"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 2

Casting for men

After a long and difficult journey, it seemed that the production funds had finally been raised domestically and internationally, but in reality, there was still a $1 million shortfall in funding from overseas, and even after preparations for filming began, production was not completed until the last minute. I was in a delicate situation as to whether or not I would be able to crank it in. In fact, producer Masato Hara had been wondering when to recommend canceling the project, even though art director Shigemasa Toda had traveled to Rarotonga in June to begin construction of the camp set. The final production cost was $6.3 million. At the market price at the time, it was approximately 1.5 to 1.6 billion yen in Japanese yen.

When signing an official performance contract with Bowie, he adjusted his schedule, and the album production was scheduled to begin at the end of 1982, allowing him to free up August, September, and October of the same year for the film. However, since the project was proceeding based on Bowie's schedule, there were problems with the Japanese performers.

In 1981, Yonoi = Sakae Takita and Hara Sergeant = Ken Ogata were both informally appointed. It is said that both of them showed great enthusiasm. However, Ogata was offered the lead role in the 1982 NHK Taiga drama `` Touge no Gunzo .'' Ogata refused the offer because he had a movie about Oshima, which caused panic among those around him. This is because, at this stage, there was no prediction as to when ``Senmeri'' would be able to start working. Eventually, Oshima heard about it, and he told the people involved that it might be better to do a taiga drama. Ogata didn't seem to get the lead role in a taiga drama very often, so he felt it was bad to make him wait for an uncertain movie. He is said to have lamented.

Furthermore, since Sakae Takita was chosen to play the lead role in the taiga drama ``Tokugawa Ieyasu'' the following year, it became impossible to devote time to filming ``Sen Meri''. Although the Ogata/Takita project was forced to change, it is still impressive that they decided to take advantage of a young actor who was on the verge of being cast as the lead role in a taiga drama.

Kenji Sawada, Tomokazu Miura, and Kazuki Tomokawa were considered for the role of the new Yonoi, while Tomisaburo Wakayama and Shintaro Katsu came up as candidates for the role of Sergeant Hara. Other than that, Koji Ishizaka and Bunta Sugawara were also offered, so it seems like it's just a matter of chance.

One day, Oshima asked Yuya Uchida, who had been chosen to play the role of detention center director, to mediate, and tried to woo Sawada. The three met at Hotel New Otani in Kioicho, and Sawada expressed great interest in playing the role of Yonoi, but the live tour dates had already been scheduled and he was responsible for the staff's lives during that time, so he was unable to decide when to film. I asked if it could be changed. From Oshima's point of view, he was forced to decide whether to give priority to Bowie or to the jury, but he decided that it would be impossible to ask Bowie to postpone it any longer after making him wait for three years. Uchida remembers that moment vividly.

``Then, Sawada quickly stood up and flatly said, ``Then please pretend this conversation never happened.'' I unconsciously kicked Sawada's leg from under the table, but the rest was over.'' (``Thank you.'')

Uchida was disappointed, saying, ``He turned me down. David Bowie and Kenji Sawada at that time were the only casting I've ever had.'' (`` I'm the worst, '' he said), but the project was indeed completed. After watching the movie, it's hard to imagine the Bowie x Takita x Ogata version of "Sen Meri", but it's easy to imagine the Bowie x Julie x Katsushin version, and this is what I wanted to see. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Amid rumors of casting difficulties, Kei Sato, who has appeared regularly in Oshima's works up to `` Natsu Imouto ,'' including starring in ``Hiranoru no Tsuruma,'' came forward to play the role of Yonoi after reading the script. However, Oshima responded to this request by saying, ``This time, I've decided to go entirely as an amateur.'' A completely new casting idea was already taking shape in Oshima's mind.

Beat Takeshi and Ryuichi Sakamoto