Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Mononoke-hime?) is a 1997 Japanese animated historical fantasy feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. It was first released in Japan on July 12, 1997 and in the United States on October 29, 1999 in select cities and on November 26, 1999 in Canada.
It is a period drama set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastic elements and concentrates on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" (物の怪?) is not a name, but a general term in the Japanese language for a spirit or monster.
Roger Ebert placed the movie sixth on his top ten movies of 1999.[1] Mononoke also became the highest grossing movie in Japan until Titanic took over the spot several months later.[2] Overall, Mononoke is the third highest grossing anime movie in Japan,[citation needed] next to 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, both also by Miyazaki.
Plot
The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, engages in battle with Nago, a giant boar demon attacking his village. During the fight, Ashitaka is wounded on his arm. After the boar is killed, the village wise woman tells the prince that the wound is cursed and will spread to the rest of his body, eventually killing him. Ashitaka resolves to journey to the boar's origin, the lands to the West, and find a cure for the curse. He cuts his hair, signifying his permanent departure from his village,[3] and leaves on Yakul, his red elk. Ashitaka passes by a village being attacked by samurai. Some of the men attack him, forcing Ashitaka to defend himself. His cursed arm displays supernatural powers, causing his arrows to remove limbs and even the head of one man. In a nearby town he meets Jigo, a wandering monk who aids him in buying rice. That evening, the monk tells Ashitaka that the god of the forest in the mountains of the west may be able to help him.
A nearby town in the mountains of the west, called Iron Town, continually clears the nearby forests to make charcoal to smelt ironsand, leading to battles with beasts attempting to protect their diminishing forest. In one such battle, three giant wolves, led by the wolf god Moro, attack villagers transporting rice. They are accompanied by San, a human girl adopted by the wolves whom the people of Iron Town call "the wolf girl". In the attack Moro and several villagers are injured. The day following the battle, Ashitaka finds two injured villagers near a river. While rescuing them, he sees San treating Moro's wounds, and she disappears quickly. He returns the villagers to Irontown passing through a forest full of bestial gods, including diminutive sprites called kodama. Also in the forest is the Forest Spirit (Shishigami in the original Japanese), described as a "god of life and death", who takes the form of a deer-like kirin during the day and a large shadowy "night-walker" (Daidarabocchi) at night.
Ashitaka is given a warm welcome when he reaches Irontown. He learns from the leader of Irontown, Lady Eboshi, that the giant boar which cursed him was once a forest god called Nago and that Eboshi had shot the boar, driving it to madness. On hearing this Ashitaka is filled with rage and must restrain his right arm from killing Eboshi. He is dissuaded from doing so by lepers whom Eboshi has taken under her care and employed as gunmakers. She also employs former prostitutes in her famous ironworks in order to free them from brothels. Irontown is then infiltrated by San, who attacks Eboshi. Ashitaka intervenes to stop the two sides' fighting and takes San back to the forest, but is severely wounded when he is shot through the chest. With his curse's power, he manages to open the gate and leave the town, but collapses soon afterward. San presents Ashitaka to the Forest Spirit who heals his wounds but does not remove the curse.
San soon learns that the boars, under the leadership of the boar god Okkoto, are planning another attack on Irontown. Eboshi prepares for the assault and sets out to destroy the Forest Spirit. The head of the Forest Spirit is believed to grant immortality. Jigo, who is now revealed to be a mercenary-hunter, plans to give the head to the emperor; in return the emperor promises to give Irontown legal protection against the envious daimyos coveting the town's prosperity. Eboshi, however, suspects (rightly) that the emperor's agents are also assigned to take control of Irontown at the most opportune moment. Meanwhile, Ashitaka recovers and falls in love with San. Even though she has fallen in love with him as well, she has difficulty accepting it due to her lifelong hatred of other humans.
