Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus

Last spring, the Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away. Cancer had kept him away from the stage for years. However, at the end of the year, he gathered all his energy to play one final concert, albeit without an audience. He performed twenty songs spanning his musical career: from his time with pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra to his film scores (such as The Last Emperor, for which he won an Oscar), to his latest, fully refined album 12. Although not a word is spoken, the emotions are palpable. Sakamoto often said that the piano was an extension of his hands. With that in mind, director Neo Sora, Sakamoto's son, filmed his father during this last performance. Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the most beautiful epitaph a musician can imagine.

“To capture the breadth and depth of the musical career of Japanese composer and recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto seems impossible, but somehow Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus - a document of Sakamoto’s final performance before his death - almost accomplishes this herculean challenge.” - Variety