asian auteurs: pimp my soundtrack
A recent conversation with Mogger soulrocket inspired this post otherwise christened as my top 5 Asian cinema filmmakers who are music pimps (i.e. who make excellent use of music in their films). A few things of note: a) this is not a "best of all time" but a "most recent best" list; b) it is a list of filmmakers in East Asian cinema, technically speaking; and c) Bollywood is an entirely different story.5- Zhang Yimou is beloved for critically acclaimed rich visual epics with lavish soundscapes to match, which fans tend to find humming in their heads on their way home from the cinema. To make this happen, the Xi'an-born filmmaker is perhaps the luckiest for having worked with the Dean's List of award-winning film scorers: Tan Dun for Hero, and his own-produced opera, The First Emperor; Shigeru Umebayashi for House of the Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower; Guo Wenjing for Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles; and Bao San for the lukewarmly received scores for The Road Home, Not One Less, and Happy Times.Extra street cred: Umebayashi was the leader of the legendary Japanese new wave rock group EX. Guo is a renowned player of the erhu (Chinese two string fiddle) and bamboo flute.4- Park Chan-wook would not soon be forgotten for his Vengeance Trilogy in which neither scenes nor score could have been more heart-wrenching of the kind that you could still feel when you tried to go to sleep later. Oldboy's soundtrack by Jo Yeong-Wook are titled after film noirs. More interestingly, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance's baroque-themed soundtrack introduces the subwoofer generations to Antonio Vivaldi as well as the harpsichord and baroque guitars. Its theme music is an edited version of Vivaldi's Ah ch'infelice sempr from the cantata Cessate, omai cessate.Extra street cred: In Three... Extremes: Cut, the South Korean filmmaker bequeathed us one of the best music-related moments in current Asian cinema: a deranged kidnapper seating his kidnappee's doll of a wife down at the piano and chopping her fingers off one by one every five minutes.
3- Takashi Miike works very frequently with the prolific Kôji Endô and otherwise solicits innovative Japanese rock artists to lock the earcandy with his disturbing eyecandy. Credited as Karera Musication, the Osaka avant-garde rock group Boredoms (collaborated with John Zorn and Sonic Youth; covered by Fischerspooner) provided the music for Ichi the Killer, produced by guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto. The 1971 album Satori by the esoteric Japanese psychedelic rock / heavy metal Flower Travellin' Band (stoner rock, doom rock; covered King Crimson and Muddy Waters) served as the entire soundtrack to Deadly Outlaw: Rekka. Extra street cred: The Osaka-born filmmaker appeared as an actor in Last Life in the Universe, Neighbour No. 13, and Hostel. Audition and Visitor Q rock.2- Takeshi Kitano a.k.a. Beat Takeshi epitomizes your deepest, darkest notion of a clown, whether in films he made or in which he acted. The Tokyo-born filmmaker enlisted arguably today's best Asian composer, Joe Hisaishi, for all but four of his films prior to Zatoichi; the award-winning Hisaishi also composed for Hayao Miyazaki and is a five-time recipient of the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music. The soundtrack for Zatoichi, Kitano's biggest commercial success, was created by Keiichi Suzuki, composer for the Super Nintendo game EarthBound, formerly of the Japanese rock group Moon Riders, and a frequent collaborator of the Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi.Extra street cred: He plays Kitano in the Battle Royale movies, for chrissakes. He is, in my opinion, the true baddest-ass mofo of Asian cinema.
1- Wong Kar Wai streams his narrative like a dance, set to his trademark combination of atmospheric film scores and an eclectic mix of popular music serving as melodic handles to his storytelling. His roster of partners in crime reads like a dream team: Shigeru Umebayashi, the Argentinian tango composer and bandoneón player Astor Piazolla, the New Orleans violinist Michael Galasso, the Brazilian composer Caetano Veloso, Connie Francis (Siboney!), Portishead, The Mamas and the Papas, and Frank Zappa. The Shanghai-born Hong Kong filmmaker named In the Mood for Love after Bryan Ferry's cover of the song I'm in the Mood for Love. His upcoming My Blueberry Nights stars Norah Jones.Extra street cred: He directed the music video of Six Days for DJ Shadow. He got muse and canto-popstress Faye Wong to cover Cocteau Twins and, oh okay, The Cranberries. Album for starters: Memories of Sound & Light: Unofficial Wong Kar Wai Songbook.* cross-reference this to my top ten film scorers in Asian cinema, which i will try to post soon. (:
3- Takashi Miike works very frequently with the prolific Kôji Endô and otherwise solicits innovative Japanese rock artists to lock the earcandy with his disturbing eyecandy. Credited as Karera Musication, the Osaka avant-garde rock group Boredoms (collaborated with John Zorn and Sonic Youth; covered by Fischerspooner) provided the music for Ichi the Killer, produced by guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto. The 1971 album Satori by the esoteric Japanese psychedelic rock / heavy metal Flower Travellin' Band (stoner rock, doom rock; covered King Crimson and Muddy Waters) served as the entire soundtrack to Deadly Outlaw: Rekka. Extra street cred: The Osaka-born filmmaker appeared as an actor in Last Life in the Universe, Neighbour No. 13, and Hostel. Audition and Visitor Q rock.2- Takeshi Kitano a.k.a. Beat Takeshi epitomizes your deepest, darkest notion of a clown, whether in films he made or in which he acted. The Tokyo-born filmmaker enlisted arguably today's best Asian composer, Joe Hisaishi, for all but four of his films prior to Zatoichi; the award-winning Hisaishi also composed for Hayao Miyazaki and is a five-time recipient of the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music. The soundtrack for Zatoichi, Kitano's biggest commercial success, was created by Keiichi Suzuki, composer for the Super Nintendo game EarthBound, formerly of the Japanese rock group Moon Riders, and a frequent collaborator of the Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi.Extra street cred: He plays Kitano in the Battle Royale movies, for chrissakes. He is, in my opinion, the true baddest-ass mofo of Asian cinema.1- Wong Kar Wai streams his narrative like a dance, set to his trademark combination of atmospheric film scores and an eclectic mix of popular music serving as melodic handles to his storytelling. His roster of partners in crime reads like a dream team: Shigeru Umebayashi, the Argentinian tango composer and bandoneón player Astor Piazolla, the New Orleans violinist Michael Galasso, the Brazilian composer Caetano Veloso, Connie Francis (Siboney!), Portishead, The Mamas and the Papas, and Frank Zappa. The Shanghai-born Hong Kong filmmaker named In the Mood for Love after Bryan Ferry's cover of the song I'm in the Mood for Love. His upcoming My Blueberry Nights stars Norah Jones.Extra street cred: He directed the music video of Six Days for DJ Shadow. He got muse and canto-popstress Faye Wong to cover Cocteau Twins and, oh okay, The Cranberries. Album for starters: Memories of Sound & Light: Unofficial Wong Kar Wai Songbook.* cross-reference this to my top ten film scorers in Asian cinema, which i will try to post soon. (:
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