MovieChat Forums > Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) Discussion > What did Yonoi see in Jack?

What did Yonoi see in Jack?

posted 13 years ago by r5a
31 replies | jump to latest

Honestly, I can't figure out where the admiration comes from or why Yonoi appreciated him so much.

At the very start of the film, from Yonoi perspective all he knows is that he was called in to sit on a trial of a "difficult man" and he had no idea what crime or anything Jack had done up until the proceedings. In the proceedings as well there was nothing that really stands out for Jack's character that would appeal to Yonoi - if anything it would deter him due to Jack being a wiseass and cracking jokes. Where did he acquire the urge to have him in his camp?

Was there something explained in the book that wasn't explained in the movie? Perhaps in deliberations they gave more backstory to Jack?

[–] Aticusfinch 8 years ago

He simply fell in love with him; however, contrarily to what others have stated I don´t think that he admired him as a warrior, at least not during a great part of the movie. Yonoi or at list wanted to be a strict follower of the Bushido code and in his eyes the British prisoners, Celliers included, were cowards because they preferred to surrender rather than dying. It´s made clear in the trial that the Japanese officials have this thought and Yonoi probably shares it. This point of view may have been confirmed when Cellars later refuses to fight him.

However this is what turns Yonoi such a tragic figure; that he is in love but tries to supress it, because Celliers represents everything he should reject, he is foreigner, he is British, he is the enemy, he´s a prisoner, he´s an inferior and he´s a man. Only in the end Yonoi realizes that Celliers is also ready to give away his life, but, unlike Yonoi, not for some abstract code of honour or some militaristic nationalistic ethos but to save somebody else. He acknowledges it by cutting that lock of hair and saluting Celliars at the end.