When acclaimed Japanese composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away earlier this year, audiences–and the film industry–lost a legend. The pioneering Academy Award winner was a founding member of Tokyo’s electronic pop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, and for decades he lent his talent to composing rich, emotive scores for films by Nagisa Ôshima, Brian De Palma, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ryû Murakami, Volker Schlöndorff, Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and–with his final score for MONSTER, Hirokazu Koreeda. Praised for his inventive, idiosyncratic style and his avant-guard sensibilities, Sakamoto’s scores are introspective, sweeping, and have influenced contemporary musicians the world over. Perhaps our favorite Sakamoto anecdote came from his obituary in the New York Times, which recounts, “After many years of eating at the Manhattan restaurant Kajitsu, Sakamoto wrote an email to the chef saying, ‘I love your food, I respect you and I love this restaurant, but I hate the music.’ Then, without fanfare or pay, he designed subtle, tasteful playlists for the restaurant.”
