Made in 1971, THE EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP has no central narrative and is set in a future where children have overthrown adults. Emperor Tomato Ketchup is less a fiction than a documentary about a small band of madmen (Tenjo Sajiki's underground troupe, with a few children) giving free rein to the obvious pleasure they derive from inventing scenes together. Terayama takes Marx's dictum that "capitalism would be doomed if its aim were enjoyment rather than the accumulation of wealth" to the extreme, imagining the constitution and laws of a world ruled by children with fake moustaches who have made ketchup the national symbol...
Although, unlike the usual exercise of composing music for images, which consists in composing a soundtrack that follows the course of the film and thus becomes limited, even academic, here my "soundtrack" must arouse the emotion of the viewer-listener without seeking to reinforce the effect of the visual scene, it is not a question of musical synchronisation. My desire is to create the possibility of pushing the imagination further, of expressing a visual fantasy, which I think could have been the imaginary soundtrack to a thought-provoking film.
Let's speculate together on the accumulation of pleasures...
