Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

..it is the detergent...laundry detergent that takes my memory around the clock...around the world. I sometimes wonder...why is it that every time I pass by a laundry matt, I feel so comfortable and child like...smell of the fresh clothes or the detergent itself makes me feel so cozy...it takes me to the earliest memory of mine in a foreign country in (That time) West Germany 1975, gone with my father, mother and my few months old sister. We went to see my father's Batik exhibition in Stuttgart, then to London to see and visit my aunt and her family. (My mother's sister, 'Punchi Amma'.

After going back to the city (Manhattan) in Fall 93...it started getting to me...the skies were gloomy...everyone was wearing colourful clothes like in the sixties...I felt like I was in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up...my walks from my apartment in 2nd Street between A and B...I love my daily walk through the east village streets, through Saint Marks place to my School at 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues....was a treat to me... Even though each year was different to me...I felt like I was in a sixties movie.

Sometimes my memories of me bike riding to school a year previously, listening to La Valley, soundtrack from the Vladimier Cosma's Diva in the thick snow...would come to my mind. I thought I was one of the few people who felt magical when it snowed...but so did Sky my friend...he'd never seen snow before the 1991 winter he told me.

Ryuichi Sakamoto

I realized later that, because he was from Santa Barbara, he never saw it snowing. Sky and I became real good friends during the winter of 1991.

Coming back to Fall 1993, this time my life style has become different...I have totally given up smoking, getting high or drinking along with eating any kind of meat, fish or eggs...people say that's a lacto vegetarian. Their explanation is that because I still eat cheese and drink milk. Since then I started feeling very light in my mind and body...before I used to have sadness in me all the time.

One could interpret it as, maybe because I used to eat meat. Meat is taken from animals by force, perhaps when they are killed, chemicals of hatred could be created and when we eat meat those chemicals react in our bodies and some kind of chemical reaction in our bodies must be making us sad...or at least made me so. Now without these chemicals I must be feeling light I thought. At least that was my excuse to tell people if they asked me, cause now whenever I go to a party, I never drink alcohol yet my friends ask me how can I be so high without getting intoxicated...I used to say, the power of orange juice. Though I knew it was all in my mind...I never meant to lie or anything, it was just it was too complicated to explain to anyone it all comes with the Buddha's teachings.

My thoughts were very dark when I was young and making "Sihina Deshayen" compared to working on "Mille Soya". Perhaps that is what getting mature means, or perhaps it was being radical and rebellious, going against the system or so. I was so dark when I made "Sihina Deshayen", I was reading a lot of Marqui De Sade, and studying sado masochistic behaviours. I know it had nothing to do with my code of dressing those days in black or black related outfit and had a haircut like "Robert Smith" of "The Cure".

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto in a scene

Sometimes I fight a lot with my memories, memories are themselves a drug sometimes...they could take you to good times or bad times...its like listening to a David Sylvian song along with Ryuichi Sakamoto's sound track from "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence".

Thinking about that, I did meet Ryuichi Sakamoto, when I was working at tower records as a sales clerk. I was behind the counter ringing people, and suddenly this Asian gentleman with a cap came up to me and gave me some CDs to ring. After scanning the prices, he gave me his credit card to charge...I swapped the card and it was everyone's practice to keep the card on the teller till the approval comes. I kept it on the teller and just stood and accidently I read the name in the card and it said " Ryuichi Sakamoto ".

I started hearing that wonderful sound track Iruichi and David Slvian scored for "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence". I remembered the scene where David Bowie ate the flower...it was like a dream come true to see Iruichi in person.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence was written by Oshima and Paul Mayersberg and based on Lawrence Vander Post's experiences during World War II as a prisoner of war as depicted in his works 'The Seed and the Sower' (1963) and 'The Night of the New Moon' (1970). Sakamoto also wrote the musical score and the vocal theme "Forbidden Colours" featuring David Sylvian of the band Japan, which was a hit single in many territories. Ryuichi Sakamoto is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning Japanese musician, composer, record producer and actor, based in New York and Tokyo. Some of his collaborators are David Sylvian, David Byrne, Thomas Dolby, Nam June Paik, and Iggy Pop, among others. Sakamoto would alternate between exploring a variety of musical styles, ideas, and genres captured most notably in his groundbreaking 1983 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopaedia and focusing on a specific subject or theme, such as the Italian Futurism movement in Futurista (1986). Trailer of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.

Anyway getting back to my experience at Tower Records, I asked him, "So, how is David Bowie"? He replied "Oh! He is a Rock Star!" I was kind of stunned for that remark, I mean after all I am the biggest fan of Bowie. It was kind of shocking. Anyway, I gave his credit card back with the albums he had bought and he walked away a happy man.

Another morning I ran into him at Tower Records when I was going to work. Then I asked him if he would be interested to play a part of my movie "How Big Was My Country" (Which I was writing at that time based on my life in NYC at that time). Well he knew by that time I have worked on a documentary with the late Allen Ginsburg, and Philip Glass and also working for Philip Glass. He asked me what kind of a part and he was very serious to me, I said it was about Vishvakarman of Ramayana who happens to be a computer genius. He thought for a moment, took his pen out wrote his address in my book and wrote his NYC address and said, "please drop in when you have the project together and if I like the screenplay" I might do it. "Wow" I thought. He walked away towards the world music section and I went towards my classical records department.

Some of Sakamoto's most recognized score work on films are: Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), including the duet "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian, and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), the latter of which earned him the Academy Award with fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su. In that same year he composed the score to the cult-classic anime: Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnamise. Other films scored by Sakamoto include Pedro Almodvar's Tacones lejanos (1992); Bertolucci's The Little Buddha (1993); Oliver Stone's Wild Palms (1993); John Maybury's Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998); Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes (1998) and Femme Fatale (2002), and Oshima's Gohatto (1999). He also composed the score of the opening ceremony for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, telecast live to an audience of over a billion viewers.

Ryuichi Sakamoto has also acted in several films: perhaps his most notable performance was as the conflicted Captain Yonoi in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, alongside Takeshi Kitano and David Bowie. He also played small roles in The Last Emperor and Madonna's "Rain" music video. He is featured extensively as an interview subject, alongside fellow Y.M.O. band-mate Yukihiro Takahashi.