Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto weaves man-made and natural sounds together in his works. His anti-nuclear activism grew after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and his career only paused after a 2014 cancer diagnosis.
CODA is a deeply intimate portrait of Ryuichi Sakamoto that distinguishes itself through its arresting visual language — director Stephen Nomura Schible mirrors Sakamoto's own sensibility, capturing him immersed in soundscapes from post-Fukushima forests and Arctic ice floes with genuinely poetic cinematography. The film's conception is singular: it maps the intersection of mortality, environmental grief, and musical creation in ways few music documentaries attempt. Its novelty is high because it refuses biographical convention, choosing instead a meditative, almost abstract structure that reflects Sakamoto's own artistic philosophy. The 'plot' is loosely structured around his cancer diagnosis and return to music, which gives emotional coherence if not dramatic momentum. The ending, built around his emotional concert return, is moving but somewhat expected for the genre. Overall a distinctive, beautifully crafted documentary that earns its reputation.