To be honest MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE is a complete mess . Director Nagisa Oshima has made a sort of art house BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI , the music is intrusive and the story is unfocussed . As some people have said what is the story ? and I am something at a loss thinking what is the story. No doubt it`s something to do with homosexuality , but what ? I`m also at a loss wondering who is the main character . If the film is called MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE then surely Col John Lawrence is the main character ? Or is it Capt Yonoi ? Or Sgt Hara ? Maybe it`s Maj Jack Celliers whose childhood we see in a totally unnecessary flashback . Actually this Oshima`s biggest mistake , not so much with the flashback but with casting David Bowie as Celliers . Yes that`s David " The thin white duke " Bowie perhaps the greatest musical icon from the 1970s and he`s playing a British army guerilla in the 1940s . I can`t emphasise enough how this fails . The film also fails in having Japanese pop god Ryuichi Sakamoto playing Capt Yonoi who doesn`t so much play a sexually confused Japanese officer but plays a pop star from the 1980s playing a sexually confused Japanese officer . Of the rest of the cast unsuprisingly Tom Conti gives the best performance while Takeshi is fairly good though he could put more emotion in the line " Soldiers ! You`re prisoners not soldiers ! "
Actually this is where the movie works best - In showing Japanese cruelty during the war and the murderous contempt they showed against their conquered foes . The imperial Japanese didn`t murder six million Jews like Hitler but they did murder 10 million people in China alone and if there was a large Jewish community in the far east the Japanese would have exterminated them with even greater brutality than even the Nazis could have come up with . Thousands of American and British commonwealth prisoners died at the hands of their Japanese guards on the Burmese death railway while tens of thousands of Asians died . MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE does not shy away from this babarity . Someone doesn`t stand to attention quick enough , WHALLOP - A beating from the guards . Someone shows alleged contempt towards the Japanese , WHALLOP - A beating from the guards . Someone shows human compassion - WHALLOP a beating from the guards . Someone breaks the rules - A cruel execution . There is a reason for this , the Japanese would literally fall on their swords and would expect their enemy to do the same in order to win any respect , but this is only a reason and not an excuse for such sadistic inhumanity . So in many ways this surpasses the David Lean movie from the 1950s that would have us believe the Japanese allowed concert parties in their death camps and it`s this that makes it essential viewing
Actually this is where the movie works best - In showing Japanese cruelty during the war and the murderous contempt they showed against their conquered foes . The imperial Japanese didn`t murder six million Jews like Hitler but they did murder 10 million people in China alone and if there was a large Jewish community in the far east the Japanese would have exterminated them with even greater brutality than even the Nazis could have come up with . Thousands of American and British commonwealth prisoners died at the hands of their Japanese guards on the Burmese death railway while tens of thousands of Asians died . MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE does not shy away from this babarity . Someone doesn`t stand to attention quick enough , WHALLOP - A beating from the guards . Someone shows alleged contempt towards the Japanese , WHALLOP - A beating from the guards . Someone shows human compassion - WHALLOP a beating from the guards . Someone breaks the rules - A cruel execution . There is a reason for this , the Japanese would literally fall on their swords and would expect their enemy to do the same in order to win any respect , but this is only a reason and not an excuse for such sadistic inhumanity . So in many ways this surpasses the David Lean movie from the 1950s that would have us believe the Japanese allowed concert parties in their death camps and it`s this that makes it essential viewing