Part of Music City Mondays
A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS is the definitive swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. In late 2022, as a parting gift, Ryuichi Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave us with one final performance: a concert film featuring just him and his piano. Curated and sequenced by Sakamoto himself, the 20 pieces featured in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his wide-ranging oeuvre. The selection spans his entire career, from his pop-star period with Yellow Magic Orchestra and his magnificent scores for filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, to his meditative final album,12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well and surrounded by his most trusted collaborators — including his son and the film’s director, Neo Sora — Sakamoto bares his soul through his exquisitely haunting melodies, knowing this was the last time he would be able to present his art.
“To me, the music tells the whole story of his life in a completely wordless way, but it’s also more direct. The emotion and experience of the [performance] tells the story of his illness, his thoughts on mortality, and his thoughts on music.” —Neo Sora, director and Sakamoto’s son, interviewed by Michelle Hyun Kim in Pitchfork (Oct 19, 2023) “This is not the type of concert film to be compared with dynamic innovations in the form… The whole point is that someone is bearing witness… I urge you to show up for a man saying goodbye in a way that only he can.” —Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire “Intimately filmed in a space he knew well, surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, knowing this may be the last time that he can present his art. A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS is the definitive swan song of the beloved maestro.” —Nick Newman, The Film Stage
