Paul Chihara
Birth : 1938-07-09, Seattle, Washington, USA
History
Paul Seiko Chihara (born July 9, 1938) is an American composer. Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent three years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho due to Executive Order 9066.
Chihara received a BA and an MA in English literature from the University of Washington and Cornell University, respectively. He received a DMA in 1965 from Cornell, studying with Robert Palmer. He also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Ernst Pepping in West Berlin, and Gunther Schuller in Tanglewood.
He was the first composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Neville Marriner, and was most recently part of the music faculty of UCLA, where he was the head of the Visual Media Program. As of 2015, Chihara is on the faculty of New York University as an Artist Faculty in Film Music.
His close connection with music for dramatic forms extends into film and television, for which he has written nearly 100 scores. His first film score was for Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 (1975), and came at a point that he decided to leave academia to pursue a living as a composer. His exit from the university environment, and into film music also produced a change in his concert music. It was at this point that he moved away from the 12-tone and freely chromatic styles he had employed up to then, and embraced a more tonal style.
He has worked with directors Sidney Lumet, Louis Malle, Michael Ritchie, and Arthur Penn. His film credits include Sweet Revenge (1976), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978), A Fire in the Sky (1978), Prince of the City (1981), The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1982), The Survivors (1983), Crackers (1984), Impulse (1984), The Morning After (1986), Forever, Lulu (1987), The Killing Time (1987), Crossing Delancey (1988), and Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989). His television credits include The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Dr. Strange, Brave New World, Noble House, Frederick Forsyth Presents (1989), and the pilot and theme music to Manimal, among others.
He also composed the score for Shōgun: The Musical, based on James Clavell's novel. Shōgun had a short run on Broadway, from November 1990 to January 1991.
Chihara's notable students include James Horner, Sean Friar, Joseph Trapanese, and Cynthia Tse Kimberlin.
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Music
Strip Search follows several parallel stories examining personal freedoms vs. national security in the aftermath of 9/11; two main subplots involve an American woman detained in China and an Arab man detained in New York City.
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A hard-working architect is pulled into intrigue when his wife hires a private investigator to make sure he's just working late. The private eye sees an opportunity to frame him for a murder instead.
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Sunshine, an idyllic and almost forgotten island under British rule, is shortly to become independent. But a few days before this event is to take place, the British governor of the island is shot. Her Majesty's secret service is called in and Sam McCready asks Desmond Hannah of Scotland Yard to take charge of the case.
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Biography of actor Rock Hudson focuses on his struggle with his homosexuality. Based on the book by his ex-wife, Phyllis Gates, and on the court records from the civil suit brought by his former lover, Marc Christian.
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Penn & Teller enjoy playing jokes on each other. When Penn says on an interview show that he wishes he has someone threatening his life so that he "wouldn't sweat the small stuff," each of them begins a series of pranks on the other to suggest a real threat. Then they find that a real psychopath is interested in them.
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American tourist Gene LePere (Lee Remick), on vacation in Turkey, is hounded by a street vendor into buying a carved head she doesn't want. Then she is cast into prison for smuggling an antique.
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Four very different women, best friends during high school many years earlier, gather in the small town where they grew up for a reunion as bridesmaids in preparation for a wedding for a fifth friend.
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Woody Harrelson stars in the story of psychiatrist Lisa DaVito and her battle to save a tortured man whose past has turned him to violence. One tragic incident seals his fate and shakes Lisa's faith in her profession.
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"Shooter," aka Matt Thompson aka Gruwald is a photographer in 1967 Saigon, Vietnam. Working out of a news agency for a major magazine, Thompson gets involved in the lives of the soldiers he meets and "shoots." There's Ngoc, the Vietnamese photo lab tech; Klause, a German photographer swiping Buddhas; Rene, a French photographer who carries an AK-47; Stork, Matt's superstitious roommate who is also a photographer; Rizzo, the irascible editor; Lan, an American-educated Vietnamese reporter and Tracey an embassy worker who is Matt's former flame.
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Isabelle's life revolves around the New York bookshop she works in and the intellectual women and men she befriends there. Her grandmother remains less than impressed and decides to hire a good old-fashioned Jewish matchmaker to help Isabelle's love-life along. Enter pickle-maker Sam who immediately takes to Isabelle. She however is irritated by the whole business, at least to start with.
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After a psychopath murders a man who was on his way to a job as a deputy sheriff in a small California town, he assumes the deputy's identity and arrives in town to start his new 'job'. What he doesn't know is that the recently appointed sheriff and his mistress are plotting to murder her evil husband—and blame it on the new deputy.
