Great Moments in Synth: “Ten to Chi to”
Today’s slice of synth-fueled musical heaven comes from end of the ambitious and beautiful film, Ten to Chi to (“Heaven and Earth” in English). Filmed in the late 1980s, it chronicles and embellishes the historical feuding between the Japanese warlords Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin (Kagetora) during the 16th century. It was filmed in western Canada and features impressive full-army battles drawn out across gorgeous landscapes. If you can watch it on a big screen, it’s a real treat.
The synth music here is pretty simple and is used as a kind of love theme in the film (for Kagetora’s romance at least) and indicates the strong relationship between the rivaling warlords as they finally face off one-on-one. If you’re afraid this might spoil the film for you, don’t watch it. But it’s a really impressive scene: two guys in full samurai regalia, backed by entire armies, fighting with daito while riding on horseback! Pretty well choreographed too. The whole production was rather ambitious and the end effort is very intoxicating. I get goosebumps every time I watch Takeda Shingen splitting Kagetora’s army, being saluted by the spear-men.
At the moment I don’t think it’s in widespread DVD release, but I’d recommend trying to see it if you’re into historical film, military film, tasteful film scores (by Daisuke Hinata and Tetsuya Komuro), lush cinematography or just Japanese culture in general.
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