Quote:
Here’s a movie that is even stranger than it was intended to be. “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” is about a clash between two cultures (British and Japanese) and two styles of military service (patriotic and pragmatic). That would be enough for any movie, and there are scenes when it is enough, and the movie works pretty well.

But then the movie makes another contrast that doesn’t work so well, a contrast between basic views of theatrical acting styles. British tradition suggests that, everything else being equal, actors should behave as if they were real people in a real situation. The Japanese tend toward a more overwrought acting style, made of screams and grimaces, histrionics and dramatizations.

Each tradition works well enough in a movie where it is the only tradition. But in a movie where British and Japanese are on the screen at the same time and are apparently sharing the same reality, the results look odd, and eventually undermine the film. We wonder, in some small irreverent corner of our minds, whether the soft-spoken British notice that the Japanese rant and rave over everything, including the weather, and whether the Japanese, in turn, find the British catatonic.

The movie is by Nagisa Oshima, the best-known of the younger Japanese directors, whose notorious “In the Realm of the Senses” (1976) began with a love affair between a businessman and a geisha and ended in a bloodbath of castration and suicide. He is clearly fascinated by relationships between authorities and victims and that’s the subject here.

The time is 1942, in a Japanese prison camp on Java, and the story concentrates on two pairs of officers. The British are Celliers (David Bowie), very upper crust, duty-bound, guilt-ridden, and Lawrence (Tom Conti), sensitive, bilingual, trying to translate not only the words but the values of the two races.

The Japanese are Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) of the warrior class, filled with pride and glory, and Hara (Takeshi), a sort of Japanese Falstaff with a streak of sadism. How these two pairs get along together will determine the fate of the British (which is complicated by their nominal leader, a blustering bully played by Jack Thompson). The movie develops the situation in a series of scenes that owe something to “Bridge Over the River Kwai.” Rules are made, forgotten, broken, then strictly enforced. Enemies admit at weak moments that they are all human beings, after all. But then there’s a breach of protocol and a crackdown from the top. The most rigid officers on each side (Celliers and Yonoi) have a sort of admiration for each other, which turns into a contest of wills.

This is interesting material, especially since Oshima plunges a little more deeply into the psychology of his characters than your average prisoner-of-war movie is likely to. There are hints of a homosexual attraction between Celliers and Yonoi, eventually leading to one of the movie’s most awkward moments — a parting in which the British soldier actually seems to be saying that both sides were right in the war and both sides were wrong.

It’s awkward, not because of the subject matter, but because of the contrasting acting styles. Here are two men trying to communicate in a touchy area and they behave as if they’re from different planets. The overstatement in the Japanese acting ruins the scene. It’s strange: Japanese acting styles never bother me in all Japanese movies (especially not when they’re modulated, as in the contemporary films of Kurosawa). It’s only when you have actors who are clearly on different wavelengths that the Japanese histrionics become distracting. What this movie needed was a diplomatic acting coach.

review by Roger Ebert on September 16, 1983

Merry.Christmas.Mr.Lawrence.1983.480p.BluRay.x264.AC3.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	2h 3mn
Size:	2.00 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	854x462
Aspect ratio:	1.85:1
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	1 856 kb/s
Audio
English 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/2BF4CF84029B483/Merry.Christmas.Mr.Lawrence.1983.480p.BluRay.x264.AC3.mkv

Language(s):English, Japanese
Subtitles:English,Chinese

The post Nagisa Ôshima – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Starring Yellow Magic Orchestra and David Brooks Palmer, YMO Propaganda is a 1984 musical film directed by Shin Saito. The film originally premiered theatrically throughout Japan in 1984 and is considered by some to be the best visual work from ‘Y.M.O.’

YMO.Propaganda.1984.DVDRip.x264.REPACK.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 22 min
Size: 	2.03 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	696x476 ~> 696x522
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 745 kb/s
BPP: 	0.346
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch FLAC @ 766 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/8B98EA3744C5E59/YMO.Propaganda.1984.DVDRip.x264.REPACK.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/02AD821A1D1CE09/YMO.Propaganda.1984.DVDRip.x264.srt

Language(s):English, Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Makoto Satô – YMO Propaganda (1984) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

One of the most important artists of our era, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s career spans from techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning composer and anti-nuclear activist. This intimate portrait explores Sakamoto’s return to music following a cancer diagnosis, leading to the creation of a haunting new masterpiece.Mubi wrote:
Fresh from its run in cinemas, Coda: Stephen Nomura Schible’s revelatory exploration of Ryuichi Sakamoto, his work, and his incredible album async. This lovely and graceful exploration offers a rare glimpse into the artistic process of the renowned musician.

2.16GB | 1h 41mn | 1024×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/27F56881C256C29/Ryuichi.Sakamoto.-.Coda.2017.576p.Bluray.AC3.5.1.x264-SaL.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:Japanese,English

The post Stephen Nomura Schible – Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (2017) first appeared on Cinema of the World.