Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese: 戦場のメリークリスマス, Hepburn: Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu; lit. 'Battlefield's Merry Christmas'), also known as Furyo (俘虜, Prisoner of War), is a 1983 war film directed by Nagisa Ōshima from a screenplay by Ōshima and Paul Mayersberg. It stars David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, and Jack Thompson. In the film, John Lawrence (Conti), a British prisoner of war in a Japanese camp during World War II, seeks to bridge a deadly divide between a new prisoner and the camp's commander. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post as a prisoner of war in Java, particularly his novels The Seed and the Sower (1968) and The Night of the New Moon (1970). Sakamoto also composed and played the score, including the vocal version of the main theme, "Forbidden Colours", with lyrics written and sung by David Sylvian. The film was entered into the 1983 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or. Sakamoto's score won the film a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.