Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Year Released: 1983
Rating: 2.5
Japanese officer Ryuichi Sakamoto not-so-subtly fancies blonde, androgynous British POW David Bowie - fellow POW Tom Conti, who is fluent in Japanese, acts as a translator and gets caned repeatedly. It's not as intricately plotted or detailed as so many superior POW films, and the examination of homosexual desire manifesting itself in aggression get a better treatment in Oshima's Taboo - here it's clumsy and occasionally funny, as Sakamoto's so in heat he looks about ready to burst (and at one point, he does). Owes much to Sakamoto's score (and less to Sakamoto's shouting-in-broken-English) - the title song is among the most gorgeous in the history of the movies - as well as Takeshi Kitano's complex half-pugilist, half-humanist character.
