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Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Senjo no Merry Christmas (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence)

1983

Nagisa Ôshima

David Bowie, Ryūichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Tom Conti ...

6.8

3,692

Drama. War In 1942 British soldier Jack Celliers comes to a Japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi, who has a firm belief in discipline, honor and glory. In his view, the allied prisoners are cowards when they chose to surrender instead of committing suicide.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It's awkward, not because of the subject matter, but because of the contrasting acting styles (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Adam Smith Empire	"A strange mixture of the memorable and the flawed (...) As an exploration of cultural discord, Nagisa Oshima's film is pretty thin stuff (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Lurid sadism blends with equally lurid lyricism"	NEG
United States	Variety	"The strongest points of the script (...) are the philosophical and emotional implications (...) The weakest point is its construction"	NEU
United States	Bill Weber Slant	"[It] feels like a somewhat muffled, secondhand expression of Oshima’s radical sensibilities, but (...) it is the creation of a significant, challenging artist (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU

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