MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (1983)

 

Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
Based on the novel "The Seed and the Sower" by: Sir Laurens van der Post
Starring: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson, Johnny Okura, Alistair Browning, James Malcolm, Yuya Uchida, Ryunosuke Kaneda, Takashi Naito, Tamio Ishikura, Rokko Toura, Kan Mikami, Hideo Murota

123 minutes
(R - strong language, adult themes, adult situations, violence)

PLOT:
Java, 1942. Focusing primarily on five players, the clashes between east and west and within the ranks on each side at a Japanese POW camp, where most of the prisoners are British, are presented. For the east, there is the camp commander, Captain Yonoi, a man in the traditional sense of a Japanese warrior, he who lives by those traditions. He believes that all British are liars. His guards, including Sergeant Gengo Hara, will often subvert his command in their own views of how to get the upper hand over their prisoners while satisfying their own needs, they may or may not be willing to accept the consequences if caught, those consequences again in the Japanese tradition. For the west, there is the ranking officer representing the prisoners, Group Captain Hicksley, an RAF pilot who is all bluster in sticking up for his men. Outwardly, it is Colonel John Lawrence who tries to bridge the gap between east and west, he who is fluent in Japanese and who truly tries to understand and thus react to the actions of their Japanese and Korean captors appropriately. However, recent arrival Major Jack Celliers, may be the one who truly has the most profound affect in bridging that gap especially as he is carrying some emotional baggage not associated with the war.

TRAILER: