Original subtitles

This film is dedicated to Jean-Roger Sahunet

"|'m working on things that will only be understood

"by the grandchildren of the 20th century."

Claude Debussy.

Mouth - Kuch/

Eye - Me

Nose - Hana

Mouth - Kuch/

It isn't straight.

Tokyo Melody: A Film About Ryuichi Sakamoto

Generally speaking, people compose music

from the first to the last note,

following a chronological order.

But today...

we can, for example, start in the middle,

memorize it,

move on to another part, memorize it...

The notion of a musical "work" has become vague.

We can put these memorized parts anywhere.

So it no longer has to be in linear time.

It is no longer unidirectional.

Rather, it's a mass of decomposed pieces of time.

Today's musical compositions

can be in any order we like.

It's 1984.

I live in Tokyo.

The way I see it...

Tokyo... or Japan...

has become the leading capitalist country.

I don't know if that's good or bad.

The time for politics is over.

People no longer think about rebelling,

on the other hand, they have a real hunger for culture.

Mainstream culture, however, has lost its authority.

There's a floating notion of values.

Technology is progressing on its own.

The gears are moving more and more efficiently.

We're beginning...

to discover possibilities that exceed our imagination and horizons.

This is clear in the field of biotechnology,

or in the fifth-generation computer.

I'm not rejecting...

or approving this form of progress.

I don't say: "Return to nature."

Or: "Return to pre-modern times."

I don't want to go against the flow.

I'm interested in the cracks in technology.

In other words, errors or noise.

They are the things that really interest me,

and I wonder if new cultural trends

could emerge from this deficiency.

This concern is behind all my work.

My conception of music isn't based on everyday time,

but more on time and space

together as a constant.

In Japan, where music is everywhere,

what we might call universal time

continues to exist on the same basis as our everyday time.

Nowadays music is everywhere.

We hear background music

in coffee shops,

in department stores, and so on.

No-one listens from beginning to end.

In an elevator

we listen to a bit of music,

we get off at the required floor,

and we hear some different music.

The music is there for our benefit.

Only certain parts are chosen.

That really interests me.

Music which we can only understand

after listening for five or ten minutes

no longer suits our lives.

Not only in movie music,

but music in general,

there are more or less predictable parts,

and parts that betray our expectations,

parts that create a counterpunch.

Music is a balance between these two elements.

You're human after all, Sergeant Hera.

Mr. Lawrence.

Father Christmas, yes?

That's right...

Hera-San.

Father Christmas.

Santa Claus if you like.

That's me! Father Christmas!

When I compose film music

I try to follow the dramatic structure

and relationships between the characters.

These melodies become leitmotivs for me.

I alter the orchestration and decide on the scoring

in accordance with that.

You have Celliers and Yonoi,

and then Hera and Lawrence.

They're the two dramatic relationships in this film.

These two themes provide the backbone of the film.

Then there are passages that link the powerful images,

which I highlight using a different kind of music.

So there are two musical themes accompanying the story,

and others

accompanying the dramatic visuals.

These two elements are the main pillars of the film.

I'm preparing a new solo album.

Between January and June 1983,

and from April to June of this year,

I recorded about 30 pieces.

I'll choose about 10 of them

to put on my new solo album.

I might throw some of the others out,

or use them for commercials,

or perhaps keep them for another album.

- Do we keep that? - Yeah.

They're all different types of music,

I don't feel the same about them all.

So, which ones do I select?

What will the concept be?

I'm really not sure.

This is a system disc.

Can you explain it briefly to us?

Now it's loading.

There are more than 30 memory discs.

And each disc contains from 20 to 30 sounds.

So you have access to around 600 sounds.

That's right, more than 600.

Let's choose one.

Here...

are the names of the sounds.

There are 18 sounds here.

This is the memory control board. This side is for sounds.

For example...

which one?

Number 14 is now loading.

What kind of sound is number 14?

It's a piano.

Just an ordinary piano?

You can talk and record it,

make any kind of noise, any kind of sound.

Anything-

Line up!

- Numbers! - 1,2, 3,4!

This shows the time. I'm making a loop.

You can make a loop here.

We make several loops of the same length.

When I remove the loop...

I get this sample.

Can you create new sounds?

Yes, of course.

Here you can draw a sound curve,

and you can hear it.

Is that what you've just drawn?

In fact...

it's more complicated than that.

We managed it pretty easily this time.

This shows the sound in three dimensions.

The thing is...

we Japanese often communicate without words,

with just glances.

Sometimes this causes misunderstandings,

but the mood is often more important

than a spoken yes or no.

When I work with Japanese people

I become fully Japanese.

When I work with Westerners,

I try to be like them.

Once more?

That's okay, yeah? It's okay.

FOLLOW THE ARROW

NO SMOKING

Hello.

Debussy used to say

that he liked images as much as music.

See you in a bit.

I was a quiet child.

I used to play by myself.

I once stole cakes from a neighbor.

I composed my first piece of music aged 4.

I mostly played the piano.

My father...

was a literary publisher.

And my mother...

was a designer of ladies' hats.

If I'd heard the Beatles earlier,

I'd never have studied classical music.

John Cage, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp,

Maurice Ravel,

Stravinsky,

Henri Dutilleux,

Olivier Messiaen,

Ryumei Yoshimoto...

a man I met,

men and women passing by in the street,

girls I've known.

How to remain myself in the media.

That's what I learned from him.

I like Claude Debussy because of his variety,

his complexity.

He doesn't use a lot of sounds,

but the complexity emanates from a few sounds.

Speaking of scratch music, which is now in fashion,

I don't think it will develop as music.

The best thing about it

is that, instead of creating music,

it creates action and performance.

It's a method that could be called very post-modern.

NO PARKING

"|'m working on things that will only be understood

"by the grandchildren of the 20th century.

"They alone will see that the garb doesn't make the musician.

"Stripping the veils from idols,

"they will uncover a sorry skeleton."

Claude Debussy.

Shall we do it?

Okay?

These days

copywriters are very successful.

We even speak of "copy culture."

Instead of looking into the essential,

people claim to understand via catch phrases.

The next stop is Aoyama.

WINE CALLS TO ME

I don't know when it began but we have lots of specialized magazines.

Every type of product is written about.

There's the same phenomenon in music.

There are lots of genres,

but there's less and less variety.

The name of the genre is what's important.

Music is considered only

as basic material.

Genre is like a mold into which music has to fit.

Elements outside the genre

tend to be eliminated.

To be brave is to fight, so I thought...

until recently.

Be healthy. Be strong.

Insurance for youth. You!

Line up!

To the right!

Left!

At ease!

Watch out!

Half turn!

Thank you for your patience.

We are now reaching the top floor.

PALM READER

Thank you for your visit.

We are pleased to inform you

that to reach the observatory, at a height of 750 feet,

takes only one minute.

From this vantage point you can see skyscrapers...

There aren't many Japanese people

with whom I can work on the same level.

My wife, Akiko Yano, is an exception.

Along with a few others.

I hope to work with them for a long time.

Both Yellow Magic Orchestra and myself

change our ambiance for each album or stage show

to avoid monotony.

I'm never worried

about not being masculine when I wear make-up.

It's more fun to have an androgynous look.

My work is different from music written at a desk,

at a university or a music conservatory.

At a university or a music conservatory.

I went from contemporary to pop music

because I wanted direct contact with a mass audience.

Hello.

Hello.

Yes.

Yes, okay.

Hotel Okura.

Yes.

We filmed heaven.

There were lots of trees.

So close you could touch them.

Yes, we're shooting.

I understand.

We've arrived.