Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

IMDb (7.2/10) | Metacritic (53/100) | Rotten Tomatoes (86%)




Genres



Drama, War




Director



Nagisa Ôshima




Writers



Nagisa Ôshima, Paul Mayersberg, Lourens van der Post




Actors



David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto




Plot Summary



During WWII, a British colonel tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British POW and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid bloodshed.




Note from Encoder



This is the Criterion Collection version of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) — original Japanese title: 戦場のメリークリスマス (Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu).

Directed by Nagisa Ōshima, the film is a striking exploration of cultural conflict, power, and identity set within a Japanese POW camp during World War II. Audio is presented in EAC3 stereo, matching the film’s original presentation.

An interesting bit of trivia: Ōshima intentionally cast David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto not just for their international fame, but to amplify the cultural and psychological tension at the heart of the story. Sakamoto’s involvement also led to the film’s iconic score, which went on to become one of the most recognizable soundtracks of the era.

A thoughtful and emotionally layered film, beautifully presented in this Criterion edition. Enjoy!









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