Line #2 Trivia/MerryChristmasMrLawrence


1	* AllStarCast: Both Music/DavidBowie and Music/RyuichiSakamoto were chosen for their status as well-known musicians in their own countries. The film also stars Creator/TakeshiKitano as Sergeant Hara.
2	* CaliforniaDoubling: Various scenes take place in Java and South Africa, while the film was shot on-location in UsefulNotes/NewZealand and the Cook Islands. Among other instances, Celliers' fake execution was filmed in the Auckland central railway station as it appeared in the early 1980s, while his flashback to his boarding school days in South Africa was filmed at King's College in Aukland.
3	* CreatorBacklash: In a 2017 interview, Sakamoto mentioned that since this was his first film as an actor, he thought that his acting was "ugly" and "bad". Through a half-joking but half-serious explanation, the heavy use of sweeping music cues was his attempt to cover up his inexperience on camera. Administrivia/TropesAreTools.
4	* DawsonCasting: David Bowie, who was in his mid 30's at the time of filming, also plays Celliers as a teenager during Celliers' flashback sequence.
5	* FakeBrit:
6	** Downplayed with Creator/TomConti, who is playing an Englishman but is a Scot of Italian and Irish descent.
7	** Creator/JackThompson (Australian) as the British Group Captain Hicksley. Thompson tries an English accent but doesn't quite pull it off.
8	* FakeNationality:
9	** Celliers is South African, Music/DavidBowie was English.
10	** Dutch prisoner Karel de Jong is played by Alistair Browning, a New Zealander.
11	* FriendshipOnTheSet: Music/DavidBowie became fast friends with James Malcolm during location filming in Auckland, New Zealand. Bowie openly referred to Malcolm, who played his character's brother in the movie, as his "New Zealand brother," and when he revisited Auckland during the supporting tour for ''Music/LetsDance'' the following year, he invited him on-stage to release a peace dove together.
12	* IronyAsSheIsCast: "I wish I could sing" and "I've had no romantic interludes of any real importance" from the mouth of Music/DavidBowie, whose divorce from his first wife Angela was still in relatively recent memory.
13	* PlayingAgainstType: Even back in early 80s Japan, Takeshi Kitano was better known as a comedian. This film was his first dramatic role. He wanted to be in the film because he wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. In several interviews, he mentioned that when he snuck into a screening, he was disappointed that [[IAmNotLeonardNimoy the audience laughed at his presence on screen instead]].
14	* RealitySubtext: Celliers' [[spoiler:hunchbacked brother]] and his regret over the way he treated him heavily parallels Music/DavidBowie's own complicated relationship with his half-brother Terry Burns, who had schizophrenia and was institutionalized as a result of it; Burns would commit suicide two years after the film's release.
15	* StarMakingRole: The film's award-winning soundtrack catapulted Music/RyuichiSakamoto into in-demand status as a scorer, a career he thrived in for the next 40 years.
16	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The film was originally intended to start with Lawrence visiting [[spoiler:Yonoi's memorial shrine]] in Japan years after the war, narrating its significance and then [[HowWeGothere flashing back to the story proper]]. The idea was ultimately rejected by co-writer Paul Mayersberg, who felt that giving away [[spoiler:Yonoi's death]] that soon killed the film's suspense. According to Mayersberg, Creator/NagisaOshima jokingly described him as an evil spirit for changing his mind on the matter so effectively.
17	* WriteWhatYouKnow: In the Making-Of film 'The Oshima Gang', it is mentioned that Laurens van der Post was also a prisoner of war and spoke Japanese. He based the book on his own experiences, making the character of John Lawrence an AuthorAvatar.

Context Trivia / MerryChristmasMrLawrence