Legendary musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died in March 2023 of cancer at the age of 71 and much of the world mourned. While perhaps not the most famous musician/composer on earth, the Japanese musician was a musical icon nonetheless.
Sakamoto started his career as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), a late 1970s electronic band that is often overshadowed by Kraftwerk as the pioneers of electronic pop, but was still instrumental in helping the genre explode given the way the sound would take off in the 1980s with the electro-driven British New Wave of pop (OMD, Japan, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Bronski Beat, etc). They are credited as key figures in helping launch genres like synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno.
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Experimental solo work followed, and he produced classic works by David Sylvian, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N’Dour, and Fennesz. His career in film composing took off in the early 1980s right out of the gate when Sakamoto won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards for the score to Nagisa Ōshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” which famously starred David Bowie and was his first official film score (Sakamoto had an acting role in the movie too).
Sakamoto was also famous for his work with the Italian auteur Bernardo Bertolucci, scoring “The Last Emperor” (1987), “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), and “Little Buddha” (1993). He also enjoyed acclaim for his works with Alejandro G. Iñárritu, scoring “Babel” (2006) and “The Revenant” (2015).
The new film “Opus,” which premieres at the Venice Film Festival and then later on screens at the New York Film Festival (which provides this new trailer), is an elegy put together by his son Neo Sora and is one of his final concert performances that looks intimate and melancholy and focuses on Sakamoto’s more plaintive piano works.
Here’s the NYFF synopsis:
When Ryuichi Sakamoto died in March 2023 at age 71, the world lost one of its greatest musicians: a classical orchestral composer, a techno-pop artist, and a piano soloist who elevated every genre he worked in and inspired and influenced music-lovers across the globe. As a final gift to his legions of fans, filmmaker Neo Sora (Sakamoto’s son) has constructed a gorgeous elegy starring Sakamoto himself in one of his final performances. Recorded in late 2022 at NHK Studio in Tokyo, this filmed concert is an intimate, melancholy, and achingly beautiful one-man show, featuring just Sakamoto and a Yamaha grand, as the composer glides through a playlist of his most haunting, delicate melodies (including “Lack of Love, “The Wuthering Heights,” “Aqua,” “Opus,” and many more). Shot in pristine black-and-white by Bill Kirstein and edited by Takuya Kawakami, this stirring film brings us so close to a living, breathing artist that it feels like pure grace.
“Opus” has no release date yet, but will premiere at the New York Film Festival which begins in late September. Watch the trailer below.
