MovieChat Forums > Zatôichi (2003) Discussion > Sound Design

Sound Design

posted 18 years ago by Trancegression
4 replies | jump to latest

There are three parts I'd like to point out in this film that particularly took my interest that I haven't seen in many other films.

The foley sounds were extremely enjoyable in all three scenes, as obvious as they are all sampled sounds and re-mastered. It's also obvious that the dance/percussion crew took a lot of effort to have lots of syncopated rhythms and a clear rhythmic hierarchy both visually and audibly.

The first scene is shown when "Ichi" is walking along the path through the fields and the farmers are using picks to make the sounds, looking carefully and replaying it slowly, most of the sounds do sync up and it's clear that they are all keeping time and tempo amongst each other. The other scene is when it is raining and "Shinkichi" is crossing the same fields, there are some farmers(dancers?) making sounds by stomping in mud puddles. Third scene near the end is my favorite. During the construction of a building, there are two high-pitched hammers, along with a mid-pitch hammer, a low bass hammer, and wood-cutters/scrapers all performing together which added nicely as a transition into the resolution part of the film.

If anyone can add something to this, or point out other films that do something similar and more or less subtle would be appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the scenes as much as I have, not to mention the last dance scene.

[–] NEU-NEU 18 years ago

watch "Dancer in the Dark", you're gonna find a lot of nice musical scene on that one.

[–] antifilm-1 18 years ago

I already wondered how many people value and discuss about the aesthetics, especially concerning the violence, while neglecting or being blind to the many parallels to "Dancer In The Dark".

Even the titles of the OST are so obvious: "Constructors", "Firewood-chopping and a farmer who wants to be a samurai", "A house on fire and massacre all over", etc.
Also musically some themes equal slightly, like wanting to give a funny reference.

Until today i watched it only once, but after a short while i started to think "in terms of sound design it's a satire on Björk" - the big stepdance show-down makes only sense in that context, isn't it?

To me it seems like a kind of japanese anti-Dogma manifesto.

[–] NEU-NEU 17 years ago

I like the way Bjork impersonate a character (Selma) who loves musicals (Musicals are quite rare today, and people who hate musicals are legion) and tries to give musicals a kind of second wind by perfoming one with modern electro-pop songs. Not just a brithney spear movie clip.. i mean something with as much artistical talent in the visual than in the music. Doing a stepdance or a musical (especially when it's well made) is a kind of way to fight back today's trends.

[–] RaisinBranEclipse 17 years ago

I'm one of those people, I just don't enjoy musicals. I can see why others would like them, but I just don't get into them for some reason. But this is definately one of the main reasons I loved this movie, just those 2 scenes and the dance scene at the end. It's kinda surprising because I can't name any other movie that had similar scenes that I enjoyed alot, it would probably come off as too hokey or ridiculous in some of my favorite movies too.

I guess that says alot when people who don't usually look for that kind of thing like it so much. Starting to realize it's all the little things in this movie like that that made it so great for me, usually I like the action the most.