On the David Lean film / "Lawrence of Arabia" in Japan

On the David Lean film

Last Updated 27 FEB. 2011

The Tōkyō release of the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was on 14 February at the Yūrakuza; from 27 September 1963 to 31 January 1964 at the Teikoku Gekijō, running fifty weeks in all. Curiously enough, a newspaper review noted that the running time of the film was 228 minutes., and a reviewer mentioned "goggles" just after Lawrence's motorcycle accident at the opening, which was cut on the 187 minutes version. Therefore, it is certain that the film was the 222 minutes version, at least on a preview. Just before the release of the film, Kinema Jumpō [Cinema Periodical] published the filmscript, and David Lean made a week's visit to Japan on the very day of the release.

The film won Awards from three film magazines, Eiga no Tomo [Film Companion], Kinema Jumpō and Sukuri^n [Screen] for the best foreign picture of 1963. As for the distributer's proceeds of foreign films in 1963, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ranked third. (Incidentally, first was THE LONGEST DAY and second THE GREAT ESCAPE.)

Revived in 1964, 1965, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1980, 1981 and 1984.
Video (2 volumes) of the 202 (?) minutes version released around 1985 (?)

[Japanese DVD]
Japanese DVD
The Restored Version (216 mins.)
The video (2 volumes) released on 21 December 1990 from Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
The first presentation at the theatre was on the Tōkyō International Fantastic Film Festival on 4 October 1994, and was on general release from 4 March to 14 April 1995 at the Marunouchi Shanzerize [Champs-Élysées] in Tōkyō. The NHK satellite channel (BS2) re-broadcasted the restored version in their programme a few times after 21 March 1995.
The DVD edition released on 14 September 2001, from Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc.

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David Lean visited Japan

David Lean visited Japan on 14 February 1963, the very day his film was released in Tōkyō. While staying in Japan for a week, he was interviewed by several film magazines.

Lean admits that he made O'Toole play a somewhat feminine T. E. on purpose. "Lawrence may have tended toward homosexuality, though, I didn't mean he was a practising homosexual, but rather a masochist. When tortured by the Turkish Bey, Jose Ferrer, he felt pleasure in the pain. He discovered his tendency and was shocked. After that, Lawrence suffered from self-disgust and lack of self-confidence. The Lawrence who went into the desert, was full of confidence, but the Lawrence who came out, was a living corpse". (Eiga no Tomo, May 1963, p.125)

In the May 1963 issue of Eiga Geijutsu [Cinematics], Lean explains how SEVEN PILLARS appealed to him. "Lawrence confessed his own faults in his autobiography, SEVEN PILLARS. That interested me, because few people do such a thing.(...) While there was very much virtue in him, there was also vice [Lean helds his hands out to show the width between virtue and vice]. We are around here [points at the middle of the width]. So, now you can understand he included everything we have!"

Lean says the scene where Lawrence raised the revolver up gradually like a 'phallic symbol', after Gasim's execution, was intended to show how Lawrence was turned on sexually. Asked why the film emphasised Lawrence's agony because he had no choice but kill a man, more than his political betrayal of the Arabs, Lean answered, "Lawrence may have betrayed them, but that was a minor point. He did brought the Arabs to Damascus after all! Of course we dealt with political points, but we wanted more to describe Lawrence as a human being".

Lean denied firmly that he looked down on the Arabs or satirized them from a sense of superiority. (pp.7-13)

* Lean's words in this article are translated from Japanese, so they may not be an exact translation.

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Bibliography

Robert Bolt, (Programme) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Columbia Pictures, 1962)

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: ARABIA NO RORENSU
Tōhō Kabushikigaisha Jigyōbu, Tōkyō, February 1963
40pp., 32cm.

The Japanese edition of the souvenir programme from David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, which ran from 14 February to 26 September 1963 at the Yūrakuza, one of the most gorgeous theatres in downtown Tōkyō, sadly closed in 1984. The Japanese title and the name of the theatre [Yūrakuza] are printed on the cover.

Robert Bolt, (filmscript) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA [in Japanese]

a) "Arabia no Rorensu", Kinema Jumpō, the latter ed. of February 1963 (No.333), pp.96-116.
Translated by HIRAO Keigo (b.1933), for a semi-monthly film magazine, based on the original script (222mins.).

b) In KINEMAJUNPÔ BEKKAN Volume5: SEKAI BUNGAKU MEISAKU SHINARIOSHŪ No. 4, Kinema-Jumpōsha, Tōkyō, 1968, pp.110-38.
c) Eiga Hyōron (*a monthly film magazine), July 1971, pp.130-71.
d) In SEKAI NO EIGA SAKKA Volume 15: DEViDDO RI^N, ROBA^TO WAIZU [Filmkakers in the World Vol.15: David Lean & Robert Wise], Kinema-Jumpōsha, Tōkyō, 1972, pp.94-134.

(Programme) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

16pp., 30cm.
A mysterious souvenir programme, with no data, probably published in the 1960's. Only cover is printed in color. The actors' profiles, which reprinted from the 1963 programme, includes only Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Howkins and Jose Ferrer. With a map of the Middle East, and a Lawrence chronology.

(Programme) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: ARABIA NO RORENSU

Tōhō Kabushikigaisha Jigyōbu, Tōkyō, February, 1971.
38pp., 31cm.
A newly edited souvenir programme for the 1971 revival of the Lean film, with an article and a chronology by Professor ONO Shinobu, translator of LAWRENCE AND THE ARABS by Robert Graves. Articles by KAIYAMA Tomohiro (b.1933), a film producer, and by HORIUCHI Shin, an Arabic scholar, are also included.
The Japanese title and the name of the theatre [Theatre Tōkyō] are printed on the cover.

(Programme) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: ARABIA NO RORENSU
Shōchiku Kabushikigaisha Jigyōbu, Tōkyō, 1980.
28pp.,30cm.

Another souvenir programme for the Lean film. Compared with the above, some articles are omitted, and some lines are added on actors' filmography.
The same edition was reprinted and sold for the restored version of the film in March 1995.

HAYASHI Fuyuko ed., PI^TA^. OTOu^RU [Peter O'Toole]
Haga Shoten, Tōkyō, July 1984.
In 'Shine Arubamu [Cine Album]' series, Vol.109.
Filmography, Map, Photos. 194pp., 21cm.

A glamourous book on Peter O'Toole, featuring Lawrence of Arabia. Including an article "Rorensu no Tsumi to Batsu [Lawrence's Crime and Punishment]" by MASUBUCHI Ken (b.1931).

SCREEN ed. DAVID LEAN PRESENTS
Kindai Eigasha,Tōkyō, January 2008.
Filmography, Photos. 160pp., 27cm.

Compiled past-articles and photos on the films of David Lean, published in a monthly cinema magazine Sukuri^n [Screen]. As for Lawrence of Arabia, includes reviews in 1963 and 1966, and David Lean's interview when he visited Japan in 1963. Japanese title on the cover means "[We are] Impressed by David Lean, the great master of art cinema". A must for Lean enthusiasts.

A T. E. Bibliography in Japanese INDEX

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