Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese: ), also known in many European editions as Furyo (俘虜, Japanese for "prisoner of war"), is a 1983 British-Japanese wartime drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima, produced by Jeremy Thomas and starring David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Jack Thompson. The screenplay by Oshima with Paul Mayersberg was based on Sir Laurens van der Post's experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II as depicted in his works "The Seed and the Sower" (1963) and "The Night of the New Moon" (1970). Sakamoto also wrote
Laurens van der Vinne Laurens van der Vinne Laurens Vincentsz van der Vinne (1658–1729) was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. Van der Vinne was born and died in Haarlem. According to Houbraken, he was the oldest and artistically most gifted son of the painter Vincent van der Vinne. Laurens helped his father draw up the list of 173 members of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke that Vincent van der Vinne produced in 1702. He learned to paint from his father, and his paintings were similar, but he was especially good at painting flower still lifes, many of which he painted for