Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese: 戦場のメリークリスマス, Hepburn: Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu - "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", also known in many European editions as , is a 1983 British-Japanese war film. It was directed by Nagisa Ōshima, written by Ōshima and Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. It stars David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Jack Thompson.
Plot
The film deals with the relationships among four men in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War Major Jack Celliers (Bowie), a rebellious South African British officer with a guilty secret from his youth; Captain Yonoi (Sakamoto), the young camp commandant; Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence (Conti), another British officer who has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently; and Sergeant Hara (Kitano), who is brutal, yet humane in some ways and with whom Lawrence develops an unlikely friendship.
Cast
- Akihiro Masuda
- Alistair Browning
- Arthur Ranford
- Atsuo Yamashita
- Barry Dorking
- Chris Broun
- Colin Francis
- Daisuke Iijima
- David Bowie
- Don Stevens
- Geoff Allen
- Geoff Clendon
- Grant Bridger
- Heiwa Yoshihara
- Hidenobu Togo
- Hideo Murota
- Hisao Takeda
- Ian Miller
- Jack Thompson
- James Malcolm
- Johnny Okura
- Kan Mikami
- Kaname Shimura
- Kenzo Shirahama
- Kunihide Kuruma
- Marcus Campbell
- Mark Berg
- Mark Penrose
- Martin Ibbertson
- Masaki Kusakabe
- Masamichi Shibasaki
- Masanori Okada
- Michael Baxter-Lax
- Mikami Hiroshi
- Richard Adams
- Richard Hensby
- Richard Hoare
- Richard Mills
- Richard Zimmerman
- Rintaro Shibata
- Rob Jayne
- Rokkô Toura
- Ryuichi Sakamoto
- Ryūnosuke Kaneda
- Shoetsu Sato
- Stephen Taylor
- Steve Smith
- Takashi Naitō
- Takashi Odashima
- Takeshi Kitano
- Takeshi Nagasawa
- Takeshi Yu
- Tamio Ishikura
- Tokuhisa Masuda
- Tom Conti
- Yôichi Iijima
- Yûji Honma
- Yuya Uchida
More details
| author | Laurens van der Post Nagisa Ōshima Paul Mayersberg |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Java |
| director | Nagisa Ōshima |
| editor | Tomoyo Oshima |
| events | homosexuality Pacific War World War II |
| genre | drama |
| keywords | attack batman bayonet betray boarding school break british officer bury christmas eve disabled february 26 incident haunt homoerotic japan japanese soldier katana kindred spirit military coup prisoner of war raaf rank royal australian air force second world war seppuku south africa south african the shining unlikely friendship war crimes world war |
| musicBy | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| producer | Jeremy Thomas |
| productionCompany | Recorded Picture Company |
| publisher | Shochiku Universal Pictures |
| recordedAt | Auckland Rarotonga |
| theme | japanese lgbt-related war |