WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING
POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE
- Subtitles, am I going to have any other languages used? Widens out the audience.
- Subtitles, am I going to have any other languages used? Widens out the audience.
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
Nagisa Ôshima, 1983
PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Recorded Picture Companies,
Oshima Productions
GENRE: Historical prison drama
LEAD ACTORS: David Bowie
Tom Conti
Ryuchi Sagamoto
Takeshi
BUDGET: Not available
BOX OFFICE: $2.3m (US)
(UK and worldwide figures not available)
BOX OFFICE: $2.3m (US)
(UK and worldwide figures not available)
CRITICAL KUDOS
REVIEWS (from wiki)
The New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote a favourable review, saying that David Bowie "plays a born leader in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and he plays him like a born film star. Mr. Bowie's screen presence here is mercurial and arresting, and he seems to arrive at this effortlessly, though he manages to do something slyly different in every scene. The demands of his role may sometimes be improbable and elaborate, but Mr. Bowie fills them in a remarkably plain and direct way. Little else in the film is so unaffected or clear." On the film's Japanese actors, Maslin writes that "the two main Japanese characters who have brought him to this understanding are Sergeant Hara (Takeshi), a brutal figure who taunts Lawrence while also admiring him, and Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto), the handsome young camp commander, who has a fierce belief in the samurai code. Both of these actors perform at an obvious disadvantage, since their English is awkward and the motives of their characters are imperfectly revealed. However, they are able to convey the complex affinity that exists between captors and prisoners, a point that is made most touchingly in a brief postwar coda."[14]
SYPNOSIS:
The film tells the story of British soldiers in a Japenese prisoner of war. The two characters first introduced will end the story.
SHOT 1
The sound of the lizard escaping will create a sense of danger, and signifies the antagonistic character traits of the character about to enter the screen. Lighting is blue-green, dark. Menacing place, this isn't a good place.SHOT 2
A close-up is used in order to capture the mean facial expression that will create antipathy within the audience. Sound is used as the camera pans, a Western audience will recognise it as foreign and most likely Japanese or Chinese, although if they are not experts in both languages, they will not get the preferred reading right at the beginningSHOT 3
Subtitles, an editing technique, are used over the Japanese words. This tells us at least this version is targeted at English-speaking audience, although that was already clear through the Universal logo. Lawrence lying on the bed is used to denote who is superior. Just as the scene cuts another character is introduced, as he speaks English his regional identity as English is also given.
SHOT 4
The mise-en-scène, him lying on the floor also shows his inferior status, that he is in the same situation. However through the sound the dialogue exposes his more aggressive and rebellious character. Moustache, is this a more negative. Stereotypical portrayal of British army officer?
SHOT 5
Sound is used so you can hear the agony, the audience feels sympathy for the struck down man and even greater antipathy for the guard.
LIGHTING
They are all lit in the same way. There are no POV-shots from any of the guards, which would be used to further anchor a strong protagonist/antagonist binary along with the aggressive language and physical intimidation. Is this already signifying that despite the brutal nature of the Japanese guards the humanity will still come through throughout the film, and the audience will empathise with the execution of the tyrant guard at the beginning?
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