Watch Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence For Free

Good movie but grossly overrated

From my favorite movies..

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This great film by Oshima strikes me as a mirror reflection of his earlier work of avant-eroticism, In the Realm of the Senses. In both pieces, power and desire threaten, in different, competing ways, to usurp subjective humanity. The earlier movie took place just as the fascist Japanese war machine was fully consolidating itself. The self-effacing abandonment to libidinal joy is presented as the only way to escape a society that would crush the individual by controlling it. To completely abandon control of the self was the only way to escape control by the state. Unfortunately, both too much and too little power and control lead to death and/ or madness. In this later film, set predominantly during the war in Asia, power has already claimed subjectivity as its captive. Desire still reveals itself, but only through momentary cracks in power's control of the subject. Power must reassert itself all the more brutally after this lapse. Desire therefore results in the greatest suffering, albeit with none of the self-destructive liberation seen in Realm. The only real hope offered in Merry Christmas, however, still come from momentary lapses of power's control. This slight hope is not the result of desire, but of the intimacy that control accidentally engenders between captive and captor (both of whom are controlled).

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

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.

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