Asahi Shimbun Evening Edition, Wednesday, August 27, 1980
A truly tragic anti-war cry
Fuse takes on the challenge of a movie theme song
It’s tacky and cliched to put cheerful words on a cheerful movie and sad words on a sad scene, but if you take a step back from a sad scene and put on cheerful music related to that scene, it often doubles the sadness and increases the effect. For example, in a scene where a child dies suddenly and there is a funeral, rather than a strings theme of “insufferable grief,” it’s more effective to have a light commercial song that the child loved to sing, casually played on a harmonica.
However, a movie theme song has appeared that delves into the depths of sadness to the utmost limit, using a sad melody in a sad story. This is Poem of the Defender, the theme for Toei’s Hill 203 (lyrics and composition by Sada Masashi). Let’s start dissecting it.
Translator’s note: Hill 203 is a movie about the Russo-Japanese War directed by Toshio Masuda, and released in August 1980 on the same day as Be Forever Yamato. The international title was The Battle of Port Arthur. Watch the trailer and hear the song here. See a live performance of the song here.
Example 1 is the part that says, “Please tell me.” The melody of “please” asks with a dignified and tragic feeling. Next, “For all living things in this world,” uses only two notes, A and B, and by repeating them three times in a row, it amplifies the sadness of this motif, gradually capturing the listener’s heart.
In example 2, the lyrics repeat “Will the sea die? Will the mountains die? What of the wind? What of the sky?” In perfect sync with the climax, the melody repeats the same pattern four times. There are few of his works that reach a climax so quickly after the song begins.
Movie poster, Hill 203 (1980)
This song certainly has a tragic tension that makes you feel as if he is trying to challenge a three-hour movie with only 16 bars of words. His music is characterized by unexpected lyrics and simple melodies, but I think this is his first song to be so large-scale and filled with deep sadness.
As someone who lived through the war, when I hear this song, the horrible nightmare that I had almost forgotten immediately comes back to me, and I scream that war is a sin and that we should stop killing each other. This is a great anti-war song, though it’s not fun to sing. It’s a work that painfully examines and delves into human life and death. It’s too suffocating and sad to hum casually. I wish the Earth didn’t need such sad songs.
Now, Toei’s Be Forever Yamato is not serious, even though it’s a war movie, and it can’t reach the impact of Hill 203. It’s a “Sci-fi war game,” so the music is different, and it has a flood of BGM.
I put all the melodies I had into the background music, so I couldn’t get to the theme song, and I ended up asking Akira Fuse to take a run at it. We had a contest, but I was defeated in a landslide. It was decided to go with Until the Day of Love (lyrics by Yu Aku, music by Akira Fuse). He wrote this song in one night while making coffee for his wife.
The extended part of “hana o…” in example 3 is very unique, and it’s fun to see how he plays with the melody using the particle “o.”
Also, in the ending part (example 4) “Don’t get hurt” is sung by one singer and tripled. The chord is A-minor instead of C, which deepens the impression. The refrain “lalala…” following the ending part (example 5) “Are you in love with someone?” was an attempt to add a children’s chorus to liven things up, but the words didn’t suit children, and it was a shame that it lacked power.
I’ll end this article looking forward to Fuse’s growth as a composer.