Product Details

• Actors: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryûichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson
• Directors: Nagisa Ôshima
• Writers: Nagisa Ôshima, Laurens Van der Post, Paul Mayersberg
• Producers: Eiko Oshima, Geoffrey Nethercott, Jeremy Thomas, Joyce Herlihy
• Format: PAL
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Optimum
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00022VMJE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,044 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nagisa Ôshima turned to Sir Laurens van der Post's semiautobiographical The Seed and the Sower for this fascinating prisoner-of-war saga. It's 1942 in Java, and the captors favor Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti) for his honorable nature and facility with languages. New arrival Jack Celliers (David Bowie), on the other hand, has no intention of playing by the rules. Captain Yonoi (Oscar-winning composer Ryûichi Sakamoto, The Last Emperor) finds himself drawn to the blond major, while the brutal Sergeant Hara (filmmaker Takeshi Kitano in his dramatic debut) treats him like any other captive (if anything, Hara prefers him to Jack Thompson's combative commander). When Lawrence and Celliers disturb Yonoi's sense of order, he decides to punish them both--guilty or not--but Celliers receives the brunt of his anger, frustration, and thwarted desire (a point on which Ôshima remains ambiguous).

As in later works, like Gohatto, the director combines grit (seppuku, burial in sand), glamour (pop stars), and lyricism (the lilacs of Jack's childhood). If the regal Ryûichi inhabits his role with discomfort, Kitano, then best known as a comedian, fits his like a glove. And though Sakamoto's synth-based score sounds like a product of the 1980s, it adds to the mood of the piece.

This two-disc sets offers an essay from critic Chuck Stevens, interviews with Sakamoto and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth), a profile of van der Post, and two featurettes, including The Ôshima Gang, in which Bowie describes Nagisa's work as "an expression rather than an impression of an idea." In its volatile mix of repression and respect, Merry Christmas plays like a psycho-sexual response to The Bridge on the River Kwai. As producer Jeremy Thomas notes, Ôshima liked to work quickly, and his first English-language feature isn't perfect, but it's certainly powerful. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), Japanese ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Collectors Edition, Documentary, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Remastered, Scene Access, Short Film, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. Protesting--via his own enigmatic rebellion--the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (Ryuichi Sakamoto). While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, ...Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) ( Senjô no merî Kurisumasu )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock Stars, August 1, 2010

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

As children we are imbued with imagery. From the color of fall leaves to the faded color of your grandmother's favorite sweater, these images become imprinted upon your brain. Living in a visual culture one cannot help that television and movies leave lasting impressions. Back during the early 1980s, a time in which I was enamored with Bugs Bunny, He-Man, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, I watched a number of films with my dad. I can still remember scenes clearly from Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One and Stuart Rosenberg's Brubaker. The scene in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence where David Bowie is buried up to his chin in sand is one of those scenes that remained in my memory for some twenty years before I learned its source.

Set in a Javanese prisoner of war camp, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence mainly concerns man and his contact with the Other. However, who is actually considered the Other in the film? Are the British, Danish, or New Zealand soldiers considered the Other because they are the ones held captive or are the Japanese soldiers, the captors, considered the Other because their actions mystify the Western military men? Within this miasma of confusion stands Col. John Lawrence, a Brit fluent in Japanese and knowledgeable of Japanese culture who finds himself torn between loyalties to his fellow prisoners and relationships with Captain Yonoi, Sakamoto Ryuichi, and Sgt. Hara Gengo, Kitano Takeshi.

As a mediator between both sides, Lawrence tries to keep peace between Yonoi and the head of the prisoners Group Cpt. Hicksley. However, with the violent Hara, who beats both prisoners and his own men mercilessly, peace is tenuous at best.

Things in the camp truly change with the arrival of Maj. Jack Celliers, David Bowie, who Yonoi took a bit of a shine to when the former was on trial. Hoping Celliers can replace the hostile Hicksley, Yonoi looks carefully after the man's welfare, but Celliers has other ideas.

Always one to rock the boat, Oshima's film was the first Japanese war film told for the most part from the Westerner's point of view. Some of the best scenes in the movie were between Lawrence and Hara. While enemies, both men have a begrudging respect for each other. Hara considers Lawrence to be a good soldier and wonders how the lanky man can bare the shame of being a prisoner. Lawrence retorts that he and the other Western soldiers are waiting for the day they can fight again. Shrugging this off, Hara states that he had already given his life to his Emperor and Lawrence returns you are not dead yet. The seen between Hara and Lawrence at the end of the film is truly wonderful.

Beautifully scored by Sakamoto, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a unique work in the annals of Japanese film. Tackling such issues as the Other from both sides, it leaves one wondering if harmony can truly be reached, but with its depictions of friendships that develop out of violence and hate, the film shows that these obstacles can be overcome even if the cost is high.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Betrayal, regret, and redemption in a POW camp., December 12, 2005

By 

R.P. "Aristus" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (DVD)

This marvelous film, based on my favorite novel "The Seed And The Sower" by Sir Laurence Van Der Post, is light years away from the stereotypical prisoner-of-war film. It is so because of its profound understanding of clashing cultures, the hatreds that drive them, and the love that redeems hostile nations time and time again. David Bowie is often cited as the main character, but in actuality, his is a compelling supporting role. Tom Conti has the best role of his career as Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence, a British officer imprisoned in a camp on Java. Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto scored the film and also plays Captain Yonoi, the aristocratic, Shakespeare-quoting commandant of the camp. These two characters have a strong relationship which, nevertheless, is handicapped by the fact that Lawrence understands the Japanese better than Yonoi understands the British. Yonoi, and Bowie's character, Major Jack Celliers, are wracked with guilt over incidents in their past; Yonoi was unable to be with, and die with, his comrades, the "shining young officers" of Japan's February 1936 military coup. Celliers betrayed his deformed younger brother while attending boarding school. Lawrence is caught in the middle of these two tortured men. He is repelled by the brutality of the Japanese, even as he respects them, and their samurai code of honor. Indeed, wayward Japanese guards are dealt cruel and lightening-fast corporal punishment by their officers; and mistreatment of the prisoners is due to cultural belief, not simple sadism. The beauty of this film lies in the empathy that ostensible enemies feel for one another, and the unexpected kindnesses they show toward one another. But Yonoi's devotion to bushido, and blindness to the British sense of honor, leads to a startling climax. If the final scene doesn't make you weep, then get your heart checked, will you?
An amazing film, only slightly marred by a few botched scenes and poor editing. (Oshima rarely shot more than one take.)

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, A DVD release to be proud of!, January 21, 2006

By 

R. Max Totten (San Francisco, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Region 2] (DVD)

I've been suckered into a few other DVD releases of this film, so I was skeptical about this one. However in selling my other two copies and taking the money from those sells and buying this one, well need I say this is the last version, but the one I'm completely satisfied with. The extras included filmed memories by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Producer JeremyThomas and Director Nagisa Oshima as well as an 1983 thirty-minute behind the scenes short. The film is beautiful and has been mastered from a new 35MM print and the haunting score by Ryuichi Sakamoto makes this DVD a treasured film for years to come.