Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
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Cast
as Maj. Jack 'Strafer' Celliers
as Col. John Lawrence
as Capt. Yonoi
as Sgt. Gengo Hara
as Hicksley-Ellis
as Kanemoto
as DeJong
as Celliers' brother
as Celliers (age 12)
as Military Prison Commandant
as President of the Court
as Lt. Iwata
as Lt. lwata
as Prosecutor
as Interpreter
as Lt. Ito
as Jack (boy)
as Pfc. Yajima
as Celliers at Age 12
as Cpl. Ueki
as New Camp Commandant
as Chief Doctor
as Australian Doctor
as P.O.W. Officer
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
as P.O.W.
Critic Reviews for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (4) | DVD (4)
The Merry Christmas catalogue of atrocities finally becomes numbing, even ludicrous.
From Oshima's later career... most notable is this bilingual, end-of-WWII tearjerker about forgiveness and understanding between cultures, which could have been dubbed The Man Who Fell to Java.
For all the praise heaped upon Oshima's admittedly ambitious film about East-West relations in the microcosm of a Japanese PoW camp during World War II, it's far less satisfactory than most of his earlier work.
Here's a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be.
Mr. Oshima has staged the film in a spacious tropical setting and filled it with a great number of extras. Even so, Mr. Bowie always stands out from the crowd.
The context and frequent incontinence of the execution bring the film uncomfortably close to the pseudophilosophical bondage fantasies of Yukio Mishima.
Audience Reviews for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Oddly scripted but intriguing. It's difficult to deny the presence of homoerotic undertones here, making this a most unconventional war film.
Super Reviewer
weird film. i think bowie may have been miscast, tho he does as well as could be expected. tom conti is kind of annoying with his perfect preachy character. the synthy soundtrack is good but kind of dated. +3 for beat takeshi in his first dramatic role
Super Reviewer
An interesting and very serious subject, but the characters spend most of their time sitting around talking, which gets really boring after a while. Plus, I'm not sure Bowie was the right person for the role, not that he can't act, I just think a more experienced dramatic actor would have been better. Overall, it's okay.
Super Reviewer
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