Did some research, since I don’t really follow updates for artists. Utada Hikaru has released a new album some time ago this year called “This is the One” and in there, one of the songs caught my attention. The song is called “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI”. Why this song? Because the opening music is somehow very oriental and it was a remake song from the main theme of the movie “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence”. I don’t really know why she choose this music to sing, but all I know is that “Merry Christmas Mr.
Lawrence” main theme music has been remade a lot of times. Depicted from Wikipedia, “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI” sang by Utada Hikaru, the lyrics reference to the movie as well. Since I’m no fan of old movies, especially those in the 80’s – 90’s (of course, I still like P. Ramlee’s movies), it kept me curious to want to watch the movie. The main theme music was composed by Sakamoto Ryuichi, a very soothing song and was ranked among the best in his music. Some remake versions, copied-paste here: ————– There is a 12″ vinyl remake version on the famous Italian record label DISCOMAGIC named “Clock On 5 – Theme From Furyo. ” A cover version of “Forbidden Colours” is included on Hollywood Mon Amour, a collection of songs made famous by their inclusion on soundtracks of movies made in the 1980s, rearranged by Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague with Nadeah providing the vocals. In 2000, a re-mix of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence called Heart of Asia was released in Europe by dance group Watergate.
In 2008, Indonesian singer Anggun used a sample from this song on “Hymne a la vie” — a track on her album Elevation. In 2009, Japanese-American pop singer Hikaru Utada used a sample from this song on her second English-language album This Is the One, entitling her song “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI. “. The lyrics reference to the movie as well. The song is also used (in edited form) as the theme song to the Atari XE port of International Karate (for the Sydney stage) Japanese Post-Hardcore band FACT recorded a track by the title Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence on their self-titled album. “
