Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Haruna's Hit
In another thread, Kc mentioned that she found Haruna’s “ridiculous hit song to be somewhat moving and melancholy when stripped of its pop beat and electronic music”. I thought the song was a decidedly good bit of tween pop product with a strong hook and just the right sappiness in its idolized image of love. I would never sit around and listen to it, but I thought it was pretty good for what it was. And I was also impressed with how well it worked as a melancholy lament. Ben, what is your reaction to the two versions of this song?
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11 comments:
I agree. The pop version sounded authentic (it made me wonder whether it was a real Japanese pop song) and the other version was very moving (which made me think that it wasn't a real pop song!).
Wasn't it also a little haunting? I don't remember it clearly enough to know for sure.
Played on the harmonica it did sound haunting.
I’ll see if I can find out if the sound was written for the movie or if it was already out.
It took awhile, but I found it. It's a real Japanese pop song, sung by the actress (who is a Japanese pop star). It was on Japan's top 20 for one week (October 13, 2001, 364 days before the film came out in Japan). Here's the music video.
I love the dude who appears at the 3 minute mark!
Thanks for finding that Ben; it was cool. I liked the bit where she was flying around on the wing of the plane.
Her dancing leaves something to be desired.
This may merit a different post, but what about the singing during the initial performance with the puppets? It was excruciating. I wondered at first whether the lady puppet's lament was supposed to be tragicomic, or if in that art form the voice wasn't relevant, or if I missed something else.
Did you notice that all of the puppeteers (for lack of a better word) were men?
Cl, I've noticed that Asian music, especially classic Japanese and Chinese dramatic music (opera and such) sounds very harsh and grating to the Western ear. And all the actors tend to be men, yeah. I thought it was strange, but somehow necessary, that they were actually showing the puppeteers' faces. Some of them had black masks, but others you could see.
I was turned off by the singing, too. I am not familiar with that type of singing, but I assumed it was the style for that kind of show.
Japan is famous for their male sopranos -- outside of the three sopranos in Chanticleer, they are the world's best (and at least one man from Japan has sung soprano in Chanticleer). I wish the film had had a male soprano sing.
As a general rule, Eastern music seems harsh to Western ears. If you want proof, just listen to a Korean piano (like a Young Chang), or the top octave or so of a Yamaha piano (the lower registers of Yamaha pianos sound great, but the top is awful).
Of course, it's all relative. The way Asian music sounds to Americans is probably the same as how American music sounds to Germans (German music is much darker than music from anywhere else).
By the way, somebody made a comment on imdb.com that the first time "Kimi No Hitomi Ni Koishiteru" is heard is on Matsumoto's cellphone ringtone early in the movie.
I don't know that any of you will catch this comment so many weeks later, but I STILL can't get that tune out of my head! I can't stop whistling it at work.
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