"Actor: Ryuichi Sakamoto"

• Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence | DVD | (29/08/2016) from £9.97   |  Saving you £3.02 (30.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. Protesting--via his own enigmatic rebellion--the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (Ryuichi Sakamoto). While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. --Tom Keogh

• Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence | Blu Ray | (15/06/2020) from £9.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 Palme d'Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II. In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a POW camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers' stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp's new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major, while Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti), the only inmate with a degree of sympathy for Japanese culture and an understanding of the language, attempts to bridge the divide through his friendship with Yonoi's second-in-command, Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), a man possessing a surprising degree of compassion beneath his cruel façade. Produced by Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky), it was the first English-language film by Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses, Gohatto), a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film's hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score. This powerful wartime drama was adapted from Laurens van der Post's autobiographical novel ˜The Seed and the Sower' (1963) by screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth). SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed stereo audio The Man Who Left His Soul on Film (1983), Paul Joyce's 82-minute documentary profile of Nagisa Oshima The Oshima Gang (1983), a 30-minute documentary following the film's cast and makers at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival Video interviews with producer Jeremy Thomas and actor-composer Ryuichi Sakamoto Exclusive newly filmed interview with critic Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer Image gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jasper Sharp

• The Last Emperor | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £16.98   |  Saving you £3.01 (17.73%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• The Last Emperor | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Bernardo Bertolucci's epic film tells the incredible story of Pu Yi who in 1908 at the age of three became ruler of nearly half of the world's population. He was the ""Son of heaven"" ""Lord of Ten Thousand Years"" and the last emperor of China. His reign was short and three years later a revolution ended three thousand years of imperial rule and a new republic was born. Allowed to remain in his palace and the enclosed walls of the Forbidden City he was unable to venture further than the city gates. Here he would stay for twelve years a prisoner protected from but also ignorant of the outside world. Eventually expelled by a republican warlord Pu Yi began an incredible journey of self discovery that would span a quarter of a century. Winner of nine Oscars The Last Emperor was one of the biggest and most ambitious productions ever undertaken. Director Bernardo Bertolucci and Producer Jeremy Thomas spent two years in negotiations before being granted the unprecedented permission to not only film in China but within the Forbidden City itself. The result was one of the most visually breathtaking and moving epics ever made.

• Ryuichi Sakamoto | OPUS | DVD | (09/12/2024) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  20 pieces, 5 decades, 1 performance. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS features award-winning music from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and The Last Emperor, amongst other seminal scores and piano compositions, in his last performance. Filmed by his son, Neo Sora, it conjures emotions we don't have names for. IndieWire On March 28th, 2023, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Despite this, in late 2022, Sakamoto mustered all his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano. Curated by Sakamoto himself and presented in his chosen order, the twenty pieces performed in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his music. The selection spans his entire career, from his popstar Yellow Magic Orchestra period, to his magnificent Bertolucci film scores, to music from his meditative final album, 12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well, surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, knowing this may be the last time that he can present his art. A celebration of an artist's life in the purest sense, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the definitive swan song of the beloved maestro.

• The Last Emperor | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• Ruyichi Sakamoto: Coda | DVD | (26/11/2018) from £11.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the most important artists of our era, Ryuichi Sakamoto has had a prolific career spanning over four decades, from techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning film composer. The evolution of his music has coincided with his life journeys. Following Fukushima, Sakamoto became an iconic figure in Japan's social movement against nuclear power. As Sakamoto returns to music following cancer, his haunting awareness of life crisis leads to a resounding new masterpiece. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda is an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.

• Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence | DVD | (24/01/2005) from £33.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  1942: British soldier Jack Celliers (David Bowie) arrives at a Japanese POW camp run by the disciplinarian Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) who believes the prisoners are cowards because they have chosen to surrender instead of honourably committing seppuku (ritual suicide). When Yonoi meets Celliers he believes he is an evil spirit and a battle of wills begins between the two men.... This is not your average war movie and the performances by Bowie Sakamoto Tom Conti (who plays Mr Lawr

• Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence - Double Play (Blu-ray + DVD) | Blu Ray | (24/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Japanese auteur Nagisa Oshima's (In the Realm of the Senses) BAFTA winning English language dbut, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence unites two classic cult figures- rock legend David Bowie (in one of his finest roles) and the inimitable actor/director Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano (Zatoichi). Adapted by Paul Mayersberg (The Man who Fell to Earth) from the novel by Laurens Van der Post, the film is a riveting exploration of racism, brutality and the sparks that fly when cultures collide, concentrating on a war of wills between enigmatic and rebellious POW Jack Celliers (Bowie) and camp commandant Capt Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also contributes the film’s bewitching score). Intelligently exploring the psychology of its characters, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence also hints at a sexual attraction between Celliers and Yonoi, and as such is an audacious and original addition to the POW genre. Special Features: The Oshima Gang: 30 Minute Making Of Documentary Exclusive Interviews With Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jeremy Thomas Theatrical Trailer

• Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence | DVD | (17/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A highly unusual war movie with as many detractors as fans, this first English-language feature directed by Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) stars David Bowie as a silent, ethereal POW in a Japanese camp. In the face of the camp's brutal conditions and treatment of prisoners, Bowie's character earns the respect of the camp commandant (played by Japanese pop star Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also wrote the score) through his own enigmatic rebellion. While the two seem locked in an unspoken, spiritual understanding, another prisoner (Tom Conti) engages in a more conventional resistance against a monstrous sergeant (Takeshi). The film has a way of evoking as many questions as certainties, and it is not always easy to understand the internal logic of the characters' actions. But that's generally true of Oshima's movies, in which the power of certain relationships is almost hallucinatory in self-referential intensity. The cast is outstanding, and Bowie is particularly fascinating in his alien way. --Tom Keogh

• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence | Blu Ray | (11/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 Palme d'Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.This powerful prisoner-of-war drama features a stunning cast - including David Bowie in one of his greatest roles - and is the first English-language film by acclaimed Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses).Set in Java at a Japanese POW camp in 1942, a war of wills - and unspoken erotic attraction - unfolds between a rebellious prisoner, David Bowie, and camp commandant Ryuichi Sakomoto, who is impressed by Bowie's defiance while bilingual prisoner Tom Conti (Mr. Lawrence) engages in a more adversarial relationship with sadistic sergeant Takeshi Kitano (Hana Bi), who finally offers Lawrence a sinister 'Christmas' present.Fine performances by Conti, Kitano (his first dramatic role), Sakamoto (his acting debut, he also contributed the memorable score) and Bowie, combined with stunning cinematography and brilliant direction by one of Japan's finest filmmakers, make this a memorable and compelling war drama.The Oshima Gang Featurette (The Making Of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)An Interview With producer Jeremy ThomasAn Interview With actor/composer Ryuichi SakamotoAn excerpt from Scenes by the Sea: The Life and Cinema of Beat Takeshi Kitano Theatrical Trailer

• L'ultimo imperatore (limited edition 3D) | Blu Ray | (04/12/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Last Emperor | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman