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Music from the
Films of Zhang Yimou
by Christopher Coleman
One of the famed
"fifth-generation" directors of China's growing film history,
director Zhang Yimou has been
delighting audiences for over
twenty years. His
first major film as director
came in 1987 with RED SORGHUM
(scored by Jiping Zhao) garnered
numerous awards and nominations
and was prominently featured in
the International film festival
circuit. This would be his
first of seven collaborations
with famed Chinese actress Gong
Li. Zhang Yimou
established, what has become,
his trademark use of stylized
color photography as a means of
storytelling with RAISE THE RED
LATERN in 1991 (scored by Jiping
Zhao and Naoki Tachikawa).
In more recent years, while
still producing smaller-budgeted
and more intimate films like
RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF
MILES (scored by Wenjin Guo),
Yimou has become world renown
for his historical, wuxia,
dramas. HERO (2002)
featured a stellar cast of
Chinese actors such as:
Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Maggie
Cheung and Zhang Ziyi and also
TAN DUN's epic score.
Following HERO, Zhang Yimou
collaborated with SHIGERU
UMEBAYASHI for his next two
period films: HOUSE OF
FLYING DAGGERS and CURSE OF THE
GOLDEN FLOWER. Both of which
were visually stunning films
with multi-layered scores.
Along with director CHEN KAIGE,
ZHANG YIMOU has become one of
China's most well-known and
influential movie makers.
Yimou is set to be the
co-director of the opening
ceremonies for the 2008 Olympiad
in Beijing, China. A
five-year process was begun in
2003 to select the official song
and score for the Olympics and
paralympic events. At the
beginning of 2007, hundreds of
scores and thousands of songs
had already been submitted.
In the end, it would not be at
all surprising to see one of
Yimou's former collaborators as
the eventual winner.
The creative storytelling of
Zhang Yimou continues to afford
composers like Jiping Zhao, Tan
Dun and Shigeru Umebayashi the
room to create unique and
memorable film music.
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The Reviews -
Select Soundtracks from the films of Director Zhang
Yimou |
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Hero
Released by
Sony Classical Records (2004)
Rating 8/10
In making his move
into this new genre,
Yimou selected
composer TAN DUN who
had burst onto the
film music scene with
this Oscar winning
work for CROUCHING
TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
Ang Lee's wire-flying
tale was not Dun's
first film score,
however. He had been
producing scores since
the mid 1990s which
include films such as
IN THE NAME OF THE
EMPEROR and FALLEN.
Tan Dun's work spans
much further than film
music as he has
written a number of
award winning
symphonies and operas.
But back within
film-music genre,
following up his
acclaimed effort for
CROUCHING TIGER could
have proven to be a
difficult task.
Read the
full review of Hero
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House
of Flying Daggers
Released by Sony Classical Records (2004)
Rating 8/10
Shigeru Umebayashi's
score sits in stark
contrast to Tan Dun's
bold music for HERO.
Here, Umebayashi
builds the score upon
an exotic cast of
instruments of both
eastern and western
origin, but those
which catch the most
spotlight are of the
east. There are three
musical elements that
HOUSE OF FLYING
DAGGERS, the first
half of the score in
particular, appears to
be built upon: the
shakuhachi (Japanese
flute), percussion,
erhu (chinese violin).
Read the full review of
House of Flying Daggers
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Curse of the Golden Flower
Released by Lakeshore Records (2007)
Rating 7/10
For
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN
FLOWER, composer
Shigeru Umebayashi
follows in Tan Dun's
footsteps from the
film HERO. One
has to wonder if Zhang Yimou
first sought out Tan
Dun for this project
only to have missed
out due to Dun's
commitment to score
director Xiaogang
Feng's THE BANQUET.
Umebayashi's work here
contains similar
foreboding percussion
and choral work as
HERO did; however, it
would be going too far
to call his work any
sort of "rip off."
Umebayashi infuses
enough of his own sound to keep this score freshly
entertaining
Read the full review of
Curse of the Golden Flower
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