Joe Hisaishi/Suginami Junior Chorus -- Kaze no Toorimichi（風のとおり道）

 

I recollect that one of the friends in our group had once been humorously pegged as resembling the friendly but mysterious Totoro in "Tonari no Totoro"（となりのトトロ）. The poor guy never quite lived it down; almost any time he came by, a few of the guys would start humming the famous theme song from the movie. He was generally laid back about it, though.

When I posted the article for that theme song almost a decade ago, I noted that another iconic Studio Ghibli movie with Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）at the helm, "Kiki's Delivery Service", remained my favourite over "Tonari no Totoro". To give further clarity, and I apologize in advance to Totoro fans, I frankly fell asleep through a lot of the movie; it just seemed a little too relaxed although the Kusakabe sisters did have that fight near the end. And of course, the arrival of the Neko Bus and the finale perked me up considerably.

Recently, I had my memories jogged once again when I encountered one of the instrumental motifs from "Totoro" and that was "Kaze no Toorimichi" (The Path of Wind) by music maestro Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）. Apparently, there are a few versions of it including the gravitas-laden one above with the cello but I remember hearing the majestic and magical synthesizer version used in the movie such as in the scene below.

I had no idea that there was a sung version of "Kaze no Toorimichi", and it was by the Suginami Junior Chorus（杉並児童合唱団）. Miyazaki himself provided the lyrics.