MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE

Arrow Academy Special Edition Bowie graces a POW movie for all seasons...

In 1983, a Christmas-infused WWII heartbreaker seemed weird for Japanese New Wave radical Nagisa Oshima. Yet it’s in the fertile clash of contrasting ingredients that the ‘Ai No Korīda’ director seasoned the genre flavours of his English-language debut. Based on Laurens van der Post’s novel ‘The Seed And The Sower’, Mr. Lawrence weathers well. In his ‘Let’s Dance’ pomp, David Bowie radiates charisma as Jack Celliers, a defiant POW who excites the interest of testy prison-camp captain Yonoi (Japanese pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto). Offsetting the psychosexual steam between the pop pin-ups, Tom Conti’s John Lawrence strikes up complex exchanges with sadistic but honourable sergeant Hara, played by Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano in a luminous break-out role.

As the resulting tensions — between duty/morality, East/West, repression/ release, chaos/control — cast suggestive ripples through POW-pic waters, Oshima’s careful direction navigates the extremes without too many tonal stumbles. Yes, the acting styles chafe, and Bowie looks silly in a public-school flashback, but Oshima pulls everything together for a bittersweet epilogue, where the urge to connect leads to a lovely final freeze-frame. Sakamoto’s graceful score completes the picture of a distinctive tear-jerker, aimed at heart and head. Kevin Harley