Some works in the world are not perfect, and may even be some distance away from perfection – but because the message it wants to convey is so beautiful, that in the end, it is destined to leave a mark on history.
For me, Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas on the Battlefield is such a work. Because the emotions behind this film are so turbulent, so beautiful, and so sad, I can't talk about this work properly until now, and I can only narrate my feelings about it in a fragmented way.
Japanese director Nagisa Oshima released his first non-Japanese film, Merry Christmas on the Battlefield, in 1983 in collaboration with British rock music composer David Bowie. At that time, both of them, in their respective cultural circles in Asia and Europe, were regarded as "deviant and avant-garde" artistic creators, and the values of the East and the West collided with this legend that was regarded as taboo.
The story of "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" is based on the novel of the Englishman Lawrence Bauster, through the prisoner of war camp prisoners, interpreters, commanders, Japanese soldiers in the four roles, in the spectrum of dialogue in different positions, showing the contradictions and conflicts of mankind in the war era, excavating the glory of human nature.
Nagisa Oshima has become the first Japanese director to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", and his shooting style is avant-garde and pioneering, while at the same time having a strong Japanese aesthetic, some criticize him for being too "perverted" in sex and violence, and some praise his use of photography for extremely boldly capturing the magical spectacle of human nature.
After 40 years of watching this work, this classic film may not have been able to help the two already masters Nagisa Oshima and David Bowie to innovate their careers, but it brought Takeshi Kitano and Ryuichi Sakamoto into the film circle, and the two of them are now more blue, becoming important Japanese directors and scoring masters with international reputation.
Nagisa Oshima skillfully conveys the universal emotional needs through the constantly erupting cultural conflicts, which will not disappear with war, like the love and regret of the daily life in the dying, the spirit of giving miracles and forgiveing the enemy on Christmas.
He captures the most subtle touch of human nature with his cryptic lines, leaving the tangled hostility and tragic affection of two sympathetic soldiers on the big screen forever at the moment of destruction.
But in fact, "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" is not a very perfect work: the old-school editing, the green performance, and the awkward narrative method all weaken the charm of the story itself a lot.
But, in terms of the plot itself, it's a beautiful story.
Plundered by the abundance of resources, even covered with smoke, and the face of humanity was trampled on in the war, this is the background of the story narrated in "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" in the Java Islands in 1942.
So before revisiting the movie, let's help you review the history.
In the 16th century, magellan's fleet completed the first voyage around the earth in human history, laying the foundation for the era of great navigation of European powers, countries have established colonies around the world, and the Netherlands has also occupied java, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea and Sulawesi, known as the Dutch East Indies, which is later Indonesia.
The Dutch occupied Batavia (now the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta), the island of Java in 1619, as the Asian headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, until the outbreak of World War II, when the Dutch mainland was occupied by Nazi Germans. Japan launched the East Asian front in Asia, promoted the policy of southward expansion, tried to establish a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", and quickly captured the colonies of Hong Kong, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines and other powers with its air superiority, taking the Dutch East Indies in only two months, and launching the Japanese colonial period in the East Indies on March 9, 1942.
The story of "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" takes place in the setting of a prisoner-of-war camp on the island after the Japanese occupation of Java, which includes not only the original local Dutch soldiers, but also the soldiers of the European powers such as Britain, France, and Spain in the neighboring occupied colonies who were too late to retreat.
Due to the limited strength of the Japanese army, the Japanese army hoped to use the munitions expertise of the prisoners of war as the combat strength of the Japanese army, so it maintained a tight relationship with the prisoners of war.
British Army Colonel John Lawrence had been trained in Japan, so he knew Japanese, always followed the Japanese army administrator Sergeant Ohara, and became a communication and communication bridge between the Japanese army and the prisoners, although he gained some benefits, he was also regarded by other prisoners of war as the lackeys of the Japanese army.
Sergeant Ohara has a bold personality, loves to drink, often humiliates and beats prisoners of war, the way of leading soldiers is quite cruel, the beginning of the film is that Sergeant Ohara caught a Japanese soldier having sex with a Dutch prisoner of war, and asked the Japanese army to apologize, in the prisoner of war camp, only Lawrence can communicate with Sergeant Oihara, but he will not really pay attention to him, the only person he obeys is The Army Lieutenant Senoi.
One day the Japanese captured a British Army junior, Jack Selier, and in court, although he was sentenced to death, Captain Seno took him back to a prisoner-of-war camp under house arrest.
Senoi has inexplicable and wonderful feelings for the man in front of him, whose appearance makes the strict world ambition restless and always soft-hearted, and even messes up the military discipline of the entire prisoner of war camp.
