Composing soundtracks was a kind of accident for me - I never thought I would ever compose for film. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence was my debut score, but I was actually brought in as an actor first by the director, Nagisa Oshima, though my principal career had been in pop music, with the Yellow Magic Orchestra. So at our first meeting I just asked him if I could compose the music. And so it began
Many of the films I've scored since are based in very different and specific cultures: Peter Kosminsky's Wuthering Heights, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky, Pedro Almodovar's High Heels. That's one of the reasons I take them. Every time is a good learning experience, a good education. I'm lazy, so I have to be given a challenge! It's also a good way to learn about different cultures and, of course, it's fascinating to work with different cultural artists. Before accepting a commission, I always check a director's reputation or existing films. If he or she is a new director, I trust my intuition, but of course the subject matter is important. I try to get the script, if I'm allowed to read it, but I have to be interested in the subject.
Another important factor is how big the budget for music is, or how much time I have. If it's two days, I won't do it. I normally like eight weeks for each project, which is a long time in the Japanese film industry, although it might be a little more normal here and in the US. I usually start working after the director puts together a rough edit, at the beginning of post-production. I don't touch the edit. With each director I work in a different way. Bertolucci, for example, has strong views, so he might not need so many suggestions. I've worked with him three times now - The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky and Little Buddha - and we're talking about working again , so I'm glad our relationship is still. The first time I was a little too shy, but by the third time I made sure I was not too shy! He can be very precise about music, and he'll sometimes give strict instructions about the instrumentation: 'I need to hear a solo violin here', for instance. He also has a desire to hear something he's never heard before. The director and the composer need to talk a lot - yell a lot! - but, naturally, the composer has the weaker hand. I try to protect my corner but, again, the director will win - it's his film!
What's more, success often depends on developing this sort of strong relationship with the director. I recently worked with Mr Oshima again on his new movie Gohatto, which means 'forbidden' or 'taboo'. In Japanese cinema, there's a certain musical sub-category - the Samurai movie. You always hear this stereotypical music, and I hate it! So the first thing I told Mr Oshima was that I would not compose that kind of music, and he understood completely.
People ask me which scores I'm proudest of. The strongest melody is perhaps the music for The Last Emperor. Or maybe Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Each piece of music has a different character -they're like your children - different colour eyes, different colour hair, different colour skin. But you know, we musicians get carried away.
Sakamoto's soundtracks include 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence', 'The Last Emperor', 'The Sheltering Sky', 'High Heels', 'Little Buddha' and 'Love Is The Devil'.