In an interview with the Guardian, the Japanese composer calls his missed opportunity of reconnecting with David Bowie, when the two lived in downtown New York, his “great regret”.
The two pioneers both starred in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, in which Sakamoto played the conflicted Captain Yonoi alongside Bowie’s character, Jack Celliers.
It’s not the first time Sakamoto has reminisced over his time with the late icon. In a 2016 interview with FACT, he said, “I acted in a film for the very first time with David Bowie, who was amazing. And it was my very first film music. So two very new things came to be at the same time. Working with David Bowie, I was with him for a month, every day, on a very small island in the South Pacific Ocean. For a month!”
“It was an amazing experience. He was very nice guy. Very straightforward.”
Elsewhere in his Guardian interview, Sakamoto details his experience of working with Haruomi Hosono. Together, they formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1987. He says, “His dream was creating independent music and exporting it to the world from Japan. I liked the idea, so I said OK.”
Read the full interview here.