[KineJapan] Takemitsu Tōru and Ai no korrida (In the Realm of the Senses)

[Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan]

With the mention of Takemitsu Toru, this seems like a good opportunity to mention a little-known aspect of his career.
When Takemitsu visited Seattle from April 9-18 in 1992 as the Seattle Spring Festival of Contemporary Music's composer-in-residence, he gave a public address on his work as a composer of music scores for films. He showed the full length of Shinoda’s 1969 film Shinju ten no Amijima (Double Suicide) as an example of one of his finest film scores. After the fviewing he discussed his work on various movies. At that point, I asked him what he thought of Oshima’s Ai no korrida (In the Realm of the Senses). Takemitsu replied at length in an extremely interesting account of his interaction with Oshima at that time.  He said that when Oshima had begun planning to make that film he had contacted Takemitsu about creating a score for it. However, Takemitsu said that he could not really follow Oshima’s idea for making the film and rejected the idea of working on the project. However, after the film was released and he had a chance to see it, he was astonished by the high quality of the film  - that he had turned down a chance to be involved in that project was one of the great regrets of his career. He immediately contacted Oshima to express both his congratulations and regrets. He insisted that Oshima choose him to do the score for his next film regardless of what it would be. It was for this reason that Takemitsu did the score for Ai no borei (In the Realm of Passion). Unfortunately, Takemitsu was not so impressed with Ai no borei and working on it only deepened his regret about Ai no korrida. Takemitsu found the score used for Ai no korrida to be competent but average and felt that had he worked on the project that he might have been inspired to do one of his finest works. 

It is quite likely that the organizers of the event recorded Takemitsu’s lecture and discussion, but whether it still exists is unknown to me.

Paul Berry
Kyoto 


* Quote messages from < "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan" <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>> : It won't add much to your research, but Takemitsu composed the music (and gave us a lovely interview, as did Teshigahara) for our film on Japanese gardens, "Dream Window." You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWcmuk2tN7M&t=151s

John Junkerman

On Tue, Feb 6, 2018 at 8:03 AM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
Thank you very much, Roger, for the information. I am interested by Takemitsu. I am still writing a book about Teshigahara Hiroshi and the importance of Takemitsu's scores in meaning of the movies. I didn' succed today to hearing BBC radio but I'll try again nextBest,
Jacline

2018-02-05 1:32 GMT+01:00 Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>:

It may interest some on KineJapan that Takemitsu Tōru is 'Composer of the Week' on BBC Radio 3 at noon, GMT, Monday to Friday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qdlcs
They are usually available to play for 28 days. I can't say for sure about accessibility outside the U.K.
best,
Roger


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John Junkermanjtj53213 at gmail.com
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