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Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [VHS] [1983]
 
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Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [VHS] [1983]

VHS ~ David Bowie
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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2 new from £2.90 5 used from £2.90 1 collectible from £4.50

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Product details

  • Actors: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson
  • Directors: Nagisa Oshima
  • Writers: Nagisa Oshima, Laurens Van der Post, Paul Mayersberg
  • Producers: Eiko Oshima, Geoffrey Nethercott, Jeremy Thomas, Joyce Herlihy
  • Format: Dolby, PAL, Surround Sound
  • Language English, Japanese
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Second Sight Films Ltd.
  • VHS Release Date: 21 Jun 1999
  • Run Time: 118 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004CJJH
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,302 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. Protesting--via his own enigmatic rebellion--the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (Ryuichi Sakamoto). While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. --Tom Keogh

Synopsis
Set in a POW camp on Java in 1942. A psychological drama about culture clashes and the will to survive. A British Army officer wages a war of wills against his strict and belligerent Japanese captors.

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A powerful movie spoiled by a poor quality DVD transfer, 7 Feb 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [DVD] [1983] (DVD)
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An English perspective directed by a Japanese, 21 Aug 2003
By Stephen Lodziak (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [VHS] [1983] (VHS Tape)
This movie is at once disturbing, enlightening, infuriating and moving. If you want to get an idea of the motivations behind a sadistic prison camp guard you won't get any closer than here.
Tom Conti's "One day they just went crazy" is a classic line that describes better than any textbook why such a peacful and friendly nation went down the path it did in the 1930's/40's.
A war film that surpasses all the others.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly cult and decadent, 14 April 2007
By Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence [DVD] [1983] (DVD)
This film was kind of cult when it came out. Because of David Bowie of course, but also because of the side of the Second World War it showed. In this case, the Japanese refused to apply Geneva conventions and forced onto their prisoners the code of conduct of the Samourai. The result is of course a great level of suffering, total disregard of death and dying, treating a hara-kiri execution as an honor, an honorable spectacle that any soldier should consider as a privilege to be able to watch ... For these Japanese soldiers it is a sign of a total lack of courage to accept to be the prisoners of those who defeated you. The only honorable course of action should be dying, and killing themselves in the last run. When Jack Celliers is captured, tried and sentenced to come to this prisoners' camp, he is bound to explode the whole situation because the commander of the camp, Captain Yonoi, thinks he is different and might be of the Samourai vein. In fact Celliers is a typical British officer: never yields, never accepts the unlawful rule of the enemy, resists and disturbs as long as he is alive in their hands. Yonoi decides a two day fast for everyone, prisoners included, Celliers will provide the prisoners with flowers for food. He will thus lead Yonoi to absolute mental breakdown and the final straw that will break the camel's back will be the double brotherly kiss Celliers will give him in front of everyone when condemned to die or nearly. Celliers revealed thus Yonoi was attracted, fascinated, hence in love even if only as a soldier with Celliers. So Celliers will die buried neck deep in sand and Yonoi will come and get a lock of his hair before he is dead. This lock will be brought in a locket and deposited in a shrine in Japan by Mr Lawrence, the interface between Yonoi and the prisoners, after the war and after Yonoi was executed. The film reveals thus the head-on and headlong confrontation of two military civilizations: the Samourais were obviously condemned by history, but also by life and war. They could not survive this clash. David Bowie is superb in his role and Sakamoto is just as perfect. Cult it is, but also somewhere sickening. How could such an old civilization as Japan come to such an end? We will forgive the film for the obvious fakeness of all violent acts.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Nagisa Oshima's anti-war film
Fine film version of Laurens van der Post's novel "The Seed and the Sower".It tells of the suffering and brutality prisoners-of-war had to endure in a prisoner-of-war camp in Java... Read more
Published 2 months ago by George Redelinghuys

3.0 out of 5 stars lost in translation
The transfer of this film on to dvd is a disaster. The lush jungle settings and the colourful flashbacks are lost here. Read more
Published 7 months ago by G. R. Donaldson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant and Tragic Film
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... Read more
Published 11 months ago by D. Evans

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic- Crime to miss it
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is a film which covers many things, on many different levels- the simplest being that of a war film. Read more
Published on 19 April 2005 by Euripides

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the film!
The film was a bit iffy but the music is excellent - if you like this try the soundtracks to Last Emperor and Wuthering Heights as well.
Published on 30 Mar 2005 by Martin Fielding

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, Unique and Memorable
I can't remember what drew me to watch this film, but I'm so glad that I did. The film, without giving too much away, is basically about a group of mainly British soldiers who... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2005 by andy_pipkin

5.0 out of 5 stars great film! great music!
Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of the famouse musician in Japan.
His music is great!
I can not imagine this film without his music. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Your heart will never be the same again.
I'll keep it brief, sort of. It takes a lot to get me any way emotional over a film, but of all the countless numbers of films I've seen, the final scene of "Merry Christmas... Read more
Published on 24 Jul 2001 by Alan Hodder

5.0 out of 5 stars your introduction to life...
i was shown this fantastic movie by my mother at the tender age of 10, after a feud over what war meant (i thought it was all excitement and boys with toys), with the immortal... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, gritty film, one for a rainy night in!
Never seen david bowie act like this! He's sexy in Labyrinth and an odd ball in The man who fell to earth, but in this he's different again. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2000

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