Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

The Resource Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Label

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Statement of responsibility

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

Language

Summary

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 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

Cataloging source

TEFMT

Characteristic

videorecording

Credits note

Director of photography, Toichiro Narushima ; production designer, Jusho Toda ; music, Ryuichi Sakamoto ; editor, Tomoyo Oshima ; interpreter, Didi Dickson

Dewey number

791.43/72

Language note

In English and Japanese with optional subtitles in English

LC call number

PN1997

LC item number

.M47 2010

PerformerNote

David Bowie (Celliers), Tom Conti (Lawrence), Ryuichi Sakamoto (Yonoi), Takeshi [Kitano] (Hara), Jack Thompson (Hicksley)

Runtime

123

Series statement

The Criterion collection

Series volume

535

Target audience

adult

Technique

live action

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by DC Public Library System. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Resource Information

The work Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.

Context

Work of

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Resource Information The work Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.

Context

Work of

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Resource Information

The work Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.