Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Oshima’s 1983 film: Sakamoto at the keys, a theme that outlived the credits

In 1983, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto scored Nagisa Oshima’s war film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (known in France as Furyo). Sakamoto also acted in the film opposite David Bowie. The main instrumental theme that carries his name on soundtrack albums is a keyboard piece: clear melody, stacked electronic and acoustic tones, and a slow, even pulse that never rushes toward a big drum fill.

The soundtrack album appeared the same year on labels including Virgin and MCA. Beside the instrumental, Sakamoto produced a vocal version titled Forbidden Colours with David Sylvian (ex-Japan). Sylvian wrote lyrics and sang a counter-melody rather than tracing Sakamoto’s theme note for note. That single, released 24 June 1983 on Virgin, reached the UK Top 20. Recording and mixing credits on period releases name Sakamoto with Seigen Ono and Shinichi Tanaka among the engineers.

What you hear on the instrumental is less “film orchestra bombast” than careful sound design: samples and keyboard layers that leave space around the melody. Sakamoto’s YMO background shows in the electronic detail; the film context keeps the tempo restrained. Later solo-piano and orchestral revisits (including work around Cinemage) kept the theme in his live book. In 1999 a Watergate remix titled Heart of Asia took the motif into European dance charts; in 2024 Kraftwerk covered the piece after Sakamoto’s death.