In the island of the world, loneliness, bitterness, and uncertainty create an inseparable entanglement between the two of them. Prisoners of war and captors are also a community of good fortune and common good on the island.
Jack became a lingering demon in Theo's heart, Seno was always worried about whether he was healthy and had enough food and clothing, he was obviously a prisoner on the battlefield of Nozomi, but the interaction between the two of them made Captain Seto a prisoner of Jack's love, and among the thousands of prisoners of war, he only cared about the mysterious man in front of him.
The two gradually realized that on the basis of human nature, what they have in common is more than differences.
Opposing ideologies are difficult to dispel in war, and different cultures between populations are more naturally colliding with each other. Senoi's fierce gaze for Jack is invisible in the solemn atmosphere of the army. The young and reckless Senoi also wanted to express his goodwill, but he was repeatedly shackled by culture and identity, and the honor that was deeply rooted in his heart deeply reminded him not to go beyond the thunder pool.
Fear of death, reverence for honor, whether it is spreading flowers or reciting Buddhist scriptures to mourn the death of compatriots, or helplessness to reality. The stacking of details forced to witness prompts them to accidentally become the sustenance of each other's feelings after countless times of knife and gun confrontation.
The responsible Senoi attaches great importance to human rights and order and becomes a prisoner of war psychological prisoner; Jack, who looks at Senoi as if he is about to drown in the contradiction of empathy and patriotism, is also Anoi's emotional prisoner. The two sides are like hanging puppets tied together, and their every move pulls the suppressed emotions of the other, the unadmissible human nature on the battlefield.
At the court-martial, Senoi's first words to Jack, "Survival or destruction, this is a question," a question that touched Jack deeply with the core question from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Perhaps, hearing the famous words of the motherland in a different place made him familiar, and the only person he said the most in the court was Senoi.
And Senoi couldn't help but gaze, and from this moment on, the more depressed it became, the more it seemed to flow unabashedly.
Senoi's repeated longings and repressions, and at the same time anxious about the failure to complete military affairs, the young and restless heart finally chose to arm. He ordered all the prisoners of war in the camp to gather, along with the incapacitated prisoners of war, and the tough demands showed his determination to abandon his emotions. However, this determination was completely shattered by Jack's kisses on the cheek, which finally prevented this cruel assembly review and declared his inevitable death.
Senoi inherited the samurai spirit of dying for glory. For them, life should be like cherry blossoms, dying in the most beautiful moment. It is a shame for them to be a captive.
Jack maintains a "surviving" attitude of survival and does not pursue sacrifice, because as long as he lives, there will always be hope. It is wise for them to be a captive.
But in the end, the unruly Jack stops his captured officer Shinoi with a kiss. Lonely Seno collapsed and put down the samurai sword used to decapitate him.
They constantly challenge each other's bottom lines, try to escape and thirst for recognition, and finally transcend the position of the enemy and us, burst the embankment because of a kiss, abandon the desire to kill instilled by the war machine, and obey the true voice of the heart.
They may no longer be ideal soldiers, but perfect human beings.
The more Shino wanted to show his majesty, but in front of Jack, he seemed even more vulnerable and embarrassed, Jack's eyes seemed to see through his bluff soul, and his sudden kiss crushed the sword wall between the two with love, because of nationality, gender, war, and language, that kiss also became a classic scene in this movie, passed down to future generations, and became a scene that future generations must remember when discussing anti-war movies.
Jack was eventually buried in the sand by the Japanese and died of thirst.
However, from then on, Shino's heart was forever "captured" by Jack. He even carefully cut off Jack's hair when he was dying and kept it with him until he died.
When the war is over, everything is like a passing cloud, and the rush to kill in the war has become confused.
In war, emotions are always superfluous, and sympathy between thoughts is poison.
The war emotions portrayed in "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" are similar to those of the 2013 Estonian anti-war film Kumquat. In a land of smoke and smoke, human nature must be more carefully considered before it can usher in a bloom.
The atmosphere in the film "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" is full of depression and uneasiness as a whole, and the interlude directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto himself is cleverly arranged in key segments, and the uneasy atmosphere is moderately resolved with melody, so that the whole film produces a better qualitative change.
Blossoming tunes are interspersed in the opening, innings, and endings of the film, whether it is the moment when the original lieutenant goes to the prisoner of war camp at the beginning, or the moment when the original lieutenant releases Lawrence on Christmas Day, or even when the former lieutenant says "Merry Christmas" to Lawrence again. This cheerful piece of music illustrates the preciousness of human nature that has been condensed through many grinds in those moments.
