Most people may feel a little rusty when it comes to the name Keiichi Suzuki, but you must have heard the songs he composed for many movie masterpieces.
The masterpiece "Tokyo Godfather" by the famous Japanese director Imatoshi is an early soundtrack work by Keiichi Suzuki.
"Tokyo Godfather" should be regarded as the most gentle and loving of Imatoshi's works, which is obviously inseparable from the help of the soundtrack, especially the last song of the film is adapted from the "no.9" of Ode to Joy, which does not know how many tired people are cheered.
Since then, Keiichi Suzuki has twice won the Academy Award for Best Soundtrack, known as the "Japanese Oscar", and a nomination for Best Original Music at the Asian Film Awards for takeshi Kitano's "Humpback City", "Extremely Evil Non-Way 2" and "Extremely Evil Non-Way 3".
Recently, Keiichi Suzuki's film on the soundtrack was an authentic domestic literary film, "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" directed by up-and-coming director Peng Fei, which was also the first Chinese-language film in which the Japanese music master participated.
In a light and humorous way, the film tells the story of the heroine Ye Lan who has been working in the city for many years, leaving only her daughter and grandfather to live in the countryside of Yunnan.
The mother who wanted to give her daughter more company resigned and returned home, but found that her daughter had a bad habit, poor grades, mischief in class, stealing things, like to play mobile phones, play games... What makes her even more sad is that due to years of absence, there is an insurmountable barrier between her daughter and her.
The theme of this film is serious, but the narrative is light and cheerful, the laughter is continuous, and the whole viewing process is very pleasant. The whole film was filmed in Yunnan and is full of strong ethnic minority customs.
So, how did a big Japanese soundtrack artist with such strength, known as the "rock ghost", agree to compose music for the literary and artistic films made by young Chinese directors, and even personally go to Yunnan, China?
This has a lot to do with director Pengfei's love for Takeshi Kitano.
One day, while Pengfei was driving, he was thinking about the script, and accidentally put in the song of "Humpback City", and Dengshi felt that the tune inside was very strange and very comfortable.
So he decided to find this soundtrack artist, Keiichi Suzuki, to compose music for his new film.
It was a difficult process, and Pengfei spent a lot of energy to complete this matter, and Pengfei translated the script into Japanese and sent it to Keiichi Suzuki, sincerely expressing his expectations.
Luckily, Keiichi Suzuki was so fond of the script that he was so impressed that someone in China loved his music so much that he agreed even when he learned that the budget for the film was small.
After this, Suzuki Keiichi personally flew to Yunnan to investigate and learn the traditional instruments of the Dai people, and the director was very impressed by his rigorous and serious attitude.
After repeated inspiration collisions, there is finally the "Taste of Rice Blossoms", which is now highly evaluated.
"The Taste of Rice Blossoms" as a whole gives the audience a feeling of "freshness", and the film begins with a long shot showing the scenery of The Landscape of Yunnan, accompanied by a light and agile, lively and playful background music, and a fresh tea fragrance instantly comes to the face.
Choosing Keiichi Suzuki as the soundtrack to the film was one of the most correct things the director did, and the former's composition brought a very important foil to the work.
The film's cinematography and music are stylistically blended from beginning to end, and the highly saturated color of the picture complements the soundtrack full of ethnic style. Two of these scenes are particularly impressive.
In one place, several children carrying school bags lined up in columns to go to school on a country path, where the soundtrack incorporates bells and tambourines, the style is playful and cheerful, and a childlike picture is deeply imprinted in the mind.
Another scene is the scene at the end of the film when the mother and daughter dance in the cave, where the music is different from the previous paragraphs, and it is more solemn and elegant, magnificent, giving the ritual of worshiping the stone god a sense of sacredness, while sublimating the main theme, leading the film to the final climax.
In addition to inviting Keiichi Suzuki to score the film, "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" also cooperated with Zhao Lei, a famous folk songwriter in China, and adopted Zhao Lei's representative work "Southern Girl" as the promotional song for the film, which is also the first time that Zhao Lei's song has been used as a Chinese film promotion song.
Director Pengfei and Zhao Lei also have a relationship. At that time, after Pengfei finished filming the film "Face" with director Cai Liangming, he had the idea of coming back to make some personal films.
Later, he thought of filming an artist's story, so Pengfei often went to the place where the artist worked that year to experience life and interview this person.
At that time, Zhao Lei also worked there, so the two of them could see each other several times a week, and sometimes pengfei would sit down after Zhao Lei's work was over and listen to Zhao Lei sing his new songs.
Pengfei recalled that once Zhao Lei sang a new song called "Mother", singing to the emotional place while singing and crying, Pengfei was also touched by the lyrics.
In that year, Zhao Lei was working hard to do his singing career, Pengfei was also focusing on writing scripts, and the two of them struggled for their ideals together.
Recently, Pengfei's "Taste of Rice Flowers" was about to be released, and he found Zhao Lei again, saying that he wanted to borrow "Southern Girl" as a movie promotion song, and Zhao Lei happily agreed.
In the lyrics of "Southern Girl", there is this paragraph:
"Southern girl, we're all enduring a long time Southern Girl is not a tall building that obscures your hopes Yesterday's rain had drenched her thin shoulders The Big Dipper in the night sky did not allow her to find the direction she had lost In the sun she was drying her clothes in the middle of the yard In the wind of the four seasons she spread her hair and comforted time."
This lyric is very similar to the psychological state of the heroine Ye Ran in "The Taste of Rice Blossoms".
After returning home, Ye Ran endured the unhappiness of marriage, the difference in thinking between urban and rural areas, and finally was hurt by her daughter's stubbornness, she despaired, resisted, and created a vivid and full of vitality of the "southern girl" image.
The Japanese style and the characteristics of Chinese ethnic minorities are combined into the soundtrack, coupled with the dedication of his friend Zhao Lei, resulting in a fresh and warm "The Taste of Rice Blossoms", and the music in the film can be called a rare model in the entire domestic film.
It is worth mentioning that although the texture of this film is inseparable from the foil of music, the surprise she brings to the audience is far more than this, and the film tells a precious story of light humor and plain touching in a song soundtrack.
The film will be released on April 20, and you can decide what kind of sound you can hear and what kind of taste you can taste.