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Kritzerland is proud to present a new limited edition CD release, the first release of the complete score to:
RISING SUN
Music Composed and Conducted by Toru Takemitsu
Rising Sun, Michael Crichton’s 1992 follow up to his blockbuster novel Jurassic Park, was a detective thriller with a difference – one examining Japanese/American relations or, as Newsweek called it, “A paranoid polemic masquerading as a murder mystery.” Twentieth Century-Fox snapped up the movie rights instantly. Crichton co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Backes and the film’s director, Philip Kaufman. Cast in the two leading roles were Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. As with the novel, critics were divided on the film, and, as with the novel, rather vehemently so. The critics who didn’t like the film really didn’t like it, but there were plenty who did. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers found flaws but noted, “The flaws don’t cripple what is a fiercely funny, exciting and provocative detective story about the crime of corporate culture – crimes that transcend race and geography.” The Washington Post said, “A thoroughly gratifying prestige thriller, thanks to riveting suspense and two brilliant stars.” The film performed reasonably well at the box office and spent ten weeks on the top ten box office chart.
With two great star performances, and a great supporting cast, the film is sleek and looks great thanks to the brilliant cinematography of Michael Chapman. One of the smartest decisions director Kaufman made was hiring the incredible Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu. It was a bold choice and a choice that really paid off. Takemitsu composed unique scores for some classic Japanese films, including Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, The Face of Another, Double Suicide, and others. In 1970 he scored director Akira Kurosawa’s film, Dodes’ku-den, turning in a score of great warmth and melody that made Kurosawa’s beguiling film even more beguiling. His second score for Kurosawa, Ran, was a true masterpiece of film scoring, a symphonic work of tremendous power and beauty. Rising Sun would be his first and only American film scoring assignment.
Takemitsu wrote a very long score for the film, but in the end several incredible cues went unused and the music that was used was occasionally truncated and moved around. A CD release of the score did not present it in the best light, with a short running time and several pieces not by Takemitsu. The general impression was that Takemitsu’s score just wasn’t that interesting. We’re hoping that this first-ever complete CD release will change that view because hearing the score as Takemitsu wrote it is an entirely different experience – an addictive, mesmerizing neo-noir tone poem of exquisite orchestral color and sounds (including wonderful use of the Ondes Martinot), with a great main theme that weaves itself in and out of the score like wisps of smoke. It is a major rediscovery and one that would hopefully put the music’s reputation firmly where it belongs – as one of the best and most interesting scores of the 1990s. The previous CD release had only about twenty-six minutes of Takemitsu’s score. This release adds over forty minutes of score cues and the score is presented as it was meant to be heard in the film.
Rising Sun is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.
CDs are in stock and will ship the day after the announcement. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.
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"Plundering our natural resources!"
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And it's here and ready to ship, all seventy-eight glorious minutes of it.
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A shame that having a CD available for several years is seen as a bad thing.
It's a bad thing only in terms of making the money back that it takes to do these CDs.
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My jaw just dropped! I have this in it's previous form and never thought there would be more music than what is on the complete Takemitsu Edition. This is a must have for me anyway, but I am curious about this 'new listening experience' too. To save overseas shipping costs (a factor these days) I will order it with the coming Elmer CD's. So many interesting titles all of a sudden.
It is an entirely different listening experience - over forty minutes of music that wasn't on the other CD and the source cues moved to the bonus section so they don't interrupt the flow of the Takemitsu score.
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Shipping this morning. Given the decade of the film, it's a little shocking that there aren't more comments, but what do I know? I see a lot of releases that are, how shall I put it, not of this quality from this era and those get tons of comments. I guess this maybe isn't a film people who came of age in that era actually saw? Odd, since they seem to have seen every single other film made in the decades of the 80s and 90s.
Well, hopefully there will be more discussion once the CDs reach people.
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2013 - 1:02 PM
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By: |
MKRUltra
(Member)
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Shipping this morning. Given the decade of the film, it's a little shocking that there aren't more comments, but what do I know? I see a lot of releases that are, how shall I put it, not of this quality from this era and those get tons of comments. I guess this maybe isn't a film people who came of age in that era actually saw? Odd, since they seem to have seen every single other film made in the decades of the 80s and 90s.
Well, hopefully there will be more discussion once the CDs reach people.
The film itself is a clunker, and the only thing of merit about it is Takemitsu's excellent score. It's probably so quiet in here because there's a bit of a hemisphere bias with Western film score fans, who as a majority don't seem to pay attention to foreign composers unless they pick up and move to Hollywood (Joe Hisaishi seems to be an exception here, though). Nevermind that most Asian composers, especially Japanese composers, seem to be actually classically trained, all orchestrate their own music, and write scores that are infinitely more interesting than the bland Zimmer schlock you get from Hollywood these days.
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2013 - 1:17 PM
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By: |
Warlok
(Member)
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Shipping this morning. Given the decade of the film, it's a little shocking that there aren't more comments, but what do I know? I see a lot of releases that are, how shall I put it, not of this quality from this era and those get tons of comments. I guess this maybe isn't a film people who came of age in that era actually saw? Odd, since they seem to have seen every single other film made in the decades of the 80s and 90s.
Well, hopefully there will be more discussion once the CDs reach people.
The film itself is a clunker, and the only thing of merit about it is Takemitsu's excellent score. It's probably so quiet in here because there's a bit of a hemisphere bias with Western film score fans, who as a majority don't seem to pay attention to foreign composers unless they pick up and move to Hollywood (Joe Hisaishi seems to be an exception here, though). Nevermind that most Asian composers, especially Japanese composers, seem to be actually classically trained, all orchestrate their own music, and write scores that are infinitely more interesting than the bland Zimmer schlock you get from Hollywood these days.
Listen to 13 Warriors.
As for Rising Sun (the movie), the first half is engaging, not so much for the plot as for the collision of philosophies. The second half its like the film producers didn`t know what to do next... it kind of meandered into uninterestingness.
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