This is not at all your stereotypical Christmas song, but it expresses more accurately how I often feel this time of year. While I love Christmas, I find myself taking long walks, acutely aware of the bleakness all around me—skeletal remains of once-vibrant trees, bone-chilling coldness, and a general sense of longing for loved ones who have passed away and relationships that did not work out. I haven't seen the eponymous Japanese film from which this song comes (about prisoners and guards in a WWII Japanese POW camp), but this gripping performance by Sakamoto is part of my Christmas soundtrack.