©Oshima Nagisa Productions
"Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" Nagisa Oshima x David Bowie x Beat Takeshi x Ryuichi Sakamoto The path to the realization of a unique war movie Part 1
David Bowie, the Man Who Fell in War Merry
David Bowie was known to music fans in Japan as the darling of glam rock, but before his worldwide smash hit `` Let's Dance '' was born in 1983, he wasn't a household name. His presence became known to the general public in Japan when he appeared in a commercial for Takara Shuzo's ``Jun'' that aired in 1980.
David Bowie Takara Shuzo “Jun” commercial
It was Kuniko Usui, Oshima's niece who was involved in the project from the beginning, who suggested that Bowie, who had always been a Japanophile and had a deep understanding of Japanese culture, play the role of Serie. Oshima, who immediately agreed to this proposal, reviewed the ``Jun'' commercial and said, ``Given Celie's spiritual strength, nobility, and charisma, I think he would be a perfect fit.'' (Image Forum, October 1982 issue) After confirming this, he sent a letter and script to Bowie. A telegram expressing great interest soon arrived, and in October 1980, Oshima visited New York for the first time in six months. Robert Redford's directorial film ``Ordinary People,'' which began its release at the end of last month, was a hot topic in town.
At the time, Bowie was appearing in ``The Elephant Man'' at Broadway's Booth Theater, and of course he was planning to see Oshima as well. When I contacted Bowie there, he told me that he had already arranged the tickets and asked me to come see him perform the next day. Oshima had a good feeling about Bowie's response even before they met, but what surprised him even more was the performance he saw on stage. Although Oshima had starred in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), until he saw this play, he said, ``I thought I was just a novice when it came to acting after all.'' (Kinema Junpo, late June 1981. issue).
This is not to say he was looking down on him; Oshima likes amateurs. ``First, I'm an amateur; second, I want to sing; third, fourth, I want to sing; fifth, I'm a movie star; six, seven, eight, nine, I'm ten, new drama'', he has said since he was young, but he has no acting experience. We have actively used amateurs, newcomers, and singers. In fact, starting with his debut work ``The City of Love and Hope,'' new actors and rockabilly singers played the leading roles, and since then, he has continued to play leading roles such as Isao Sasaki of ``Graveyard of the Sun,'' Ichiro Araki of ``Nihon Shunkako,'' and `` Shinjuku Thief Diary.'' The leading roles in Oshima's films, such as Tadanori Yokoo in ``Singer'' (69), are lined up with newcomers, singers, and amateurs. If that doesn't work, Oshima's casting philosophy of finding a standout star is consistent with the fact that Takuya Kimura was initially considered for the leading role in his posthumous work, Gohodo, but Ryuhei Matsuda ended up in his debut work. are doing.
“Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” ©Oshima Nagisa Productions
When Oshima saw Bowie on stage, he was struck by how ``he was a perfect performer'' (mentioned above), and wrote of his impressions as follows:
``When his white arms, legs, and jaw twist strangely, and when his heart-felt voice becomes a high-pitched stutter, the audience is made to feel the tragedy of the human elephant from the depths of their bodies.''
When Bowie met the day after seeing the movie, he said that he liked Oshima's movie ``The Death Penalty'' and that he would definitely like to do ``Sen Meri'', and they quickly started talking about a concrete schedule and dialogue. What Bowie was reading at this time was a direct English translation of the script written by Oshima, and he was not familiar with the English lines.
This is a problem that Japanese people face when writing screenplays and shooting movies in English-speaking countries, and even in Akira Kurosawa's attempt to break into Hollywood with Runaway Locomotive, the classic script created by Kurosawa's screenwriting team is... In other words, it was necessary to rewrite the old-fashioned character designs to suit the American situation (as a result, the depictions added in the revision work by the foreign scriptwriter ended up displeasing Kurosawa).
Bowie suggested several scriptwriters for rewrites, and Oshima promised to consider them. At that table, Oshima asked if he would be happy to play music, but he showed no interest. Bowie was attracted to the idea of participating in ``Sen Meri'' only as an actor.
With the approval of David Bowie to appear in this way, ``Sen Meri'' was able to take a big step forward, but there were still many big hurdles to make it a reality.
[Main references]
"Proposal for Embrace the Earth", Script for "In Prison of Shadows", Script for "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence","Image Forum", "Kinema Junpo", "Scenario", "GOUT", "Japanese Literature", "Literature", "Rumor 'The Truth', 'Asahi Journal', 'Weekly Myojo', 'Weekly Heibon', 'Weekly Gendai', 'Weekly Yomiuri', 'Weekly Bunshun', 'Weekly Jewelry', 'Sunday Mainichi', 'The Economist', 'Asahi Shimbun', 'Mainichi Shimbun', 'Yomiuri Shimbun' ”, “Hochi Shimbun”, “Nikkan Sports”, “Sports Nippon”, “Daily Sports”, “Cinema File Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence ” (Kodansha), “Movie Producer Talks about the Philosophy of Hits” (Masato Hara, composed by Hiroko Homma, author, Nikkei BP) ), “ The Truth after 30 years of “ Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence ”” (Tokyo News Service), “ Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (Kinokuniya Shoten), “Answer! ” (written by Nagisa Oshima, Daguerreo Publishing), “Nagisa Oshima 1960” (written by Nagisa Oshima, published by Seidosha), “Nagisa Oshima 1968” (written by Nagisa Oshima, published by Seidosha), “50 years after the war, 100 years of film” ( Nagisa Oshima (Author, Fūhōsha), ``My Suppression Lyricism'' (Nagisa Oshima, Author, Seiryu Publishing), ``Transformation of Japanese Cinema that the World is Attention to'' (Kazuaki Maruyama, Author, Kusashisha), ``Showa ``Movie Boy'' (written by Makoto Naito, Shuei Shobo), ``Ninkyo Eigaden'' (written by Hiroji Shunto and Sadao Yamane, published by Kodansha), ``The Life of an Actor'' (written by Kiyoshi Koda, published by Ginga Publishing), “Cinema Yakuza: A Generation of Movie Producers” (Author: Goro Kusakabe, Shincho Bunko), “Photographing from Cannes to the Black Market” (Author: Shohei Imamura, Kosakusha), “Movie Love – Kiichi Muto Interview Collection (1 Actor Edition)” ” (Kiichi Muto, author, Daiei Publishing) http://norisugi.com/documentary/senmeri_hiwa.html , etc.
Text: Guinea Pig Yoshida
Born in 1978. Movie critic. Another name is Ichiro Yoshida. He has written for ``Eiga Hiho'', ``Kinema Junpo'', ``Eiga Geijutsu'', ``Scenario'', etc. His books include ``Introduction to film criticism! ” (Yosensha), co-authored with “Film director Takeshi Kitano. ” (Film Art Company) and others
"Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence"
©Oshima Nagisa Productions
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