|
Nagisa Oshima's austere Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, sourced from Lauren van der Post's 1963 novel The Seed And The Sower, by Oshima and Paul Mayerling, premieres in New York. Set in 1942 in a Japanese prisoner of war camp on the Indonesian island of Java, Tom Conti and David Bowie star as two incarcerated British officers locked in a psychological, sexually charged power struggle with the camp's vainglorious, tradition-bound commander (Ryuichi Sakamoto) and his sadistic, condescending head guard (Takeshi Kitano). Ryuichi's eclectic score wins him a Best Music BAFTA award.
