Asian Scores

By Cary Wong

Every time I start to talk about film music, I always remember the old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin, who subscribed to "Chewing" magazine, talked endlessly about the elasticity of certain bubble gums and other gum related topics as Hobbes looked on incredulously. While film scores buffs may not be as obscure as chewing gum buffs (at least I hope not), more people will have chewed gum in one day then buy or even think about a film score past the initial movie going experience in a whole year. Yet you can't get away from the fact that film scores and film soundtracks are experiencing a renaissance of sorts. We all have "Titanic" to thank for that.

There's also been a recent influx of high profile Asian American movies which have given rise to many interesting movie scores. Whereas news programs which profile Asian stories from around the world used to pull out music from MADAME BUTTERFLY and bad kung-fu movies to underscore their stories, now they use music from "The Joy Luck Club" and "The Last Emperor." Ever since those watershed movies where the popularity and the Oscarness of each film respectively created an interest in Asian music, there have been a steady progression of films and film score that are as varied and complex as the themes and subject matter of each film. Every major composer working today have scored an Asian-American movie in recent years, and it's interesting to see their different approaches to the source material. You cannot use the score of "Dragon" to underscore the action of "The Joy Luck Club." It just won't work.

If you look, however to the recent films from Asian countries, like "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Scent of Green Papayas," their scores are taking a different route of using what can only be described as a minimalist use of traditional Asian instruments like the lute. Meanwhile most Asian-American or Western musical scores, written mostly by non-Asian American composers, use the same instruments but incorporates them in a traditional, Western orchestral rendering.

Now, with the recent Oscar nomination of Jerry Goldsmith's "Mulan" fresh in our minds. we can look back at the past couple of years and trace the musical high notes that have led up to the beautiful, heroic score that is "Mulan."

"The Last Emperor" Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of the few Asian composers working on high profile films today. While David Byrne seems to take credit for the popularity of this score, saying his portions were more "Asian" than the contributions of Ryuichi Sakamoto, I found Byrne's small contribution more stereotypically Asian and obvious than Sakamoto. Sakamoto's score fit more with the epic grandeur of Betolucci's vision and the tragic downfall of its hero. Romantic and lush, Sakamoto's score almost ranks up there with Maurice Jarre's score to Lawrence of Arabia. A truly beautiful work. Also check out his score for "Little Buddha."

"M.Butterfly" Howard Shore is known for his minimalist approach to movie scoring. Sparingly used and carefully placed, his music is not usually memorable or hummable after you see the movie, but each score does have its own defining characteristics. His style fits the kind of movies he usually scores like "The Silence of the Lambs" and the movies of David Cronenberg. That is why I was very interested in seeing what he would do with this score since the choice of Cronenberg as a director was shocking enough. Like his previous efforts, Shore created an eerie score that may not have a recognizeable melody, but he does use certain traditional instruments to highlight the strange love story that is "M.Butterfly."

"Golden Gate" This score is one of the best Asian American scores in recent years. Like the movie's theme, the score takes a hint of the Orient and blends it with the unique American style of jazz. Elliot Goldenthal's score is a brilliant marriage of the two. Goldenthal is a composer of many interesting modern pieces such as the theatrical "Juan Darien" for Julie Taymor to his Vietnam Oratorio. His film scores have also incorporated the modern style of atonal and eclecticism to the hilt which is evident in his Oscar nominated "Interview with a Vampire" and "Michael Collins." It's a shame that this movie wasn't better (even though it does have a cameo extra appearance by yours truly) because the score is a beauty.

"The Joy Luck Club" Rachel Portman's beautiful score is essential one melody, but what a heartbreaking melody it is. With each appearance in the movie, it becomes more and more integral and emotional, leading up to the five-hanky finale where sister meets sisters for the first time. Shamefully overlooked at Oscar time, this movie and score will be seen historically as the start of the new interest in Asians in the movies.

