Basil Poledouris Has Great Kung Fu
By Michael Ware
The Touch ****
BASIL POLEDOURIS
GoEastHK CD
64:47
So far my favorite film score of 2002 has been the majestic one Basil
Poledouris composed for the Michelle Yeoh adventure, The Touch.
Exquisitely luminous and strong, it is Poledouris' best work since Starship
Troopers, and despite the "non-appearance" of the pic's domestic release,
the score CD is currently available on Hong Kong import (GoEastHK CD 064778-2).
For those of us who've ever wanted to know what a Basil Poledouris Kung
Fu score would be like, this is a huge gift.
It is a disappointing film directed by Peter Pau, who was acclaimed
as a cinematographer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and clearly
the success of that pic seems the motivation behind The Touch, assembling
some of the same talent. Of course, packaging does not insure a good movie
will emerge. The story is mostly odds and ends surrounding a treasure hunt
for Buddhist relics and a legend of chosen protectors, played by Michelle
Yeoh and Brandon Chang as a brother and sister acrobatic circus act, (which
explains their Martial Arts training, sort of) who join up with an estranged
partner (Ben Chaplin) in a race against bitchy evil guys (snotty Richard
Roxburgh and a gang of inept thugs whose fighting skills are so laughable
it is worrisome that they are killed off in the end instead of left as
comic relief). The characters converge on the desert and an ancient temple
and all live out their individual destinies in keeping with a Buddhist
scripture. Romance and lackluster fight choreography ensue.
Poledouris structures all this together with aplomb. The Buddhist tenets
are treated with gravity and beauty, as thematic material they are interwoven
with the plot points and gradual deepening of the relationship between
Yeoh and Chaplin. Simplicity is a virtue and the music creates a sinuous
through-line as if the plot convolutions were part of a serene cosmic design.
To describe the overall sound, it is big orchestra augmented with traditional
Chinese instrumentation, and symphonic and traditional percussion. The
design operates within an appropriate harmonic language without calling
undue attention to the asian material -- it's simply a tight, contemporary
score.
The central theme is also a song, "The Touch," adapted by Poledouris
from a traditional melody by Yan Ke, with a lyric by Lin Xi. It is performed
in a quiescently fine contemporary voice by Kelly Chen, and doesn't remotely
recall Crouching Tiger: it has the languid feel of being from the
source, authentically a traditional song in a classical style. Poledouris'
arrangement grants it an understated, haunting sweep that is captivating
for its intimacy, the lyrics in Mandarin describing a poetic archetype
of the mountains, the stream, two villagers coming to a meeting of hearts.
The underscore refers to the song as an important archetypal figure accenting
the emotional highs. The most thrilling instance (Track 14 "I'll Never
Leave You") is a swirling string figure building up to a full-on majestic
statement of the theme that's so enveloping that you wish it could have
been for something more substantial than a mundane CGI shot of Yeoh and
Chaplin on horseback jumping over a CGI chasm, then riding across screen.
Whatever, the timeless themes of fate, commitment, and an honest life fully-lived
inform Mr. Poledouris' creativity in ways that seem one thousand times
more personal than we are used to in film music these days. It's all delivered
in waves of contemplation and soaring movement, often recalling the intimate
focal point set against the expanding physical and emotional environment
of Big Wednesday, sometimes snaking forward in understated expectation,
sometimes pulsing into the foreground.
The fight choreography gets a blast of charging percussion with orchestra
that is full-blooded and vital ("Trouble Under Blue Skies," "Destiny Awaits,"
"I Believe"), creating perhaps, in film score terms, one of very few instances
in which the strength and life-affirming spirit of Chinese Martial Arts
are given their due, gutsy and powered from within. That is to say, Mr.
Poledouris doesn't just underline action scenes, he allows you to feel
them. This is why I've always looked forward to a score of this kind from
the composer of Conan The Barbarian and Farewell to the King;
it is rare for composers not to intellectualize from the outside, but to
dig into the meat of the warrior ethic and let it surge with power, unapologetic
and true. An understanding. This score is that and also a meditation of
the spirit. The performance is by Beijing's China Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Yang Yang recorded with depth and nuance by Tim Boyle, and
like the music, the performance is exemplary in every way.
Basil Poledouris, Gong Xi! Hao ji le!
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