Parody and Ironic Juxtaposition in Toru Takemitsu’s Music for the Film, Rising Sun (1993)

Toru Takemitsu created music for more than a hundred films, but only one was for a major Hollywood studio, Rising Sun (1993) with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. In this film, Toru Takemitsu draws upon traditions of modernist dramatic music inherited from Debussy, Stravinsky, and Messiaen, while also referencing traditional Japanese musical idioms, American jazz, and filmic musical genres of the Old West, the crime drama, and film noir to construct a musical narrative of evocative color, irony, and dark humor. In accomplishing his stated purpose, to “reverse” musical stereotypes by applying them in an ironic context, Takemitsu moves beyond the practice of earlier modernist composers through postmodern parody and juxtaposition. A process of historical reversal emerges as musical tropes projected into contexts spanning the American Old West and modern Los Angeles compel the listener to hear musical signifiers of traditional Japanese culture in a new way. Rising Sun is based on a Michael Crichton novel that was criticized as a reactionary statement against Japanese economic aggression. This study shows how music in the film projects a parodic narrative that supports the transhistorical juxtapositions and interactions that distinguish director Philip Kaufman’s postmodern vision from the fearful Japanese vs. American polemic of Crichton’s novel.