Lyrics: Yoshii Isamu Music: Nakayama Shinpei Arrangement: Hayashi Hikaru ↓Quoted from Chapter 9, Section 4 of "Resurrection of the Gondola Song" (Aizawa Naoki, Shinyosha) ------- At first, the piano plays a gorgeous intro to "The Gondola Song," and the customers and waitresses begin to dance to the sweet music of the orchestra, but soon Watanabe begins to sing in a low, strained voice. Hearing this, everyone becomes creeped out and stops dancing, keeping Watanabe at a distance. In the original scenario, the scene where "The Gondola Song" is sung was only "Life is Short/Fall in Love, Maidens," but it was expanded to include the first and fourth verses. This once again speaks of the importance of this song in "Ikiru." Watanabe sings while sitting down, wearing a hat and a scarf over his coat, but when he sings the fourth verse, his face seen from the front fills the screen. He has tears in his eyes, and when he sings "Kokoro no Honoo", big tears fall. Also, at this point, he is quite out of sync with the piano accompaniment. Watanabe's singing in this scene seems to be a reflection of his own life, lamenting his fate, and admonishing the waitresses and dancers not to waste their youth. When the writer, who considers himself Mephistopheles, takes the protagonist outside, the screenplay says, "Life is short, fall in love, old man!!" However, when I watched the DVD today, I could only hear him humming "Life is short" (there is a wipe and we move on to the next scene). ↓Quoted from Chapter 9, Section 4 of "Resurrection of the Gondola Song" (Naoki Aizawa, Shinyosha) --------- The Gondola Song was revived with the appearance of Akira Kurosawa's film. However, the appearance of the movie "Ikiru" was truly epoch-making in the history of the reception of "The Gondola Song" not only because the movie reminded people of the existence of "The Gondola Song" as a "Taisho-era popular song" and spread the lyrics and melody to the public once again, but also because it completely changed the character of the song. The direct content of the lyrics of "The Gondola Song" is to invite young women to fall in love and live passionately. In the Geijutsuza play "The Eve of the Gondola," the song is first sung by a young boatman and then by the female protagonist Elena (Matsui Sumako). In the movie "Ikiru," the song is sung by an elderly man who is near death, not to any particular girl, but to everyone, or to himself. With Kanji Watanabe singing it with heartfelt emotion in "Ikiru," "The Gondola Song" became not just a love song for young women, but a song open to everyone, regardless of gender or age. At that time, the "love" in "Fall in love" no longer literally means love between a man and a woman, but has become a kind of metaphor, referring to something that humans passionately seek. As I mentioned earlier, the scene with the swings in the park transformed the entire verse of the song from something physical to something metaphysical, and "Fall in love, girl" has now become a slogan that pursues the abstract values ​​that humans can (or must) pursue with their lives. Incidentally, the fact that only the first and fourth verses of the song are sung in the film may be a factor in why the spiritual value of "The Gondola Song" seems to be emphasized in "Ikiru." The second and third verses had a slightly lewd feel reminiscent of "Ars Amatria" (Love Instruction), but they were omitted in the film. I am deeply moved every time I hear Watanabe sing "Kokoro no ho no ho, kie nai ma ni." http://www-h.yamagata-u.ac.jp/~aizawa... http://www-h.yamagata-u.ac.jp/~aizawa...