In the ensuing battle, Irontown successfully sets a trap for the boars, devastating their army. Jigo's hunters also succeed in corrupting Okkoto in the same way as Nago, and San becomes entangled in Okkoto's demonic tentacles. Moro, also badly wounded, saves San, and then is killed, along with Okkoto, by the Forest Spirit, in mercy for their suffering. Eboshi then succeeds in shooting off the Forest Spirit's head while it is transforming into the night-walker. Jigo collects the head while the body is transformed into a god of death covering the surrounding land with a lethal black ooze that completely destroys all life and turns the land barren. The hunters scatter before the ooze and the population of Irontown moves into the surrounding lake, leaving Irontown to destruction. Ashitaka and San manage to take the head from Jigo and return it to the Forest Spirit. It collapses into the lake and the land becomes green again. Ashitaka and San part, vowing to see each other as much as possible while Ashitaka, finally freed of his curse, will help rebuild Irontown. Eboshi survives, albeit without an arm, and vows to rebuild Irontown along more harmonious lines. The film ends with a kodama appearing in the rejuvenated forest.
Music
Princess Mononoke: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. The music was composed and performed by Joe Hisaishi, the soundtrack composer for nearly all of Miyazaki's productions, and Miyazaki wrote the lyrics of the two vocal tracks, The Tatara Women Work Song and its title song. The music was performed by Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Hiroshi Kumagai. The soundtrack was released in Japan by Tokuma Japan Communications on July 2, 1997, less than two weeks before the film came out. It was later released in North America by Milan Records on October 12, 1999.
Most tracks are identical, except for the main theme song heard at the end of the movie, which has been translated to English. A longer edit of the song, heard in the middle of the movie and featured on track 20 of the Japanese edition, has been dropped from the English edition. The Japanese version of the theme is sung by counter-tenor Yoshikazu Mera, while the English translation is sung by Sasha Lazard. The soundtrack has also been released in France, in its original Japanese form.
As usual with Studio Ghibli movies, additional albums featuring soundtrack themes in alternative versions have been released. The image album features early versions of the themes, recorded at the beginning of the movie production process, and used as source of inspiration for the various artists involved. The symphonic suite features longer compositions, each encompassing several of the movie themes, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mario Klemens.
Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Mononoke-hime?) is a 1997 Japanese animated historical fantasy feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. It was first released in Japan on July 12, 1997 and in the United States on October 29, 1999 in select cities and on November 26, 1999 in Canada.
It is a period drama set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastic elements and concentrates on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" (物の怪?) is not a name, but a general term in the Japanese language for a spirit or monster.
Roger Ebert placed the movie sixth on his top ten movies of 1999.[1] Mononoke also became the highest grossing movie in Japan until Titanic took over the spot several months later.[2] Overall, Mononoke is the third highest grossing anime movie in Japan,[citation needed] next to 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, both also by Miyazaki.
Plot
The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, engages in battle with Nago, a giant boar demon attacking his village. During the fight, Ashitaka is wounded on his arm. After the boar is killed, the village wise woman tells the prince that the wound is cursed and will spread to the rest of his body, eventually killing him. Ashitaka resolves to journey to the boar's origin, the lands to the West, and find a cure for the curse. He cuts his hair, signifying his permanent departure from his village,[3] and leaves on Yakul, his red elk. Ashitaka passes by a village being attacked by samurai. Some of the men attack him, forcing Ashitaka to defend himself. His cursed arm displays supernatural powers, causing his arrows to remove limbs and even the head of one man. In a nearby town he meets Jigo, a wandering monk who aids him in buying rice. That evening, the monk tells Ashitaka that the god of the forest in the mountains of the west may be able to help him.
A nearby town in the mountains of the west, called Iron Town, continually clears the nearby forests to make charcoal to smelt ironsand, leading to battles with beasts attempting to protect their diminishing forest. In one such battle, three giant wolves, led by the wolf god Moro, attack villagers transporting rice. They are accompanied by San, a human girl adopted by the wolves whom the people of Iron Town call "the wolf girl". In the attack Moro and several villagers are injured. The day following the battle, Ashitaka finds two injured villagers near a river. While rescuing them, he sees San treating Moro's wounds, and she disappears quickly. He returns the villagers to Irontown passing through a forest full of bestial gods, including diminutive sprites called kodama. Also in the forest is the Forest Spirit (Shishigami in the original Japanese), described as a "god of life and death", who takes the form of a deer-like kirin during the day and a large shadowy "night-walker" (Daidarabocchi) at night.
