Synopsis
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda chronicles Ryuichi Sakamoto's diagnosis and survival of throat cancer, his heightened anti-nuclear political activism after the Fukushima disaster, and his artistic process.
| Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Stephen Nomura Schible |
| Produced by |
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| Cinematography |
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| Edited by |
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| Music by | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Mubi |
Running time | 101 minutes |
| Countries | United States, Japan |
| Languages | Japanese, English |
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda is a 2017 documentary film directed by Stephen Nomura Schible. The film chronicles the life and career of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and covers his experiences surviving cancer, his environmental activism following the Fukushima disaster, and his musical inspirations, including his interest in ambient sounds and film scoring.
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda chronicles Ryuichi Sakamoto's diagnosis and survival of throat cancer, his heightened anti-nuclear political activism after the Fukushima disaster, and his artistic process.
Schible became interested in Sakamoto when his artistic style shifted following the 2011 Japanese earthquake. [1]
The documentary was shot over a five-year span, [2] starting in the summer of 2012. [3] Sakamoto was diagnosed and treated for stage 3 throat cancer during filming, [4] and the documentary was largely shot during Sakamoto's work on the score to Alejandro G. Inarritu's The Revenant. [5]
The documentary features interviews (with Sakamoto as the sole interviewee) [4] as well as select archival clips of his performances and film scores. [6]
The film was first released in theaters in South Korea on June 14, 2018. It was released in theaters in the United States on July 6, 2018, [7] and in Japanese theaters on November 4, 2018. [8]
The documentary had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, [9] [1] where it received highly favorable reviews. [8] It was released for streaming on Mubi on September 7, 2018. [5]
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda grossed $117,460 in the United States with an additional $845,390 in other territories for a total of $962,850 worldwide. [7]
During its domestic theatrical run, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda was shown in theaters for 179 days, equivalent to 25 weeks. At its peak, the film was screened in nine theaters during the week of August 10–16, 2023. In its opening week, the film made $19,319 from one theater. During its widest release, the per-theater average dropped to $1,389. [7]
Internationally, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda grossed $721,945 in China, where it ran for 54 weeks. In South Korea, it earned $92,906, with a peak presence in forty-seven theaters and a run time of 28 weeks. In the United Kingdom, the film grossed $15,020, with a peak presence in thirteen theaters and a run time of 26 weeks. [7]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98%, based on 48 critic reviews with an average rating of 7.8/10. Its critical consensus reads, "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda takes a thoughtful look at the composer's life and legacy that should prove affecting and illuminating for novices as well as longtime fans." [10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 13 reviews. [11]
Film critic Peter Bradshaw gave Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda three out of five. [12] David Stratton, a prominent critic from The Australian , rated the film with a score of three and a half out of five. He deemed the documentary a "useful insight into the work of a major composer" despite its less impressive cinematography. [13] Writing for Variety , Dennis Harvey described the documentary as a "handsome, intriguing if not particularly insightful" portrayal of the composer. He acknowledged the film's meditative pace and attractive cinematography while ultimately suggesting that it "flatters the subject without ultimately quite doing him justice". [2] Ben Kenigsberg's review for The New York Times lauded the documentary as an "uncommonly engaging artist portrait". He highlights the film's ability to immerse viewers in Sakamoto's intellectual and emotional realm, emphasizing the shared excitement in finding the perfect sonic harmony. Kenigsberg also praises the documentary's focus on Sakamoto's performances, applauding Schible's decision to prioritize the music's prominence. [14]
David Rooney's of The Hollywood Reporter hailed the film as a "deep dive into the artistry of an original thinker". He described it as a "gentle, reflective portrait" that effectively captures Sakamoto's creative process, despite its lack of personal details. Rooney praised Schible's departure from conventional biographical detail in the documentary, noting its ability to coalesce an expansive view of Sakamoto's eclectic output and artistic process. His review highlighted the film's focus on Sakamoto's synth-pop era and his work on significant film scores, while also commending the inclusion of archival footage and intimate moments in Sakamoto's home studio. [4] Kevin Maher's review in The Times characterized the documentary as "never busy, never intrusive", gracefully maintaining a gentle tempo while remaining "calm, respectful and thoughtful". He rated the film with a score of four out of five. [15]
In a less favorable review, Greg Cwik of Slant Magazine gave the film one and a half out of four, and characterized it as "listless". He criticized its execution for relying on "lazy synchronicity" and notes that the documentary feels "artificially intimate", rendering Sakamoto's "genuine spirituality and empathy awkward and disingenuous, as if he’s posturing for the camera". The review highlights the editing as "chicanerous"l particularly in scenes like Sakamoto's homage at a pantheon, where the camera work and cuts create a staged atmosphere. Cwik contrasts it unfavorably with other music documentaries, such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Junun, citing its lack of vision and spontaneity. Overall, he points out that the documentary fails to enhance the experience of Sakamoto's album "async" or provide meaningful insights into the artist's life and work, ultimately deeming it a wasted opportunity. [16]
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres.
Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer born in Tokyo and raised in Aomori and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. She has been called "one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world", and her vocals and singing style have been compared to English singer Kate Bush.
Yellow Magic Orchestra was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.
Takeshi Kitano, also known as Beat Takeshi in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host.
async is the nineteenth solo studio album of Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and his first one in eight years since Out of Noise (2009). It is also his first full-length solo record since recovering from throat cancer in 2015. Consisting of a combination of bizarre interpretations of familiar musical instruments, unusual textures both acoustic and electronically-made, samples of recordings of people such as David Sylvian and Paul Bowles doing readings, and everyday sounds borrowed from field recordings of city streets, async has underlying themes of the worries of the end of life and the interaction of differing viewpoints in humanity.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, also known as Furyo, is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post as a prisoner of war in Java during World War II, as depicted in his books The Seed and the Sower (1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970). It stars David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano and Jack Thompson; Sakamoto also composed and played the musical score including the vocal version of the main theme "Forbidden Colours", with lyrics written and sung by David Sylvian.
Haruomi Hosono, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres.
Yuji Nomi is a Japanese composer. His work includes the Studio Ghibli films Whisper of the Heart (1995) and The Cat Returns (2002), as well as the Kyoto Animation television series Nichijou (2011). His mentor was Ryuichi Sakamoto, whom he helped with Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise and The Last Emperor.
Cinemage is a 1999 album by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It is a collection of six of his works for film soundtracks and events.
"Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" is a 1983 instrumental single by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto recorded for the film of the same name. The song has become a staple of Christmas music in the United States and Japan. A vocal version, "Forbidden Colours", features former Japan frontman David Sylvian and charted in the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart and Irish Singles Chart.
The Revenant: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack album for the 2015 film, The Revenant, composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto with additional music by Bryce Dessner. It was released digitally on December 25, 2015, and on CD on January 8, 2016 by Milan Records.
Shiro Takatani is a Japanese artist. He currently lives and works in Kyoto. Co-founder and visual creator of the group Dumb Type since 1984, he also became artistic director of the group from 1995 and also started an active solo career in 1998.
Kathryn Bostic is an American composer and artist known for her work on award-winning films, TV, and theater. In 2016, she became the first female African American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was the vice president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from 2016 to 2018.
Async – Remodels is an album of "reconstructions" of tracks from Japanese producer Ryuichi Sakamoto's nineteenth solo studio album async (2017). The album includes eleven reworks by producers such as Jóhann Jóhannsson, Fennesz, Cornelius, Oneohtrix Point Never, Electric Youth, and Arca. Released in Japan in December 2017 by Commmons and in February 2018 in other countries by Milan Records, Async – Remodels garnered generally positive critical reviews and peaked at number 15 on the Billboard American Top Classical Albums chart.
Minamata is a 2020 biographical drama film directed by Andrew Levitas, based on the book of the same name by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith. The film stars Johnny Depp as W. Eugene Smith, an American photographer who documented the effects of mercury poisoning on the citizens of Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 21, 2020. It was released in the United States on February 11, 2022, by Samuel Goldwyn Films. At the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, the film ranked third place in the Oscars Fan Favorite contest.
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is the soundtrack from the film of the same name, released on 1 May 1983 in Japan and towards the end of August 1983 in the UK. It was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also starred in the film. It was Sakamoto's first film score, though it was released several weeks after the film Daijōbu, My Friend, for which he also composed the music.
12 is the fifteenth and final solo studio album by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It was released on January 17, 2023, two months before his death from cancer, through Milan Records and Commmons.
Tokyo Melody: A Film about Ryuichi Sakamoto is a 1985 French-Japanese documentary co-production of France's INA and Yoroshita Music Inc. Shot in Tokyo and directed by Elizabeth Lennard, the film uses a "hands-off" nonlinear structure in which interviews with musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, concert footage of Yellow Magic Orchestra, and scenes of Sakamoto recording his 1984 studio album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia are combined with stylized or naturalistic shots of traditional festivals, street dancers, the urban built environment, and city life in 1980s Tokyo. Lennard has described the film as "the sounds of Tokyo—seen through the eyes of, and a portrait of, Sakamoto."
Monster (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2023 film of the same name directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The soundtrack featured seven songs that consisted of previous compositions from Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, although he created two piano pieces for the film. The film marked Sakamoto's final composition before his death on March 28, 2023. The soundtrack was released posthumously on September 8 through Milan Records.
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, graphically rendered as Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus, is a 2023 Japanese concert film directed by Neo Sora. It premiered out of competition at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival.