Taeko Ohnuki -- Koibito-tachi no Jikoku（恋人たちの時刻）

 

It was a couple of years ago when YouTuber Marty McFlies v2 posted the soundtrack to a 1987 movie called "Koibito-tachi no Jikoku" (Lovers' Time). He quickly made it clear that he wasn't a fan of the album whose music was mostly created by Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）, and for me as well, I found it a little too languid for my tastes. Generally, I don't really listen to soundtracks all that frequently now and that even includes the ones by John Williams.

But Marty and I also agree that the Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）-created theme song for the movie which shares the same title is a lovely one. "Koibito-tachi no Jikoku" indeed plays into the early 1980s atmosphere of the singer-songwriter when she was lovingly embracing some of that wonderful French sound as she collaborated with the late Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. As arranged by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）and saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）, "Koibito-tachi no Jikoku" waltzes grandly from sadness to hope while Ohnuki has that characteristic soft lilt to her vocals. Of course, for the coolness factor, Shimizu comes in with that solo saxophone which sounds like he was busking on the busy streets of Paris. The song was also a track on Ohnuki's 12th studio album "A Slice of Life" from October 1987. In fact, I gave my own paragraph on the song when I looked at the album back in 2020.