Very sinful, very beautiful~
Nagisa Oshima's eyes were too vicious. He didn't choose anyone else, but instead assigned two peerless monsters, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie, to cause chaos and harm the army until they fell into the flames of lightning and could not end well.
"Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" impressed me the most, except for Kitano Takeshi's pair of mischievous "funny eyes", the Japanese officer played by Sakamoto and the British prisoner of war Jack Hillias played by Noi and David. At the end of the film, David, who was buried deep in the soil, was about to die. Ryuichi Sakamoto came to him, carefully cut off a bunch of his golden hair with a razor, and then gave an affectionate military salute.
This tuft of hair, this deep military salute, seems to be a continuation of the scene that happened earlier. Under the watchful eyes of all, David kissed Sakamoto's cheek lightly, back and forth twice. That is, these two forbidden kisses, which seemed to be unacceptable by nature, made the fate of the evildoers rewritten from now on.
In the army, even if there is a habit of breaking one's sleeves, it should not be practiced. Not only in reality, but a lot has been made clear at the beginning of the movie. Japanese soldiers who are found to have homosexual love will commit suicide by cutting their abdomens. Sakamoto, who was the chief, could not have known it.
But he was disturbed by the intruder David. When we first met in court, from Sakamoto's eyes, it was not difficult to see his confusion. It is a pity that the confrontation of identities prevents the two from being able to meet frankly, and social prejudice has also become a wall blocking love. What is even more desperate is that Sakamoto has always been in the position of a "victim". He felt that David and Lawrence had an affair, and that his orders were not obeyed, which annoyed him even more. From beginning to end, he was like a betrayed "abandoned woman".
We have no way of guessing whether this love exists or not. Nagisa Oshima is very smart, that is, he downplayed the weight of the habit of cutting sleeves in the film. Rather, it depicts the binary opposition between soldiers and prisoners. So you don't hear any confessions from David about whether he likes a man or a woman, and you don't see any fact that Sakamoto has ever had any same-sex love. The audience is just chasing the shadows.
Moreover, in terms of mutual admiration between soldiers or friendship between men, Sakamoto's sympathy for David is also impossible. That doesn't have to be the habit of breaking sleeves. Nagisa Oshima deliberately wanted the audience to have the illusion that "the two of them just have one leg", and even added extra details to let Lawrence and other people around him make side shots to deepen the impression. There was little interaction between the parties, except for the quick glance, the playful kiss, and the military salute with the tuft of hair.
However, just like that, it is also shocking and weeping. Forbidden things, no matter when and where they happened, have always been like the "Flower of Evil" written by the poet Baudelaire. Self-confessed love, secretly enchanting.
The intricate relationships of characters in Nagisa Oshima's films always fascinate the viewer. And this complexity provides a broad space for imagination. In "Battlefield", the level of character relationship is constantly progressive.
On that closed island in Indonesia, a relationship of control and control was formed between the Japanese army and prisoners. The officers headed by Sakamoto represented ruthlessness and imprisonment, while the prisoners headed by David symbolized humanity and freedom. , so they coexisted in a delicate relationship of intense conflict and interdependence from beginning to end. Without the prisoners, the existence of the Japanese soldiers would be worthless. Without the crazy fascist acts of the Japanese army, the resistance of the prisoners like David would be meaningless. This is the first-level relationship and the most superficial relationship.
Soldiers are also human beings, and they also have sexual needs. Even if they are not really gay, in an environment where there are only men and no women around, it is easy to have sex with the same sex. This is the realistic background of "Battlefield", and it is also a common phenomenon in any army of any country. So it begins with a Japanese soldier and a Dutch prisoner of war who are found for copulation and then forced to commit suicide. Same-sex emotions are brutally punished, and the scene is very oppressive. This also paved the way for the seemingly non-existent feelings between Sakamoto and David later.
In addition to the superficial social relationship between people, there are generally deeper personal relationships, such as the development from classmates to lovers, and from colleagues to lovers. A more extreme example is that in extremely harsh environments, prisoners have a relationship with prisoners, and soldiers have feelings with prisoners of war. This is not only a universal phenomenon of human society, but also the needs of everyone.
In "Homecoming", Wang Xiaobo told a similar example, a gay was caught and questioned by the film police, and the two had a relationship. One is the controller, one is the controlled, one restricts freedom, and one is deprived of freedom. The deep-seated relationship between the two is the extreme embodiment of human emotion, and it is also a topic worthy of research by sociologists. Therefore, the emotional bond between soldiers and prisoners of war is a deeper private relationship than the general social relationship. Like Sakamoto and David.
Then we have to ask, is there any relationship between Takeshi Kitano and Lawrence?
Ohara, a Japanese officer played by Takeshi Kitano, has an evil face. From the beginning, he showed himself as a straight steel man, and Lawrence has always said that he likes women. But from the movie, we see a lot of interaction between the two. In the entire army, only Takeshi Kitano and Lawrence have a close-to-normal relationship. Every time they meet, they are like old friends who can talk about each other. They can tease and scold each other and even fight.
At the moment of life and death, Takeshi Kitano abused his power to release Lawrence, and said "merry christmas, Mr lawrence" with a smile. Until the last scene, 4 years later, Takeshi Kitano reunited with Lawrence in prison one night before he was executed. He smiled and said the same sentence, "merry christmas, Mr lawrence."
At this point you are sure that there is something between them, but it doesn't seem like a simple fetish for broken sleeves. They are emotionally bound, not from social etiquette or primitive sexual desire. It is a love affair after years of getting along. The relationship between the two transcends all limitations and cannot be measured by heterosexual homosexuality. In my opinion, this is the deepest relationship, originating from fate and ending in spirit, and this relationship is the strongest and most lasting, even deeper than the bond between Sakamoto and David.
David Bowie's hair has influenced Sakamoto's life with Noi. After Japan surrendered, Yonoi was executed. Before his death, he handed over David's hair to Lawrence and asked him to take him back to his Japanese hometown to be with his ghost forever.
"It's as if Cyrias (David Bowie) through his death planted a seed in Yonoi's heart, and we can all share in his fruit ," Lawrence said .
The seed that David sowed in Yonoi’s heart may be David’s hair. As for what this fruit is, there is no need to study it. It could be the brotherhood of Quan Quan, or it could be the little sparks of fire that Prometheus left to the world after the darkness of purgatory. In the name of love, people have since learned to keep each other warm.
(Personal account: Baltic Sea)
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