Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
The late composer/pianist bids us farewell in a unique way.
The appearance of this film as a cinema release is not just an accolade to the talent of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto but something that can justly be described as an extraordinary event. Filmed in September 2022 this feature-length work finds the celebrated Japanese composer in the studio where he plays piano versions of some of his music. Famed for his many film scores and for his often adventurous work in a whole range of pop and experimental idioms, he became an international figure, but this film is quite distinct from other documentary features presented as records of musical performances. Not only is Sakamoto the sole performer here but he is playing his music without an audience being present. This also means that one can readily distinguish it from an earlier documentary made in 2017 and entitled Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda which provided a portrait of the man including his activism but failed to be as revealing as one might have hoped.
Thus far my observations doubtless help to distinguish how far this new film stands apart from others but I have yet to indicate the real essence of what we have here. Watching it prompted thoughts of how at funerals it is quite common for a member of the family to speak about the deceased looking back in a way that pays tribute and keeps memories fresh. Despite the virtual lack of words in it, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is akin to a funeral oration of this kind. Sakamoto was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in January 2021 and when he made this film he knew that this time there would be no remission and that he had only a short time to live – indeed his life would come to an end only a few months after the filming, that being in March 2023. By looking back and playing a selection from his long composing career he is making a kind of wordless oration and that feeling is enhanced by the decision to have the film shot in black-and-white and without any spoken introduction or commentary. To draw that parallel may seem rather bizarre, not least because it suggests that the deceased himself has taken over the role of some other family member. However, the fact is that the film was directed by Neo Sora, a filmmaker who is himself Sakamoto’s son. Consequently, creating this documentary when it was rightly anticipated that it would be a last performance amounts to a son enabling his father to give a valedictory expression of his art and he did it specifically at his father’s request.
Fittingly Sakamoto made the film in a studio which he venerated for its acoustics and the shooting style, including a varied use of lighting but always careful not to distract from the flow of the music itself, captures fully the expressive detail to be found in the pianist’s face and in his hands too. This sensitive approach has given us a valuable document. It does, of course, have to be acknowledged that the film is one of somewhat specialised appeal. Listening to twenty piano pieces in a row (one of them having the comparative novelty of being designed for a prepared piano) leads inevitably to a work that requires a viewer who is inherently sympathetic to Sakamoto’s compositions. The most famous piece here is doubtless the theme composed for Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence which provides an apt climax for the film. In normal circumstances I would criticise the film for listing the items heard only at the close (staunch admirers of Sakamoto’s work can doubtless identify each one as it comes up, but the rest of us might have liked to be told what each piece is). But it says much for the unique atmosphere of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus that to have had the individual titles put up each time would somehow have seemed insensitive to the occasion.
Neo Sora’s film avoids any inappropriate flourishes but the titular composition ‘Opus’ is used alongside the end credits. At the start of this piece Ryuichi Sakamoto is still at the keyboard but then we hear the music continue as on a pianola. This can be read as an indication that despite the composer’s death his music will continue to be heard – and just to press the point home there is a final written statement on screen: “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis”.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Dir Neo Sora, Pro Norika Sora, Albert Tholen, Eric Nyari and Aiko Masubuchi, Ph Bill Kirstein, Ed Takuya Kawakami, Music Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Bitters End/KAB America-Modern Films.
103 mins. Japan. 2023. UK Rel: 29 March 2024. Cert. U.