Special feature of 1905 film network "At this stage of my life, all I can do is to play a few tracks wholeheartedly every day. Maybe it’s because of overwork. After shooting, I feel overwhelmed. After only one month or so, my condition has deteriorated. Even so, I am deeply gratified because I was able to complete a performance that satisfied me before I passed away. "At the end of the letter to my beloved fans, I wrote like this.
He also devoted his love for music and the deep affection of fans to this "life performance" and merged it into a documentary, which became the last gift left by the music master to the world.
The film was directed by Kong Yinyang, the son of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and appeared in 2023.venice international film festivalThe non-competition unit was shown during this year’s Beijing International Film Festival, and gained a super high score of 9.5 points.With the official release of the film, more fans and fans will be able to say goodbye to the master on the big screen.
Ryuichi Sakamoto is not only a world-renowned composer and music producer, but also has an indissoluble bond with movies.
He is an actor, a veteran movie fan and a "gifted musician". He has written music for more than 40 films and won many awards such as Oscar, Golden Globe Award, Grammy Award and British Film Academy Award.
On March 28th, 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto died of cancer, and filmmakers all over the world also sent articles to mourn.Wrote: I can’t bear to leave you. Those who have worked with him said: Ryuichi Sakamoto is a rare artist, and his creative passion burns to the end. It is even more sad to say: "Merry Christmas on the Battlefield", I am the only one left.
Stephen Chow and Kitano Takeshi mourn Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Because of his contribution to Sino-Japanese exchanges, a spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed condolences: Mr. Sakamoto was enthusiastic about Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, and created many excellent music works with China elements. He made contributions to friendly exchanges between the two countries through practical actions.
The people of Sri Lanka are gone, and the music is endless. Let’s follow the movement in "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Masterpiece" and pick up memento mori who "taught" movies and China.
And movies
Merry Christmas on the Battlefield 41 years ago was the first time that Ryuichi Sakamoto appeared in a movie, and it was also the first time that he created a soundtrack for the movie.
A major feature of this classic anti-war film in film history directed by is the gathering of three seemingly "irrelevant" cross-border actors, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Kitano Takeshi, and their wonderful chemical reactions.
In his autobiography, Ryuichi Sakamoto recalled the excitement when he was invited by idol Nagisa ?shima to play, but he didn’t say "good" directly, but suggested that "please let me do the soundtrack." I didn’t expect Nagisa ?shima to agree.
In this way, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who had no experience in film soundtrack, listened to the producer’s suggestion and bought a disc to start "learning from scratch", and wrote a classic handed down by feeling.
In particular, the well-known "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" combines the sensibility of Indonesian musical instruments such as Muyu and dulcimer with the ethereal of western electronic music, and the harmony and conflict between eastern and western melodies brings a clear and ethereal feeling, which hits the audience’s soul through the screen.
Ryuichi Sakamoto later recalled the creation process of this famous song. "It took me only 30 seconds to come up with the melody. I was sitting in front of the piano and subconsciously closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, the melody and chord had already appeared on the score."
But he also said modestly: "It’s not bad as music, but it’s not that good as a movie soundtrack, it’s too high-profile. It is self-contained without even a picture. "
"Merry Christmas on the Battlefield" started Ryuichi Sakamoto’s film and television music career. In the next 40 years, he participated in the music work of business cards such as The Last Emperor, Wuthering Heights, Tony Long Valley and Life, and won numerous awards.
In 2014, Ryuichi Sakamoto was diagnosed with throat cancer, and still insisted on writing the soundtrack for alejandro gonzalez inarritu’s revenant. "I can’t say no to Inarido because I admire him so much."
Different from the general film soundtrack, the melody he created for revenant returned to the original, with a large blank space to set off the music of nature itself, highlighting the loneliness and ethereal wilderness.
"Nature is far above human beings in movies", which also reflects Ryuichi Sakamoto’s thinking about nature and life at that time.
