The cinematic world experienced a significant loss with the passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto in March 2023. The acclaimed Japanese composer has worked with some of the best filmmakers during his 40-year career work in film, winning an Oscar for the epic 1987 historical drama The Last Emperor.
Along with venerated filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, Sakamoto worked with everyone from Pedro Almodovar and Brian De Palma to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Nagisa Oshima to create arresting soundscapes and ambient film scores that help reverberate the dramatic mood of each story told. It's time to highlight Ryuichi Sakamoto's absolute best movie scores to honor the artist's lasting legacy.
10 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Sakamoto's first film score came via Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, an underrated war film about a British soldier attempting to bridge the customary gap between the oppressors and the oppressed. Haunting and hopeful at once, the lilting piano theme of the title track established the perfect mood to tell such a story of a war-torn culture clash.
Despite the film earning middling reviews, Sakamoto won a 1984 BAFTA for Best Film Music in the UK and Mainichi Film Award for Best Film Score in Japan. The title song and "Forbidden Colours" were so popular that they were released as singles. Most importantly, the gorgeous film score launched Sakamoto's career in the movie industry and established his relationship with director Nagisa Oshima, whom he'd work with again.
9 The Last Emperor (1987)
In his first of several collaborations with Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, Sakamoto won an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score for his stunning work on the acclaimed historical epic The Last Emperor. From the Cradle to the Grave, the film recounts the checkered reign of Pu-Yi as China deals with decades of revolutionary upheaval.
The first nine tracks of the film score were composed with immaculate precision by Sakamoto, who managed to use orchestral arrangements to convey big, sweeping moments and quiet, intimate intonations to support the movie's dramatic shifts. In addition to sharing the Oscar alongside collaborators David Byrne and Chinese composer Cong Su, the score was named Best Score Soundtrack at the 1989 Grammy Awards.
8 The Sheltering Sky (1990)
The Sheltering Sky follows a married couple who try to rekindle their romance by taking a trip to North Africa, where danger courts them at every step. In his second collaboration with Bernardo Bertolucci, Sakamoto composed 12 tracks, including the breathtaking main theme, a beautiful progression of soft, slow, and soothing sounds that give way to a jarring mid-section.
The music provided such a rich texture to the movie that the soundtrack won the 1991 Golden Globe for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture, which Sakamoto accepted along with composer Richard Horowitz. Few others know how to reverberate the entire spectrum of human emotion as deftly as Sakamoto. The Sheltering Sky is another example that proves what a superior talent and soulful artistry he had at his fingertips.
7 The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
Before the hit Hulu show, Volker Schlondorff adapted The Handmaid's Tale as a disturbing sci-fi dystopia in which an oppressive future society ruled by tyranny has outlawed female reproduction. Sakamoto layered the forgotten '90s sci-fi gem with a hypnotic piano soundscape that perfectly echoes the anxiety and unease the women feel.
The main theme starts slow and dreamy and builds to an operatic crescendo that is unpredictable from moment to moment, but brilliantly reflects the tumultuous, up-and-down emotional state of Kate, a woman consigned to a life of reproductive slavery. Brusque and beautiful at once, the score adds invaluable detail to a difficult story.
6 High Heels (1991)
Sakamoto and Pedro Almodovar proved to be a match made in heaven, working together to create a sweeping, sumptuous soundtrack for High Heels in 1991. The colorful melodrama concerns a singer who returns to her hometown after 15 years only to find her daughter married to one of her ex-boyfriends.
In addition to his trademark piano arrangements, Sakamoto explored new territory by creating a throwback Bernard Herrmann-style score that harkens back to the halcyon days of Hitchcock's thrillers and Douglas Sirk's classic 1950s melodramas. The lush, sprawling string instrumentation has a distinct throwback vintage sound that feels fresh, vivid, and vivacious.
5 Wuthering Heights (1992)
Known for marking Ralph Fiennes' film debut, the 1992 adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights features one of Sakamoto's most mystically enchanting and spiritually expressive film scores. The lingering flutes and windswept chimes are sweet and romantic yet hint at a well of darkness underneath to reflect Heathcliff's cruel and unforgiving nature.
While this version of Wuthering Heights may not be the absolute best version of the heartbreaking romance movie in terms of faithful adaptations, it has arguably the best and most memorable soundtrack of any cinematic version to date. Sakamoto's mastery of creating ambient moods from one scene to the next is second to none, lending a rollercoaster of emotions that capture the highs and lows of the characters.
4 Snake Eyes (1998)
Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes is a conspiracy crime thriller in which detective Rick Santoro is hired to investigate a political assassination during a boxing match. To create a sense of paranoia and mistrust, Sakamoto composed another unforgettable theme that captures the essence of Santoro's plight.
The five-and-a-half-minute main theme begins weary and wistful before picking up the tempo and layering multiple high-pitch melodies over each other to create a dazzling and disorienting sound. At the midway point, the instrumentation becomes deeper and more ominous, culminating in a thunderous crash of musical cues that would have played perfectly over the originally planned tidal wave ending. The soundtrack was so successful that Sakamoto would work with De Palma two more times.
3 Gohatto (1999)
Reuniting with Nagisa Oshima, Sakamoto composed over 20 tracks for the soundtrack to Gohatto (Taboo), a story of forbidden homosexual love during the final years of Japan's Edo era. An absolute tour-de-force from start to finish, the 65-minute soundtrack album expresses the full rainbow of human emotions to empathize with the main characters.
With distinct chapters in the soundtrack meant to aurally echo the beats of the story, including "Taboos," "Affair," "Murder," "Funeral," etc., Sakamoto creates an indelible sonic experience that enriches the experience of watching the movie. After winning a BAFTA for his first soundtrack working with Oshima, it's as if Sakamoto pushed himself as far as he could artistically, and the results prove it.
2 Tony Takatani (2004)
Jun Ichikawa's Tony Takatani is a sublime romantic drama that follows the relationship between the titular illustrator and his haute-couture-infatuated wife. Sakamoto composed the entire soundtrack of 11 pitch-perfect songs that reflect the melancholic beauty of Tony and Eiko's marital turbulence.
Harking back to his signature piano arrangements, there's a simplicity and raw honesty to the score that really adds to the tone and tenor of the piece. Moreover, there's a full story arc in the soundtrack that not only comments on the movie's actions but also has its own beginning, middle, and end. The "DNA" intro and "Solitude" theme offer mesmerizing refrains that are weepy and wispy at once.
1 The Revenant (2015)
With a shootout to the 2020 film Minamata, the last great score Sakamoto turned in was for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's The Revenant. The three-time Oscar winner follows a fur-trapping expedition that goes awry when a grizzly bear goes on a barbarous attack.
Sakamoto composed the score along with Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner, nominated for the 2016 BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. Rather than comment on the action as it happens, Sakamoto guides the story's events with foreboding and foreshadowing instrumentation. Including the haunting main theme, Sakamoto composed 11 original songs on the soundtrack and collaborated on ten more, giving the all-time great composer an authorial imprint in a movie that, like his career, is bound to withstand the test of time.