| Music of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni |
[Jun. 6th, 2008|03:22 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | bewailing - Shinra Etsuko | ] |
It's been a while since I updated, but I'm hoping to continue. Not that anyone here is paying attention, but eh. ;)
But I think it's time I made an entry about one of my fave anime. I'm not going to go into enriched details, summaries, opinions, etc. since I basically only plan to bring up some of the music. Maybe one day I'll get to working on a review of the entire series as a whole, haha.
For this entry, I present some of the best music from the anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. For those unfamiliar with this anime, it is a series based of a mystery-horror video game about a group of friends living in the town of Hinamizawa in the 1980's. On the outside, Hinamizawa appears as a simple, comfy small town, but beneath the surface lies dark secrets, mysteries and horrors beyond imagination. The series follows the tragedies the acursed town creates, how everyone is involved and keeps you guessing exactly what has driven everyone to the brink of madness.
Eiko Shimamiya's voice is haunting in "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" as well as "Naraku no Hana," but yet graceful, beautiful and powerful. They're very deep touching, lovely and tragic songs. The same goes for the ending themes of both the first season and the second, Kai.
I definitely recommend giving the series a looksy. If you're into video games, try them out as well. There is also manga adaptions, which I believe have been licensed and translated for all the world to read.
The following links take you to imeem where you can listen to them online:
FIRST SEASON OP:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Eiko Shimamiya
The PV is also very beautiful: official music video
FIRST SEASON ED:
why, or why not - Oshima Hiroyuki feat. Katakiri Rekka [video]
SECOND SEASON OP:
Naraku no Hana - Eiko Shimamiya
DEAR YOU SPECIALS:
Dear You [Hope] - Hotarubi Kakeru [Rika Furude]
Dear You [Cry] - Yudzuki [Rena Ryuguu]
Dear You [Feel] - Kotoha Minoru [Mion/Shion Sonozaki] [video]
Dear You [Kind] - Yukimiya Hinaki [Satoko Houjou]
HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI NAKANAI KIMI TO NAGEKI SO NO SEKAI SONGS:
There is a series of MAD videos with beautiful songs. Watch and listen; they're lovely! However, each video contains spoilers.
bewailing - Shinra Etsuko [covers Onikakushi-hen]
Tsuki wa Noboru, Watanashi wa Utau - Shinra Etsuko [covers Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen]
dance when cried - Shinra Etsuko [covers Tatarigoroshi-hen and Himatsubushi-hen]
Rinne no Yume to... - Shinra Etsuko [covers arches from Kai]
requiem for themselves and tragedies - Shinra Etsuko [covers later arches]
LIVE ACTION FILM THEME SONG:
Yes, a live action film is in the works. Here is it's theme song, sung rightfully by Eiko Shimamiya.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE - Eiko Shimamiya
There are plenty more good songs, but these are only my favorites. |
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[Jan. 1st, 2008|11:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sweet Dreams [Are Made of These] - Marilyn Manson | ] |
Shutter is a 2004 Thai horror movie that takes on the genre of ghostly women [onryuu] taking revenge on those who did them wrong while alive. However, the movie does this genre well, and gives it very deep emotional depth.
It has that very same familiar formula as Ju-On, and it's just as scary, but what Kayako lacks in emotion, Natre, the ghost of Shutter, makes up with her tragic and broken heart. Though Kayako had been killed in a terrible manner, many things were thrust upon Natre that gave the story more than just a curse to rely on. And unlike Kayako, Natre's victims are not random; her killings serve a purpose. Her victims are personal.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and wrote a review on it at my co-owned reviews journal. You can read it here.
To learn more about this wonderful movie, check out the wikipedia article. The film itself is available on crunchyroll. It was licensed and released in America under the Tartan Asia Extreme label. You can find it at stores like Suncoast and the like.
This entry is to basically give a shout-out to one of my fave Asian horror movies, but also to share with you two fanvids made to it.
Each are Marilyn Manson songs, and they're done pretty well. Enjoy!
WARNING:
Videos contain horror imagery, blood, violence and other dark themes. They are NSFW. They also contain spoilers.
Shutter: Sweet Dreams [Are Made of These]
Shutter: Tainted Love |
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[Dec. 30th, 2007|12:50 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
To kick off the new journal, here is a couple videos!
Ju-On/The Grudge are some of the most popular and well known Asian horror movies on this planet. Next in line would naturally be Ringu/The Ring. Ju-On started off with two made for TV movies, Ju-On: The Curse 1 & 2, before spawning into two theatrical movies, Ju-On: The Grudge and Ju-On: The Grudge 2.
Because they are some of the most famous and terrifying Asian horror movies to come out of Japan, the first movie earned an American remake, simply titled The Grudge.
The American remake followed closely to the first Ju-On: The Grudge with a couple twists and deletions. The Grudge 2 strayed away dramatically from the storyline of the original sequel, Ju-On: The Grudge 2, but merged ideas from the other Ju-On movies into the new story.
However, did you know that the Ju-On franchise started from two short films?
Before the movies were ever made, director/creator Takashi Shimizu had been taking a filmmaking class taught by popular director/writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Kurosawa is famous for such films as Kairo [American remake: Pulse] and Cure. Impressed by a three minute film Shimizu made, Kurosawa offered Shimizu a chance to write a script for a feature length horror film.
Before doing so, Shimizu was asked to write a series of five minute long movies for a horror anthology TV movie, one which Kurosawa called Gakkô no kaidan G. It is here Shimizu wrote/directed/filmed two shorts that would later spawn a famous franchise.
These films are considered prequels to the Ju-On movies, and the characters seen in these short films are also main characters in the first two Ju-On TV movies. We see their fates in these two shorts, when we do not in the movies.
Here are the two shorts, in chronological order:
In a Corner/Katasumi
The film opens introducing us to Kanna and Hisayo, two victims of Kayako's wrath in the first Ju-On: The Curse movie. Kanna is the girl whose jaw is removed, and this is where we see her get attacked.
Link to the short video on YouTube.
4444444444
Here we see Tsuyoshi, also a minor character in the first Ju-On: The Curse movie, and what happens to him when he goes to school. [In the movie, we see him leave to school and never know what happens to him after, except his bike is still at the school without him.] Keep in mind: much like the number 13, and even 666, 4 is an unlucky number in Asian countries. It is also symbolical for death, as four is "shi" in Japanese, and "shi" is also the word for "death." It would be like getting a phone call from 666-666.
Link to the short video on YouTube.
Apparently, Gakko no Kaidan is various amounts of Jhorror anthologies. [Much like the Kadokawa takes.] I hope to find more videos related to this series and post them here. ^^
You can find these two shorts on The Grudge: Director's Cut DVD. |
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