Ashitaka is given a warm welcome when he reaches Irontown. He learns from the leader of Irontown, Lady Eboshi, that the giant boar which cursed him was once a forest god called Nago and that Eboshi had shot the boar, driving it to madness. On hearing this Ashitaka is filled with rage and must restrain his right arm from killing Eboshi. He is dissuaded from doing so by lepers whom Eboshi has taken under her care and employed as gunmakers. She also employs former prostitutes in her famous ironworks in order to free them from brothels. Irontown is then infiltrated by San, who attacks Eboshi. Ashitaka intervenes to stop the two sides' fighting and takes San back to the forest, but is severely wounded when he is shot through the chest. With his curse's power, he manages to open the gate and leave the town, but collapses soon afterward. San presents Ashitaka to the Forest Spirit who heals his wounds but does not remove the curse.
San soon learns that the boars, under the leadership of the boar god Okkoto, are planning another attack on Irontown. Eboshi prepares for the assault and sets out to destroy the Forest Spirit. The head of the Forest Spirit is believed to grant immortality. Jigo, who is now revealed to be a mercenary-hunter, plans to give the head to the emperor; in return the emperor promises to give Irontown legal protection against the envious daimyos coveting the town's prosperity. Eboshi, however, suspects (rightly) that the emperor's agents are also assigned to take control of Irontown at the most opportune moment. Meanwhile, Ashitaka recovers and falls in love with San. Even though she has fallen in love with him as well, she has difficulty accepting it due to her lifelong hatred of other humans.
In the ensuing battle, Irontown successfully sets a trap for the boars, devastating their army. Jigo's hunters also succeed in corrupting Okkoto in the same way as Nago, and San becomes entangled in Okkoto's demonic tentacles. Moro, also badly wounded, saves San, and then is killed, along with Okkoto, by the Forest Spirit, in mercy for their suffering. Eboshi then succeeds in shooting off the Forest Spirit's head while it is transforming into the night-walker. Jigo collects the head while the body is transformed into a god of death covering the surrounding land with a lethal black ooze that completely destroys all life and turns the land barren. The hunters scatter before the ooze and the population of Irontown moves into the surrounding lake, leaving Irontown to destruction. Ashitaka and San manage to take the head from Jigo and return it to the Forest Spirit. It collapses into the lake and the land becomes green again. Ashitaka and San part, vowing to see each other as much as possible while Ashitaka, finally freed of his curse, will help rebuild Irontown. Eboshi survives, albeit without an arm, and vows to rebuild Irontown along more harmonious lines. The film ends with a kodama appearing in the rejuvenated forest.
Music
Princess Mononoke: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. The music was composed and performed by Joe Hisaishi, the soundtrack composer for nearly all of Miyazaki's productions, and Miyazaki wrote the lyrics of the two vocal tracks, The Tatara Women Work Song and its title song. The music was performed by Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Hiroshi Kumagai. The soundtrack was released in Japan by Tokuma Japan Communications on July 2, 1997, less than two weeks before the film came out. It was later released in North America by Milan Records on October 12, 1999.
Most tracks are identical, except for the main theme song heard at the end of the movie, which has been translated to English. A longer edit of the song, heard in the middle of the movie and featured on track 20 of the Japanese edition, has been dropped from the English edition. The Japanese version of the theme is sung by counter-tenor Yoshikazu Mera, while the English translation is sung by Sasha Lazard. The soundtrack has also been released in France, in its original Japanese form.
As usual with Studio Ghibli movies, additional albums featuring soundtrack themes in alternative versions have been released. The image album features early versions of the themes, recorded at the beginning of the movie production process, and used as source of inspiration for the various artists involved. The symphonic suite features longer compositions, each encompassing several of the movie themes, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mario Klemens.
