BLOODY ESCAPE: Jigoku no Tousou Geki

BLOODY ESCAPE: Jigoku no Tousou Geki is a 2024 Japanese animated film, and a continuation of the 2022 Esutabu Raifu Gureito Eukepu (Estab Life: Great Escape) TV series. In its universe, set in the near future, human existence declines, and in special projects using AI, they subject people to experiments, like the main character Kisaragi, who is transformed into a cyborg. Each newly created human entity lives in a separate cluster, with its own culture and abilities. Kisari is caught up in a battle with several different kinds of enemies - a group of Yakuza, and a convent of immortal vampire knights - and tries to escape from their hellish dealings and thirst for power. The original score is by Kōtarō Nakagawa.

It is a very, though not unique, peculiar mixture of various film genres: action, science fiction, thriller, fantasy, horror and drama. They can be diversely addressed musically, which composer Nakagawa does without hesitancy in a work that is very unsubtle, but rewarding nonetheless and a guilty pleasure. It is an orchestral score mixed with a multitude of variable synthesizers, electric guitar, voices and solo (synthesized or live) instruments.

Several cues underscore the sorrow and sentiments of the main character and other important characters who join forces, utilising engaging strings and cello, electronics and voices, often quite subtly and sometimes a bit more dramatic. The cue Sorrow is a prime example of a slower, dramatic and subdued use of solo strings, piano, Honer-ish synths and an attractive brass solo. The use of synthesizers, piano, cello and strings in God's Perspective is another outstanding example. While neglecting some of the recurring material in the cue, it is especially the strong semi-synthesized theme that springs out.

Basically, the rest of the score delves deeper into all the genres, characteristic music for the many diverse enemies and situations, often very epic, hugely orchestral with electronics. In this mixture, the first thing that comes to mind is the relentless action-orientated battle material, which goes full out with the type of riveting modern scoring technique, using an ostinato, the driving strings, the furious brass, pounding percussion, voices, electronics, organ and more. It also includes larger-than-life bold orchestral gestures, which come in many forms aided by many sounds, but is especially a thunderous, stabbing cliché ostinato, which at times reaches the limits of absurdity (so many have gone before, but still). The relentless ostinato is heard in cues such as Battle (3:48). Many Japanese composers, working on films, games and series with similar content to BLOODY ESCAPE: Jigoku no Tousou Geki, think an electric guitar (especially in metal mode) is the best to further enhance the heroic content, and while sometimes mawkish, it is a very familiar, recurring choice in similar Japanese projects, which gives the rapid pace of battle or action sequences an extra edge. Unsurprisingly, they are often heard in the score to Bloody Escape, more 'controlled' in rock mode, but also to a degree in this metal approach, aided by electronics, typical drums and more.

The group of Yakuza is underscored with various types of percussion (including taiko) and a recurring typical woodwind, while it mostly blends in rather well with the universal action ostinato material. On the other hand, the order of vampire knights gets more directly tapping into cliché music, using organs, medieval orchestral gestures, either in the orchestral instruments or voice section, and some lurking horrific material, which is delicious on display. Some suspense material of the score, using medieval/horror elements, merge with suspenseful repetition by strings, brass and electronics, crafting an eerie but often also epic mood.

Within this score, the use of voices is diverse; starting with a robotic electronic voice in the beginning of the film (coinciding with a few more processed sounds of 'hip' sci-fi sounds), operatic, epic soprano/tenor, normal female or male voices (separate or mixed), more shrieking horrific voices, voices singing wordless aheh-variations, to an actual Japanese word.....

Certain pieces of music fits in the tradition of what Nakagawa has done before, like others. On occasions, there are obvious lifts or tributes to other scores. Of all these, I especially love the presumably unintended, reference to the music of a dungeon in the video game Zelda: A Link to the Past. In a cue such as Intention, the slightly more updated sound and notes of electronics are evidently similar.

Kōtarō Nakagawa' score to BLOODY ESCAPE: Jigoku no Tousou Geki is peculiar, but in terms of intercrossing motifs, moods, sounds, and his overall abilities as a composer and the level of excitement, it makes it a rather impressive body of work.




Tracklist
01 shinjuku 0:49
02 mechanical management 0:43
03 Kisaragi 0:38
04 blood 2:42
05 nonconformist 0:44
06 dust cloud 0:52
07 domination 1:04
08 violence 0:20
09 heresy 2:38
10 peace 1:45
11 sorrow 2:43
12 unrest 1:52
13 trigger 3:15
14 yakuza 1:33
15 gunfire 1:48
16 escape 1:27
17 despair 2:31
18 humanity and justice 2:39
19 before dawn 1:32
20 fumetsukishidan 4:04
21 escaping 1:42
22 chasing 0:45
23 intention 2:08
24 elapsing 2:39
25 battles 3:48
26 second round 1:39
27 disaster 1:38
28 counterattack 1:35
29 feeble 0:34
30 They are not heroes 1:15
31 memories 1:14
32 god's perspective 3:11
33 fate 1:52

Disc length 59:39


(17-07-2024)