Zeze Takahisa’s “Sukiyaki,” the opening film of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, tells the story of how a Japanese pop song became a worldwide hit in 1963 — and, as the director explains, how its roots lie in protest, postwar sadness, and a culture that “used to be wide open.”
Sukiyaki (Credits: Variety)
The film follows the makers of the title tune: lyricist Ei Roksuke (Matsuzaka Tori), composer Nakamura Hachidai (Okada Junichi), and singer Sakamoto Kyu (Nakano Taiga) — known in Japan as the “689 trio,” from the number characters in their names: Hachi (8), Roku (6) and Kyu (9). But as the film shows in scene after highly charged dramatic scene, their professional and personal relationships were not always harmonious.
The Protest Roots of “Ue o Muite Aruko”
Originally titled “Ue o Muite Aruko” — “I Look Up as I Walk” — the song was written in 1961, blending traditional Japanese scales, jazz chords and American pop influences. Ei’s melancholic lyrics were inspired by the failure of the mass Anpo protests to stop a Tokyo-Washington security treaty that maintained a huge American military presence in Japan; the “looking upwards” of the title is about stopping tears of sadness from falling.
Sakamoto was brought in on short notice for the song’s premiere at Tokyo’s Sankei Hall on July 21, 1961, given the sheet music just two hours beforehand. Unrehearsed, he slipped into a minor key on an ad lib, sang the 4-beat song as an 8-beat, and came in a beat late — quirks that only added to the song’s distinctiveness. Two years later, renamed “Sukiyaki” for international audiences, it topped the U.S. Billboard chart for three consecutive weeks, the first Japanese song ever to do so.
Zeze on a Culture That Has Become Narrower
Speaking about the film, Zeze reflected on the contrast between that era and today: “The culture used to be wide open — now it’s become narrower.” The film, he said, is set in the years after the war as Japan entered rapid economic growth, and its founding idea is the war itself and how the characters come to think about what peace means. “Through this film, I hope this festival, too, can become a festival of peace,” he said at the festival’s opening ceremony.
Sukiyaki opens in Japanese theatres on December 25, after its gala opening of the Tokyo festival, which runs until November 4 and closes with Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller Colony.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
