History Film / MerryChristmasMrLawrence

Captain Yonoi (Music/RyuichiSakamoto) is the camp's [[IncrediblyLamePun straight]]-laced commandant, devoted to [[TheStoic discipline]], order, and his [[PatrioticFervour beloved country]]. When he is called to attend the military trial of Major Jack Celliers (Music/DavidBowie), he is fascinated by the prisoner's display of honour and dignity. When Yonoi questions Celliers on whether he can prove he was tortured, Celliers gives him proof (by [[ShirtlessScene taking off his shirt]]). Yonoi decides to transfer Celliers to the prison camp, and it all goes downhill from there...

The situation is not helped by Hicksley, the prisoner rep, refusing point blank to furnish Yonoi with details of which prisoners are arms experts (claiming that it's a violation of the Geneva Code, which Japan hadn't agreed to), stubbornly refusing to involve himself in any sort of attempts at cross-cultural understanding, and generally being an annoying and ignorant eejit. Caught in the middle of all this madness is the unfortunate [[TheWoobie Colonel Lawrence]] (Tom Conti) of the title. A mild-mannered man, Lawrence attempts to bridge the cultural gap between captives and captors, not that this is a guarantee of safety, especially with the brutal and yet terribly human Sergeant Gengo Hara (Creator/TakeshiKitano).

* FanDisservice: David Bowie's character taking off his shirt during his trial would be fanservice to many, if it were not for the horrific wounds on his back.

* PrecisionFStrike: The normally patient and level-headed Lawrence has a few of these moments: once when he is arguing with Hicksley after Yonoi enforces gyo [[Note]] ritual fasting for what Yonoi believes is 'spiritual laziness' among the prisoners[[/note]], and again after he hears Yonoi's plans to put him to death for the smuggled radio, even though he wasn't the one that brought it into the camp.

* PrecisionFStrike: The normally patient and level-headed Lawrence has a few of these moments: once when he is arguing with Hicksley after Yonoi enforces gyo [[Note:]] ritual fasting for what Yonoi believes is 'spiritual laziness' among the prisoners[[/note]], and again after he hears Yonoi's plans to put him to death for the smuggled radio, even though he wasn't the one that brought it into the camp.

* PrecisionFStrike: The normally patient and level-headed Lawrence has a few of these moments: once when he is arguing with Hicksley after Yonoi enforces gyo [[Note: ritual fasting for what Yonoi believes is 'spiritual laziness' among the prisoners]], and again after he hears Yonoi's plans to put him to death for the smuggled radio, even though he wasn't the one that brought it into the camp.

* PrecisionFStrike: The normally patient and level-headed Lawrence has a few of these moments: once when he is arguing with Hicksley after [[spoiler: De Jong's suicide and the execution of Kanemoto]], and again after he hears [[spoiler: he is to be put to death for the smuggled radio, even though he wasn't the one that brought it into the camp.]]

* PresicionFStrike: The normally patient and level-headed Lawrence has a few of these moments: once when he is arguing with Hicksley after [[spoiler: De Jong's suicide and the execution of Kanemoto]], and again after he hears [[spoiler: he is to be put to death for the smuggled radio, even though he wasn't the one that brought it into the camp.]]

''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' (titled ''Furyo'' in some European countries) is a 1983 film directed by Creator/NagisaOshima, based on the 1963 novel ''The Seed and the Sower'' by South African writer Sir Laurens van der Post. Set in a Japanese POW camp in Java during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the film focuses on the CultureClash and building tensions between the Japanese overseers and the English-speaking Allied prisoners. Oh, and there's FoeRomanceSubtext. An awful, ''awful lot''.

** Hara and Lawrence can both be heard casually using the anti-LGBT+ slur "okama" when discussing homosexuality, representing the heavy homomisia present in both Japanese society and the anglosphere and subtly adding extra weight to Yonoi's conflict over his feelings for Celliers.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Yonoi's attempts at boosting and preserving his honor, including the forced summoning of the sick bay's patients]], are implied to be what ultimately led to him being [[spoiler:executed on war crime charges]].

* UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar: The Geneva convention is invoked regularly by Hicksley, despite the fact that Yonoi claims it does not apply (Imperial Japan never signed it).

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Celliers dies at the POW camp, but Lawrence and the remaining soldiers manage to survive the war. Yonoi is later tried and executed for war crimes by Allied Forces, with his last request being that a lock of Celliers' hair be left at a shrine in his home town. After the war ends, Hara is tried and also sentenced to death for his actions under Yonoi, but Lawrence visits him the night before his execution and they both part on good terms.]]

* DisobeyedOrdersNotPunished: Sgt. Hara violates the POW camp's protocol by releasing the title character and Jack Celliers from their cells without Cpt. Yonoi's approval after another POW confesses to smuggling the two-way radio that got the pair locked up in the first place. Yonoi reprimands Hara for overstepping his bounds when he finds out, but Hara gets let off without any actual punishment thanks in part to Yonoi's obsession with Celliers.

* HomoeroticSubtext: The film runs on it during the segments with Celliers and Yonoi.

* OneManArmy: It is implied that Jack "Strafer" Celliers is one of these.
* OnlySaneMan: Mr. Lawrence certainly qualifies. He is determined not to hate the Japanese as individuals and tries to understand them instead, he also comments a couple of times about how man is universally prone to commit attrocities when they think they're absolutely right. However, he is still human and when he thinks he is about to be executed, [[NotSoAboveItAll he rants against Japanese religious costumes]].

