Recent events in Afghanistan have again reminded us that a lot of world’s misery is caused by people from different cultures being unable to understand each other. That subject was often explored by film makers. One of the films that does so in a unique and very impressive way is Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, 1983 British-Japanese war drama directed by Nagisa Oshima.
The film is based on The Seed and the Sower, novel by South African author Laurens van der Post, inspired by his experiences as Japanese prisoner during Second World War. The plot is set in 1942 Java and depicts the events in Japanese camp for Allied POWs. Title character and nominal protagonist, played by Tom Conti, is British Army Lt. Colonel John Lawrence, the only officer among prisoners who speaks Japanese. This ability allows him to liaise between other prisoners and their Japanese captors and, along the way, he develops something like friendship with Sergeant Gengo Hara (played by Takeshi Kitano), a cruel and violent guard who becomes kind and generous when drunk. Although Lawrence, like the rest of prisoners, gets beaten and humiliated by Hara, his pragmatic approach is opposed by Group Captain Hicksley (played by Jack Thompson), unofficial leader of prisoners who is against any cooperation with Japanese. Situation in the camp changes with an arrival of Major Jack “Straffer” Celliers (played by David Bowie), Lawrence’s old friend who , unlike Lawrence, bravely defies Japanese and is recognised as natural leader. He becomes object of interest for Captain Yonoi (played by Ryiuchi Sakamoto), camp commandant and strict adherent of Bushido who otherwise treats POWs with contempt because they dishonoured himself by allowing to be captured alive.
At the time of its premiere this film brought a lot of attention by gathering a diverse group of great talents. The most recognisable among them was David Bowie, popular rock musician who was also a very fine actor. It is a pity that Bowie didn’t appear on screen more often and among his relatively few film roles the character of Celliers is arguably the best. Although some might argue that his performance is somewhat too obviously inspired by Peter O’Toole as the title character in Lawrence of Arabia he very convincingly portrayed man whose defiant heroism hides decades long-suppressed feeling of guilt. Bowie is so good in his role that as man in his late 30s he convincingly plays teenager in a flashback scene. Bowie’s appearance was well matched by his Japanese counterpart Ryiuchi Sakamoto, rock star and one of electronic music pioneers. He very effectively plays character who is in many ways like Celliers and whose insistence of old concepts of honour hides another old trauma. Sakamoto also wrote the music for this film, including “Forbidden Colours” main theme which is one of the more recognisable pieces of 1980s film soundtracks. Another talent brought to this film was Takeshi Kitano, immensely popular Japanese comedian who was not only introduced to the global audience but also showed that he can handle difficult and complex dramatic role. His portrayal of Hara as a complex man who is extremely cruel but actually kind deep inside his heart was very good and allowed him to pursue similar kind of roles in his own films. Those three talents in many way overshadowed Tom Conti, who did a very good job but whose character of a man who pragmatically tries to bridge gaps between two opposing cultures is brought into less intense situations and, as such, doesn’t leave as impressions as strong as those by three other stars.
Among the cinephiles the best known talent was Nagisa Oshima, Japanese director whose global reputation had been built in 1970s by films with sexual content too shockingly explicit even for that ultra-permissive decade. You could hardly reconcile that with a Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which doesn’t look like an art film at all and doesn’t feature any scenes that are unusually graphic or shocking. The only potentially “saucy” content, and only for the standards of early 1980s, is the subject of homosexuality. Oshima and his co-writer Paul Mayersberg introduce it at very beginning with a subplot involving Korean guard (played by Johnny Okura) and Dutch prisoner (played by Alistair Browning) who are caught in homosexual act. While some may see this as a foreshadowing or symbolic explanation of a relationship between Yonoi and Celliers, Oshima treats it very seriously and uses characters of Lawrence and Hara to discuss it in order to show differences between Western and Japanese culture and their very different kinds of homophobia. Oshima very intelligently refuses to be explicit in showing the true nature of Yonoi’s infatuation; the Japanese officer might be, just like the his Turkish colleague in Lawrence of Arabia, sexually attracted to blonde and good-looking Westerner, but, on the other hand, he might see in him as a kindred spirit, a warrior forced to sit out the rest of the war in middle of nowhere and who tries to maintain his own very personal sense of honour. This aspect of the film might be lost to the audience that are unfamiliar with Japanese history and 1936 ultranationalist coup, whom Yonoi failed to support and felt shame and dishonour years afterwards. Despite showing the suffering brought by war, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence gives some sort of hope for humanity for the end. This is seen at the epilogue that takes place after the war, in which Lawrence finds pity and forgiveness for his vanquished foe and two men, despite their differences, end the film as friends. Unfortunately in this film, just like in the real life, acceptance and understanding of cultural differences happens too late for tragedy to be evaded. Despite the downbeat tone, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a well-acted and well-directed film that might be enjoyed even by viewers who don’t thinking about difficult subjects.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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