"Actor: Alistair Browning"

• Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence | DVD | (24/01/2005) from £33.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  1942: British soldier Jack Celliers (David Bowie) arrives at a Japanese POW camp run by the disciplinarian Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) who believes the prisoners are cowards because they have chosen to surrender instead of honourably committing seppuku (ritual suicide). When Yonoi meets Celliers he believes he is an evil spirit and a battle of wills begins between the two men.... This is not your average war movie and the performances by Bowie Sakamoto Tom Conti (who plays Mr Lawr

• Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence | DVD | (17/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this first 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. In the face of the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (played by Japanese pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also wrote the score) through his own enigmatic rebellion. 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

• Rain | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £18.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  'Rain' is a provocative and moving rites of passage tale from New Zealand director Christine Jeffs set against the backdrop of the country's beautful coastline. It's the beginning of a long hot summer and thirteen year old Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierbicki) and her family settle into their isolated cottage for what's set to be another perfect holiday. But for Janey this will be no ordinary holiday it will change her life forever.

• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence | Blu Ray | (11/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 Palme d'Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.This powerful prisoner-of-war drama features a stunning cast - including David Bowie in one of his greatest roles - and is the first English-language film by acclaimed Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses).Set in Java at a Japanese POW camp in 1942, a war of wills - and unspoken erotic attraction - unfolds between a rebellious prisoner, David Bowie, and camp commandant Ryuichi Sakomoto, who is impressed by Bowie's defiance while bilingual prisoner Tom Conti (Mr. Lawrence) engages in a more adversarial relationship with sadistic sergeant Takeshi Kitano (Hana Bi), who finally offers Lawrence a sinister 'Christmas' present.Fine performances by Conti, Kitano (his first dramatic role), Sakamoto (his acting debut, he also contributed the memorable score) and Bowie, combined with stunning cinematography and brilliant direction by one of Japan's finest filmmakers, make this a memorable and compelling war drama.The Oshima Gang Featurette (The Making Of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)An Interview With producer Jeremy ThomasAn Interview With actor/composer Ryuichi SakamotoAn excerpt from Scenes by the Sea: The Life and Cinema of Beat Takeshi Kitano Theatrical Trailer