Before I
begin, I would like to give thanks to
Robert Storch who has provided another very rare soundtrack
for me to review!
Now, this CD is a compilation disc for Toho's Haunted
School series and was released the same month
as the third film in the franchise.
Consequently, its not surprising that this disc focuses
on the music from
Haunted School
3 (1997) more than the others.
In fact, the first 14 tracks are from this film. Thankfully,
the score to the third movie, composed by Kow
Otani, really delivers. The first track, "Opening",
brilliantly sets the tone of the disc as the slightly
somber and choir supported theme is the perfect marriage
of Danny Elfman and Otani's styles. For the track,
the composer brings in qualities that will hark to some
of the soundtracks to Tim Burton's movies, yet still
retain his own unique flavor, as a similar approach to
the end of this theme would reappear in his Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999) score. The composer's
playful, yet rousing, "To Love Shakashaka" is
another great cue off this soundtrack. The theme for
the faceless Nopperabo is also nice. As Robert has noted
to me, there is a slight similarity to John Williams' Jaws theme
in the cue, yet the inspiration is brief and not very
embracive, and the overall flow of the track, which is
very dramatic toward the end, perfectly fits the creature's
malicious intent to remove the protagonists' faces with
his sharpened tools. Another dramatic track off this
CD is "Dinosaur Skeleton", which utilizes
drums and trumpets to give a sense of mass through the
cue, while also keeping a great tempo through out. Overall,
Otani hits one out of the park with this soundtrack,
delivering a score that is second only to his phenomenal
work on Gamera:
Guardian of the Universe (1995).
Now following this is track 14, still from the third
film in the series, which is "Splash" by Dual
Dream, a popular band that featured Kenji Kojima and
Michiaki Koike. The song, which is sadly quite a bit
louder than any other track on this CD, features a nice
melody. It's an upbeat song, and people who love Japanese
pop should really enjoy this track as it has a very memorable
tempo to the lyrics and music.
Next up are nine tracks that are kind of a mish mashed
in terms of order, jumping back and forth between the
first and second movie. Why this might have been done
is anyone's guess, although it could be because of the
large disparity in quality of the two scores. The culprit
here is Fuji-Yama, who was in charge of the soundtrack
to the first movie. To be fair, this was actually the
composer's first theatrical score, yet one listen will
quickly relate the fact that he wasn't quite up to the
task yet. His work for Haunted
School (1995) is very synthesizer heavy, and
this becomes a huge problem in Fuji-Yama's hands as he
tries for more robust themes that make this minimalist
approach glaringly obvious and even awkward. The track
to best describe this is "Theme of the Old School Building",
which sounds like it would have been better suited for
a made for TV production rather than a theatrical endeavor.
Thankfully, Fuji-Yama's work, while largely under whelming,
does have at least two moments where it shines. The first
is the creepy "Main Title", which actually uses the synthesizer
to good effect to produce something that is akin to a
wind up toy mixed with a more ominous feeling that fits
perfectly with the subject. His other diamond in the
rough is the "Ending Titles", which is more
upbeat. It features a lot of violin work and a varying
range of styles through out, but the best part kicks
in around the two minute mark after the Hanako character
laughs as the violin kicks into high gear and the tempo
is increased creating a very energetic piece of music.
On the opposite end of the spectrum to Fuji-Yama's synthesized
approach, is composer
Tamiya Terashima's soundtrack for the second movie. Unfortunately,
this score has the least amount of coverage on this disc,
having only three tracks featured for it. This is a shame
as Terashima really delivers a grande soundtrack for
the movie. For the scoring of this feature, Toho outsourced
the orchestra work to the massive Moscow International
Symphony, as the company would also do years later for Godzilla
Against Mechagodzilla (2002). The ending result
is a much more robust sound to the score than one would
expect from a soundtrack from Japan. It gives Terashima's
work an almost classical flavor, which might be a turn
off for some but it also really helps the composer's
work come to life. The fairly long track "4:44", which
is eight minutes in length, is the perfect demonstration
of this, as the larger orchestra helps to give the theme
a dramatic flair and a slightly more epic quality.
Overall, this disc represents three very different styles
of scoring all housed on the same CD. Now, while it's
true that Fuji Yama drops the ball on the first film,
both Otani and Terashima do such outstanding jobs on
the other two entries that this disc really deserves
a resounding recommendation in the end, which is only
helped by the disc's generous runtime of over 70 minutes.
As a side note, it's worth mentioning that this CD is
incredibly rare.
It doesn't often
show up
for sale on auction sites, and when it does it
hardly ever goes below ¥8,000
(the equivalent of $70 at the time of writing this).
Why is the disc so sought after? Rarity is probably
a key factor, as the initial run was likely very limited.
This is also about the only means of acquiring the music
from this franchise as well, and the phenomenal scores
for the second and third movies are likely to drive up
interest. The third factor is also that it features the
song
"Splash" by Dual Dream
. Now this song is also found on a single, which was
actually released the same day as this disc, although
it's become equally as hard to find.
So the real reason is likely a combination of the three
factors. Regardless, one can only hope that Toho Music
one day decides to open up the vaults and give all four
films in the series complete soundtrack releases some
day.
Until then, hardcore collectors are definitely well merited
to continue to keep an eye out for this rare gem.
Rating:  |
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