Formed in 2006, the SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara's Wind Orchestra marked its humble beginning with a group of students gathering together, to share a common passion for music. Until today, the wind orchestra has matured and now has more than 50 members.
This wind orchestra was the brain child of our ex-headmistress, Mrs. Tan Wat Eng, who retired at the year of 2008. The wind orchestra was established with the objective of:
♪ To widen the musical knowledge.
♫ To uphold the standards of stage performance.
♪ To build and see personal developments for the young and the mature music enthusiasts.
In order to achieve the objectives mentioned previously, an instructor who can withhold responsibilities and with potential is required. Mr. Siow Khai Yi and Mr Samuel Wong has been this wind orchestra's instructor since the year of 2007 and 2009.
Mr. Siow Khai Yi believes that when a person plays a single musical instrument, the scope of music, interpretation and appreciation is good but only limited to one self and therefore, narrowed. But when people of the same common interest gather to produce quality music, the area of attempting larger repertoire of music, excellences and contribution will be broadened and many good and challenging works could only be played as a group of people with the same common goal.
The repertiore of music which the wind orchestra performs include a myriad of master pieces ranging from the ______________(classical symphonies, concertos?) and also many of the current popular music.
Because of the openness and encouragements of the wind orchestra, young music talents had the oppurtunity to perform as soloist of beautiful and challenging pieces. Therefore, the wind orchestra does serve as a platform to many musicians not only to have the opportunity to play music as a group; but also to help to build and sharpen a musican's discipline in many areas of music.
- our practice schedule -
Days: Tuesday and Saturday
Time:
Tuesday- 1.30 pm to 4.30pm
Saturday- 8.00 am to 12.00 pm
Venue:
SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara school's air-conditioned music room
Attire:
School Kokurukulum/House/Pure white/Wind Band T-shirt + trackbottom
In order to join the band:
Membership: Open to all former students of SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara
Payment: RM20 per month (not including t-shirt and other fees)
- contacts -
band's email address: bks4band@hotmail.com
teacher-in-charge's handphone number:
school's phone number: 03-80757273
school's address:
SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara,
Jalan Kinrara 5A,
47180 Puchong,
Selangor.
. Band Library: Liew Yoon Zhao
. Asst. Band Library: Lee Jian Han , Gan Fang Kai
. Instruments: Hua Pei Tze
. Supply Coordinator: Chong Han Wen
. Bandkeeper: Yap Hui Peng
. Band Library: Liew Yoon Zhao
. Asst. Band Library: Lee Jian Han , Gan Fang Kai
. Instruments: Hua Pei Tze
. Supply Coordinator: Chong Han Wen
. Bandkeeper: Yap Hui Peng
【Attention: please make sure you have the software to UNZIP the file you want to download below (7zip, Winzip etc.)】
[Movie-Orchestra]
#2 Swing Girls
Tracklisting
01. Take a train ride
02. A列車で行こう（TAKE THE A TRAIN）
03. Through the window
04. Falling in Blue
05. Platanus Garden
06. Keep on going，Girls！
07. Stay away from me
08. ♪ swing talk 1
09. 故郷の空（COMIN THROUGH THE RYE）
10. メイク・ハー・マイン（MAKE HER MINE）
11. イン・ザ・ムード（IN THE MOOD）
12. That’s what it is！
13. Reminding Sorrows
14. A列車で行こう（TAKE THE A TRAIN）（Snowy ver．）
15. ♪ swing talk 2
16. ムーンライト・セレナーデ（MOONLIGHT SERENADE）
17. メキシカン・フライヤー（MEXICAN FLYER）
18. シング・シング・シング（SING SING SING）
19. ♪ swing talk 3
20. この素晴らしき世界（WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD）
21. ♪ swing talk 4［Bonus Tracks］
22. 失恋してもラヴィン・ユー［Bonus Tracks］
Swing Girls (スウィングガールズ, Suwingu Gāruzu?) is a 2004 comedy film co-written and directed by the Japanese filmmaker Shinobu Yaguchi about the efforts of a group of high school girls to form a jazz band.
