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 earlier work.
Comment
06/24/06
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
75
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:12
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.1/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Transferred from a military prison in Batavia, a British major is sentenced to a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942. There, he clashes psychologically, culturally and physically with the camp's... [More]
Starring: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Reviews for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
1 - 17 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticA memorable story of understanding across cultures.
05/24/03
Top CriticClick to read the article
03/26/09
Top CriticThe Merry Christmas catalogue of atrocities finally becomes numbing, even ludicrous.
12/10/08
Top CriticFrom 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.
10/02/08
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
05/01/08
No review available.
07/14/05
No review available.
12/26/04
Here's a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be.
10/23/04
Top CriticMr. 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.
08/30/04
Top CriticNo review available.
03/08/04
No review available.
10/17/03
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 provocative film.
07/30/03
Top CriticA compelling cross-cultural study of friendship and bravery
07/23/03
An interesting venture, a bit slow at times.
08/30/02
The context and frequent incontinence of the execution bring the film uncomfortably close to the pseudophilosophical bondage fantasies of Yukio Mishima.
01/01/00
1 - 17 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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