The final public performance of legendary composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, Opus is a swan song befitting his singular talent and legacy. Filmed over the course of one week, Sakamoto (directed by his son, Neo Sora) plays a selection of twenty pieces from his lifetime of creation. Sitting alone at a grand piano in a studio, he travels seamlessly between new reconfigurations of hits from his electropop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra and beautifully austere solo works such as "Solitude" to iconic film scores from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and The Last Emperor. The result is an astoundingly intimate film, one that almost feels like a private audience with one of the great artists of the 20th century.

Facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, Sakamoto embarked on this project as “a way to record my performances—while I was still able to perform—in a way that is worth preserving for the future.” Shot in beautifully stark black and white and recorded at Tokyo’s NHK Broadcasting Center (Sakamoto's favourite acoustic space in Japan), this performance is both a tremendous gift to fans of his work and a perfect entry point for anyone who'd like to get to know him better. While the 2017 documentary Coda explored Sakamoto's life outside of music through his environmental activism and artistic inspirations, in Opus he allows the piano to speak for him, looking back over a life well lived with a sense of satisfaction tinged with profound sadness.