Swing Girls is set in rural Yamagata prefecture, in northern Japan and the characters often use the local Yamagata-ben dialect for comic effect.
The film ranked 8th at the Japanese box office in 2004, and won seven prizes at the 2005 Japanese Academy Awards, including 'Most Popular Film' and 'Newcomer of the Year' awards for Yuta Hiraoka and Juri Ueno.
The cast includes Yuta Hiraoka (Takuo, the leader of the band), Juri Ueno (Tomoko), Shihori Kanjiya (Yoshie), Yuika Motokariya (Sekiguchi) and Yukari Toyashima (Naomi). The actors performed their own music for the film.
This film was not particularly popular outside of Japan, but was released onto DVD in region 4 format after its release in Japan.
Plot
The movie begins at a school in Japan. It is extremely hot outside, and summer classes are being held. One class is the remedial math class, containing thirteen girls and a nervous, unsocial teacher named Ozawa. While Ozawa rambles on, one of the girls, Tomoko, looks outside the window to see the school's brass band, featuring one depressed Nakamura, planning on giving the teacher a "quitting the band" slip, but unable to follow through. The brass band leaves for a baseball game, and moments later, a lunch truck arrives. The driver notices he is late and is also late for a catering. Tomoko, wanting to get the heck out of math class, decides to deliver the lunches with the others for him.
On the train ride over, Tomoko pops a lunch open and the girls eat it. They also fall asleep and miss their stop. They decide to walk, losing some of the lunches in the fields when dodging a train and from procrastinating at a nearby stream. They meet Nakamura at the stadium and pass out the lunches. When they finish, Nakamura demands to know where his lunch was, and Tomoko says she doesn't know. Nakamura then discovers a speck of rice on Tomoko's chin. He says nothing, and buys his own lunch as the girls leave. As he eats, he notices that his fellow band members are sick since the lunches spoiled in the summer heat. All 42 of them along with their teacher go to the hospital. That night, Tomoko watches it all on the news and is petrified.
The next day, hoping for a miracle, Nakamura holds an audition for new recruits. He gets two punk rockers who need to "make some noise" after their band broke up and a shy, bright, unsocial girl named Sekiguchi, who only knows how to play the recorder. Now Nakamura is desperate, and all that changes when he hears the Tomoko and the other girls outside. His desperation turns to rage and he stomps out into the hall and startles the girls. He berates them because they messed up the lunches. He also tells them that they must fill in for the brass band. The girls try to refuse, but Nakamura threatens to rat them out if they don't join. To escape math class the girls reluctantly join.
The girls start to clown around with the instruments, except for Sekiguchi. Nakamura has no control over them, until Sekiguchi accidentally knocks over some big band records. One rolls down the hall into the hands of the school's star baseball player, who hates Nakamura. While being confronted, Nakamura realizes that he can turn the girls into a big band instead as they are 8 people short of a brass band. As he introduces the concept to the girls, he also realizes that teaching brass band instruments to these 16 girls will not be easy, especially if it needs to be done in time for the game next week. Later on, Nakamura, alone in the band room, realizes that everyone is dependent on the girls, and that if he quits the band now, the people would be disappointed and the baseball player would come after him, so he tears up the "quitting the band" slip.
As the week rolls on, Nakamura trains them physically to improve their lung strength. Everyone stumbles along, except for Sekiguchi, who strolls through the tasks with flying colors. Tomoko faces some conflicts with Nakamura along the way, but she realizes that in order to escape trouble, she must get along with him.
On the day before the game, the girls run through a jazz piece and are pretty good at it, although a little squeaky in some places. As they marvel at their work, all 42 brass band members walk in and take over again. Everyone except Sekiguchi is eager to get out, but once the girls step out of the building, they break down into tears because they realize that they liked playing in a big band.
