Film on 13-Million-Sale 1960s Hit Opens Tokyo Film Festival

The 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival opens with a film about the most successful Japanese pop record of the 20th century. The movie, simply titled Sukiyaki, explores the history behind the 1961 single that became a global phenomenon.

Takahisa Zeze directs the drama, which follows the creative team behind the hit. Junichi Okada plays composer Hachidai Nakamura, while Tori Matsuzaka portrays lyricist Rokusuke Ei. Taiga Nakano takes the role of singer Kyu Sakamoto. The story focuses on how this trio transformed a local tune into a worldwide symbol of Japan’s postwar recovery.

The source material reveals a messy origin. Nakamura was struggling with debt and addiction after jazz fell out of favor. He partnered with Ei, a radio writer with no songwriting experience, to score a 1959 Toho film. Their collaboration produced “Ue o Muite Aruko,” which blends traditional Japanese scales with jazz chords and U.S. pop influences. Ei drew his melancholic lyrics from the failure of the Anpo protests against a U.S. security treaty.

Sakamoto performed the song for the first time at Tokyo’s Sankei Hall on July 21, 1961. He received the sheet music just two hours before the show. Unrehearsed, he changed the key, altered the rhythm, and came in late on the beat. These improvisations added to the track’s distinctiveness. It became the best domestic song in Music Life from November 1961 to January 1962, selling 300,000 copies.

International success followed through a series of odd choices. Louis Benjamin of Pye Records heard the track in 1962 and commissioned an instrumental version by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. It hit the British top ten in February 1963. Capitol Records in the U.S. later released the original Japanese vocal version under the English title “Sukiyaki.” It entered record stores on May 3, 1963, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in June.

Sakamoto became the only Japanese artist to ever hold the U.S. number one spot until BTS’s “Dynamite” in 2020. The single sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, topping charts in countries from Australia to Norway. Toshiba reissued the record in Japan, adding the English title to the cover and labeling it a “global hit!”

The song’s cultural footprint has persisted for decades. A Taste of Honey reached number three on the Hot 100 in 1981 with their cover. The lyrics were also sampled in Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick’s 1985 hit “La Di Da Di.” The track has appeared in Ghibli films and was performed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony.

Sakamoto died on August 12, 1985, in the Japan Air Lines flight 123 crash, the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in history. The new film opens in Japan on Christmas Day, depicting the trio Sakamoto said he wanted to reunite just days before his death.