"Rush Hour" Lalo Schrifin is best known for capitalizing on the chopsocky sound of kungfu movies with his brilliant score for Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon." That score, however, has been copied and imitated ad nauseum and not always for the good either. The musical style soon became a cliché and somewhat offensive to Asian-Americans who felt that the scores depicted Asians on the big screen as king-fu fighting, fast as lightning people. His score for "Rush Hour" used the same familiar themes as Dragon, which is all this one note movie required of the score, but it's good to hear Schrifin working with the genre he popularized without exploiting it.

"Seven Years in Tibet" I was a little reticent to hear what John Williams would do with his first full fledge Asian score (not counting his triumphant but not very Asian "Emprie of the Sun.") I was not encouraged when I looked on the CD and saw used Yo Yo Ma like he used Isaak Pearlman in "Schindler's List," as if ethnic players made the music more authentic. And while it didn't have the gradeur of a "Star Wars" or "Jurassic Park," it is a very listenable score. This one, like a lot of his later scores will be known more or its flourishes than any anthems. I'll be very interested in his upcoming score for "Memoirs of a Geisha" if Spielberg ever decides to film it.

"Dragon" Randy Edelman is known for his heroic anthems which is probably why a lot of movie trailers as well as Olympic figure skaters use his music to underscore their projects. While not abandoning the Asian-ness of the story, Edelman opts to highlight the universality of the movie's hero, Bruce Lee, with a theme so patriotic that you want to stand and cheer after each listen. He went down a somewhat similiar path with his score for "Come See the Paradise." "Dragon" is by far his most recognizable score.

"Black Rain" Hans Zimmer has always had luck with ethnic theme stories, and this as well as his later score for "Beyond Rangoon" shows he knows how to score Asian movies well. Mostly synthesizers based music, his mood scores capitalizes more on traditional Asian melodies than the use of the actual instruments.

"Rising Sun" This will always be a prime example of how Hollywood scores are nowhere near the sophistication of the atonal scores of Japanese and Chinese movie music. You have to give the producers credit for even thinking of using Toru Takmeshi, whose complex scores for Akira Kurasawa has made him the adulation of such modern classical composers as John Adams. They did not know how to incorporate such a sophisticated score on a mediocre movie. Takameshi has said they butchered his score, and you can tell from the CD. What a waste.

"Red Corner" a very subtle score from Thomas Newman who's known more for his Americana scores of "Little Women" and "The Horse Whisperer." He also uses very little melody for this dark story of murder in China, but his one melodic theme is a beauty to behold. Similiar to "Golden Gate," Newman used a screaming female voice as the basis for some of his cues. A nod to Peking Opera, perhaps?

"Kundun" The first truly brilliant blend of Asian music and modern musicality, the Godfather of minimalist himself, Philip Glass has finally grown into a true composer to be reckoned with, on the same level as John Corgialano and Michael Nyman. His scores have always verged on self-parody, but this score transcends his previous efforts and tops them. He incorporates his signature repetitions with beautifully layered themes and his last ten minute exodus out of Tibet is so rich in texture and character that you feel that Glass should always work with a visual director like Scorsese.

"Mulan" Veteran film composer Jerry Goldsmith has created the most stirring score for a Disney heroine ever. Leaving behind most of the Matthew Wilder/David Zippel songs which are adequate but somewhat stereotypical (is honor the only virtue Chinese people talk about?), Goldsmith's used Asian instruments married to the melodic thunder that is his musical signature. "Mulan," which lost the Oscar to ³Shakespeare in Love," will be the new pinnacle that other composers will use as their model to score Asian hero movies without the chopsocky nature of its previous incarnation.

So far in 1999, the Asian-themed scores have been pretty scarce. Carter Burwell's ³The Corrupter" was pretty generic, but the score for the upcoming ³Princess Mononoke" is brilliant, although in the version I saw, the credits were still in Japanese, so I can't tell if the score I heard was the original score from the Japanese version or part of the Miramax ³new version."

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