Oh, boy... Mariko Nagai. I can’t help but frequently revisit her albums. The singer always managed to deliver catchy and upbeat pieces that felt as if taken straight out of anime shows of the 1980s. In this post, I would like to take a closer look at her rock/pop song “Time ~ Song for GUNHED” and its cinematic connection.
The story of the song begins with a Tokusatsu movie simply called GUNHED (1989). I have already went into great details about the behind-the-scenes history of the film in my blog editorial, but let me recapitulate here that the production was initially supposed to be a Godzilla flick when the Toho Studios decided to turn the screenplay into a cyberpunk spectacle but without the King of the Monsters.
All in all, the film is a guilty pleasure which enjoys a modern cult following (even James Cameron proclaimed himself as a fan of the film). Well, the special effects and Blade Runner-like production design are definitely the main advantages of the motion picture, but the screenplay and editing are a major disappointment. Basically, the plotline of this movie is Ripley and Hicks from Aliens (1986) trying to stop Skynet from The Terminator (1984). I think that the best way to describe this film is to call it a compilation of live-action cutscenes from a cancelled PS1 game. They do not work well together at all, but they please the eye.
Groovy music score was composed by Toshiyuki Honda and Takayuki Baba, but it was Mariko Nagai who was given the job of providing the song for the end credits of the film. Unfortunately, the song is only featured in the Japanese version of GUNHED, so if you have an old, English DVD release of the film, then you won’t be able to hear “Time”.
In my opinion, “Time” does not fit the tone of the movie at all. GUNHED tries to be a gritty science-fiction tale, whereas the song seems to be just yet another theme proposal for Patlabor: The Mobile Police anime.
This is not to say that I dislike “Time”. To me, it is a cracker. Fast beats and Mariko’s powerful voice (especially when she’s singing “twenty hundred plus one!” and “20 seiki koete” lines) make this song truly epic. It’s just better to listen to it on its own, without the contextual burden of a movie that led to its creation.
The song was released on Mariko’s albums Miracle Girl and Zutto: Everlasting Collection. There was also a separate single edition. In addition, some hardcore fan made a music video coupling the song with GUNHED clips. You can find both full screen as well as widescreen version of the video on Youtube.
Photo sources: 1, 2, 3.
Hi, Oliver. Nice article on "Time" and although I had heard of the title "Gunhed", I never really got to know much about it. Wasn't even aware that this had come from an aborted Godzilla screenplay. Nagai was just on her way to stardom at around this time with "Miracle Girl" as the theme song for "Yawara!", so to find out that she also created this happy-go-lucky tune for the gritty "Gunhed" is somewhat intriguing, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteThank you, J-Canuck! I'm glad that you at least got to know some more information about Gunhed. Yeah, Mariko's "Time" is indeed an intriguing song out of her rich repertoire. I wish it could have been repurposed someplace else (anime or j-drama).
DeleteMorning, Oliver. Yeah, I thought "Time" would have been better suited for an anime.
DeleteFun fact: There was also a Gunhed game for the PC Engine which was changed for US release to Blazing Lazers, no doubt due to licensing restrictions. Plenty of other games were similarly altered from their original Japanese releases such as Hokuto no Ken for the Sega Mega Drive which became Last Battle on the Genesis.
ReplyDeleteInteresting fun fact. I live in Europe, so I am not that much into retro gaming, but I've heard that Gunhed received a game for the PC Engine (I think you can watch playthroughs on YouTube).
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