[Thor Joachim Haga]

Mark Burgess just published a brief article, about a cinematic piece called “The Wuxia Commemoration”, by Eliot Leung.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a thread on Chinese film music. We haven’t really talked a lot about that here, except my thread on Wang Xiaofeng’s gorgeous POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS.

I don’t have MANY things to recommend, but I do have some. What about you?

[GerateWohl]

I guess, Tan Dun’s CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON or HERO doesn’t count?

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I’d say they count.

[Malte Müller]

I guess, Tan Dun’s CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON or HERO doesn’t count?

For sure those count and I would add THE BANQUET.

I have this Varese compilation ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA VOL.1 that is nice:
https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/7792/Once+Upon+A+Time+In+China%3A+The+Best+Of+Chinese+Filmmusic+Vol.+1

I have the score to ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA by James Wong itself and his score to GREEN SNAKE. Also William Wu’s TAI CHI MASTER. Been some time I listened to them. All Hong Kong so back then not directly China but I guess it counts, too 😉

I also have some tracks only for some reason for HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS but while the film is chinese the composer is actually japanse…

I might have some tracks by Joseph Koo for Kung Fu movies here and there but otherwise Chinese film music it is pretty uncharted territory.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I have this Varese compilation ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA VOL.1 that is nice:
https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/7792/Once+Upon+A+Time+In+China%3A+The+Best+Of+Chinese+Filmmusic+Vol.+1

Yes, that’s a great album. Was there ever a volume 2 or beyond?

[Mark Burgess]

I also like the HK Once Upon a Time in China (I think there are various versions, but I never saw a sequel).

I quite like The Wandering Earth (China’s first sci fi blockbuster), sort of a mix between Harald Kloser and Hans Zimmer. I often use it as background music while I’m working

[Malte Müller]

I also like the HK Once Upon a Time in China (I think there are various versions, but I never saw a sequel).

It’s indeed a film series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_China_(film_series)

Not sure which I saw probably the first or second one.

Yes, that’s a great album. Was there ever a volume 2 or beyond?

Seems there wasn’t.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I’ve sampled some of Roc Chen’s work, including the aforementioned THE WANDERING EARTH, and a lot of it comes off as rather bombastic “trailer music” to my ears. Not my cuppa tea.

I want to give a shout-out to Bei Wang’s excellent score for the nature documentary AERIAL CHINA (2017). I have a 26-minute promo of this, I don’t believe it’s commercially released. But maybe there are some cuts on the ol’ YouTube. Du Wei’s excellent I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY (2016) is another example, also sadly unreleased commercially.

One that IS released, and that I believe I mentioned once in the “What are you listening to?” thread, is Qigang Chen’s THE FLOWERS OF WAR – Zhang Jimou’s 2011 film starring Christian Bale. Not sure why his usual composer Zhao Jiping didn’t do it. But some beautiful writing in it, especially the choral stuff.

[Malte Müller]

Zhao Jiping

I somehow thought I had some compilation of his works. But maybe I had it in my hands at some time only…

[Mark Burgess]

For some reason I didn’t think of Qigang Chen. The Flowers of War is very lovely, as is “Coming Home”.

Also, as mentioned in my Wuxia article, the naturey George Fentony music of Xiaogang <> Ye

is very broad and cinematic.

[Mark Burgess]

And this is beautiful

Once again the Liverpool Phil doing a great job of promoting modern symphonic recordings (re: James Horner, Andrew Manze etc)

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Thanks for those recommendations, Mark!

One more thing regarding the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA – BEST OF CHINESE FILM MUSIC compilation…did I read right on Discogs, that Bruce Kimmel (aka haineshisway on FSM) scored the film PEACH BLOSSOM LAND?!? I knew he was a record producer, and musical writer, but not a straight-up instrumental film composer.

[Malte Müller]

One more thing regarding the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA – BEST OF CHINESE FILM MUSIC compilation…did I read right on Discogs, that Bruce Kimmel (aka haineshisway on FSM) scored the film PEACH BLOSSOM LAND?!? I knew he was a record producer, and musical writer, but not a straight-up instrumental film composer.

He didn’t, that’s one of the usual credit mistakes. He produced the compilation as you can see on the inlay cover on this entry:
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/8425659-Various-Once-Upon-A-Time-In-China-The-Best-Of-Chinese-Film-Music-Volume-One

IMDB lists other composers:
https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt0103699/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_sm_3#amzn1.imdb.concept.name_credit_group.7caf7d16-5db9-4f4f-8864-d4c6e711c686
My digital verson has these tracks as “Anonymous”, could be based on traditionals maybe.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Hmm. Yes, Japanese composers, not even Chinese, according to IMDB.

[Malte Müller]

Yeah, but the movie itself is from Taiwan and in Mandarin.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Zhao Jiping

I somehow thought I had some compilation of his works. But maybe I had it in my hands at some time only…

Maybe you were thinking of ELECTRIC SHADOWS? An excellent album that showcases his major works for Jimou.

[Malte Müller]

Maybe you were thinking of ELECTRIC SHADOWS? An excellent album that showcases his major works for Jimou.

Yeah, exactly that!

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