Merry Christmas, Mr. Sakomoto
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AS_hGzkoQY

Iconic soundtrack whose composer also performed impressively intense in a movie that went under mine skin. The last scene ("Lawrence...! Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence!") is unforgettable for me.

Bon Voyage, Ryuichi Sakomoto.

A better ending would have been adding about tens seconds to the end and cutting to an officer giving the 'FIRE' order to a firing squad.

I disagree, it was not needed to re-announce with fanfares what the audience already knew at that time, that Hara was marked for execution the next day. This made the final greeting of Hara so very much more touching. The ending is good as it is - and again ripped into my heart when I saw it again now, after long, long time.

Its a shame that the original film version is lost and only crippled versions of the movie are around. Quite some movies share this fate, "Once upon a time in America" on my mind. Its beyond me how such things can even happen.

Well, not wishing to appear pedantic but looking at some of the atrocities carried out by them against their captives I think a great many would disagree.

Again, as I recall it the audience was told earlier in the movie that Hara was marked for execution, so that he will get shot is clear anyway. This is not about historical facts or formal justice or politics, but about the artistic style in which the movie makes its point, and the point is about what makes humans human, and what quality it is that gives humanism its value. The subtelty in the actual ending is more striking and leaves the viewer with a stronger impression of how stupid and insane war is and to what absurd and inhumane situations it leads, than to hammer home the message that Hara gets what by his deeds he deserved. Its clear that he's about to get it. Still, Lawrence meets Hara him with respect and kindness, and it is obvious that the two men like each other. I wonder why...? He says "There are times when victory is very hard to take." - Thats what it is about. The whole movie is only done to culminate in these very last seconds of it, in these seconds it is where the point is. Without it, the film would just be another war prison drama of limited memory value beyond the excellent perfomance of the four actors. In particular, the bewilderment with which Yonoi (Sakomoto) reacts to Cellier's (Bowie's) stoic individualism and confronts him with equal parts fascination and fear of the supposedly demonic - which triggers his ambivalent and drastic reactions to him. Cellier loses his life because of Yonoi's bewilderment and reaction to it, and Yonoi atones with his life: both men are fascinated by each other, but unlike Lawrence and Yonoi, this attraction is destructive to both, and a culture clash. Lawrence and Hara, on the other hand, despite what Lawrence had to endure at Hara's hands and witness through his actions, are ultimately something like friends.


One could of course also see Cellier'S attitude not as, as I wrote, "fascination" that expresses itself differently than is the case in Lawrence who reacts with respect and thge wish to understand Japanese culture, but maybe Cellier is simply treacting with stubborness founded in an unbending individualism - the total antithesis to the collectivism of Japanese culture. Maybe it makes more sense to see him in this way. Yes, I think it does.