Conan the Barbarian: Theology/Civilization

Way back in 1997 or 1998, Nintendo released the official trailer for their latest game,  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  I recall reading at the time (most likely in Nintendo Power) that a composer named Basil Poledouris had been hired to write the music for that trailer.  This was my introduction to a legendary film composer who has written some of my favorite pieces of music.

I found out later that the music for the Ocarina of Time trailer was really just a subtle reworking of the "Riders of Doom" theme from Poledouris' soundtrack to the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian.  The soundtrack to Conan is considered by some film score enthusiasts to be one of the best movie soundtracks ever made.  While I scoffed at that claim early on (Conan is a cult classic but not exactly a masterpiece), I quickly began to reconsider after sitting down and listening to it.  Poledouris crafts a wide range of complex motifs in the soundtrack, from the brutally powerful "Main Theme" to the tender "Wifeing", a song that has been used in many movie trailers since.  Moreover, the soundtrack to Conan seems to act as a kind of musical transition from the Bernard Hermann era, Cinemascope sword and sandal epics of the '60s to the James Horner and John Williams operatic epics of the 80s and 90s.  When put all together, the soundtrack has a dreamlike, timeless quality to it, and I am fairly certain that it is the film's music which elevates Conan the Barbarian from mere B-movie pulp to something significantly more artistic.

I have had the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack in one form or another for many years now, but last year a brand new, 3 disc set was released.  Before 2012, the majority of the soundtrack was thought to be lost.  Only the original 1982 LP release had been remastered, while the rest of the score only existed on worn, low quality formats.  However the original recordings were recently found in vaults at Universal Studios, and the music was remastered and released in its complete form.

This song, Theology/Civilization, is my favorite track from that score.  It represents the older, 50s/60s style of movie music, where fantasy or Greek/Roman epics were often scored with medieval sounding music.  Towards the end of the track however, it moves into a more powerful, modern interpretation that is similar to Poledouris' other motifs.  A new Conan movie is being planned, with Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as an older King Conan.  Although Poledouris is sadly no longer around to create new music for the movie, I hope that the new film will reuse his main theme, and maybe one or two other songs, in order to create some musical cohesion for what will now be a Conan trilogy.  One can only hope.

Enjoy!




Album info: http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Barbarian-CDs-Complete-Score/dp/B00ADW4I9O/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1360369057&sr=8-4&keywords=conan+the+barbarian+soundtrack

The Hidden Blade - Seeking a New Life

I've never met a Yoji Yamada film I didn't like.  Yamada, the now very old but still working Japanese director, made himself a central figure in Japanese cinema history by creating and directing the Tora-san series.  Tora-san is a staple of Japanese culture, or at least was for many decades, and for good reason: spanning the years 1969 to 1995, the Tora-san films constitute (more or less officially depending on the definition) the longest film series in history.  There were forty eight movies made - two movies released during most years.  The movies themselves followed a tried and true formula: Tora-san returns home to reunite with his family, Tora-san meddles in their affairs with (usually) the best intentions, Tora-san falls in love with a woman and in the end finds his affections to be unrequited, returning to the road once more.  The character was beloved by audiences, and the movies became a reliably heart-warming routine.  There was always a Tora-san movie to look forward to.  Only when the principal actor died did the series end.

After dedicating most of his career to Tora-san, Yoji Yamada began to work on other projects.  Finally, in 2002, Yamada found truly international acclaim with the first film of his jidaigeki trilogy, The Twilight Samurai.  He followed it with two more samurai tales, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor.  All three were based on stories by the 20th century author Shuhei Fujisawa.  I first noticed The Twilight Samurai when it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004.  The clip they showed, of a samurai leaping over the head of another and clocking his opponent on the head with a wooden sword, made me sit up and ask "what was that?"  Eventually I rented and watched all three.

