Same movie director (Nagisa Oshima), same music composer (Ryuchi Sakamoto), and a recurring actor (Takeshi Kitano). The movies are set in very different eras (WW2 for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, and 19th century for Taboo), however both explore homosexual love in an artistic and non-explicit way, and this within a military context. Both confront the rigid samurai code of honor with intense feelings of longing and desire.
