'Ashes of Time Redux' Soundtrack
April 27th 2009 01:10
I also recommend the sound track Ashes of Time score featuring Yo-Yo Ma. The music is riveting splender that takes you through the movie emotionally and completely every time you listen. Saying it is beautiful isn't enough but close.
Originally completed in 1994, Ashes of Time Redux received a limited release and, in the years since, the existing prints and negatives had become damaged or destroyed. “To rectify this situation,” Wong Kar Wai states, “we decided to revisit this project and to create the definitive version.” He and his colleagues began the process by gathering as much existing material as could be found and restoring those elements, using advanced technology that had not existed in the early ‘90’s. He also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma to create a new soundtrack, rearranging some of the original compositions by Freddie Chan and adding some original ones.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, wind-instrument master Wu Tong, young composers, Li Xun and Eli Marshall joined a group of young Chinese musicians in the recording studio to re-create the score for Ashes of Time Redux. Chan re-imagined the score and created simple yet iconic melodies that are emotionally direct and heartfelt. On this recording, Ma’s cello, as the instrument closest in pitch range to our voice, becomes a principal “narrator” telling us of love, life and loss.
To infuse the sounds of East and West for the Ashes of Time Redux score, Chan chose traditional Chinese instruments such as “dongxiao” (vertical bamboo flute) and “gaohu” (two-stringed fiddle) and recorded a guitar, which can imitate the sound of the “pipa” (Chinese flute). According to Chan, the “dongxiao” epitomizes the solitary existence of swordsmen, while the high-pitched squeaks of the “gaohu” presents the unpredictability of fate and human savagery.
The soundtrack is a testament to the remarkable achievement of artists crossing the great divide between traditional and classical, folk and modern, East and West.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Thanks for the reminder on this one...missed it in cinemas and then it slipped my mind..I'm a big Won Kar Wai fan and your review now has me on quest...the remaking of your own film through circumstance is irresistible from a trivial POV too.
Comment by Kenna
Asian filmmakers are masters at telling stories. They are complete and full.
Some may find them too long, like start they should scene much later or end it sooner, but I like it. I think, American filmmakers can learn from their style of story telling.