Tokyo Opener ‘Sukiyaki’ Director Zeze Takahisa on the Protest Roots of a Global Japanese Pop Hit: ‘The Culture Used to Be Wide Open – Now It’s Become Narrower’

The opening film of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, Zeze Takahisa’s “Sukiyaki” tells the story of how the title tune became a worldwide hit in 1963 as well as a beloved standard that has been recorded in foreign-language versions that have also topped charts.