RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE
Two weeks ago influential (soundtrack) composer Ryuichi Sakamoto sadly passed away at the age of 71. To celebrate the late Japanese master we’ll have limited screenings of Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence in which Sakamoto, who also provided the mesmerizing synth score, stars alongside fellow icon David Bowie.
In this captivating, skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies Celliers, a British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Rock star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is the British lieutenant colonel Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between captor and prisoner. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash, and one of Oshima’s greatest successes.
