David Bowie is captured by the Japanese and sent to a prison camp, where the British commander is a bluff, old-school sort, but the Japanese commandant, Ryuichi Sakamoto, is a believer in bushido, and the cowardice of the British soldier. Tom Conti, who spent time in Japan before the war, tries to bridge the gap, but no one believes him.

It's another of director Nagisa Ôshima's trashing of the old order in Japan, ased on a memoir by Lourens van der Post. In many ways, it reminds me of BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, with its state of mutual insanity, except unlike Sessue Hayakawa's commandant in that picture, there;s never the slightest hesitation or uncertainty on other side: right is right, wrong is wrong, and the other fellow is a filthy beast. Even Conti is insane, with his belief that he can ameliorate the situation.

Magnificent score by Sakamoto, who was embarrassed by his performance when the Japanese audience laughed at it during a screening. He was known at that time almost exclusively as a comic actor.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is, as the title would suggest, about as far from your typical old-fashioned prisoner-of-war movie as it can get. This film is about Allied officers in a Japanese prison but instead of being about escape attempts, as so many films in this genre are, it's instead a treatise on the human condition that explores the nature of warfare and the human spirit in its fight for justice and honour. The film I would most liken it to is HELL IN THE PACIFIC.

Essentially this is a film about four men whose lives intertwine as the sometimes shocking events in the camp play out. Tom Conti is the straight man through whom we experience the film; he's good, but he has his thunder stolen by the others. Ryuichi Sakamoto has the toughest role as the camp commander driven by old-fashioned ideals and conflicted by personal desire; he also contributed the film's unusual, effective score. David Bowie is the headlining character and makes his role charming with seeming effortlessness. Best of the bunch is the great Japanese Yakuza actor 'Beat' Takeshi, playing an unusual and ambiguous character; he gets the final scene to himself, which just so happens to be the film's most moving moment.

In 1942, in Java, the British Major Jack 'Strafer' Celliers (David Bowie) arrives in the Japanese POW camp and is submitted to a Japanese court to examine his surrender. He explains that the Japanese soldiers would murder the local villagers and he decided to surrender to avoid the massacre. The camp commander Captain Yonoi (Ryûichi Sakamoto) feels a sort of fascination for Jack and sends him to the infirmary to be treated. The liaison of the prisoners with Yonoi and Sergeant Gengo Hara (Takeshi Kitano), Colonel John Lawrence (Tom Conti), has lived in Japan for many years and can understand both cultures and their leader is Captain Hicksley (Jack Thompson). When the rebel Jack leaves the infirmary, he challenges Yonoi, who is a man that follows the principles of honor and discipline. Yonoi believes that Jack is possessed by demons and their confrontation will lead the British to a tragic end.

Yesterday my homage to David Bowie was watching again maybe for the fourth or fifth time one of his best films. "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" is certainly one of the best anti-war films ever made. The beginning with the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto indicates how classy it is. This film has not lost the impact along the years and it is impressive how the difference of Western and Japanese cultures is depicted through the British Jack 'Strafer' Celliers and the Japanese Yonoi. In between there is John Lawrence, a man who can understand both sides based on his life experience. Psychology explains that in areas involving control, such as dominance, people tend to pair up with their opposites. Therefore the sick discussion about homosexuality of Yonoi and Jack is ridiculous. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Furyo, Em Nome da Honra" ("Furyo, In Name of the Honor")