Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus

Directed by Neo Sora
103 min.

A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. As a parting gift, in late 2022 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 twenty pieces of his played in the film wordlessly tell the story of his life and 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 director Neo Sora, his son — Sakamoto bares his soul through his exquisitely haunting melodies, knowing this was the last time he would be able to present his art.