Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus - A Lasting Legacy

Release Date：Mar/15/2024

Genre：Documentary/Music

Director：Neo Sora

Cast：Ryuichi Sakamoto

Viola's Rating：9.0

Oscar-winning Japanese actor, composer, pianist and record producer Ryuichi Sakamoto died from cancer on Mar 28, 2023. Before he passed away, he left a precious gift for us who remain on earth, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, which is going to be released limited in the US on Mar 15, 2024, marking the first anniversary of a great maestro’s death.

This music documentary preserves Ryuichi Sakamoto's last performance, a concert feature film featuring just him and his piano playing for the last time before passing away.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is a thorough concert with 20 pieces of his work. Although there indeed are a few sentences said in the film, most of them are just the maestro asking for one more take or murmuring to the crew. Starts with “Lack of Love” and ends with “Opus,” the concert is nonstop with only a few seconds of silence between each piece. The audience gets to immerse in the maestro’s classic works within two hours. Therefore, picking a theater with amazing acoustics and making sure the cinema right next to you isn’t playing some action flicks are critical.

Even though Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is more of a concert than a motion picture, its directing is still attractive. Director Neo Sora, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son, captured the maestro’s performance in stark black-and-white. Without the distracting colors and visual stimulation, all the attention of the moviegoers would be on the music. Also, instead of putting the camera in front of the maestro, Director Neo choreographed the camera movement to show the audience all the details and elements of the performance, including the interior of the piano, the maestro’s flying fingers on the keys and his vibrant facial expressions.

As the final farewell gift, the theme of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is the Latin sentence “Ars longa, vita brevis.” Indeed, the maestro’s life was merely a short 71 years on earth, but his artistry legacy and work will continue to roam about and influence more generations to come.

Since Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is a solo piano concert, no other instruments were used in the movie. Some classic pieces deliver a different atmosphere from the one in their original picture, and some works were performed by the piano alone for the very first time. Even if you’ve listened to a Ryuichi Sakamoto concert before, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus will be a brand-new experience.

When Maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto was alive, he wrote a bunch of brilliant pieces, and even while combatting cancer, he’s still thinking about leaving his precious work to the world. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus is not only an excellent feature film, but also one of the best in history.

Picture Credit: Cai Chang International Inc.