* SurvivorGuilt: Yonoi was once part of an extreme military faction who staged an uprising against the government. The officers in charge of the uprising were all executed-- apart from Yonoi, who was stationed in Manchuria during the coup and thus couldn't fight and die alongside his comrades.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Plenty, actually. [[{{The Woobie}} Lawrence]] is frequently the victim, playing a starring role in exciting features such as [[spoiler: being beaten brutally and left hanging by his hands from a tree overnight]]. Another example [[spoiler: Yonoi forcing the sick and dying prisoners to assemble, despite the medic's desperate plea that it's a war crime]].

''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' (titled ''Furyo'' in some European countries) is a 1983 film directed by Creator/NagisaOshima, based on the 1963 novel ''The Seed and the Sower'' by South African writer Sir Laurens van der Post. Set in a Japanese POW camp in Java during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the film focuses on the CultureClash and building tensions between the Japanese overseers and the English-speaking Allied prisoners. Oh, and there's FoeYay. An awful, ''awful lot'' of Foe Yay.

* MismatchedEyes: Celliers often appears to have differently coloured eyes. This is the result of [[Music/DavidBowie his actor's]] [[EyeScream real-life childhood eye injury]], which left him with permanent anisocoria.

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Yonoi at the trial opens with "To be or not to be", presumably in an effort to make himself look cultured, as it has very little bearing on what he says next.

Captain Yonoi (Music/RyuichiSakamoto) is the [[IncrediblyLamePun straight]]-laced camp commandant, devoted to [[TheStoic discipline]], order and his [[PatrioticFervour beloved country]]. When he is called to attend the military trial of Major Jack Celliers (Music/DavidBowie), he is fascinated by the prisoner's display of honour and dignity. When Yonoi questions Celliers on whether he can prove he was tortured, Celliers gives him proof (by [[ShirtlessScene taking off his shirt]]), and it all goes downhill from there...

The situation is not helped by Hicksley, the prisoner rep, refusing point blank to furnish Yonoi with details of which prisoners are arms experts, stubbornly refusing to involve himself in any sort of attempts at cross-cultural understanding, and generally being an annoying and ignorant eejit. Caught in the middle of all this madness is the unfortunate [[TheWoobie Colonel Lawrence]] (Tom Conti) of the title. A mild-mannered man, Lawrence attempts to bridge the cultural gap between captives and captors, not that this is a guarantee of safety, especially with the brutal and yet terribly human Sergeant Gengo Hara (Creator/TakeshiKitano).

* BilingualDialogue: {{Averted}} - Yonoi and Lawrence are the only people in the camp who are fluent in both languages. The others simply have to guess at what is being said. Over time, however, the Japanese guards speak English more and more as their ties with the prisoners become more and more apparent.

* RuleThirtyFour: {{Subverted}}. Despite the beating, bondage, whipping, obsessions with discipline and control, hierarchical power structures, canonical {{Foe Yay}}, [[{{stalking is love}} watching people while they sleep]], and Music/DavidBowie, there is next to no fan fiction about this film on the internet.

Examining power, cultural differences, tolerance, forgiveness and taboos, ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' is very much a character and psychology-driven film, because POW camps aren't known for their exciting itineraries. Released to high critical acclaim, it maintains a sky-scraping standing among reviewers, audiences, and fans of Bowie and Sakamoto; alongside ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'', it is widely considered one of the best films that Bowie had a starring role in. The film is also of note for being a Japanese film set in a Japanese POW camp, meaning the director shares nationality with those in charge rather than the prisoners. Ryuichi Sakamoto also composed the soundtrack. With added lyrics, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omWZGZ2HZu8 main theme]] even became an international hit as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRutSMI9ulA "Forbidden Colours"]] in collaboration with Music/DavidSylvian.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/merry_christmas_mr_lawrence_us.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/DavidSylvian "I'll go walking in circles while doubting the very ground beneath me..."]]'']]

* MyGreatestFailure: Celliers is haunted by [[spoiler: his betrayal of his younger brother, a hunchback. On his brother's initial arrival in their all-boys boarding secondary school, Celliers did nothing to spare his brother the initiation ritual, knowing that his back would be the cause of derision. Despite being asked if he had any reason to want to keep his brother out of the ritual, Celliers states that his brother is perfectly fine. Why? Because he couldn't bear the shame of being associated with something imperfect (note that this was when the heavily ableist eugenics movement was still widely accepted). As a result of the mockery he endures during the ritual, Celliers' brother's spirit is crushed forever and he never sings again.]] This is also a case of [[{{ItsAllMyFault}} It's All My fault]]. Because it is.
* NoDeadBodyPoops: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]; during [[spoiler:Kanemoto's]] forced seppuku, he can be seen moving the bamboo receptacle carrying the killing knife under his rear. This is a real part of the seppuku process, done to catch any, erm, post-mortem exhaust. Once he actually drops dead, however, his back end remains clean, as do those of everyone else who dies on-screen (save for [[spoiler:Celliers, who's body is obscured thanks to him being given the SandNecktie treatment]]).
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: "I do wish they would stop hitting me..." - Lawrence

* ShirtlessCaptives: A bunch of the extra's. Its not played for fanservice, though, as many of them look ill and weak from the circumstances they're in.