Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

What distinguishes this 1983 film about British soldiers in a Japanese POW camp from similar dramas like Bridge on the River Kwai is its equal focus on both captors and captives as it examines the cultural rift between 1942 Japan and the West. David Bowie is Maj. Jack “Strafer” Celliers, an enigmatic British prisoner who's introduced standing defiantly before a military tribunal of Japanese officers. Ryûichi Sakamoto (a Japanese pop star who also composed the score) is Capt. Yonoi, the fiercely honorable camp officer who becomes fascinated by the man's fearlessness and unflinching control in the face of certain death. Yonoi initially sees Celliers as a warrior—like himself—before the differences become apparent. Tom Conti plays the genial, Japanese-speaking Col. John Lawrence, who understands the culture (at least in general terms) and attempts to bridge the divide that splits the compound, failing utterly as both sides simply brand the other as barbaric and turn every meeting into a confrontation. Directed by Nagisa Ôshima from a semiautobiographical novel by South African author (and World War II POW) Laurens Van der Post, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence debuts on DVD and Blu-ray with a wealth of extras, including new interviews (with Conti and Sakamoto, among others), a “making-of” featurette, a 1996 documentary on Van der Post, and a booklet with essays. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)