Film on 13 million copy global hit opens Tokyo festival
Takahisa Zeze’s drama traces the path of a 1961 ballad that became Japan's first US number one.
By Charlotte Dubois ·
Thirteen million copies of a single record sold worldwide, a figure that defines the global reach of a 1961 Japanese ballad now returning to cinema. The 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival opens with Sukiyaki, a drama by Takahisa Zeze that explores the origins of the song and its role in Japan’s postwar cultural identity.
The film centers on composer Hachidai Nakamura, portrayed by Junichi Okada, and his collaboration with lyricist Rokusuke Ei, played by Tori Matsuzaka. Singer Kyu Sakamoto, depicted by Taiga Nakano, is shown turning their work into an international phenomenon. The narrative details how Nakamura, struggling with debt and addiction after jazz was overshadowed by rockabilly, formed a partnership with Ei, a radio writer with no prior songwriting experience, to score a 1959 Toho movie.
The song, originally titled “Ue o Muite Aruko,” was written in 1961. Nakamura blended traditional Japanese scales, jazz chords, and American pop influences, while Ei’s lyrics reflected the melancholy of failed Anpo protests against a U.S.-Japan security treaty. Sakamoto performed the track unrehearsed at its July 21, 1961, debut, adding ad-libbed quirks that defined its unique sound. It initially sold 300,000 copies in Japan before British label Pye Records licensed the melody for an instrumental version by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen in 1962.
Capitol Records released the original Japanese version in the United States on May 3, 1963, under the English title “Sukiyaki.” It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in June, making Sakamoto the first Japanese artist and the first from Asia to achieve a U.S. number one. That record stood until BTS’s “Dynamite” in 2020. The track also charted at number one in countries ranging from Australia to Norway.
Sakamoto’s legacy was cut short on August 12, 1985, when Japan Air Lines flight 123 crashed into a mountainside in central Japan, killing 520 of 524 people on board, including the singer. The song has since served as a symbol of resilience, featured in a 2011 charity performance by 71 celebrities after the Great East Japan Earthquake and in the 2021 closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
The new film releases in Japan on Christmas Day. It reunites the three principal actors on screen, a combination Sakamoto had requested just days before his death.
