1985 Documentary about Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tokyo Cityscapes to be Screened in Japan in 4K Restoration

By Yasuko Onda / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer

10:30 JST, January 16, 2026

There are some unmissable films about Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) and his music that has been left behind after his death.

A prime example is “Opus” (2023), directed by Neo Sora, which shows Sakamoto playing the piano in a studio in Shibuya, Tokyo, in the autumn of 2022, several months before his passing. Every movement he makes as he sits at the piano, every breath he draws and, above all, every sound he makes are rendered unforgettable in this supreme swan song of Sakamoto.

“Tokyo Melody Ryuichi Sakamoto” (1985), which will show at theaters in Japan from today, is a 4K restored version of a documentary film created nearly 40 years before “Opus.” It is an old film, but it contains precious portraits of Sakamoto and the sounds in Tokyo, his birthplace, at the time.

The film was produced by the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) and directed by multimedia artist Elizabeth Lennard. At 62 minutes, it is not a long work, but what it depicts is colorful and rich in content. On screen, Sakamoto, then 32, freely talked about the status quo of music and Japanese culture as well as about himself. He was working on his fourth solo album, “Ongaku Zukan” (“Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia”), back then and explained how he created songs for the album.

To Generation X in Japan, Sakamoto was already a huge star. He was a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the proto-synthpop group, that left a vivid impact worldwide in the late 1970s. He pulled off memorable acting and created an unforgettable melody for the soundtrack of “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983), a film directed by Nagisa Oshima. Sakamoto made intelligent remarks as a man of culture while behaving like a pop star. He appeared playful in the camera frame, against backgrounds of Tokyo cityscapes.

The film is also interspersed with views of Tokyo without Sakamoto, such as a station where workers punch train tickets as quickly and rhythmically as music; a scene with a pachinko parlor; the “electric town” of Akihabara, with home appliances far more analogue than today and contrastingly sleek Western-style buildings; and the Shinjuku Alta building, with a giant display on its facade showing Sakamoto and himself standing in front of it. These scenes, with their jumble of various cultures, are strangely pertinent to Sakamoto’s music and resonate with his words: “After all, I think what I’m doing is different from music for music’s sake created at universities and institutions or in a study.”

The serious passion he occasionally showed while sitting at the keyboard is clearly evident in this film as well. Even though it is a documentary from 40 years ago, it feels extremely fresh rather than nostalgic, likely because it captured the moments when music poured out from Sakamoto’s hands and from his life in Tokyo.

The 4K restored version was produced by INA and Sakamoto’s agencies, KAB America Inc. and KAB Inc. INA initially made the 4K restoration, and then the sounds were remixed in Japan before the film’s release here.