There are some unmissable films about Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) and his music that has been left behind after his death.A prime example is “Opus” (2023), directed by Neo Sora, which shows Sakamoto playing the piano in a studio in Shibuya, Tokyo, in the autumn of 2022, several months before his passing. Every movement he makes as he sits at the piano, every breath he draws and, above all, every sound he makes are rendered unforgettable in this supreme swan song of Sakamoto.“Tokyo Melody Ryuichi Sakamoto” (1985), which will show at theaters in Japan from today, is a 4K restored version of a documentary film created nearly 40 years before “Opus.” It is an old film, but it contains precious portraits of Sakamoto and the sounds in Tokyo, his birthplace, at the time.The film was produced by the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) and directed by multimedia artist Elizabeth Lennard. At 62 minutes, it is not a long work, but what it depicts is colorful and rich in content. On screen, Sakamoto, then 32, freely talked about the status quo of music and Japanese culture as well as about himself. He was working on his fourth solo album, “Ongaku Zukan” (“Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia”), back then and explained how he created songs for the album.
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