Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival, held from 5 to 15 August 2019 in Locarno, Switzerland.
Sakamoto, an electronic music pioneer whose Yellow Magic Orchestra, formed in 1978, anticipated both techno and rap music debuted in film in 1983, working on Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence for which in addition to writing the score, which won a BAFTA, he played Captain Yonoi alongside the character played by David Bowie named Major Jack “Strafer” Celliers.
Four years later, in 1987, Sakamoto won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for scoring Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor in which he also appeared on screen.
Three years later, in 1990, Sakamoto won a second Golden Globe for another Bertolucci film, The Sheltering Sky.
Other highlights of his long distinguished film career comprise collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar on High Heels, with Brian De Palma on Snake Eyes, with Abel Ferrara for New Rose Hotel, and with Alejandro González Iñárritu The Revenant.