Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Many of Kitano's routines involved him portraying a gangster or other harsh characters. Kitano said that after playing comedy clubs he would be invited to drink with yakuza, who would tell him stories about the big crime bosses. His first major film role in Nagisa Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (cast as a tough POW camp sergeant during World War II opposite Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie). Kitano said that he was happy with his performance and snuck into a showing of the film to see how the audience would accept him as a serious actor instead of a comedian. He was devastated when the audience burst into laughter upon his appearing on screen, but vowed to stick to serious and dark characters in film.