Taken from his documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, director Neo Sora – son of the legendary Japanese composer, producer and artist – reveals an intimate recording of Sakamoto’s final performance of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Captured without an audience in late 2022, the session was shot and recorded at Tokyo’s iconic NHK 509 Studio shortly before Sakamoto’s passing in 2023. "He had played this song thousands of times”, Sora said, “Here, he played it like the first”.

A tribute to the late artist through the lens of one of his most famous melodies, this musical fragment captures the timeless artistry of a prolific musician, and the legacy that lives on through his music. Also released as an album earlier in 2024, Opus earned Sakamoto a posthumous GRAMMY nomination for Best New Age album. "The project was conceived as a way to record my performances, while I was still able to perform,” Sakamoto shared before his passing, “in a way that is worth preserving for the future”.