Tokyo Film Festival Premieres Drama on the History of Sukiyaki
The new film explores how a 1961 Japanese ballad became the first Asian song to top the Billboard Hot 100.
By Derek Collins ·
A drama chronicling the origins of the 1963 global hit “Sukiyaki” opened the 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival. Directed by Takahisa Zeze, the film traces the journey of a song that served as a cultural milestone for Japan during its postwar recovery.
The narrative centers on composer Hachidai Nakamura, played by Junichi Okada, and lyricist Rokusuke Ei, portrayed by Tori Matsuzaka. In 1959, the pair began an unlikely collaboration to write a rockabilly score for a Toho movie. That partnership led to the creation of “Ue o Muite Aruko” in 1961. Ei’s melancholic lyrics reflected the failure of mass protests to stop a Tokyo-Washington security treaty, while Nakamura blended traditional Japanese scales with jazz chords and U.S. pop influences.
Singer Kyu Sakamoto, played by Taiga Nakano, was given the sheet music only two hours before the premiere at Tokyo’s Sankei Hall on July 21, 1961. Unrehearsed, Sakamoto performed the track in a minor key and shifted the rhythm to an eight-beat pattern. His ad libbed performance added layers of distinctiveness to the melody.
The song gained international traction when Louis Benjamin of British label Pye Records visited Japan in 1962. He commissioned an instrumental cover by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, which reached the British top ten in February 1963. Capitol Records later released the original Japanese version under the title “Sukiyaki.” It entered U.S. record stores on May 3, 1963, and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in June.
The single sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. Its success provided a source of national pride for Japan as its economy experienced double-digit growth and companies like Sony and Toyota expanded globally. The song became the first from Asia to reach the top of the U.S. charts, a feat not repeated until BTS’s “Dynamite” in 2020.
Sakamoto’s life ended in tragedy on August 12, 1985, when Japan Air Lines flight 123 crashed into a mountainside, killing 520 of the 524 people on board. It remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in aviation history. The song has since been used in various media, including a 2011 television commercial featuring 71 celebrities and the Ghibli film “From Up on Poppy Hill.”
The film opens in Japanese theaters on Christmas Day. It depicts the reunion of the creative trio that shaped the song’s legacy.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
