« Senjo no Merry Christmas »
"Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence" is a sentence used twice in the movie in the middle and at the end, in fact during key times. "Furyo" is the European name of the movie; it refers to the Japanese "war prisoners".
Story: The story takes place during World War II in a prisoner camp in Java Island (Indonesia), the camp is led by the Japanese, English and American soldiers are prisoners. Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) is the director of the camp. He's authoritative, nobody can bear him and all fear him he embodies the traditional Japanese way of mind, which will be totally jeopardized by a new captive, Jack Celliers (David Bowie) an English soldier. Celliers will defend himself and is state of mind all along the movie. During the movie we follow this total clash of culture between the two soldiers, a clash which will approach them. The two guys We can notice another duo ,with colonel Jonh Lawrence (Tom Conti) who is able to talk Japanese and sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), they are in good term but the war create a gap between them
Characters: 1-David Bowie is major Jack Celliers I think it's true to say that it is Bowie's best role on screen , however he ranks under the performance of Conti moreover it's a bit pity that he didn't take part in the film music just because he thought it could discredit his performance
2- Ryuchi Sakamoto is captain Yonoi, Sakamoto was then considered in Japan as Bowie in the West, he did the soundtrack of the movie. Through him we see all the complexity of the samurai tradition; he doesn't know what to do when facing other customs, there is a part of love and a part of fear; he is already a round character. There are some stereotypes about the Asian performance (for example: the overplay) but here these ones are inexistent he suits the character without any kind of artifact
3- Tom Conti embodies colonel Lawrence, thanks to this movie Conti received an award for the best actor by the National Board of Review, and I think its nothing for such a good performance
4- Takeshi Kitano is Sergeant Genjo Hara, he is the one who says "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" , he is the only Japanese who has something I don't know human? First we imagine that he is a flat character (mostly because he drinks a lot) but we realize it's wrong, he is a key character in the story
There are many more characters but these ones are the most important. However it's a shame that Conti and Kitano don't appear on the European cove because they are as interesting as Bowie and Sakamoto!
The soundtrack: In this movie you cannot forget to talk about the soundtrack! First: because there are two pop stars in the movie: David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto and because it's just wonderful. Sure Bowie didn't take parts of it but whoa! I'm just breathtaking by so much emotion just in a song
Personal opinion :
Sure everything is clever, the actors performance, the different scenes with many long shots which are great, and the soundtrack, sorry The soundtrack! But I don't want to watch it again I don't know why , I was not so impressed
"Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence" is a sentence used twice in the movie in the middle and at the end, in fact during key times. "Furyo" is the European name of the movie; it refers to the Japanese "war prisoners".
Story: The story takes place during World War II in a prisoner camp in Java Island (Indonesia), the camp is led by the Japanese, English and American soldiers are prisoners. Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) is the director of the camp. He's authoritative, nobody can bear him and all fear him he embodies the traditional Japanese way of mind, which will be totally jeopardized by a new captive, Jack Celliers (David Bowie) an English soldier. Celliers will defend himself and is state of mind all along the movie. During the movie we follow this total clash of culture between the two soldiers, a clash which will approach them. The two guys We can notice another duo ,with colonel Jonh Lawrence (Tom Conti) who is able to talk Japanese and sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), they are in good term but the war create a gap between them
Characters: 1-David Bowie is major Jack Celliers I think it's true to say that it is Bowie's best role on screen , however he ranks under the performance of Conti moreover it's a bit pity that he didn't take part in the film music just because he thought it could discredit his performance
2- Ryuchi Sakamoto is captain Yonoi, Sakamoto was then considered in Japan as Bowie in the West, he did the soundtrack of the movie. Through him we see all the complexity of the samurai tradition; he doesn't know what to do when facing other customs, there is a part of love and a part of fear; he is already a round character. There are some stereotypes about the Asian performance (for example: the overplay) but here these ones are inexistent he suits the character without any kind of artifact
3- Tom Conti embodies colonel Lawrence, thanks to this movie Conti received an award for the best actor by the National Board of Review, and I think its nothing for such a good performance
4- Takeshi Kitano is Sergeant Genjo Hara, he is the one who says "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" , he is the only Japanese who has something I don't know human? First we imagine that he is a flat character (mostly because he drinks a lot) but we realize it's wrong, he is a key character in the story
There are many more characters but these ones are the most important. However it's a shame that Conti and Kitano don't appear on the European cove because they are as interesting as Bowie and Sakamoto!
The soundtrack: In this movie you cannot forget to talk about the soundtrack! First: because there are two pop stars in the movie: David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto and because it's just wonderful. Sure Bowie didn't take parts of it but whoa! I'm just breathtaking by so much emotion just in a song
Personal opinion :
Sure everything is clever, the actors performance, the different scenes with many long shots which are great, and the soundtrack, sorry The soundtrack! But I don't want to watch it again I don't know why , I was not so impressed