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| Dun |
Hero: (Tan Dun) The most successful domestic
grossing venture in the history of Chinese films at the time, Zhang
Yimou's
Hero was the natural progression of styles from
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon into an even bigger and more
lavish production. The former film, interestingly, never performed very
well in China because of Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat's accented
Mandarin dialogue, but additional dubbing in
Hero solved the
problem and led the film not only to wild success in China, but abroad
as well. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe
in 2002 in their respective foreign film categories, but it was
curiously never fully distributed in the West. Much of the cast and crew
for
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon returned the next year for
Hero, with the addition of international action star Jet Li as
the nameless hero at the heart of the film. Set in China during the
reign of the King of Qin (the emperor 2,200 years ago who united
modern-day China and built the infamous wall), three assassins have
vowed to dispatch the new emperor and one hero (Li) steps up to defend
him. The lone warrior succeeds in killing all three of the assassins
through different techniques of swordplay and passion. Like its
predecessor,
Hero suspends reality by combining the martial arts
craft with magical and logic-defying movements, taking every setting and
packing it with even more exaggerated and unrealistic characteristics.
Composer Tan Dun won nearly every conceivable award for his music for
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000, surprisingly defeating
Hans Zimmer's
Gladiator in the year of that film score's popular
reign, and with his name and work extended into the international
spotlight, Dun returned to expand upon the same general sound for
Hero. Like the first film, he assembled an immense quantity of
performance talent for the project, recording with the China
Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, the
KODO Drummers of Japan, the Ancient Rao Ensemble of the Changsha Museum,
soprano You Yan, and guqin (lute) performer Liu Lu, with sessions
recorded in China, Japan, and New York. Whether or not your ears are
tuned to enjoy the resulting sounds of these diverse musicians, the
sheer magnitude of the assembled performances and their intriguing tones
should merit the curiosity of any film score collector, regardless of
cultural upbringing.
Fortunately for the Western ears in particular, the
style of
Hero is more attainable to grasp than that of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Dun did not necessarily alter
Hero for that specific purpose, but the more warlike nature of
this second score causes the brass and percussion to be more
recognizable than the dominant string material typically heard in Dun's
writing. The base romanticism in the string section still exists, and
serves as the hypnotic heart of this score as well. Perlman's violin
performances function very similarly to Yo Yo Ma's in
Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with his style of performance altered to fit
the slurring nature of historical string writing for the region. Dun is
extremely loyal to his title theme, which may, in the end, be the most
pronounced weakness of this score (as well as the previous one), and if
the romanticism of this theme in all of its emotional variants does not
touch your soul, then you could in for a very long listening experience.
But the composer does offer the refreshing passages of war dedicated to
huge armies, and in cues such as "Warriors" and "At the Emperor's
Palace," the KODO Drummers are paired with magnificent single-note
blasts of deep brass on key (the trombone players certainly exerted
themselves in this one), and the fight sequences predictably rely
heavily on block-busting and stick-tapping percussion to maintain their
rhythmic steam. Still, despite the overwhelming power of the music for
the Emperor's scenes, Dun's romantic treatment of his title theme
prevails. The drums are always present in the score, but for the theme
they perform quietly below the chorus for a uniquely Eastern and
enticing treatment of an otherwise typical orchestral theme. There are
no individual standout cues; consistency is one of the trademark aspects
of Dun's work for these films. Pronounced performances by the soprano
and lute player are limited, however, and may have served the score
better had they been used in a greater capacity. Also of curious note is
the seeming omission of any special musical identity for each of the
three charismatic assassins, leaving the music always firmly rooted in
the passion that the nameless hero feels for his country. Overall,
Hero is a pleasant and more readily enjoyable score than
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with a few militaristic cues of
bombast tempered by 45 minutes of beautiful treatment of the score's
primary theme. The non-American versions of the
Hero album,
released in 2002 and 2003, contain a vocal rendition of the theme
performed by Faye Wong in Chinese Mandarin as a bonus track. On any
product,
Hero is a safe place to start when introducing yourself
to Dun's music.
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The 2004 American album's insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
