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Following the death of Ryuichi Sakamoto, over the past couple of days I rewatched Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence having not seen it for around 35 years. I couldn't remember much about it and was too young (literally and emotionally) to fully appreciate it as a teenager.

It is such a sad, poignant, affected piece but has moments of genuine affection coupled with emotional conflict at such affection. The film does an excellent job of examining the culture clash between east and west while discovering a surprising kinship during the harshest and most unlikely of circumstances.

It's message is truly summed up in the closing scene with Tom Conti's John Lawrence saying, on the subject of war, "And the truth is of course that nobody is right" and "There are times when victory is very hard to take." The ends don't always justify the means and, no matter what side we're on, we are all just people doing what we (often misguidedly) think is right.