In 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto was invited to score the new film Monster. "If he refuses my invitation, there will be no music in this film."
Although the physical strength at that time was not enough to complete the creation of the whole film, Ryuichi Sakamoto still wrote two pieces of music for Monster, and said that all the published music could be used at will. This has also become the "legacy" of his film soundtrack.
At the end of the film, the old song "Water" composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto in 1999 emerges at the same time as the picture of children running from darkness to light.Music and light and shadow reached a wonderful resonance across time at that moment, and also painted the most perfect story of Ryuichi Sakamoto and the film.full stop.
With China.
"In five years’ time and ten years’ time, China will surely become an existence that cannot be ignored." In the book skmt: Who is Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryuichi Sakamoto once talked about China like this.
And his fate with China goes back to The Last Emperor 38 years ago. He came to China with the crew as an actor, and stayed in Beijing, Dalian and Changchun for nearly half a year.
Talking about this period of time, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who is extremely sensitive to sound, said that what impressed him most was the sound of bicycles. At that time, the vitality of China society attracted him very much.
Ryuichi Sakamoto plays Masahiko Gump.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, who came with an actor’s mentality, didn’t expect the director Bertolucci to suddenly ask him to create music for Puyi’s enthronement ceremony, and he would play it on the shooting scene three days later, and he also used Moriquand to stimulate Ryuichi Sakamoto. "If he is, he should be able to write it on the spot."
The goading method was really useful. Ryuichi Sakamoto found a piano of the old Manchuria Film Association, cooperated with the local orchestra in China, and finished the creation of the enthronement song with high quality under very limited conditions.
What I didn’t expect was that six months later, Ryuichi Sakamoto received a phone call from the producer and formally invited him to compose the music for The Last Emperor. He spent one day listening to 20 China music anthologies, and two weeks completing 44 pieces of music interwoven with Chinese style and modern style, and he was exhausted and admitted to the hospital.
Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote in his autobiography that he liked Wen Xiu very much, and her line "I can’t stand it any more" was simply his own creative voice. And his impassioned variations for Wen Xiu’s departure have also become colorful paragraphs.
Everything comes to him who waits. The Last Emperor has become the pinnacle of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s film soundtrack, which perfectly combines western orchestral music, Chinese style elements and German expressionism style, setting off Puyi’s tragic life and undecided fate, and enabling him to achieve the Oscar Award, Golden Globe Award and British Film Academy Award "Grand Slam".
"The Last Emperor" crew (Ryuichi Sakamoto from the second right)
As a veteran movie fan, Ryuichi Sakamoto knows a lot about China movies. He likes the works of,, and also comments that his early works are "a very good way to let foreigners know about China’s history and culture".
During his cancer treatment, he especially loved the Shaw brothers’ kung fu films, which helped him relieve the pain.
During the epidemic, Ryuichi Sakamoto used music to support Wuhan many times, and cheered for China in the form of online performance.
The words "Made in Wuhan, China" are clearly printed on the cymbals in his studio. Finally, he said in Chinese: "Come on, everyone!"
As anti-war activists and environmentalists, Laozi and Taoism, who advocate nature and attach importance to ecological balance, have a great influence on Ryuichi Sakamoto. He said that his music was a "requiem" for a species extinct by human beings.
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, he also chose to use music to appease the people affected by the nuclear accident, and more firmly opposed the Japanese government’s various measures for nuclear power plants, saying that discharging nuclear sewage was "a crime against the whole planet."
Until the last few months of his life, Ryuichi Sakamoto still insisted on music and creation.
In the documentary, he once said: "Maybe I can live for twenty years, maybe I can live for ten years, or maybe I can only live for one year. I still have a heart. So in order not to leave regrets, I want to create more works that can be taken. "
Art is a thousand years old, life is exposed, people are dead, and music is endless.
At the end of Masterpiece, the figure of "Professor" gradually disappears, but the keys are still beating and playing a movement, just like his music is to the later generations, and the reverberation is endless.