San Francisco Public Library

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, a Jeremy Thomas production ; a Nagisa Oshima film ; screenplay by Nagisa Oshima with Paul Mayersberg ; producer, Jeremy Thomas ; directed by Nagisa Oshima ; National Film Trustee Company ; made in association with Antares-Nova N.V., Recorded Picture Company, Oshima Productions, Asahi National Broadcasting Co. Ltd. and Broadbank Investments Limited

eng

videorecording

Rated R: Contains violence and intense emotional scenes

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

videorecording

662735442

a Jeremy Thomas production ; a Nagisa Oshima film ; screenplay by Nagisa Oshima with Paul Mayersberg ; producer, Jeremy Thomas ; directed by Nagisa Oshima ; National Film Trustee Company ; made in association with Antares-Nova N.V., Recorded Picture Company, Oshima Productions, Asahi National Broadcasting Co. Ltd. and Broadbank Investments Limited

124

Criterion collection, 535

In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between the prisoners and their overseers, translating both the words and the values of the two races. Celliers' attitude, however, is more comprehensible to Yonoi. He and Celliers arrive at a sort of détente, based on an admiration for the other, but this eventually turns into a contest of wills as the camp's carefully nurtured equilibrium is destroyed

adult

live action