Sukiyaki Tells the Story Behind Kyu Sakamoto's 1963 Hit, and Japan Gets It on Christmas Day

Photo: Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ue o Muite Aruko, known outside Japan as Sukiyaki, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in 1963, which is still unusual for a song sung in Japanese. The new film Sukiyaki, directed by Zeze Takahisa, tells how it was made and opened the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 26. It reaches Japanese cinemas on December 25.

Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The story is built around three people. Junichi Okada plays the composer Hachidai Nakamura, Tori Matsuzaka plays the lyricist Rokusuke Ei, and Taiga Nakano plays the singer Kyu Sakamoto. The screenplay is by Minato Takehiko, though outlets spell the name two different ways, which is normal when Japanese names pass through English.

Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Screen Daily called it a sprawling, feel-good drama, which fits a film that sets its story in postwar Japan and weaves it together with a collection of the music. Okada said at the red carpet that he practised piano for three months before filming began.

Photo: Yusuke Kawasaki, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kyu Sakamoto died in the 1985 Japan Airlines crash, which I mention only because that cheerful chorus always lands differently once you know it. I do not know how much of that the film touches, and I will find out when it opens.

Photo: David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you heard the original, or only the cover versions, like the 1981 hit by A Taste of Honey that gave the song its confusing English title?