Kazumasa Oda -- Futatsu no Kiseki （ふたつの奇跡）

(karaoke version)

Perhaps along the same lines as Southern All Stars' Keisuke Kuwata （桑田佳祐）getting into the director's chair to tackle "Inamura Jane" in 1990, Kazumasa Oda （小田和正）had to scratch his own "Someday, I'd like to direct" itch. So in February 1992, his first effort came out titled "Itsuka Dokoka de"（いつかどこかで...Sometime, Somewhere）starring actor-singer Saburo Tokito（時任三郎）. In a way, I think the cinematic creations of both singers rather reflected their personalities, or perhaps more precisely, their musical styles. Whereas Kuwata's "Inamura Jane" showed off the young n' wild n' rockin' in the director's old stomping grounds, Oda's movie, according to the trailer, is a gentle love song.

Through the wonders of "Eye-Ai" 's mail ordering service, I bought the soundtrack to the movie which turned out to be Oda's 4th studio album, "sometime, somewhere" which came out in January just before the movie's release. After getting his amazing "Oh Yeah!" BEST album, there was no way I was giving up the opportunity to get his follow-up disc. The singer's 7th and 8th singles ("Anata wo Mitsumete" and the title track) are on the album, but the one standout for me on the CD was "Futatsu no Kiseki" (Two Miracles).

The song is vintage solo Oda. There are the mellow keyboards and the synth-brass giving off that nighttime-in-the-city hue as the singer sings softly while he carries a big vocal stick in the refrain (apologies to any Teddy Roosevelt fans out there). Movie or not, it's just a nice ballad to finish the day on and it was the song that I actually included into my own homemade J-ballad mix tape years and years ago. And I think it could've just as easily been included into the "Tokyo Love Story" soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Ao9dD5mfU

The above is the short trailer for the movie itself.