BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

RetroPizzaTimeCritic The movie about Lt. Col. John Lawrence and Sgt. Gengo Hara who become good friends with Maj. Jack 'Strafer' Celliers who visit to become British Military solider in New Zealand, and he not guilty. But Capt. Yonoi have no respect about no foods, drinkings, and more, he want All prisoners deads. But Celliers and Lawrence in jail about prisoners eating foods/drinking, singing for celebrate christmas before Hara who the one let them two out of cells and yes he speak English as Father Christmas mean Santa Claus and one last word for him as "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is was good Japanese/British Drama Christmas movie in World War II and friendship.Storyline is drama, characters is good, and acting done well

fred-houpt I finally watched this yesterday and I am going to go out on a limb and register my disappointment with the film. When you look back on a film made when Bowie was at his peak, you have to consider his star power in being cast in a Japanese film. He is a fine actor and his work, small in number, is good enough to consider watching in other films. I feel that he was miscast for this film or put another way round, was cast because he was the blue eyed wonder boy from British pop. I mean, a English pop star in the same film as a Japanese pop star? Flags should have gone up on that. In Bowie's defence, he's not given a lot of latitude to move around in his role or much in the way of dialogue. He is used to glare at the camera a lot or else munch on flowers in a grotesque scene that, if important, passes over our heads. Conti is an excellent actor but what drove me nuts was his smirk or smile or fawning good humour with his Japanese tormentors, who were regularly killing soldiers. It made very little sense in the context of what camp life was really like for POW's. The flashback scenes to Cellier's childhood made little sense. What are we to make of this other than he has feelings of guilt, for having been such a cold hearted jack ass to his kid brother? So what are we to make of this guilt? It is not developed in a direct and full manner in the film. I mean, if you want to coat the film with Shakespearean drama, then do something with the guilt. Nothing; and so, it makes little sense.Which leads me to a deeper sense of disappointment. I might be dead wrong, but I had the sense throughout the whole film that the really shocking horrors of what the Japanese really did to prisoners were bleached a bit, sanitized to make the film more palatable to the Japanese market. It is fairly well known that the Japanese to this date have not dealt with their war crimes in a full face on mea culpa. Not even close to the soul cleansing that the German people have done and seen in their movies and literature. Go and ask the South Koreans, Chinese or Vietnamese what they think of the Japanese, especially about their war crimes and you'll get a totally different perspective than this film shows. I mean, it is not that Japanese films cannot be bloodily and bluntly honest. Most of Kurosawa's films are unsentimental, brutal and fearless in depicting the savagery of the Japanese warrior.Consider then, what this topic would look like if made by a British director, who might have known Brits who survived a Japanese concentration camp? I dare say that the drama would not have been so ambiguous, teetering as it does several times, on the travails of a camp commander as he has his Shakespearean moments of doubt. I was so sick and tired of the commandants pouting facial gestures and his childish tirades. If you really want a taste of what these camps were like then forget about this rather silly film. Read the book "Unbroken". It is a stupendous book on all levels and it covers the survival of a man in the midst of the most brutal, savage and bestial actions, that take place in a Japanese POW camp. That is the real heart of darkness and it is watered down in this film. I was not impressed. "The Bridge over the River Kwai" is far superior. This film should be remade and not by a Japanese director, with all due respects to some of their excellent cinema.

Blade_Le_Flambeur An enigmatic tone piece from internationally acclaimed Nagisa Oshima, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a left-of-center look at the moods of a WWII P.O.W. Camp. Comparisons to The Bridge on the River Kwai cannot be avoided (not that the producers strove to do such) but this film is a very different animal indeed.As posited by Jeremy Thomas in a supplemental interview, "What happens when a Japanese filmmaker makes a Japanese P.O.W. camp movie?" Something like this film in which the elegiac tone is oh so much more important than anything else. David Bowie's constant, downbeat independence vs. Tom Conti's fierce loyalty vs. Takeshi Kitano's upbeat clown pose... these are the most important elements of the piece. The humid tropics of Java help tell the story of a wound up prison camp in Indonesia during W.W.II. Cryptic Jack Celliers (Bowie) joins the titular Lawrence (Conti) and his crew of British soldiers under the auspices of the jocular Hara (Kitano) and Yonoi (pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto, pulling double duties as the composer). Their relationships form the backbone of the film as they all vie for control. Celliers and Yonoi's ambivalent relationship moves the film along while the Japanese-speaking and mannered Lawrence constantly bickers with Hara about equal treatment.The film has a definitive Western feel in the setting up of the story. It is based on a South Afrikaner's memoir and written by a British screenwriter. The back-and-forth dialogue, particularly during rigid two way conversations speak to this. But Oshima lets the music pulsate along and tracks along, showing how these men affected each other. By the conclusion the audience is so thoroughly engrossed in just the ambiance that they forget everything else. Unlike Oshima's more extreme In the Realm of the Senses, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a relatively easy act to follow. Although not as artistically rewarding, it is equally worth watching.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews I have not read the novel, though I may very well do so. This is the first film by Ôshima that I watch, but I intend to try to find other of his works. I understand that this is the first he did in English, and it doesn't show or in any way detract from it. This does not feel like there was ever a communication problem between the crew on this. It's nice how they speak Japanese when that is appropriate, and those of us who do not understand that get subtitles. That is exactly how it should be, in my opinion. I had not seen Bowie act before, and I have to admit, he left me positively surprised. Every role is well-cast. This is engaging and interesting, and it's always nice to see such an excellent movie that deals with something so different to what we usually see in features. The cinematography and editing are expertly done. For being over 25 years old, this does not feel dated, and the subject remains relevant, and this continues to be a poignant viewing experience. There is disturbing and unsettling content in this, as well as some violence. I recommend this to anyone mature enough for it. 8/10