Sakamoto’s first film score was Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), for which he won a BAFTA Award. He won his second BAFTA 30 years later, with Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant. In the intervening years, Sakamoto won an Oscar for The Last Emperor (1987) and a Golden Globe for The Sheltering Sky (1990) – both directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

His iconic soundtracks are only part of the story, for Sakamoto is also a synth-pop pioneer, electronic experimentalist, actor (opposite David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) and performer. As Sakamoto returns to music following cancer, his haunting awareness of mortality leads to a resounding new masterpiece.

In Stephen Nomura Schible’s compelling documentary, Sakamoto’s gentle, inquisitive spirit shines through, whether listening to the sound of raindrops in bowls, or playing a baby grand that survived Japan’s 2011 tsunami.

“This is a documentary that rejects every behind-the-scenes cliché around, and stands as an immensely moving and inspiring piece of cinema in its own right. (…) As music documentaries go, it’s one of the quietest you’ll see – but it’ll be ringing in my soul for a long while yet.” – ROBBIE COLLIN, THE TELEGRAPH