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. One of the prisoners, interpreter John Lawrence, tries to explain the Japanese way of thinking, but is considered a traitor.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit I had no idea that it existed a movie where Takeshi Kitano plays against David Bowie. In another big role we have Ryuichi Sakamoto, a huge rockstar/composer who also wrote the soundtrack, so there's two big name musicians in the lead roles. Directed by Nagisa Oshima, who's behind fantastic films such as In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Gohatto (1999), he uses his actors to the fullest. Bowie has an incredible presence, and Kitano shines as always, I could never get tired of that man. The actor who played Mr. Lawrence speaks a lot of Japanese in the film, but didn't understand a word of it, instead learning it all phonetically. That's a very fun bit of trivia to know beforehand. Anyhow, Mr. Lawrence is a great film dealing with POW's without it being just another prison escape rehash.
Genre: Drama/War
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