merry christmas mr. lawrence (M35)

japanese pow camps. tim conti is a father (type) (he does say the prayer for a dead prisoner, but it is mostly his combination of pride, compassion, understanding and fear of physical pain that gives the impression of priesthood. he speaks japanese and is brought to witness the killing of a korean guard who has "abused" a dutch prisoner. the japanese beat the korean and try to get him to commit hari kari, but he has a fear of commitment. later on conti tries to get protection for the dutch prisoner who now is at danger of getting buggered because of his reputation. (the japanese commandant wonders if indeed all brits are queer. after all they surrendered rather than commit hari kari. conti explains that they would prefer not to be prisoners and instead to be fighters, but that there is no intrinsic shame in their culture.) the commander of the brits is a type who evinces no understanding for the japanese frame of mind or culture. david bowie is brought in as a prisoner, who is sick from being beaten and the japanese commander wishes to make him the officer in charge (he doesn't like the current brit officer and he has taken a shining to david bowie.) they line up a firing squad to shoot at bowie, but they are just faking. they make the prisoners witness the execution of the korean, which causes a brit to have an epileptic fit and to die. the japs condemn them to a 48 hour to fast, to overcome their spiritual laziness and david bowie brings them food and flowers. food for the men and flowers to commemorate the death of their fellow prisoner. the japs arrive and are pissed. (bowie eats the flower, claiming it tastes better than the jap food.) lawrence who said the singing was not a funeral but a christmas practice and bowie get put in the cell. bowie recalls how he was not a good older brother to his singing little brother whom he allowed to get hazed when he arrived at school. (reminded me of berger stories). the captain releases bowie and lawrence when he is drunk on christmas and doing his imitation of father christmas. (another time a man tried to kill bowie and bowie outwitted him and then cut lawrence down who was being hung wizard of id style. the jap committed hari kari, but explained that he thought that bowie was a devil who was trying to bedevil the captain.) the captain gathers the troops to torture them with fear of a machine gun. when the sick men were not also brought out, the jap insists that the sick men be brought out. one of the sick men dies and the brit officer gets upset. because he acts with lack of honor towards the japs, the japs are about to kill him. bowie leapfrogs the execution and kisses the captain on his cheek to shame him. bowie is buried up to his neck in sand. the captain cuts off a lock of bowie's hair (which he sends to be planted in his village to be a shrine). after the war, the sub captain is in prison about to be executed. tim conti pays him a visit. the jap tells conti about the lock of hair and the shrine thing and then says, merry christmas mr. lawrence.

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