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While staying at an inn in a colonial-recreation village for her anniversary, a young woman becomes possessed by her murderous ancestor through an antique mirror and compelled to murder her husband.
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A Peace Corps volunteer, bubbling o'er with idealism, learns to his delight that he has been assigned to a remote, backward Colombian village. When he arrives, he is confused by the cynical attitude of his predecessor
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Failed actress Alex Sternbergen wakes up hungover one morning in an apartment she does not recognize, unable to remember the previous evening -- and with a dead body in bed next to her. As she tries to piece together the events of the night, Alex cannot totally rely on friends or her estranged husband, Joaquin, for assistance. Only a single ally, loner ex-policeman Turner Kendall, can help her escape her predicament and find the true killer.
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When Elaine, an adventurous young woman from Germany, arrives in New York City, she sets out to be a famous writer. After a brief stint at a mundane job, Elaine falls on hard times and also becomes intrigued by a mysterious stranger named Lulu. Before long, Elaine gets roped into situations involving theft, murder and the mob. Can the beleaguered expatriate with big dreams turn her life around and steer clear of crime and chaos?
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A Los Angeles psychiatrist testifies for the prosecution in the trial of an accused child molester. Later the defendant, who is out on bail, is found dead in the psychiatrist's office, in what appears to be a suicide. Shaken, the psychiatrist moves to the mountains outside of L.A. Not long afterwards a detective he knows comes to him for help. A seven-year-old girl saw someone kill both of her parents, but is so traumatized by the event that she can't remember anything, and the detective wants the doctor to help jar her memory. Soon, however, the doctor and the detective discover that the parents' murder and the pedophiles "suicide" may be linked to a shadowy group of wealthy and influential pedophiles, and that the child isn't the only one whose life is in danger.
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Two employees of a reclusive millionaire, Micki the secretary and Max the chauffeur, decide to attend a society function to which their employer has been invited. In the course of the evening, Max and Micki establish new identities in the world of high society and, while rubbing shoulders with the elite, they uncover a scam that tests their sleuthing skills as much as their social skills.
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A television movie set in Rockville, Georgia, in 1972. Major Kendall Laird, a Survival Assistance Officer, arrives in this sleepy little town with the body of Lieutenant Dwyte Johnson, a Vietnam war hero. It's Laird's job to help Johnson's parents bury their son. But since the dead hero was black, his parents are turned away by the white racists who maintain the town's "all-white" cemetery.
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Fact-based story about a 1975 cover-up of a shooting by two white members of the Boston Tactical Unit. While on stakeout on a suspected getaway car used in a armed robbery, the two gunned down a black man who entered the car. The two claimed the man had a gun and they shot in self-defense. Police investigation decided it was a rightful shooting. The man's widow knew her husband would not be carrying a weapon and became determined to prove her husband's innocence. She hired a former cop who had become a lawyer to prove her case. Working with his four sons, the lawyer team takes on the police force in what eventually proved to be a landmark legal decision. Written by John Sacksteder
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This movie looks at the last years (not days, as implied in the title) of famous outlaws, Frank and Jesse James. The film opens in 1877 with the brothers trying to settle down after 15 years of thievery. Frank is shown to be a book-loving and family-oriented man, while brother Jesse is a money-hungry womanizer. The movie follows their lives through Jesse's death at the hands of the "rotten little coward" Bob Ford and Frank's death in 1892.
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Cops in a small town near the Mexican border find themselves caught up in a scheme that smuggles illegal aliens into the country.
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A sheltered wife of a surgeon suddenly finds herself thrust into the middle of a messy divorce.
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The Charters family falls into despair over their drug-addicted son Gary. They discuss his problems through the "Toughlove" program in searching for answers.
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Based on true story of teens Richard and Deborah Jahnke charged in Wyoming for the killing of their abusive father.
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A dramatization of Gloria Steinem's undercover investigation of the working conditions Bunnies faced at the Playboy Clubs.
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Rachel is a 9-year-old girl who is perfection itself - unless she's crossed or challenged. Several disturbing recent incidents have led Rachel's mother Christine to suspect that her child is a latent murderess. Upon discovering that she herself is the daughter of a convicted killer, Christine becomes convinced that sweet little Rachel is a "bad seed" - an inherent killer who feels no remorse because she doesn't know any better.
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A high school football hero Bo Reinecker tries to piece together the events leading up to murder of his girl friend Lisa Nolen. Claiming to have experienced a total blackout, Bo is ultimately found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity and placed in an institution for four years. Meanwhile, the dead girl's father, Tom Nolen, and her sister Wynn, bitterly prepare a campaign to put Nolen away in prison for life. Things come to a boil when Bo is released--and Tom and Wynn take "due process" into their own hands.
