A Song of the Sun, Midnight Sun, Taiyou no Uta, etc. is first a book, then a film, and then a drama about a girl with a disease which makes her extremely sensitive to sunlight, a disease which is slowly killing her. She hangs out on the beach at night, and develops a crush on a boy she sees going to surf early each morning, Their relationship, her music (she is a musician in the story) and how she chooses to live her remaining time is the crux of a pretty moving story. (The movie is better than the drama, as the material is not enough for a drama, it feels drawn out.) But that is not what I am here for. The theme song is crucial to the story, it's played during the end scenes, it's the song the main character is waiting for in her life / career, and it's played beautifully in both the movie and the drama by the main characters, singer / songwriter Yui in the movie (who also wrote the song) and Erika Sawajiri in the drama, the (often tempermental) quickly rising young actress. I really like both songs, and think it will be fun to introduce both songs to you in the same place so you can compare. (We are comparing songs, not careers, and not musical talents, as there is no comparison - Yui is a proffessional musician while Erika did a great job with the song given her.)
YUI - GOOD-BYE DAYS
This is just an absolutely fantastic song and turned Yui from a borderline independent artist to someone who was going to spend the rest of her life writing, recording, and acting as she saw fit. If you want to see the impact that this song has, go to youtube and try to find the video for the song. You will find tons of versions sung by a variety of people, all people who picked up a guitar and learned to play and sing the song. That's a really huge compliment that her fans don't just want to hear it, they want to play it and sing it.
ERIKA - TAIYOU NO UTA
I absolutely love this song. I was really surprised she was able to do such a good job with it and it fits in as well if not better with the story than Yui's version does. It also has inspired a sea of wannabe Erika's strumming along with their guitar on youtube.
So which do you think is better? Defintely Yui gets credit as she wrote her song, but both were hugely popular, and I don't think either one is a bad choice.
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyou_no_uta - Movie, Drama notes. (Mostly the Movie)
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