, also known in many European editions as ,
is a 1983
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...
co-written and directed by
Nagisa Ōshima
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' ...
, co-written by
Paul Mayersberg
Paul Mayersberg (born 18 June 1941) is an English writer and director and was the film critic for ''Movie magazine'' in the early 1960s and author of 1968 film book ''Hollywood, The Haunted House''.
Awards
He received a nomination for Best Motio ...
, and produced by
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE (born 26 July 1949) is a British film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company. He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's ''The Last Emperor'', which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he rece ...
. The film is based on the experiences of Sir
Laurens van der Post
Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jun ...
(portrayed by
Tom Conti
Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor, theatre director, and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1979 for his performance in '' Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' and was nominated for the Academy Aw ...
) as a prisoner of war in Japan during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, as depicted in his books ''
The Seed and the Sower'' (1963) and ''The Night of the New Moon'' (1970). It stars
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
,
Ryuichi Sakamoto
is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...
,
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...
and
Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to:
Sports
*Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City
*Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Bright ...
; Sakamoto also wrote the score and the vocal theme "
Forbidden Colours
"Forbidden Colours" is a 1983 song by David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The song is the vocal version of the theme from the Nagisa Oshima film ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.'' It appears on the film's soundtrack album and was released as a s ...
", which features
David Sylvian
David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...
.
The film was entered into the
1983 Cannes Film Festival
The 36th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 19 May 1983. The Palme d'Or went to the '' Narayama Bushiko'' by Shōhei Imamura.
In 1983, the new building for the main events of the festival, the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, was inaug ...
in competition for the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
.
Sakamoto's score won the film a
BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
This is a list of winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, formerly known as the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, which is presented to film composers, given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts si ...
.
Plot
In 1942, Captain Yonoi is the commander of a
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
camp in
Japanese-occupied Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
. A strict adherent to the
bushido
is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ...
code, his only sources of connection to the prisoners lie in the empathetic Lt. Col. John Lawrence, the only inmate fluent in Japanese, and the abrasive spokesman Gp. Capt. Hicksley, who repeatedly resists Yonoi's attempts to find weapons experts among the prisoners for the Japanese army's interests. Lawrence has befriended Sgt. Gengo Hara, but remains at odds with the rest of the staff. Summoned to the military trial of the recently-captured Major Jack Celliers, Yonoi is fascinated by his resilience and has him interned at the camp. After the trial, Yonoi confides with Lawrence that he is haunted with shame due to his absence during the
February 26 Incident, believing he should have died alongside the rebels and implying that his focus on honor stems from this. Sensing a kindred spirit in Celliers, Yonoi's fascination grows into a romantic obsession: he treats him specially, watches him sleep, and repeatedly asks Hara about him in private.
When the inmates are made to fast as punishment for insubordination during the forced
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
of a guard (Okura), Celliers sneaks in food. The guards catch him and find a smuggled radio during the subsequent investigation, forcing him and Lawrence to take the blame. Yonoi's
batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
, realizing the hold Celliers has on him, attempts to kill Celliers in his sleep that night, but fails after he wakes up and escapes, freeing Lawrence too. Yonoi catches Celliers and challenges him to a duel in exchange for his freedom, but Celliers refuses; the batman returns and commits suicide for his failure, urging Yonoi to kill Celliers before his feelings overpower him.
At the funeral, Lawrence learns that he and Celliers will be executed for the radio, despite the lack of evidence, to preserve his sense of order; enraged, he trashes the funeral altar and is forced back into his cell. That night, Celliers reveals to Lawrence that as a teenager, he betrayed his younger brother, long bullied for his hunchback, by refusing to spare him a humiliating and traumatizing initiation ritual at their boarding school. Confronting his past, he describes the lifelong shame he felt towards his actions, paralleling Yonoi's predicament. During their conversation, the pair are released by a drunken Hara, as a different prisoner confessed to delivering the radio. As they leave, Hara calls out in English, "Merry Christmas, Lawrence!" Although Yonoi is angry at Hara for exceeding his authority, he only mildly reprimands him.
Hicksley, realizing that Yonoi wants to replace him with Celliers as spokesman, confronts him. The two argue over their withholding of information from one another before an enraged Yonoi orders the whole camp to form up outside the barracks, including the sick bay's ailing patients, resulting in one's death. Hicksley, who refused to bring out the patients, is to be punished for his insubordination with an on-the-spot execution. Before he can be killed, however, Celliers breaks rank and kisses Yonoi on each cheek, choosing to save Hicksley's life at the cost of his own. Caught between a desire for vindication and his feelings for Celliers, a distraught Yonoi collapses and is ultimately relieved from duty. His more rigid replacement has Celliers buried in the sand up to his neck and left to die. Before leaving, Yonoi sneaks into his pen and cuts a lock from his hair, moments before his death.
Four years later, Lawrence visits Hara, who is now a prisoner of the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
. Hara has learned to speak English and reveals he is to be executed the following day for war crimes. Expressing confusion over the harshness of his sentence given how commonplace his actions were among both sides of the war, he and Lawrence both conclude that while the Allies officially won, morally "we are all wrong." The two reminisce on Celliers and Yonoi, the latter of whom was reported to have been killed after the war, before bidding each other goodbye. As he is leaving, Hara calls out, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence!".
