YASUAKI SHIMIZU

PAO-JIANG-HU

The soundtrack for Yanagimachi Mitsuo'sThe Wandering Peddlers (Pao-Jiang-Hu). This documentary-like film portrays the Taiwanese travelling street performer and drug vendor Pao-Jiang-Hu in images full of poetic sentiment, and a rather fictional style. Shimizu's score to the scene featuring a sponge seller in a rapid-fire argument turns this tirade into some kind of Taiwanese rap.

1995 (CD)
Coeur Records CR-0002
Soundtrack

1.		Theme Pao-Jiang-Hu
2.		Mother
3.		Ano oka koete
4.		Family photo
5.		Festival
6.		Still photo
7.		Gekkin hikigatari
8.		Ben Ben
9.		Pushing
10.		Sponge
11.		Fishing
12.		Sea shore
13.		Inside wagon
14.		Scooter
15.		Tabacoya no musume/ O du Liebere - FrereJacques
16.		Big team
17.		Family travel
18.		God man
19.		Ending theme

Performed and produced by Yasuaki Shimizu
Composed by Yasuaki Shimizu, Tadashi Manjome (3), traditional (7, 18),
Seiichi Suzuki/traditional (15)

Recorded by Yasuaki Shimizu at Sateto (Tokyo)
Mixed by Shinji Kano at Pathway (Tokyo)

YS notes
This film was a brand new experience for me. I think both the film and the music have a fresh approach. The music, incidentally, was created entirely at Sateto studio; not your usual commercial studio in that it is made up of mainly consumer electronics equipment. Thanks to advances in digital technology, and the musical instrument industry's eye on modern democratic consumerism (i.e. market expansion), the hierarchy of product pricing has collapsed. Yes, there's a quality difference between commercial- and consumer-use equipment, but the gap is not as great as it used to be, and above all else, working in a private studio has simplified the production process. In a manner of speaking, it has much the same merits as cottage handicrafts.

Chat with Koji Ueno
Breaking Away from "Trying" to Add Music

Ueno	I just figured out something that's been bugging me for a long time... the ending theme of Pao-Jiang-Hu paraphrases The Ventures, doesn't it, be it symbolically.

YS	You know, no one else has ever said that to me.

Ueno	I'm sorry, is it a company secret?

YS	(Laugh) No, it's no secret, it was inspired by The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run."

Ueno	I kept wondering, "why's he doing this," I knew you were up to something (laugh). The feel is very interesting.

I quite liked it in the end, though I'd imagine it's a style that's hard for Koji Ueno to get into. It has a very ordinary quality. It's much easier for me to add music to more graphic movies. I was stumped by this one for two or three days. If I hadn't first quit "trying" to add music, I'd never have gotten started.

Ueno	In the final analysis, Japan was a poor country, so as a people we're not particularly impressive, especially when we try to be. Doing something unfashionable in music might just strike some kind of balance inside us...

That and the fact that a little while back this kind of gap in time would be perceived as having a historical feeling, but now it's perceived as part of the same time period, in the present tense. I feel this not only in response to this film, but when I watch old movies as well. Thus The Ventures, for some odd reason (laugh).

Ueno

You don't usually do melodic minor-type sound, but something with more modality, which made me wonder why you did this, and then I realized it was The Ventures (laugh)! You were paraphrasing! Of course there had to be more than meets the ear (laugh). The overlapping of the different melodies also gives an interesting feeling. That's a difficult thing to do without the director's understanding.

YS	This is my second film with Mitsuo Yanagimachi, the first one being "Shadow of China." The scenes he wanted music for are very orthodox; both the movie and the music are orthodox, but they stress a certain quality.

Ueno	You sense that while watching the movie. The editing is a bit reminiscent of Tarantino.

YS	He likes Tarantino.

Ueno	I mean in the way the time element is complex but well edited. You seem to like that kind of editing and overlapping in music as well.

YS	I do, but if I'm not careful it becomes gimmicky, which sort of concerns me—I need to shatter that. I feel like I want to get away from it.

Ueno	But the overlapping of the theme song in the scene of the father dancing at the end feels so natural, not gimmicky at all. First creating music to fit the milieu in the film—which is closer to sound effects—and then superimposing the theme song over it is more natural-sounding than gimmicky.

YS	Ultimately, I guess I really like gimmicks (laugh). The sense of breaking away.

Ueno	But the music on most documentaries is too intense. We have to do better than that.

YS	We have to somehow be totally unaffected.

Ueno	Yes, but we also have to acknowledge and address the fact that Japanese films are totally different from foreign films.

YS	In a positive sense, I feel that Yanagimachi-san has given up all hope. In a positive sense. Giving up marks the beginning. Just like Cindy Sherman—though of a different generation—I think it can be taken that way. (excerpt of Shimizu's conversation with fellow musician/composer Koji Ueno)