Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

An intense and powerful prisoner drama, during World War II. With, among others, David Bowie and the pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto in very convincing leading roles about british soldiers in a japanese camp for prisoners of war.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is set in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, where the principled British major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is interned alongside the title character, John Lawrence (Conti). Tensions arise between him and the camp's new commandant, Yonoi (Sakamoto), who struggles to control Lawrence verbally and Celliers physically.

This is a different kind of war film – an intense and powerful prisoner-of-war drama described as «the thinking person's Bridge over the River Kwai.»

Cinemateket i Oslo

Director

Nagisa Ôshima (1932 - 2013) was a Japanese filmmaker associated with the Japanese New Wave (Nuberu bagu) of the 1950s and 60s, where young filmmakers aimed to break away from the traditional style represented by directors such as Yasujirô Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Akira Kurosawa. During this period, he directed films such as Sun's Burial (1960). His most well-known films include The Ceremony (1971), the controversial In the Realm of the Senses (1976), and Empire of Passion (1978).