The jidaigeki trilogy are really only samurai movies in the loosest sense.  That is, they are about samurai.  But if you're looking for sword fights, blood, and shouts of righteous vengeance, look elsewhere.  Yamada's films are straight up dramas, and tearjerkers at that.  All of Yamada's films - from Tora-san, to the jidaigeki, to his most recent period dramas - share a warmth and depth of feeling that is hard to find in cinema.  His characters are truly good people, with good intentions, and the drama of their stories comes more often from circumstances than it does from villains (although villains do exist).  Yamada is a living legend among Japanese directors and I look forward to what he still has to offer.

I have searched unsuccessfully for music from the Tora-san series.  However, I was very happy to find a soundtrack release that compiled music from all three of Yamada's samurai movies.  The composer of the soundtracks is Isao Tomita, a part of Japanese musical history himself.  Tomita gained fame by pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and '70s (he also composed the soundtrack to my favorite Japanese disaster film, The Prophecies of Nostradamus).  His recent soundtracks use some synth, but have shifted mostly towards orchestral compositions.  Today's song is "Seeking a New Life" from The Hidden Blade.  Although I probably liked Twilight Samurai and Love and Honor slightly more as movies, The Hidden Blade contains some of the best music from the trilogy.  "Seeking a New Life" is the final song from that movie and showcases both its love theme, which plays at 0:56 and 3:24, and its main theme, which kicks in at 2:20.  The love theme is particularly stirring and is my favorite piece from the film, and second favorite from the entire trilogy (only narrowly beaten by the theme to Love and Honor).  I will certainly post more music of Tomita's in the future.  Enjoy!

 

Album info:  http://www.game-ost.com/albums/15303/yoji_yamada_jidaigeki_trilogy_best_selection/

Bully - Defend Bucky

For today's soundtrack we return a little closer to home with Rockstar's 2006 game, Bully.  Rockstar is one of the few companies out there that have released their game soundtracks in America, but not exactly because of their original content.  With Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Rockstar recognized the commercial appeal of their "jukebox" soundtracks - that is, their collection of well known (and lesser known) pop songs from the various eras in which their games take place.  They released a huge box set of '80s songs in a Vice City soundtrack, and continued on through the '90s and present day with soundtrack releases for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto 4.  The popularity of these jukebox soundtracks peaked at the very beginning however- Vice City, still remains the most popular soundtrack by Rockstar, and my favorite by far from the GTA series.

The jukebox trend changed with the release of Bully, however.  Bully's soundtrack was an entirely original composition by Shawn Lee, an American musician who relocated to Britain early in his career. However, Lee's soundtrack continued Rockstar's practice of evoking different time periods.  The game itself is set in an ambiguous, anachronistic era, with references to the 70s, 80s, 90s and present day.  The soundtrack also straddles eras to a degree, but its styles definitely point to the punk rock and dance hall sounds of the 70s and 80s.  Lee picks a musical genre appropriate to the scene or character of the moment.  The dropouts get rock, preps gets '80s pop, nerds get vintage electronica, etc.

This track is "Defend Bucky" and plays during one of the game's missions.  The song got my attention with its minimalist style and progressive motif.  At a time when most game soundtracks go orchestral (or at least hard rock), "Defend Bucky" is unapologetically funky, and its style represents the rest of the soundtrack well.  Enjoy!



Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/3955

Nobunaga's Ambition Online - Tranquility

Today's track is another one I've been listening to non-stop lately.  When I first posted a song by Kenji Kawai (the track from the movie Gantz), I mentioned that I had been introduced to Kenji Kawai's music via the soundtrack of Nobunaga's Ambition Online.  The online game of the series was first released in 2003 and has seen a number of expansions, or "chapters", since then.  The online game continues the series' tradition of great music, starting with Yoko Kanno and then continuing with Kousuke Yamashita.  Although Kawai is probably my least favorite composer of the three, he is still a great one, and his compositions are way higher in quality than those of your average video game composer.

The music to Nobunaga's Ambition Online got its first release in 2005 with a soundtrack to the first chapters.  There ave been two more soundtrack releases since then, all featuring music by Kawai.  Unfortunately, just like the games, the soundtracks are not available in the United States and are incredible hard to find.  I still have not located the third soundtrack, but will continue to try.

