In 1996, Sakamoto produced "Mind Circus", the first single from actress Miki Nakatani, leading to a collaboration period spanning 9 singles and 7 albums though 2001. Roddy Frame, who worked with Sakamoto as a member of Aztec Camera, explained in a 1993 interview preceding the release of "Dreamland" that he had had to wait a lengthy period of time before he was able to work with Sakamoto, who wrote two soundtracks, a solo album and the music for the opening ceremony at the Barcelona Olympics, prior to working with Frame over four weeks in a New York studio. Frame said that he was impressed by the work of YMO and the "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" soundtrack, explaining: "That's where you realise that the atmosphere around his compositions is actually in the writing - it's got nothing to do with synthesisers." Frame's decision to ask Sakamoto was finalized after he saw his performance at the Japan Festival that was held in London, United Kingdom. Of his experience recording with Sakamoto, Frame said:  Sakamoto began working in films, as a composer and actor, in Nagisa Oshima's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983), for which he composed the score, title theme, and the duet "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian. Sakamoto later composed Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" (1987), which earned him the Academy Award with fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su. In that same year, he composed the score to the cult-classic anime film "". Sakamoto also went on to compose the score of the opening ceremony for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, telecast live to an audience of over a billion viewers. Other films scored by Sakamoto include Pedro Almodóvar's "Tacones lejanos (High Heels)" (1991), Bertolucci's "The Little Buddha" (1993), Oliver Stone's "Wild Palms" (1993), John Maybury's "" (1998), Brian De Palma's "Snake Eyes" (1998) and "Femme Fatale" (2002), Oshima's "Gohatto" (1999), Jun Ichikawa's (director of the Mitsui ReHouse commercial from 1997 to 1999 starring Chizuru Ikewaki and Mao Inoue) "Tony Takitani" (2005). Several tracks from Sakamoto's earlier solo albums have also appeared in film soundtracks. In particular, variations of "Chinsagu No Hana" (from "Beauty") and "Bibo No Aozora" (from "1996") provide the poignant closing pieces for Sue Brooks's "Japanese Story" (2003) and Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel" (2006), respectively.