Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Overview

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was the first English-language project of Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses). In tune with his previous filmic essays on racism and brutality, Merry Christmas concentrates on a war of wills between rebellious POW David Bowie and camp commandant Ryuichi Sakomoto. Assuming that his other prisoners' unwillingness to protest their cruel treatment is a sign of weakness, Sakomoto is most impressed by Bowie's enigmatic defiance. While Bowie and Sakomoto seem to be operating on a high spiritual and intellectual plane, bilingual prisoner Tom Conti (the "Mr. Lawrence" of the title) engages in a more standard adversarial relationship with sadistic sergeant Takeshi Kitano.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/22/2010
UPC:	0715515062015
Original Release:	1983
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:03:00
Sales rank:	3,838

Special Features

The Oshima Gang, a 1983 Making-0f Featurette; New Video Interviews with Producer Jeremy Thomas, Screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, Actor Tom Conti, and Actor-Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto; Hasten Slowly, an hour-long 1996 Documentary about Author Laurens van der Post, whose Autobiographical novel was the basis for the film; Original Theatrical Trailer; New and Improved English subtitle translation; Plus: a Booklet featuring an essay by film writer Chuck Stephens and reprinted Interviews with Director Nagisa Oshima and Actor Takeshi Kitano

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

David Bowie	Maj. Jack 'Strafer' Celliers
Tom Conti	Col. John Lawrence
Ryuichi Sakamoto	Capt. Yonoi,Composer
Takeshi	Sgt. Gengo Hara
Jack Thompson	Hicksley-Ellis
Johnny Okura	Kanemoto
Alistair Browning	DeJong
James Malcolm	Celliers' Brother
Christopher Broun	Celliers (age 12)
Yuya Uchida	Military Prison Commandant
Ryunosuke Kaneda	President of the Court
Naito Takashi	Lt. Iwata
Tamio Ishikura	Prosecutor
Rokko Toura	Interpreter
Kan Mikami	Lt. Ito
Yuji Honma	Pfc. Yajima
Daisuke Iijima	Cpl. Ueki
Hideo Murota	New Camp Commandant
Barry Dorking	Chief Doctor
Geoff Clendon	Australian Doctor
Grant Bridger	P.O.W. Officer
Marcus Campbell	P.O.W.
Colin Francis	P.O.W.
Richard Hoare	P.O.W.
Martin Ibbertson	P.O.W.
Marc Berg	P.O.W.
Rob Jayne	P.O.W.
Richard Mills	P.O.W.
Mark Penrose	P.O.W.
Taketoshi Nait?	Lt. lwata
Richard Adams	Actor
Chris Broun	Jack (boy)
Christopher Brown	Celliers at Age 12
Takeshi Kitano	Sgt. Gengo Hara

Technical Credits

Eiko Oshima

Paul Mayersberg

Terry Glinwood	Executive Producer,Producer
Masato Hara	Executive Producer,Producer
Geoffrey Nethercott	Executive Producer,Producer
Eiko Oshima	Executive Producer,Screenwriter
Jeremy Thomas	Producer
Paul Mayersberg	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Director Nagisa Oshima and co-writer Paul Mayersburg's narrative is more fractured than in most films of the POW camp genre, in which the story inevitably leads to some kind of escape. They are interested in exploring the psychology of their characters and the geometry of the camp, in which the captors are both wardens and interrogators, and the prisoners both captors and resisters. A rarity among prisoner of war films, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence also addresses the subject of homosexuality, not in overt fashion, but as a fact of POW camp life. Using two androgynous performers, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also wrote the film's score) and British musician David Bowie, to play the adversaries Yonoi and Celliers, Oshima suggests that Celliers' ability to withstand abuse from his captors elicits more than just admiration from the commandant. Tom Conti's John Lawrence is the supposed bridge between the two warring sides, thanks to his ability to speak Japanese, but he is powerless to stop the sadistic Sergeant Hara (Beat Takeshi Kitano, here billed as "Takeshi") from abusing Celliers. If the film isn't the crowd-pleaser that The Great Escape was or a more coherent mediation on the officers' code that Grand Illusion was, it is an honest attempt to examine the cultural differences that mark the POW setting.