Cast
*
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
as Maj. Jack "Strafer" Celliers
** Chris Broun as Jack Celliers (aged 12)
*
Tom Conti
Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor, theatre director, and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1979 for his performance in '' Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' and was nominated for the Academy Aw ...
as Lt. Col. John Lawrence
*
Ryuichi Sakamoto
is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...
as Capt. Yonoi
*
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...
as Sgt. Gengo Hara
*
Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to:
Sports
*Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City
*Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Bright ...
as Gp. Capt. Hicksley
* Johnny Okura as Kanemoto
*
Alistair Browning
Alistair Browning (8 February 1954 – 2 June 2019) was a New Zealand actor who won several awards for his work in film, television and theatre, best known for his roles in ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''Rain'', ...
as De Jong
* James Malcolm as Celliers' brother
*
Yuya Uchida as Commandant of military prison
* Ryunosuke Kaneda as Colonel Fujimura, President of the Court
* Takashi Naitō as Lt. Iwata
* Yuji Honma as PFC. Yajima
* Tamio Ishikura as Prosecutor
*
Rokko Toura as Interpreter
*
Kan Mikami
is a Japanese folk singer-songwriter and actor. His music, heavily influenced by American blues, was popular in Japan in the 1970s. He re-wrote the lyric of the song "Yume wa Yoru Hiraku" for his cover version in 1972, which was banned for its ...
as Lt. Ito
*
Hideo Murota
was a Japanese actor who specialized in playing villains and tough guys. In 1957, he signed a contract with Toei Studio and appeared in over 1000 films. He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his role in ''Shin ...
as New commandant of the camp
Production
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
was cast as Jack Celliers after director
Nagisa Ōshima
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' ...
saw him in a production of ''
The Elephant Man
Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then wen ...
'' on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. He felt that Bowie had "an inner spirit that is indestructible". While shooting the film, Bowie was amazed that Ōshima had a two- to three-acre camp built on the remote Polynesian island of
Rarotonga
Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...
, but most of the camp was never shot on film. He said Ōshima "only shot little bits at the corners. I kind of thought it was a waste, but when I saw the movie, it was just so potent – you could ''feel'' the camp there, quite definitely."
Bowie noted how Ōshima would give an incredible amount of direction to his Japanese actors ("down to the minutest detail"), but when directing him or fellow Westerner Tom Conti, he would say "Please do whatever it is you people do." Bowie thought his performance in the film was "the most credible performance" he had done in a film up to that point in his career.
[
The boarding school sequence was shot on location at King's College, a private high school in ]Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
, New Zealand. In a shot of two students playing billiards, another boy in the room can be seen wearing a King's blazer. Other scenes were filmed in various locations around Auckland including Auckland Railway Station
The Strand Station, also referred to as Auckland Strand Station, is a railway station located on the eastern edge of the Auckland CBD. It serves as the long-distance railway station for Auckland. It is the northern terminus of the Northern Ex ...
.
Contrary to usual cinematic practice, Ōshima shot the film without rushes and shipped the film off the island with no safety prints. "It was all going out of the camera and down to the post office and being wrapped up in brown paper and sent off to Japan", Bowie stated. Ōshima's editor in Japan cut the movie into a rough print within four days of Ōshima returning to Japan.[
On set, ]David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
made a bond with his on-screen brother, James Malcolm, whom he later called his “New Zealand brother”. For one pivotal scene in the movie, Malcolm had to sing for Bowie. The next year, Bowie invited Malcolm to join him on stage at Western Springs in Auckland for the Serious Moonlight tour
The Serious Moonlight Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English musician David Bowie, launched in May 1983 in support of his album '' Let's Dance'' (1983). The tour opened at the Vorst Forest Nationaal, Brussels, on 18 May 1983 and ended in ...
, where they released a dove together as a sign of peace.
Soundtrack
Reception
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' an 83% approval rating and an average rating of 6.40 out of 10 based on 24 reviews.
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
wrote a favourable review, saying that
On the film's Japanese actors, Maslin wrote that
The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
and the American director Christopher Nolan
Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
named ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' as among their favorite films.
Box office
In Japan, the film earned in distributor rentals
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is freq ...
. In the United States, it grossed .
It sold 2,385,100 tickets in the United States, France and Sweden. It also sold 423,778 tickets in Germany, and 54 tickets in Switzerland and Spain since 2007, for a combined tickets sold in overseas territories outside of Japan and the United Kingdom.
See also
* List of Christmas films
Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television; since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year d ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
''Lawrence of Shinjuku: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence''
an essay by Chuck Stephens at the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Authority control
1983 drama films
1983 LGBT-related films
Gay-related films
1980s war drama films
1980s Christmas films
Japanese Christmas films
Japanese war drama films
British Christmas films
British war drama films
1980s English-language films
English-language Japanese films
1980s Japanese-language films
World War II prisoner of war films
Pacific War films
HanWay Films films
Recorded Picture Company films
Films directed by Nagisa Ōshima
Japanese LGBT-related films
British LGBT-related films
Films scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Films set in Indonesia
Films shot in the Cook Islands
Films shot in New Zealand
Films produced by Jeremy Thomas
Albums produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Films with screenplays by Paul Mayersberg
Japan in non-Japanese culture
British World War II films
Japanese World War II films
1980s British films
1980s Japanese films
Films about the British Army