Photo by Kazunali Tajima - © 2014 Kab America Inc

The celebrated Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will be providing the music for director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s forthcoming feature Monster (Kaibutsu). The announcement was made on Thursday by Gaga Corporation, the Tokyo-based entity that is producing the film.

The 70-year-old Sakamoto, who won as Oscar for his scoring of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 epic The Last Emperor, will be supplying new music as well as providing some of his existing work. The prolific composer made his film debut in 1983 for Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie. He also won a Golden Globe nomination for his work on Alejandro G.

Iñárritu’s 2015 film The Revenant.

As a founder of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered electronic music in his native Japan. He first came to prominence with the 1978 release of the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives.

In 1980, his track “Riot in Lagos” was considered a significant work in the development of electro and hip-hop music.
Monster will be Kore-eda’s first Japanese film since Shoplifters, which won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2018. He most recently directed The Truth, a French film, and Broker, a Korean one.

Gaga also revealed that Sakura Ando, of Shoplifters fame, will be heading the all-star cast, accompanied by Nagayama Eita (Hokusai), Mitsuki Takahata (Japanese Girls Never Die), Akihiro Kakuta (Spring Has Come), Shido Nakamura (Twisted Justice), Yuko Tanaka (Midnight Diner) and the two child actors Soya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi.

Monster, currently in postproduction, will debut in Japan on June 2 of this year. It is likely that the film will have its world premiere at Cannes in May.

The film’s script was penned by Yuji Sakamoto, who has written several hit television series in Japan, including Mother, Woman and Matrimonial Chaos. The lead producer of Monster is Genki Kawamura, the director of A Hundred Flowers, which won him the best director laurels at the San Sebastián festival.

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