The only thing I knew about this film was the cover and that it starred David Bowie. Well, I also knew the premise, British soldiers in a Japanese POW Camp. The director may be famous I don't know?
How was it? Alright. You get lots of shots of David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto looking too perfect. Outside of the beatings and poor food fashions, it seems like a very open prison camp. I didn't expect the Japanese officers to speak that much English. They do an admirable effort, Sakamoto and Beat Takashi, but it still comes off more awkward than effective.
It's a neat film just for the star talent involved. They all give great performances, and our true star Mister Lawrence, who didn't speak a word of Japanese, speaks phonetically perfect Japanese throughout. It even sounds like it is Japanese spoken by a British man. That was really impressive.
Oh and the whole movie is about homosexual mindgames. Going to need to watch it a few more times since A) I own it, B) Can't say for certain if I like it or not. It's in some ways a very flawed film. Most of the scenes were done in one or two takes, and the script wasn't set in stone. So the tone and flow jumps wildly. There's are two scenes (related to each other) that just stop the film dead in it's tracks. Even with that, it's a pretty breezy two hours. Still I would have liked there to be an editor to just cut those scenes out of the film because they don't add anything to the main plot. It feels like one of those cases where a movie ends, and another begins and you didn't even have to leave your seat.
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