Although Kawai's music is often dark and brooding (like his soundtracks to the movies Gantz and Death Note), or fast and action-oriented (like his music for the Ip Man films), I personally prefer the tracks of his that are lighter and more cheerful.  Most of his soundtracks will feature at least one of those, and Nobunaga's Ambition Online has a few.  This is one of them, appropriately titled "Tranquility".  Having not played the game, I can't be certain under what context the music plays.  The song begins with a charming flute solo (an instrument I'm a sucker for) before transitioning into Kawai's signature over-produced sounding strings, which I have grown fond of over time.  It is a very short track, but another good example of Kawai's style and ability to craft a memorable theme.  Enjoy!



Album info: http://vgmdb.net/album/939

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - End Credits

Today's song is one I've been obsessively listening to recently.  I still have yet to play either of the Super Mario Galaxy games, despite loving both of their soundtracks.  I posted one track from the first Super Mario Galaxy already, a song named "Wind Garden", which was the main theme to that game.  That motif appears again here, acting as a theme to the entire series  The soundtrack for Super Mario Galaxy 2 is once again composed by Mahito Yokota, with some main themes contributed by Koji Kondo.  There are also a few songs by the new composer Ryo Nagamatsu, who also worked on the New Super Mario Bros. Wii soundtrack.  These end credits, however, are indeed another composition of Mahito Yokota, whom I hope continues to score many more game soundtracks in the future.

As the end credits suite, this track reprises three songs from Super Mario Galaxy 2.  The first is of course the main theme: "Sky Station Galaxy" on the official soundtrack.  The end credits offer a slightly altered version of the theme before moving into the truly stirring transition to "The Starship Sails" at 1:56 - a transition that might mark my favorite part of the entire soundtrack.  The song then reprises part of "Sky Station Galaxy" again at 2:27 before ending with the original "Wind Garden" theme at 2:57.  All together, the song is an excellent introduction to the musical beauty of the Super Mario Galaxy series, and one of the best end credit themes to a game that I know.  Enjoy!

 

Album info:  http://vgmdb.net/album/19454

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Without a Hunting Field

This year at the NYAFF I had a chance to catch the recent Taiwanese epic war film "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale".  An edited, international version of the movie had been screened in New York a couple of times, but I had missed each opportunity.  Finally, the film festival showed the movie in its original two-part, four and a half hour version (which I had no idea existed until reading the festival schedule)  The movie is about a little known part of history, and a little known ethnic group - the indigenous Seediq people of Taiwan.  The Seediq, along with a number of other indigenous ethnic groups on the island, have a culture that most Westerners would associate more with Native Americans than with East Asians.  Indeed, the ancient land bridge connecting Asia and North America might have resulted in those cultures settling and developing around the same time.  (I had known a tiny bit about Taiwan's indigenous people already, or at least of their existence - I had seen a television special about them a few years back, which showcased some of their chants.  The chants were immediately recognizable to me, and I soon realized that they had been sampled for the Enigma song "Return to Innocence", a New Age song that had achieved some popularity in the mid 90s.)  When Japan acquired Taiwan at the end of the 1800s, they (like most other colonial powers), saw the tribespeople as savages whose culture needed to be eradicated and replaced.  While the Han Chinese suffered abuses, the indigenous tribes suffered much worse, as their entire populations were displaced and sometimes even wiped out.

