Soundtrack Review: House of Flying Daggers

By Andy McKeague Feb 21, 2005, 17:45 GMT

Right from ‘Opening Title’ with its dizi bamboo flutes you are whisked away with an exotic flavour. This is great stuff indeed.

The soundtrack with its mixture of traditional Eastern instruments, European brass, modern synthesisers and guitars is a fantastic listening in it’s own right. For a soundtrack to work both within the structure of the movie (which it does so well) and also as a stand-alone work Shigeru Umebayashi (2046, In The Mood For Love) has done a wonderful job.

There are 20 tracks for your pleasure here. From the enchanting and delicate voice of actress and star Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Musa The Warrior) in ‘Beauty Song (Jia Ren Qu)’ to the percussive ‘The Echo Game’ to the grand operatic voice of internationally acclaimed US Soprano Kathleen Battle for the ‘Lovers’ end credits piece.

Kathleen Battle

Shigeru Umebayashi has scored the recent of Wong Kar Wai’s movies and has comprised his most accomplished and varied score to date to one of the most visually and cinematically beautiful movies ever made.

Since Tan Dun (Hero) won an Oscar and a Bafta for his work on 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' in 2001 there has been more recognition for these artists who work primarily within the Hong Kong and Chinese film industry. This is an exquisite passport for that recognition as one could possibly imagine.