Throughout the film, "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" has been given meticulous watchability since the beginning of the film, and the soldiers in the war have various appearances, some are wild and dashing, some are depressed and solemn, some become close friends with the enemy, and some always take into account the overall situation.
The character's emotional creation is very three-dimensional in the two-and-a-half-hour film, and the original title, "The Seed and the Sower", echoes Jack's self-sacrifice and the goodness that grows in the hearts of others.
There are not many tanks and shells, military planes or ships, and all the pictures are prisoner-of-war camps and dialogue, but "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" profoundly presents the despair and pain, humanity and friendship of war. At the same time, it is also implicitly pointed out that even if many crimes are held accountable after the war, it is difficult to make up for the harm. And after a long war, the only valuable thing that human beings can lose and recover is still human nature.
Let's talk about the actors.
I believe that many viewers must be familiar with Kitano Takeshi, but most of them know about his Japanese gangster movies, and I later learned that Kitano Takeshi was originally a funny artist, and he had never been exposed to movies before "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", because this film was widely known, and he stepped into the film circle in 1983 to become a director.
Takeshi Kitano won the Golden Lion Award, the highest honor of the Venice Film Festival, in 1997 for "Hanabi", becoming the third Japanese director to win the award after Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki, and in 2003 he won the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival for "Humpback City", becoming the first Japanese director to win the award, becoming the Kitano Takeshi we now know, "Happy Christmas on the Battlefield" The film witnessed the birth of this master.
In addition to Takeshi Kitano, Merry Christmas on the Battlefield brings to the world another master: Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose avant-garde humanistic care created a new atmosphere in the Japanese music scene: he was anti-war, criticized militarism, and used a variety of musical materials to create alternative styles that jumped out of the frame.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was his first film score and undoubtedly established his place in the film industry.
It must be said that at the end of the movie, both Jack and Seno are dead. Sergeant Ohara was sentenced to death for his defeat, and Lawrence, a British soldier who had been captured, came to see him for the last time. Uehara, who once did not understand what love and peace was, and only knew how to kill the enemy on the field, finally smiled and said softly to him: "Merry Christmas, Lawrence."
This gripping last sentence has also become the origin of the song's title.
To put it bluntly, the movie "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" may have been forgotten by audiences forty years later with the change of times, but the song "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" has become a true classic for a long time, and Ryuichi Sakamoto has become one of the most representative soundtrack masters of the 21st century.
After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, Ryuichi Sakamoto has worked in several successful bands, especially known for his avant-garde electronic music compositions, and is a cutting-edge music artist. In 1982, at the age of 30, he decided to step into the film score, and also fought for the male protagonist of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", who also competed for the male protagonist of "Happy Christmas on the Battlefield", to complete the classic song "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence", which combines the elements of electronic music with classical piano to create a powerful and powerful poetry that makes people infuse the world of fascinating movies in the theater.
Ryuichi Sakamoto won the British Academy Film Award for Best Original Music for Film that year, becoming the first Japanese soundtrack to win the award and the first person in Asia to receive this award.
After establishing his international status with this film, Ryuichi Sakamoto has successively completed film soundtracks such as "The Last Emperor", "Wilderness Hunter", "Call Me by Your Name", won the Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Soundtrack, and has become one of the most important contemporary film scorers in Asia, with a combination of musical charms, just like the movie "Happy Christmas on the Battlefield".
It was also because of this movie that I began to be madly fascinated by David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, not only their faces when they were young, but also their deep inner world - because of the music, they continued to throw criticism and discussion of the world.
In short, they are super male gods in my heart.
I often fantasize that if the elderly David and Sakamoto can meet again, I don't know what different performance sparks can be stirred up? It seems to satisfy Jack's delusion that he and Seno can reunite in old age...
Unfortunately, David had already left first, and Sakamoto, although alive, was suffering from cancer.
In the end, even in this relatively peaceful life, the elderly Jack and Shiye will not have the opportunity to see each other again.
In fact, looking at "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", the ambiguous forbidden kiss of that year is no longer surprising, and the looming comradely feelings now seem to be no longer bold.
However, the reason why the classic is a classic is not only because of the breakthrough and avant-garde, but also because he refines the artistic aesthetics that span the era from the story. In particular, this film brings together the filmmakers who were at the forefront, the bravest and the most resourceful and capable of challenging the world, stirring up a spark of surprise, which is still deeply influential in future generations.
This is the deepest feeling that the movie brings to us.