Rent Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)

Clash Of Cultures POW Story - Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence review by GI

An interesting film that mostly ignores the surface drama of war to delve into the cultural conflicts and character attractions of individuals thrust together in a Japanese POW camp. Set in 1942 it deals with the tensions between the young, traditional and idealistic camp commandant, Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) and a strange British officer, Jack Celliers (David Bowie) who refuses to kowtow to the regime that the Japanese insist upon. In the middle and attempting to navigate a way for all is Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti) who attempts to avoid bloodshed by a policy of appeasement. There is the hint of sexual attraction between Celliers and Yanoi which is left for the viewer to interpret and it's easy to see why Bowie was both attracted to the part and ideal for it as he portrays Celliers as a man of mystery who is beautiful and challenging. In many ways he's channeling a similar version of the upper class British officer that Peter O'Toole encapsulated in Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). It's well acted throughout and includes an early dramatic performance by Takeshi Kitano as the tough camp guard, Hara. This garnered several awards particularly in Japan where it was celebrated and it has a famous score by its star Sakamoto. This is not a POW narrative that fits easily into the expected format and it has no action adventure plot like The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) for example, so in that sense it is unique and remains an interesting study of a conflict of cultures.