Style: Classical, orchestral film score
Primary Emotions/Themes: Does this need any introduction? One of the best film scores to ever exist.
Thoughts: There is a first for everything. A first time to realize your mortality. The first time that you feel true joy, true pain. The first time you discover an artist that will define your tastes forever.
Princess Mononoke was the first experience I ever had with Miyazaki and his beautiful movies. I watched it in the theater with my family not knowing anything about what the movie had in store for me. I left that movie theater feeling that something fundamental had shifted in me... I was slightly different leaving that theater than I was entering.
I was so enraptured with the beautiful storytelling and musical accompaniment that I forgot where I was for two hours. The world became that of Ashitaka and Iron Town and the conflict with nature and gods as they conversed with San and her wolves. I was not myself for two hours... I was a distant observer to this fantastical world that I had never been to before but desperately wanted to visit.
This was also my first foray into the beautiful music of Joe Hisaishi. I don't know if I'm aware of any singular person that can score a film better than this maestro. Every single soundtrack that he has ever created has been a joy on my ears.. but this one most of all. This one is my favorite.
Maybe it's because this one was the first I heard. Maybe it's the incredible leitmotif heard throughout the album. Maybe it's the incredible use of the brooding atmosphere found throughout the album. Maybe it's the pure joy that the album radiates with. Maybe it's all of these things, maybe it's none. I don't really know, nor do I really care.
What I do know is that whenever I listen to this soundtrack I'm whisked back into my teenage years when I first saw this movie. I'm transported to that magical realm once again, and I find myself wanting to so desperately visit that world once again.
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