The author of this article is a writer of the time editorial department @日應
37 years ago, Japan released a movie "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield". The birth of
is of great significance to the world film industry. The theme of
is bold, describing the family, country and personal emotions of two men in the context of World War II. The
lineup is luxurious and brings together three world-renowned artists: Oshima Nagisa, David Bowie, and Sakamoto Ryuichi . The film
was not only shortlisted for the 36th Cannes Film Festival main competition, but also won 5 awards including the 1984 Film Weekly Audience's Choice Award for Best Picture, and the 1984 Daily Film for Best Director and Best Picture. .
After so many years, the popularity of the film remains unabated. Every time it is shown at an international film festival, a ticket is hard to find.
has to admit that although the film director Oshima Nagisa is the standard bearer of the new wave of Japanese films, it is the cooperation of two talented musicians from the East and the West that really made this film famous.
Sakamoto Ryuichi and David Bowie
Sakamoto Ryuichi has been active in music, film, publishing and other fields since the 1970s. He was known as a "professor" and was one of the most versatile musicians in the East at that time. One; not to mention David Bowie. He is like a "rock chameleon". He not only possesses outstanding musical talents, but is also sought after for his avant-garde lifestyle and fashion taste.
It can be said that the spark collision between the two cultural spokespersons of the East and the West is quite interesting, not to mention that this is a same-sex movie produced by a film master.
Today, the Lord of Time will take you back to that Nanyang island and reminisce about this difficult classic.
Nagisa Oshima and "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield"
Although two prosperous and beautiful musicians have supported the film, it is the director Nagisa Oshima who created the film.
Nagisa Oshima was originally a college student in the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University. However, in the 1960s, the political atmosphere in Japan was tense. He was deeply influenced by leftist ideology. By chance, he embarked on the road of film directorship and became a young director at Shochiku Studios.
Nagisa Oshima’s vigorous debut "Street of Love and Hope" expresses the suffering lives of the people at the bottom of the world. The second work "Cruelty Story of Youth" was dubbed "New Wave of Japanese Movies" by the media, and Oshima became a negative An independent filmmaker with Japanese film tradition and anti-Japanese film system.
subsequently made many sensitive political films, including "Night and Fog in Japan", "Hanging", "Shinjuku Thief Diary", etc., but the two films that made him famous internationally are indeed two "swords". One of the films about "Go Pianfeng" is "Youth" that reflects the tragic life of young people at the bottom of Japanese contemporary society, and the other is "The World of Senses" that has long been misrepresented as "the world's top ten banned films".
Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie, and Ryuichi Sakamoto on the set
"The Senses" is a French film from a capital perspective. The film was banned in Japan because of its bold subject matter and denounced him as a "Japanese traitor" There are not a few people, which also makes Oshima Nagisa have to rely more on cooperation with foreign producers. This is the case in the subsequent "Dead of Love" and "Marx My Love", which also includes "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield." The main investors of the
film are from the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The producer is the famous Jeremy Thomas, who later also produced business cards such as "The Last Emperor", "Nude Lunch", and "Only Love Eternal Life". Overseas investment has made Oshima Nagisa's film production on a larger scale. According to the requirements of the employer, the location of the film was shot on Rarotonga Island, New Zealand.
"Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" is adapted from the novel "In the Prison of Shadows" by the British writer Lawrence Van Baust. The original work is divided into three parts. Oshima Nagisa mainly focuses on the second part of the book, which is The story of Celliers played by David Bowie came to the screen.
Why did David Bowie cooperate with Nagisa Oshima?
Nagisa Oshima and David Bowie first met in 1980.
After watching the stage play "The Elephant Man", Bowie's outstanding stage performance left a deep impression on Oshima Nagisa and praised him for "has an indestructible inner spirit."
When he planned to put "In the Prison in the Shadow" on the screen, he insisted that there must be David BowYi Lai starred.
David Bowie
Nagisa Oshima did not think about other candidates, , but in any case, David Bowie lingered in his mind, so he sent him the script . After reading the script, Bowie took the initiative to send an invitation to Nagisa Oshima, hoping to talk in person.
When he came to David Bowie’s office in New York, he had no idea at all, but to his surprise, Bowie not only listened patiently to his description of the film and characters, but also expressed his appreciation for his work "Hanging." , Even offered to study some Japanese in advance, but also asked Oshima to improve his English so as to facilitate cooperation between the two.
Sakamoto Ryuichi and David Bowie laughed heartily on the set.
Faced with world-class musicians and pop culture leaders, Oshima finally invited Bowie to compose the soundtrack for the film, but Bowie refused: "This time I just want to concentrate on acting."
is a win-win decision when we look at it now, otherwise we won't hear the classic soundtrack "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" created by the film’s other starring Sakamoto Ryuichi . The filming of
started, Bowie came to the small island of Nanyang as scheduled, and Oshima greeted him personally. After the greeting, David Bowie said something meaningful: "Here, we will be the captives of the island, and we will live for a while." "Happy Christmas"
is different from David Bowie, who is already well-known in the world. Sakamoto Ryuichi had only made his debut for five years at that time. Although he was well known in Japan by women and children, his popularity and influence are far less than Bowie. The shooting scene was also respectful to Bowie.
Nagisa Oshima invited him and Takeshi Kitano only because he saw a group photo of the two in a photo album and felt that it was in line with his own image.
Sakamoto Ryuuji's eyebrows are heroic, but there seems to be a little sadness hidden. At that time, Kitano Takeshi was a bit dumb, which fits the original background of Ohara.
Sakamoto Ryuichi
Sakamoto Ryuichi was born in the 1950s. His teenage years happened to be the peak of Nagisa Oshima’s creation. He watched many of his movies and appreciated it. Soon after being invited, he decided to star in the film, not to mention acting in a rival scene full of rock stars like Bowie.
"Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" is the first film starring Ryuichi Sakamoto, and it is also the first time to score a film. Contrary to the situation of David Bowie, Nagisa Oshima invited Ryuichi Sakamoto to star in the film, but the latter offered to score the film.
recalled this cooperation afterwards, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's words were full of emotion.
"My first soundtrack was Nagisa Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". That is my ideal, because he never asks me anything. I have the freedom to create, but it is also the most difficult one. , After all, it’s my first time. Many decisions need to be made by myself.”
And recalling his rivalry with Bowie, Ryu Sakamoto was full of happiness in his words: “ and David Bowie every day for a month Staying on a small island in the South Pacific for a whole month! He is very nice and very frank. "
Why did Celliers kiss Shinoi?
, of course, should clarify the relationship between the two before this, and understand the relationship between them to understand the meaning of the kiss.
stunned and kissed
. Obviously, Shinoi was already emotional when he first met Celliers.
The two met for the first time in a military court. When Celliers appeared in the court, he was already attracted by him.
Shinoi appeared in the court as one of the officers on trial. When the other two officers interrogated Celliers severely, Shinoi's attitude had begun to look ambiguous.
Of course, the movie still has to be judged from the perspective of the movie. Of course, this is not the imagination of the time king, but Nagisa Oshima's use of movie scheduling. When the other two interrogated, Nagisa Oshima used the camera to bypass the interrogated Celliers, and slowly pushed towards Shinoi. The lyrical music replaced the harsh reprimands. Ryuichi Sakamoto's expression seemed a little sluggish, all of which showed He is unspeakably complicatedEmotional performance.
When it was his turn to interrogate, Shinoi did not sit on the judge's seat as a symbol of identity like the other two, but walked down the steps and approached Celliers. His tone and expression were even a little pious. Perhaps it was a pious for love. After questioning the details, he tried to ease Celliers' problem, and when he saw the scar on Bowie's body, Shinoi's reaction was slightly slower.
This may be the most "rebellious" encounter in the history of film. The hostile identity and ambiguous emotions are entirely the relationship between rule and captives, but the power transfer has been realized because of the emergence of love. After
, there are many details showing Shinoi’s enthusiasm for Celliers. He beat the Japanese soldiers who stepped on Celliers and gave Celliers blankets. Even Lawrence said Shinoi had been covering Celliers, and the Japanese soldiers thought he was the devil and disturbed the world. Noi's spirit, and haircut, this very oriental behavior expresses this emotional depth to the fullest.
What about Celliers vs. Shinoi?
As a captured British officer, Celliers's affection for Shiyei is not as public as the latter, but it is not completely traceless. When
was attacked and fleeing, Celliers did not forget to pick up the blanket that Shinoi gave him and the phrase "I wish I was your evil spirit" when he answered Shinoi's question, and ate the flowers, although Like the shocking kiss, some people understood this to mean that Celliers took advantage of Shinoi's feelings for him, but the moment Celliers hesitated after the close kiss revealed a different sentiment.
From the perspective of plot development, this kiss was Celliers’s purpose to save Captain Hixley’s life, but he just used the most romantic and deadly way to completely defeat Shiyejing mentally and humiliate the world. Noi also responded to his deep love for him, and used his love to redeem his personal emotion and identity entanglement.
Kitano Takeshi and Oshima Nagisa
In addition to the two male protagonists, there is another key role in the film that needs to be determined by Oshima Nagisa, and his decision actually affects the trajectory of Japanese film development in the next 20 years. The key role of
is Sergeant Ohara played by Takeshi Kitano. In the film, he manages the detention center together with Shinoi, played by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Kitano Takeshi
Kitano Takeshi was already well-known in Japan before he made the movie, all thanks to his other identity-Mancai actor.
Manga is a form of Japanese stage comedy similar to cross talk, which set off a boom in Japan in the 1980s. In 1973, Kitano Takeshi and partner Kaneko Kiyoshi formed the Two Beat combination, which became the mainstay of man's talent. At that time, his stage name was Peter Takeshi.
To some extent, it is more appropriate to say that Takeshi Kitano is Japanese Guo Degang.
Before being invited by Nagisa Oshima, Kitano never thought that one day he would star in a movie or even become a director. Nagisa Oshima has always wanted to find a suitable actor to play the Japanese army sergeant, who was born as a farmer. The face that is a little green and convulsive because of convulsions is perfect. After the
film was released, Kitano also gained widespread recognition and began to play some roles one after another until he starred in "Furious Man" in 1989. The original director Fukasakukin was sick, and Kitano temporarily took the director's chair and never came down. , This was the result of the later "Fireworks", "Bad Boy's Sky", "Summer of Kikujiro" and "Sonata"...
From this perspective, "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" left the greatest legacy of Japanese movies. It was not the shocking kiss between David Bowie and Sakamoto Ryuichi, but the seeds of Japanese movies were planted on Kitano Takeshi, and he inherited .
Kitano naturally regarded Nagisa Oshima as a mentor. In 1996, Nagisa Oshima suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and returned to Japan in London. Kitano personally drew a picture and gave it to him. It was Oshima on the director’s chair. Nagisa, Kitano wrote next to him: "I wait for the day when Director Oshima returns to the shooting scene."
Kitano has fulfilled his promise, , who has already won the Golden Lion Award in 1999, returned as an actor and starred in Nagisa Oshima’s last film "Mikata" , which is also a movie that explores same-sex love.
Kitano Takeshi is waiting next to Nagisa Oshima, Completed his posthumous work.
"The Royal Law" stills
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