Yoshiyuki Osawa -- Soshite Boku wa Tohou ni Kureru（そして僕は途方に暮れる）

Sometime last month when I went on my semi-annual spending binge on CDs, I was asked by my good friend if I could pick up an album from Amazon.jp. I was initially hesitant since I've had some problems with the Japanese branch involving some disagreements with my credit card (I insist that my cards are fine) which resulted in cancellations of orders. But according to my anime buddy who has also undergone some frustrations as well, as long as the orders aren't all that costly, they should get processed just fine.

Indeed, that is what happened. My friend asked me to get an old soundtrack for a movie called "Mirai no Omoide ~ Last Christmas"（未来の思い出...Future Memories）which was released in 1992 and starred Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）and Misa Shimizu（清水美砂）. The soundtrack cost the equivalent of a regular cup of coffee so even when I threw in my own personal purchase of a disc, the total turned out to be the lowest that I have ever paid for a package of Japanese albums.

The thing is that I remember seeing some of that movie during my three years back in Toronto between Japan odysseys. "Mirai no Omoide", I think, was another one of my other friends' pet subtitling projects, and my impression was that it was some sort of sci-fi/fantasy-based Xmas romance flick (talk about crossing your genres!). Obviously, from what I've just written, it didn't leave me with too many omoide.

Still, looking at the soundtrack before I gave it to my friend, I was surprised to see the jumble of songs that were used in the film. There was a mix of Western and Japanese standards including Earth Wind & Fire's "Let's Groove" and Julio Iglesias' cover of "Begin The Beguine" along with Kome Kome Club's（米米クラブ）"Roman Hiko"（浪漫飛行）and Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）"Ihojin"（異邦人）. Of course, WHAM!'s "Last Christmas" was in there as well.

However, I did find one track that was unfamiliar to me and that was Yoshiyuki Osawa's（大沢誉志幸）"Soshite Boku wa Tohou ni Kureru" (And Then I Was Left Speechless). Originally, this was Osawa's 5th single from September 1984. A mid-tempo ballad about what seems to be the aftermath of a supposedly amiable romantic breakup between a fellow and more well-to-do lady, I enjoyed that rather nostalgic melody by Osawa that had that certain arrangement which lasted into the 1990s. I guess I could call it 80s urban contemporary wistful. The lyrics were provided by poet Natsuo Giniro（銀色夏生）.

According to the J-Wiki article (via an article in the June 2016 publication of "Showa Yon-juu-nen Otoko"[昭和40年男...1965 Man]) on the song, Osawa had initially offered "Soshite Boku wa Tohou ni Kureru" to a number of singers including Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. However, none of the singers bit so the song came back and Osawa decided to record it by himself. The rejection turned out to be a lucky thing for him since it broke into the Top 10 by peaking at No. 6. It eventually became the 37th-ranked single of 1985 and sold a little more than 280,000 records. The song was also included on Osawa's 3rd studio album "Confusion" which was released in July 1984.