Michael Sakamoto's performance-based work draws from a variety of media, including Butoh dance, theater, multi-media installation and graphic design. He playfully explores pop cultural notions of identity, particularly as they intersect with gender and ethnicity. Sakamoto's acclaimed 1999 performance Glorious Day for an Unknown Woman combined movement, film projection and multi-lingual dialogue to explore a fictional film director and benshi (Japanese silent film narrator) who shifted between 1920s Tokyo, 1930s Paris and 1970s Hollywood. In 2000, Sakamoto's performance piece "Extrem Sake™" attracted legal controversy during its run at Crazy Space, a performance venue at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. The installation and performance satirized the popular media trend of "anti-advertising" campaigns but drew the ire of the Absolut Vodka company, which claimed that Sakamoto's parodic advertisement infringed on its trademark.