Noriko Watanabe -- Hare, Tokidoki Kill Me （晴れ、ときどき殺人）

I first introduced the singing actress Noriko Watanabe（渡辺典子）a little over a month ago with her 2nd-last single, "Sora Iro no Pierce"（空色のピアス）. Well, here is her 2nd single, "Hare, Tokidoki Kill Me" (Sunny with a Chance of Kill Me) from April 1984, and with a title like that, I was quite intrigued.

The song was the title theme for a movie with the same title starring Watanabe which was based on a mystery novel by Jiro Akagawa（赤川次郎）. I don't really have to watch the movie to get that strange feeling of mystery since the trailer as seen above depicts some rather dark happenings involving poor Watanabe's character of Kanako while this happy-go-lucky aidoru-style song is playing in the background. It's almost as if a theme from a Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）movie was grafted onto an Alfred Hitchcock flick. "Tonari no Totoro"（となりのトトロ）for "North by Northwest", anyone?

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm12865712

The other surprising thing is that "Hare, Tokidoki Kill Me" was created by the husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木耀子）who were whipping up all those muscular hits for Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）in the latter half of her career such as "Playback, Part II". This is probably the cutest song I have ever heard by that duo.