Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Definitely the best homoerotic Japanese WW2 POW camp film I have ever seen.

Aside from the ostensible homoeroticism, this Japanese prisoner-of-war film is mostly rather drab and nondescript. At times it appears to strive for realism while at others it feels patently unrealistic, and this creates a jarringly inconsistent tone. Conti and Kitano are good but Bowie's reasonably bland, and his character's flashbacks stifle the film's momentum considerably. The synth-heavy soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is excellent.

strange campy prisoner of war movie, very human and considerate, filled to the brim with homosexual subtext, and just really fucking gorgeous at times. the merry christmas scene was deliriously wonderful, and the score was unbelievable - contrary to some opinions here, it fits the film *perfectly*. leaves one in a very mixed emotional state by the end.

A pretty interesting meditation on power, cruelty, duty, compassion. Some of the compositions are very striking, and rarely ostentatious. Conti and Kitano are the highlights. Bowie and Sakamoto hold their own, with one noteworthy flaw. Sakamoto's thick accent makes his English dialogue very difficult to understand. And often the music is just completely wrong for the scene. As for the film as a whole, I didn't love it and it didn't really resonate with me, but I found it frequently intriguing.

british people soldier like this, japanese people soldier like THIS

I'm conflicted here: Generally, I liked the film's take on morality, but it felt a little disjointed (especially the long flashback scene) such that it didn't pack as powerful a punch as it could have. And the soundtrack was haunting; it just felt out of place too many times. I thought the Conti/Kitano sequences were a little better than the Bowie/Sakamoto ones.

A lovely film, and so much is there in the Bowie/Sakamoto connection, but a part of me also wished for more Conti/Kitano, who play against each other beautifully. The last scene is one of the most affecting things I've seen.

the film bounces around a lot on subject matter and tone, which is pretty novel and entertaining. the camera work and soundtrack is pretty good but the themes don't really build to anything

the only thing going for this is the soundtrack. the rest is nothing special, the sergio leone close ups where memorable but the rest isnt

Host ratings: 60 / 74 / 79. Podcast review link: https://rydeorwrong.podcaster.de/rydeorwrong/folge-066-merry-christmas-mr-lawrence-1983-zeit-der-kannibalen-left-behind-extraction-2-death-stranding/

9????????????????? (crying) (crying) /???????"Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence"?????????????????????????????/???????????????????????????/??????????David Bowie?…

Oshima, Bowie, Sakamoto, Takeshi are all very unique creators in their own right, and the combination of all four is, incredibly, as singular as that lineup would suggest. Equal parts insightful and confusing, the whole package is tied together by its idiosyncratic cast, a bizarrely fitting soundtrack, and stellar color cinematography that looks like Oshima just discovered Technicolor for the first time and wanted to play around with it as much as possible.

Set in a Japanese prison camp under the Java heat, ideologies clash between captors and captees as well as amongst themselves. The vivid personalities of Bowie and Sakamoto are challenged by each other, while Sakamoto's great score provides the perfect backdrop.

Ideologies and personalities clash in this odd, yet fascinating WWII movie. David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto (who is also responsible for the outstanding soundtrack) look like they are coming straight from the 80s, but that only adds to the film's overall mood.

One of the best endings of a movie ever. Kitano was brilliant. What a funny face. Beautiful eyes though.

Thinly-veiled YMO/David Bowie fanfic with a stellar score and a compelling plea for tolerance

"My fear is my concern", said Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. "My past is my concern", says Bowie in this film. Even though Bowie's is not the character named Mr. Lawrence, the characters are definitely related.

Viewed January 12, 2016. Steady, clear-eyed and beautifully sad. Explores how honor shifts across cultures, how moral codes compel us and restrict us, and how the pain of our mistakes never dissipates. The music is perfect, every shot is gorgeous, and probably David Bowie's greatest film role.

Em honra de David Bowie.

A good film although quite somber. Well worth a look if you haven't seen this before.

You know how once in a while you watch a movie and it leaves you in a strange emotional and mental state, as if you are thinking about everything and nothing at the same time, feeling some intangible, calm re-assurance. This film made me feel like that. Some plot elements seem like they could have been easily improved, but then, perhaps it wouldn't have been so wonderful? Sakamoto blew me away both as an actor and as a composer. I wish there would be more films with such power.

Interesting characters and entertaining, but ends up wasting its characters; where it could've been character study, it becomes 'a day in the life of some POW's'. The acting was quite bad too, aside from Conti and some scenes of Kitano. The score, as well as the general atmosphere, were way too cheesy 80s to get me in the proper mindset. It never felt like I was watching a film set in the 40s.

A unique film dealing with East-West cultural admiration and homosexuality in WWII prisoner camps. Oshima is certainly different in that he seems very eager to criticize Japanese rather than celebrate their traditions like most. It's far from perfect, a bit dated and you could say it tries to bite on more than it can chew, but well worth a watch.

Odd film that seems to insist that you need to make a lot of assumptions to understand character motivations. The music is amazing, but ridiculously inappropriate most of the time - it would've been better suited to a horror/fantasy film, or maybe a sci-fi flick.

Positively brimming with homoerotic subtext in just about every scene. The epilogue comes off meaningless, but most of this works very well.

As much as I believe any film benefits from the appereance of David Bowie, it is far from enough to save this heavyhanded piece of wartime meditation.

yonetmen 2.dunya savasi sirasinda japon esir kampina dusen batili askerler uzerinden dogu-bati farkliliklarina deginirken japon toplumunun birey olmaktan ne kadar uzak oldugu elestirisini yapiyor. d.bowie'nin canlandirdigi karakterin japon komutani opme sahnesi ise komik oldugu kadar yontem olarak da sert bir protestoydu.

An excellent character study with great performances.

Unique but unsatisfying. At risk of sounding like a dumbass I don't get the whole final message (that sort-of monologue by Bowie) at all

Long time since I've seen this film and would like to see it again for scoring purposes but as I recall it was pretty good.