Oscar-winning Japanese composer, musician, actor, singer, producer, writer and activist Ryuichi Sakamoto has died. He was 71.
Recording company Avex posted a statement to Twitter indicating Sakamoto died Tuesday of cancer which was first discovered in June 2020. The statement thanks his medical teams in Japan and the U.S. and asks for fans to respect the privacy of his family at this time.
Sakamoto delivered the score for more than forty films in his time, most famously for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” in 1987, Nagisa Ōshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” in 1983, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant” in 2015.
He was a regular with Bertolucci, working with him on “The Sheltering Sky” in 1990 and “Little Buddha” in 1993, along with the Oscar-winning “The Last Emperor” work, which he co-created with David Byrne and Cong Su.
He also released more than twenty solo albums in his time. Sakamoto reportedly continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow him to up until his passing.
Sakamoto composed the music for the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and delivered scores for a range of works, including Oliver Stone’s mini-series “Wild Palms,” Brian de Palma’s “Snake Eyes” and “Femme Fatale,” Pedro Almodovar’s “High Heels,” John Maybury’s “Love is the Devil,” Yoji Yamada’s “Living With My Mother,” cult classic anime “Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise” and contributed a track to Sue Brooks’ “Japanese Story”.
A longtime political activist, he campaigned against nuclear power and weapons and led a movement against a uranium and plutonium processing plant in Japan.
One unique story is that Sakamoto had found the music at his favorite Japanese restaurant in Manhattan so bad he contacted the chef and offered to create a playlist for free.
Source: THR
