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As a part of this yr’s Japan Cuts movie competition, New York’s Japan Society is providing each film and music lovers a unprecedented alternative: a 16mm screening of the 1985 documentary Tokyo Melody: A Movie about Ryuichi Sakamoto. Directed by photographer and director Elizabeth Lennard and produced as a collaboration between French and Japanese tv, the hour-long movie follows the famed experimental musician throughout the recording of his 1984 album Ongaku Zukan (“Music Encyclopedia”). Past its preliminary airing and appearances at a couple of movie festivals, it has been virtually unattainable to entry legally within the a long time since.
The documentary was conceived after Sakamoto’s performing debut in Nagisa Ōshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), for which he additionally composed his first soundtrack. He performs Captain Yonoi, the commandant of a Japanese prisoner of struggle camp in Java throughout World Battle II, who’s torn between his iron devotion to responsibility and his attraction to Jack Celliers, a British prisoner performed by David Bowie. The movie is compelling not simply due to Ōshima’s excellent observations of the interaction between masculine repression and psychosexual pressure in opposition to the backdrop of struggle, but additionally for bringing collectively Sakamoto and Bowie, two pop icons on the top of their stardom. Amid the somber camp, thick with each humidity and testosterone, the 2 males stand out for his or her startling androgynous magnificence. Sakamoto’s rating is among the richest orchestrations ever rendered for a movie, notably its now-famous most important theme.
Tokyo Melody opens with a quote from Claude Debussy: “I’m engaged on issues that can solely be understood by the grandchildren of the twentieth century.” That sentiment ably captures the mystique of Sakamoto’s persona, which Lennard additionally vividly information right here. His work was emblematic of his period, particularly Nineteen Eighties digital music, but additionally felt beamed from the long run. Because the title suggests, the doc isn’t just a have a look at the person but additionally one thing of a metropolis symphony, taking an excessive amount of time to discover Tokyo, together with his music performing as a temper setter. Interviews are minimal, and Sakamoto performs together with his devices rather more than he talks. Memorably, he performs the Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence theme on the piano, and sits down for a duet together with his spouse of the time, the famed jazz musician Akiko Yano.
This screening comes not lengthy after Sakamoto’s dying in March of this yr, making this look again at him in his prime all of the extra poignant. Each Yano and Lennard can be current at Japan Society’s screening, with Yano offering an introduction and Lennard sitting down for a Q&A afterward. Forward of this occasion, I linked with Lennard over Zoom to debate the movie and her reminiscences of Sakamoto. This interview has been edited and condensed for size and readability.
Hyperallergic: What was the timeline from you seeing Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence to this movie occurring?
Elizabeth Lennard: I used to be fairly younger then. At my screening of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence on the Cannes Movie Pageant, there occurred to be two producers from the experimental a part of French tv. That they had a cope with a broadcaster to do a couple of hours of programming about widespread music. They stated that if I may discover a solution to meet Sakamoto, they might produce an hour-long movie about him.
I had no concept learn how to attain him. However I knew individuals within the music enterprise — earlier than residing in France, I painted album covers. In New York I bumped into somebody I labored for within the ’70s who launched me to Kiki Miyake, who labored with YMO on a US tour. Kiki acquired me in contact with Sakamoto. We agreed to fulfill in Berlin, the place he was recording Forbidden Colours with [musician] David Sylvian. I keep in mind ready for him to return out of the recording studio — it was proper subsequent to the Berlin Wall — as a result of they had been in the midst of recording.
I had solely made two brief movies at that time, one about these pianists referred to as the Labèque sisters. I confirmed Sakamoto pictures I’d taken of New York and painted, a few of which I’d exhibited on the Pompidou Heart. They’d confirmed concurrently an exhibition by Berenice Abbott, which additionally had a title about New York. Individuals acquired them combined up, and would come as much as me and say, “God, you’re not that outdated!” Anyway, based mostly on that work, he agreed to be within the documentary. It was solely later that I noticed Sakamoto was fully an artwork particular person, not “simply” a musician. I feel it was a form of feather in his cap to do a movie with me, as a result of he didn’t know who I used to be, a younger girl with just a few hand-painted pictures to indicate.
H: How a lot time did you spend with Sakamoto for the movie?
EL: It was a low funds, so we had seven days for capturing, and I feel we particularly had 4 days with Ryuichi, maybe two days within the studio and two days with him in Tokyo. Earlier than the movie, I went to Tokyo to do location scouting. It was my first time within the metropolis. I walked round with my guidebook; I don’t converse Japanese, however as a photographer, I used to be used to simply observing issues. This was in April, throughout cherry blossom season. After we got here again in Could to do the movie, I didn’t understand how a lot issues would change, that so many decorations I had seen would now not be there. So we needed to adapt to that. A lot of the movie was fairly spontaneous, as a result of I didn’t know stepping into what Ryuichi was going to be doing within the studio.
H: Did Sakamoto appear snug with the expertise?
EL: He later realized English very nicely, however on the time his English wasn’t so good. He had a dialogue coach on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Within the movie, when he’s demonstrating a synthesizer, Kiki, who got here to Japan with us, was asking my questions in Japanese. So there was that language hole. Nevertheless it wasn’t an enormous deal as a result of there’s not that a lot speaking on this documentary. I feel he was snug with me. I had a really small crew, and I’m not an intimidating director, I don’t assume.
I had an incredible line producer who did the whole lot he may to make Sakamoto really feel snug. Sakamoto was already an enormous star in Japan, so he didn’t exit in public locations, as a result of there have been too many followers. After we took him to Tokyo Tower, after about 20 minutes a crowd had gathered round him, which I feel amused him. We took him to the subway, and within the movie we see him see a poster of himself. That was simply fortunate, as a result of he by no means took the subway.
H: Did you ever see Sakamoto once more after making the movie?
EL: He noticed the movie in France — I feel he was there on a tour — and I do assume he loved it. And I bumped into him as soon as in New York. However sadly, we didn’t actually keep up a correspondence. About 5 years in the past, I used to be contacted by Stephen Schible, who was making the documentary Coda, as a result of he wished to make use of a few of our footage. I helped him get it from the French TV archive, as a result of it’s an enormous group and so they’re not very reactive. Schible was working fairly intently with Ryuichi, and he despatched me some footage Ryuichi had taken throughout our shoot that I had by no means seen earlier than. Whereas we had been filming him, he was taking his personal pictures, too.
H: Are you aware when this movie was final screened publicly?
EL: The final time the print that’s going to be proven at Japan Cuts was exhibited was at a São Paulo movie competition in ’85 or ’86. We had it made for the competition, and I’ve had the reels in my basement ever since. And once we checked the print for this displaying, we found individuals had stolen pictures. There are a couple of frames which can be lacking, with splice marks and all.
H: It was most likely followers who wished selection pictures of Sakamoto and Yano.
EL: Completely. This was pre-internet, and it was such a restricted exhibition, in order that was what individuals did in the event that they wished footage from the movie.
H: The movie just isn’t legally out there in any type within the States. Is it preserved someplace, someway?
EL: We’re really working with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s agent and widow to do a launch, as a result of it by no means had a real theatrical run. It was proven on French tv and in movie festivals, however it by no means acquired a cinema launch. I don’t know when that can occur, however we’re working towards a 4K restoration and digital model that may be proven in theaters.
Tokyo Melody: A Movie About Ryuichi Sakamoto screens on July 29 as a part of the Japan Cuts movie sequence at Japan Society (333 East forty seventh Road, Midtown East, Manhattan) from July 26 by August 6.
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