The movie relates a rebellion that occurred in 1930, when the displaced natives rose up against the Japanese en masse.  The first "part" (or more appropriately, the first movie) was, in my opinion, incredibly well done.  It establishes the Seediq characters well, flaws and all.  It rightfully portrays the Japanese army as oppressive, but still three dimensional and human: a rarity among Chinese films, even by master filmmakers.  And it concludes with a heart wrenching massacre, not of Seediq, but of Japanese men, women and children who have met for a sporting event and been made targets of the Seediq's first revolt.  The attack is not portrayed as glorious or noble, nor is it portrayed as savage.  It's simply a violent tragedy brought about by a people backed into a corner with violence.  The conclusion had me eagerly anticipating an exploration of the moral and political ramifications in part two.  Unfortunately, the second part of the epic descent into the inevitable nationalism that such subject matter elicits.  The rational Japanese characters become consumed by a need for revenge, the Seediq's killing of civilians is barely questioned, and the whole conflict is presented as a sad but noble necessity. Part two has it's moments as well, and its failings do not ruin the ultimate achievements of the movie.  But While "Seediq Bale" could have been truly great, it settles somewhere around "pretty good".

Accompanying all of this mayhem is a soundtrack by Chinese composer Ricky Ho, who I hadn't heard of before this movie.  Some reviewers complain of the soundtrack becoming too tiresome - a legitimate concern seeing how the soundtrack revolves around one major theme.  However, the motif sees enough variations that I never found it boring.  Any weariness of the soundtrack is more likely brought about by a weariness of the movie and its flaws.  The central theme is, in the end, not just beautiful, but versatile enough to elicit different feelings in different scenes.  This track, which is the longest one featuring the motif, plays during the scene of Seediq being "civilized" by the colonizers.  Coming early in the movie, it's able to take something as benign as Seediq children learning Japanese, and turn it into something heartbreaking - the knowledge that Seediq culture is being replaced and lost forever.  It's actually the one track that made me want to buy the soundtrack, and I was not disappointed.

Overall, I would give the "Seediq Bale" a strong recommendation, if only for the brilliance of its first half.  Most viewers might want to check out the two and a half hour international version, which I haven't seen but hope to soon.  One would hope that the shorter version cuts out some of the gratuitous patriotism in favor of the more nuanced character moments and moral ambiguity.  It's more likely that the movie just cuts out dialogue in favor of violence.  But in either case, the shorter version will likely be easier to swallow, as well as dissect.  Enjoy!




Album info:  http://www.yesasia.com/us/seediq-bale-original-soundtrack-ost/1025036293-0-0-0-en/info.html

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - Opening Theme

I posted a song of Joe Hisaishi's before - the main theme to the moving Korean war film Welcome to Dongmakgol - but Hisaishi is much better known for his soundtracks to the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki.  Miyazaki is sometimes called the Japanese Walt Disney, not because of any real stylistic similarity between the two, but more because both animators are known for a series of consistent masterpieces, and because both have significantly impacted the national culture in which they lived.  Just as images of Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Peter Pan can be found plastered on merchandise all over the United States, Totoro, Jiji, and the Catbus pop up all over Japan (although to be fair, Disney characters are fairly common in Japan as well.)

Much like Spielberg continues to use John Williams for all of his scores, and James Cameron relies on James Horner for his, Hayao Miyazaki has formed a lasting collaboration with Joe Hisaishi.  The animated environmentalist film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was the beginning of that collaboration.  Although Hisaishi goes mostly for orchestral styles nowadays, this 1984 soundtrack contained a great deal of synthesized music, popular both here and in Japan at the time.  This is the opening theme to that movie.  The song begins with the aforementioned synthesized motif, which plays from 0:00 to 1:17.  It accompanies the pre-credits scene which introduces the dystopian world of the distant future, a world rendered toxic by centuries of pollution, in which humans are sparse and giant mutant creatures run rampant.  The orchestra kicks in at 1:18, where the beautiful main theme accompanies the opening credits of the film.  These credits are accompanied by ancient paintings that depict mankind's downfall one thousand years before the beginning of the story.  The synth returns at 3:53 where we are introduced to the teenage girl, Nausicaa.  Even this early in his career, Hisaishi is as good as ever.  Although I could do without some of the more ethereal computer music, his orchestrations are more than enough to make this a worthy soundtrack, and they establish the film's universe wonderfully.  The moment Hisaishi's main theme started as I watched the movie for the first time, I new that this was going to be a great film.



Album info:  http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TKCA-72717