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Interivew with Bowie on the set of the film
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Flight of the Conchords pay tribute to David Bowie
Weekly Review No. 140 - Easter Action on Bougainville
Japanese soldiers in action, filmed by Russell Crowe's...
Top Half - Excerpts
Features a glimpse of a David Bowie concert in NZ
The Years Back - 10, The Final Peace (Episode 10)
NZ troops battle Japanese towards the end of World War II
Out on the Street
A Kiwi band with a Bowie-esque sound
Taua - War Party
A Māori POW tale
Shopping
Actor Alistair Browning also acted in this 2013 feature
The Years Back - 8, Making Do (Episode Eight)
NZ under threat of Japanese invasion
The Orchard
A short film based on a Japanese fable
Squeeze
More repressed desire
The Piano
Another film about imprisoned desire
Weekly Review No. 200 - Flying Out from Germany
A newsreel featuring the repatriation of NZ prisoners
Weekly Review No. 215 - New Zealand Cameraman in Singapore
Kiwi PoWs liberated from Japanese camps
Memories of Service 1 - James Easton
Interview with Australian who spent time in a Japanese...
Dare to Be Free
Interview with a former POW
Radio with Pictures - David Bowie on tour
David Bowie interviewed in 1983
Loading Docs 2017 - Union
A New Zealander in Japan
This 1983 feature explores desire, death, and guilt in a World War II Japanese prisoner of war camp. From Japanese art cinema star Nagisa Oshima (director of the notorious In the Realm of the Senses), its leads were musicians David Bowie (as a defiant captive) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (a conflicted camp commander). The film was mainly shot in Auckland, and partly funded by Broadbank during the tax shelter 80s. Kiwi connections include ex-Broadbank employee Larry Parr as associate producer, first assistant director Lee Tamahori, and actor Alistair Browning as a PoW.
One of the finest offshore features financed by tax-sheltered New Zealand investment was Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, made by the distinguished Japanese director Nagisa Oshima ... his first feature outside Japan, (it) was shot in Auckland and Rarotonga, with Englishman Jeremy Thomas as producer and Larry Parr, whose former Broadbank colleagues helped raise the finance, as an associate producer. On the day the prospectus was issued we sent a messenger a few blocks along The Terrace from the Film Commission office to collect a copy. By the time it arrived the film had been over-subscribed. I knew several people who were investors. They seemed very pleased with the deal. The film ... was selected for competition at Cannes in 1983.– Lindsay Shelton, The Selling of New Zealand Movies, Awa Press, 2005
Produced by
Jeremy Thomas Productions
Availability
DVD and Blu Ray available through Umbrella Entertainment.