards, giving him the edge over the other monolingual prisoners. Lawrence has struck up a bizarre relationship with Sgt. Hara (Takeshi Kitano) an obtuse and somewhat aggressive man, who nonetheless can show some kindness and humanity when he wants too. Lawrence who had at one time respected the Japanese and their culture has now become disillusioned with them, following the cruel treatment he has to endure.

Soon a new arrival threatens to throw the camp's order into chaos. Major. Jack Celliers (David Bowie) is a roguish veteran of many campaigns whose odd behaviour bemuses the Japanese. He is spared execution because of Captain Yonoi's fascination with him. Yonoi cannot reconcile his knowledge of the bushido code with Cellier's behaviour, because Celliers is both brave and honourable, yet reckless and eccentric. It is also suggested that Yonoi is attracted to Celliers, and therefore he cannot bring himself to kill him, even though Celliers threatens to cause an upheaval.

Yonoi and Sgt. Hara decide to put Celliers under the care of Col. Lawrence. It is here that Lawrence learns of Cellier's past as a burnt out soldier who is haunted by many demons, especially his inability to protect his younger brother from school bullies. Yet Celliers's self destructive tendencies have the better of him. He attempts escape and does his best to be uncooperative and rude to the camp leaders. It becomes apparent to Lawrence that unless he is able to dampen the situation Yonoi will finally erupt into rage, which might lead to terrible consequences for Celliers and the entire camp.

This is a powerful and subtle clash of cultures story. Both sides believe that they are right, and both sides are confused with each others attitudes and beliefs. In the middle of this we have Col. Lawrence who is torn between loyalty to his own people, and his respect of Japanese Pre-War culture.

The acting by the cast is excellent. David Bowie, Takeshi Kitnao and Tom Conti should all be congratulated for their performances, and the script writers should be congratulated for creating such interesting three dimensional characters. Ryuichi Sakamoto's performance does go a bit over the top sometimes, but that is usually because of the Japanese style of acting. Yet Sakamoto makes up for this by producing his memorable musical score, especially the haunting main theme.

Overall this is a brilliant film. It might be hard to follow at first, but repeated viewings will make you gain a better appreciation of the film. My only criticism of the film is that it can be a bit dated in some ways, but its not too distracting. This is an incredibly moving film, and the ending is one of the most memorable and tragic I've ever seen. Certainly one to watch.