David Bowie,
Tom Conti,
Ryuichi Sakamoto,
Jack Thompson,
Johnny Okura
... see more 
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was the first English-language project of Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses). In tune with his previous filmic essays on racis... read more
DVD Release Date: May 14, 2002
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Stats: 387 reviews
Your Rating
Flixster Reviews (387)
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May 7, 2007Not a great movie but one of the all time lump-in-the-throat endings (cue music and roll credits). Right up there with Frosty the Snowman and Camelot.
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February 5, 2012Oddly scripted but intriguing. It's difficult to deny the presence of homoerotic undertones here, making this a most unconventional war film.
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January 10, 2012weird film. i think bowie may have been miscast, tho he does as well as could be expected. tom conti is kind of annoying with his perfect preachy character. the synthy soundtrack is good but kind of dated. +3 for beat takeshi in his first dramatic role
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January 16, 2011An interesting and very serious subject, but the characters spend most of their time sitting around talking, which gets really boring after a while. Plus, I'm not sure Bowie was the right person for the role, not that he can't act, I just think a more experienced dramatic actor ... read more
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September 25, 2009David Bowie, Tom Conti and Beat Takeshi put in three amazing performances in this very underrated POW classic! Brilliant! Beautiful soundtrack too!
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December 25, 2008"Today, I am Father Christmas."
It's hard to tell what this movie is all about? The differences between cultures? A story about a man finding peace with his past (Celliers and his brother)? I'm not sure either. I'd probably have to see it again but in my opinion it was too borin... read more -
March 5, 2007David Bowie is not the most remarkable of actors, but his haunting, charismatic performance in this WWII prisoner of war tale is easily his best. A highly memorable soundtrack too.
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July 19, 2011It is 1942 in a Japanese prisoner or war camp in Java. Sergeant Hara(Takeshi Kitano) summons Colonel Lawrence(Tom Conti) to see Kanemoto(Johnny Ohkura), a Korean guard, commit seppuku for sodomizing De Jong(Alistair Browning), a Dutch prisoner, because according to Hara, you can... read more
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January 26, 2011fb208103125If only our government could watch a film like this, it too could learn a lot.
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September 19, 2010A mostly very well done prisoner of war movie taking place in Japan in WWII, that stars David Bowie of all people. I found the relationships between the prisoners and the guards to be very interesting, as well as the cultural differences that inevitably arise, and I have always f... read more
Critic Reviews
December 10, 2008
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
October 2, 2008
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
From Oshima's later career... most notable is this bilingual, end-of-WWII tearjerker about forgiveness and understanding between cultures, which could have been dubbed The Man Who Fell to Java. Full Review
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Here's a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be. Full Review
August 30, 2004
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Mr. Oshima has staged the film in a spacious tropical setting and filled it with a great number of extras. Even so, Mr. Bowie always stands out from the crowd. Full Review
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
The context and frequent incontinence of the execution bring the film uncomfortably close to the pseudophilosophical bondage fantasies of Yukio Mishima. Full Review
October 12, 2010
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
The film’s attention is split fairly evenly across the major characters, and their interactions are consistently fascinating in the way they illustrate both the cultural divide and the halting attempt... Full Review
October 1, 2010
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
It's relentlessly grim, constantly off-balance, occasionally moving, and often striking. Full Review
May 1, 2008
Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile
David Bowie is outstanding as the defiant British prisoner whose erotic appeal undoes the Japanese commandant, played by Sakamoto, who was at the height of his fame as a musical icon in Japan Full Review
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
For all the praise heaped upon Oshima's admittedly ambitious film about East-West relations in the microcosm of a Japanese PoW camp during World War II, it's far less satisfactory than most of his ear... Full Review
July 30, 2003
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Fine performances by Conti, Takeshi (brilliant in his first dramatic role), Sakamoto (a Japanese pop star in his film acting debut who also contributed the memorable score), and Bowie enhance this pro... Full Review
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Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
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