Photo/Illutration A scene from “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries” ((c) “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries” Film Partners)

Drawing on his diaries and private footage, “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries” poignantly traces the final three and a half years of the renowned musician’s life after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Sakamoto died in March 2023 at age 71.

“He was an ordinary person when it came to worrying about his illness, but he was no ordinary person after all,” said Kensho Omori, the film's director. “The total amount of energy he poured into music was extraordinary.” 

In contrast with the late composer’s detached on-screen presence and crystalline musical performances, the vividness of his diaries and notes is striking.

Sakamoto lamented in one entry, saying, “My life is over.”

In another, he expressed his anger as he learned his cancer had spread, ranting, “Damn!”

He also wrote about his favorite things such as sumo and food.

And when he gave his last piano performance for “Opus” in a Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) studio a half year before his passing, Sakamoto scribbled: “I want to eat ‘matsumae-zuke’ (pickled dish).”

The behind-the-scenes remark is certain to make the audience laugh despite themselves as his performance was later nominated for a Grammy Award.

“I was entrusted with his diaries and started the project by comparing many of his entries with what happened on the day he wrote them, but I thought, ‘Oh, he writes good things at the appropriate time’ when I learned that he talked about matsumae-zuke on the day he played ‘Opus,’” Omori said.

As an NHK director, Omori worked on a documentary program about Sakamoto based on which the film was made. The program aired in April 2024.

Sakamoto’s family asked the director not to make the film too gloomy, despite the grim subject. Omori sought a solution in the rain.

“Mr. Sakamoto loved the sound of rain and also recorded it,” he said. “When I checked the weather of the day he died, it was a rainy day.”

“I felt like everything was wrapped in tender rain, so I used rain as the main motif for the documentary program,” he continued. “I added the moon and clouds to the film in an aim to achieve a composition where these (elements) resonate with each other.”

Born in 1993, the director never met Sakamoto.

“I never knew him in real life, and I think that is all the more reason why I could stay faithful to the materials he left behind,” Omori added. “I wanted the film to be something that will make people who never had a chance to meet Mr. Sakamoto feel like they ‘met’ him when they see it now or 50 years from now. That was what I was thinking when I made it.”

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