When school starts up again, Tomoko passes by the band room as the band members run through scales. She asks the band teacher what happen to Nakamura, and she tells her he finally quit. The band teacher offers Tomoko a chance to play, and she begins to accept, but as she enters the room she sees Sekiguchi. Remembering how cruelly she treated her back when the band was still in business, Tomoko leaves. She sells her computer and her little sister's PS2 to buy a used sax (in poor condition). A while later all the girls meet to discuss how to raise some money to buy new instruments. Some ideas are brought up but they are unfeasible, and despite the fact that Nakamura's family is well to do, he can't pitch in because he's afraid he'll get a beating from his parents. Finally they settle on an idea: they decide to get jobs.
The girls work at a supermarket, and raise a lot of money, but Tomoko loses most of the money when she has to pay damages from accidentally starting a fire. As the girls leave, a shocking secret is discovered when it is learned that everyone except Tomoko, her best friend Yoshie, Sekiguchi, and Naomi have spent all of their hard-earned money on designer clothes. The girls who spent their money on clothes run off with the school's baseball players leaving the four with a small amount of money to continue the band on their own.
The foursome (plus Nakamura) decide to pick Luxury mushrooms (matsutake mushrooms) in the mountains. When they get to the mountains, though, they realize that there is a trespassing fine, and that the forest rangers are heading in their direction. They try to escape, but a hungry boar attacks them and goes for the portly Naomi. She climbs up a tree hoping to escape the boar and then falls down onto the boar's head. The boar's skull splits open, killing it on impact. The forest rangers find them, and what seemed like another failure is turned around when they were rewarded a huge sum of money for killing a crop-damaging boar.
They buy the instruments, but they turn out to be broken and old, so now they have to fix them, but they have already blown their money getting the instruments. However, the punk rockers take them to the junkyard to have their ex-bandmates—also ex-boyfriends who are desperate to get them back—to fix them up. Now that they have the gear, they can start playing, but their skills are as poor as their instruments, and after trying a few places to play, they are not very successful.
Later, through a series of mishaps, they find that the math teacher Ozawa is a jazz fan and a sax player.
They play in front of the supermarket they got fired from. The other girls that had previously left see this, and are so moved that they go and sell their designer clothers to buy instruments to rejoin the band, restoring the band to its original size.
Later on in the winter, Tomoko tells the others about a winter music festival where they could actually prove themselves. They all agree to go and convince Ozawa to conduct. He reluctantly agrees, and the next day they go to the roof of the school to record the audition tape. When they finish, they leave Tomoko in charge of sending the tape, with plenty of time to spare; however, Tomoko forgets to send it. She hastily turns it in but a few weeks later she gets a reply saying that due to a surplus in applications, they've been rejected. Crushed, Tomoko decides not to tell anyone.
During a hair appointment, Nakamura discovers that Ozawa is not really a professional sax player and was privately taking lessons. Embarrassed, Ozawa confessed that he was never a good sax player and only learned to play to impress the school's music teacher. He makes Nakamura swear that he will never tell a soul. He also decides to back out of conducting.
On the train ride to the music festival, Tomoko sits alone in another car. Nakamura decides to go over and cheer her up. While the others think it's a confession of love, she says to him that she did not have the heart to tell anyone, so Nakamura tells them for her, which crushes their spirit. To make matters worse, the train is delayed by the snow. The band teacher finds them and rushes them by bus to the auditorium; they have a spot since another band could not make the competition.
They spill out onto the stage just as the announcer declares they would not attend, causing the audience much amusement. They set up and play a 15-minute concert. While wooing the crowd, Ozawa conducts and the punks' boyfriends try to get them to notice them. At the end, the performance turns out to be a success.
Music
The song played by the band for their audition tape was "In the Mood" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
The first song played at the concert finale is "Moonlight Serenade" by Glenn Miller.
The second song played is "Mexican Flyer" by Ken Woodman. The song is also featured in Space Channel 5, which Tomoko's little sister was playing earlier in the movie.
The final song played is "Sing Sing Sing with a Swing" by Louis Prima.
Many of the girls really could not play these instruments[1] , and they did play the performances in the film, after training for only 5 months[2]. To prove this was not movie-magic, a tour was organized after the film with a live CD released shortly after.[3]
