The title of the song is taken from Japanese writer Yukio Mishima's 1951 novel Forbidden Colors; although not directly related to the film, both works include exploration of homosexual themes, specifically resistance to desires through faith in God.[citation needed]
In 1984 the track was re-recorded and released as the B-side to "Red Guitar", the lead single to Sylvian's first solo album Brilliant Trees and was later also included as a bonus track on certain editions of his 1987 album Secrets of the Beehive.
Both Sakamoto and Sylvian have since recorded several interpretations of the song, both instrumental (under the title "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence") and vocal. An orchestral version featuring vocals by Sylvian was included on Sakamoto's 1999 album Cinemage.[4]
Sylvian said in an interview 2012 about the track:[5]
"I guess after the band had broken up, I wasn't sure what direction I was going to move in. I didn't write anything for a period of time, which was unusual for me. And then Ryuichi gave me 'Forbidden Colours' to work on and it opened the doors for me a little bit. Suddenly the flow of writing began to really just open up and new material began arriving. I thought it was beautiful. I mean, sonically it was incredible. I loved all the samples that he was using. And we were so very much into sound design at the time, between Yellow Magic Orchestra and what we were doing at that point in our evolution. So sound design was a big part of it for us, and what Ryuichi as producer did was extraordinary with that particular piece of music. And the melody itself was outstanding. Originally – I don't know if he told me afterwards or before my writing the lyrics for the track – Ryuichi expected me to write a melody along with his written melody, to sing the melody that he had written. But I had found that that was impossible and undesirable. So it was counter to the melody. I tried to find something that would work with it but it was a counter-melody that sat comfortably with the original melody that he had created.
I would watch Ryuichi in the studio with Bertolucci over his shoulder telling him, 'A little more of this, little less of that', and what have you, and Ryuichi's very malleable in that respect, and very open and flexible. And I think that's a virtue, but it's not one that I have."
Track listing
All music by Ryuichi Sakamoto; lyrics by David Sylvian on "Forbidden Colours", "Bamboo Houses" and "Bamboo Music".
