House Of Flying Daggers

Shigeru Umebayashi's score for Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers is a study in simplicity, featuring a few understated but hypnotic themes that are repeated with different arrangements of traditional Chinese and Western instruments. Considering that Umebayashi also wrote the music for Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, it's understandable that this score's romantic moments are among the standouts. The "Lovers" theme has a pure, yearning melody that works as well in a stripped-down arrangement as it does in the more lavish "Lovers (Flower Garden)" and "Lovers (Mei and Jin)." Soprano Kathleen Battle's version of the song is more overtly Western-sounding but still retains the melody's almost unearthly beauty. The score's bittersweet romance is balanced out by a few percussion-driven tracks that score the film's action sequences, but even pieces like "Battle in the Forest" and "No Way Out" are more melodic than might be expected. Gentle drama and restraint are the watchwords for most of the score, particularly on "Bamboo Forest," "Taking Her Hand," "Ambush in Ten Directions (Shi Mian Mai Fu)," and "The House of Flying Daggers" itself. The score's subtlety helps give House of Flying Daggers its own identity and, in the long run, makes the music more compelling than more bombastic music would be.

~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Artist: Shigeru Umebayashi
Album: House Of Flying Daggers
Year: 2004
Label: Sony Classical

Personnel:

Beijing Section
Percussion: Wang Shuai
Dizi: Dai Ya
Erhu: Xue Ke
Piano: Bi Xiaodi
Pipa: Deng Le, Shu Fang, Li Qi, Wang Qi, Duan Yan, Zou Yu, Xu Bin, Song Hongfei, Gao Ruiyun, Wang Qiao

Tokyo Section
Orchestra: ARIGAT-Orchestra
Orchestrator: Sachiko Miyano
Violin: Konno Hitoshi
Saxophone: Bob Zung
Bamboo Flute: Shota Mochizuki
Erhu: Jia Pengfang
Guitars: Koichiro Tashiro
Percussion: Ikuo Kakehashi
Voice: Tomoko Kanda
Piano: Takehiko Yamada
Ocarina: Takashi Asahi
Pipa: Jian Ting

Track List:

1. Opening title
   
2. Beauty Song (Jia Ren Qu) - Performed by Zhang Ziyi
   
3. The Echo Game
   
4. The Peonyhouse
   
5. Battle in the Forest
   
6. Taking her hand
   
7. Leo's Eyes
   
8. Lovers - Flower Garden
   
9. No way out
   
10. Lovers
    
11. Farewell No. 1
    
12. Bamboo Forest
    
13. Ambush in 10 directions (Shi Mian Mai Fu)
    
14. Leo's Theme
    
15. Mei and Leo
    
16. The House of Flying Daggers
    
17. Lovers (Mei and Jin)
    
18. Farewell No. 2
    
19. Until the end
    
20. Lovers (Title Song) - Performed by Kathleen Battle
    

Low quality sample:

mp3@320