I decided
to take a chance and purchase this Takayuki
Hattori soundtrack, knowing nothing about the music
and never having seen the film. I only knew that he was
nominated for a Japanese academy award for this score,
and that the film was some type of suspense-thriller-drama
which apparently involves kidnapping. Since this soundtrack
was released in between his 1994 Godzilla
vs. SpaceGodzilla score (which I like very much)
and his 1999 Godzilla
2000: Millennium score, I surmised that I might
enjoy this 1997 effort as well. Surprisingly enough, the
film score for Abduction makes for a thoroughly
enjoyable stand alone listening experience, and turns
out to be one of the composers most well-balanced soundtracks!
The opening track “Abduction Prologue”, starts
off as a suspense-thriller cue, but closes with Hattori's
signature orchestral style from this period. Track three
“The Encounter”, is the first time we hear
the very beautiful theme that will dominate this score
from beginning to end. The sixth track “The Beginning”,
opens with a classic Hattori-style military march, while
track eleven “Open Homicide”, offers up a
different action-style march that will show up again later
in the score, and is played very aggressively. Track nineteen
“The Decision is Revealed”, is a full-length
version of the lovely main theme, and is just an awesome
piece of music – somewhat sad, yet very beautiful.
The last track “Abduction End Title”, is a
slightly different and shorter version of the prior track.
Although Hattori's soundtrack work can sometimes
be uneven, he is still a very underrated composer, and
when he hits his mark (as he does here) the result can
come close to being a stand alone listening treat. While
Hattori continues to compose film scores and other music
today (I hear that many of his recent NHK scores are excellent),
I personally find his soundtrack work from the 1990's
to be some of my favorites - that catchy, signature style
he created for SpaceGodzilla and retained somewhat
on Godzilla
2000: Millennium (1999), are the ones I tend
to seek out. This score is without a doubt one of his
best soundtracks, owing to a couple of really nice memorable
themes, and is one to own if you can find it!
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