Stars: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamato

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Summary: A wartime drama which finds a group of POWs in a Japanese POW camp. When Major Celliers arrives at the camp the Japanese camp commander believes him to be an evil spirit. A battle of wills begins between the two men.

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A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. Protesting--via his own enigmatic rebellion--the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (Ryuichi Sakamoto). While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interviews With Nagisa Oshima And Ryuichi Sakamoto And Jerry Thomas, The Oshima Gang Making Of Documentary, Theatrical Trailer
Year:	1982
Release Date:	January 24, 2005
Runtime:	124 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	O P T D 0065
Keywords:	Christmas, General, Lawrence, Merry, Drama, Mr, Rescheduled
Genre:	Drama