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After a small earthquake in a small and quiet town, local citizens start to have a bizarre, violent and self-destructive behavior...
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Garvey is a San Francisco pawnshop operator. His unemployed and criminal friends Dillard, Turtle and Weslake, team up with Boardwalk, a local pimp, to burgle Garvey's shop while the owner is out of town. During the elaborate planning process, Dillard falls for a Hispanic woman, the sister of a friend. Boardwalk is assigned to case a local apartment, where he meets and falls for the maid. Amidst all these romantic hijinks, Weslake puts together a burglary plan, which is executed by the makeshift gang.
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Dan and Julie Evans are looking for a fresh start after Dan is cut from his pro football team due to age. They move into a palatial, coastal house and Dan starts a new career as a sportscaster, but the loss of his career has stirred up a deep vulnerability and it has spilled over into his sex life with his wife. With no outlet for her desires, Julie begins to fantasize, but it seems alarmingly real. Soon, the fantasy man is haunting her every waking moment and coming between her and Dan, and Julie comes to fear that their home may be haunted.
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Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be robber, who is actually a hitman with a grudge against the two.
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A young amnesiac who was left for dead following a brutal assault is now being stalked by her assailant who wants to finish the job before she can remember the circumstances of the crime.
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After winning a beauty contest in Texas, a teenage girl is unprepared for the demands of travel, press conferences and interviews that go with winning the title and participating in a national beauty pageant.
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A seemingly perfect marriage disintegrates, as both husband and wife become involved in a series of affairs.
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An African-American political activist is wrongfully imprisoned for killing two white policemen; he is unwary of yet another white lawyer who claims that he will help free him.
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New York City detective Daniel Ciello agrees to help the United States Department of Justice help eliminate corruption in the police department, as long as he will not have to turn in any close friends. In doing so, Ciello uncovers a conspiracy within the force to smuggle drugs to street informants.
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A teenage bride becomes a war widow when her Marine Corps husband is killed in Vietnam, until into her life comes a civilian recreation director who works at Camp Pendleton.
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Based on the true story of film actress Ina Balin and her efforts with American Red Cross volunteer Betty Tisdale, as well as a compassionate Vietnamese woman running a Saigon orphanage, to rescue as many children as possible and fly them out of the country before South Vietnam's fall in the spring of 1975 through the An Lac baby-lift.
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An acclaimed TV miniseries based on the classic sci-fi novel.
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A liberal-minded, divorced newswriter is the victim of a brutal mugging. Robbed of her confidence, she finds her life cloaked in fear and paranoia, causing her to reevaluate her lifelong beliefs.
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A young woman with precognition realizes she is being stalked by a killer -- a mass murderer she previously had used her psychic powers to identify to the skeptical police.
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A psychological thriller about a research biologist who, angered when an associate is given a position over him based on stolen research findings, agrees to assist his former professor in a cloning experiment in which a duplicate of himself is created -- and which then, with a mind and will of its own, falls in love with the biologist's wife.
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Astronomers discover a comet that they believe will crash into Phoenix, Arizona. They attempt to warn officials, but without 100% certainty, the governor of Arizona is reticent to cause a panic. Even after a television news reporter discovers the truth and threatens to go live with it, the response is understated enough to doom some residents of Phoenix to certain death.
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The wife of a paralytic becomes involved in an extra-marital affair, with his permission.
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A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past.
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In this third film version of the Bad News Bears series, Tony Curtis plays a small time promotor/hustler who takes the pint-sized baseball team to Japan for a match against the country's best little league baseball team which sparks off a series of adventures and mishaps the boys come into.
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An overworked executive vacationing in Hawaii finds that his romance with an attractive businesswoman he meets there is threatened by the supernatural powers of a strange native curse on his bloodline.
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A young woman whose baby died in childbirth refuses to believe it and has dreams that her child is still alive and in danger. A scientist who is conducting experiments about dreams tries to help her.
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A pair of performers wearing bodysuits dance and balance together in this short film for director Shirley Clarke’s Four Journeys Into Mystic Time.
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A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
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A young woman with a long rap sheet who steals cars for a living is befriended by a public defender who tries to steer her straight. But her goal is to steal and subsequently sell enough cars (sometimes the same car more than once) to buy a new Ferrari.
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A professional football player is accused of murdering the man who attacked his sister. His brother, an investigate reporter, sets out to prove his brother's innocence.
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In a boorish future, the government sponsors a popular, but bloody, cross-country race in which points are scored by mowing down pedestrians. Five teams, each comprised of a male and female, compete using cars equipped with deadly weapons. Frankenstein, the mysterious returning champion, has become America's hero, but this time he has a passenger from the underground resistance.
