SYNOPSIS: In this captivating, skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies Celliers, a British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Rock star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is the British lieutenant colonel Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between captor and prisoner. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash, and one of Oshima’s greatest successes.
| Celliers | David Bowie |
| Lawrence | Tom Conti |
| Yonoi | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| Hara | Takeshi Kitano |
| Hicksley | Jack Thompson |
| Kanemoto | Johnny Ohkura |
| De Jong | Alistair Browning |
| Celliers's brother | James Malcolm |
| Director | Nagisa Oshima |
| Producer | Jeremy Thomas |
| Based on the novel The Seed and the Sower by | Sir Laurens van der Post |
| Screenplay | Nagisa Oshima |
| with | Paul Mayersberg |
| Executive producers | Masato Hara, Eiko Oshima, Geoffrey Nethercott and Terry Glinwood |
| Associate producer | Joyce Herlihy |
| Music | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| Production designer | Jusho Toda |
| Director of photography | Toichiro Narushima |
By September 28, 2010
“The past, again and again.” —Major Jack Celliers, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence Nagisa Oshima’s filmmaking career began with the risen sun—or rather, with the promise Read more »
March 15, 2011
Fans of Nagisa Oshima will be interested to hear that critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has posted on his blog his entire 2008 Artforum essay “The Sun Also Sets,” which was also reprinted in his 2010 book Goodbye Cinema Read more »
October 13, 2010
In a new Slate article titled “Cracked Actor,” critic Jessica Winter takes an enjoyable, affectionate look back at the film career of that slender shape-shifter David Bowie, on the occasion of the Criterion Read more »
October 05, 2010
Many of the great Japanese provocateur Nagisa Oshima’s films have long been out of circulation in any form, much less on digital home video. In recent years, Criterion has been doing Read more »
