Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Director:

Nagisa Ôshima

Writers:

Laurens Van der Post (novel)
Nagisa Ôshima (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 September 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

Java, 1942 - A clash of cultures, a test of the human spirit.

Plot:

In 1942 British soldier Jack Celliers comes to a japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi, who has a firm belief in discipline...

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | British Soldier | Soldier | British | Prison

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 8 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

David Bowie	...	Maj. Jack 'Strafer' Celliers
Tom Conti	...	Col. John Lawrence
Ryûichi Sakamoto	...	Capt. Yonoi
Takeshi Kitano	...	Sgt. Gengo Hara (as Takeshi)
Jack Thompson	...	Group Capt. Hicksley
Johnny Okura	...	Kanemoto (as Johnny Ohkura)
Alistair Browning	...	De Jong
James Malcolm	...	Celliers' Brother
Chris Broun	...	Celliers aged 12
Yûya Uchida	...	Commandant of Military Prison
Ryunosuke Kaneda	...	President of the Court
Takashi Naitô	...	Lt. Iwata
Tamio Ishikura	...	Prosecutor
Rokko Toura	...	Interpreter
Kan Mikami	...	Lt. Ito

Also Known As:

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Australia) (DVD box title) (Australia) (DVD box title) (International: English title) (DVD box title)
Senjô no merî Kurisumasu (Japan)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

UK | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.50 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Italy:VM14 | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Auckland, New Zealand

Company:

National Film Trustees

Trivia:

The music on the film's soundtrack called "Forbidden Colours" is a reference to Yukio Mishima's novel where there is a theme of the incompatibility of homosexuality with the samurai ideals

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the final scene in the prison cell, the cross belt of Lt Col Lawrence's Sam Browne is fitted back to front.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Sgt. Gengo Hara: Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Stupeur et tremblements (2003)

Soundtrack:

The Lord's My Shepherd

almost unbearably moving

Based on Laurens van der Post's "The Seed and the Sower", "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" is an involving, almost unbearably moving and incredibly humane film. While Bowie toplines, the real star is Tom Conti as the eponymous British Officer trying to reconcile his respect for Japanese culture and innate humanity with the barbarity of the POW camp. Bowie has often been criticised for his acting, yet aside from a rather laughable flashback sequence where he impersonates a schoolboy, he is convincing as a mysterious and spirited "soldier's soldier" who has a beguiling effect on the young officer commanding the camp, played by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who quotes Shakespeare and issues brutal orders in almost the same breath.

Sakamoto, who is also a pioneer of electronic music with the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also wrote the soundtrack, including the famous "Forbidden Colours" theme (you probably know this even if you don't know where it's from) which conjures up the atmosphere of regret, lost love and repressed heartbreak in which we see the strange, unrequited love of Sakamoto's character for Bowie's. This film is about this impossible unrequited love and about the struggle of human values in wartime. As Lawrence (Conti) says to a Japanese Officer facing execution after the war; he is now the victim of "men who are sure they are right", just as in the camp the Japanese were sure they were right. The last scene between the decent, humane Lawrence and this officer, who was by turns hearty and brutal in the camp, is one of the most heartbreaking ever committed to celluloid.