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The soundtrack of the Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs I-III. movies were all written by Chan Kwong-Wing (aka Comfort Chan), and they have been released separately in 2002-2003 (some of them are OOP) and later as a “Trilogy” 3 CD pack, which can be purchased here.

Chan was born in 1967 in HK, and has a very distinguished and unique style, his soundtracks are easily recognizable. He was many times nominated to the best original score prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, which he won in 1998 for The Storm Riders. Some of his other OST’s:

- Young And Dangerous V.
- Storm Riders (Viharlovasok)
- A Man Called Hero (A bosszú harcos)
- Naked Weapon (Meztelen fegyver)
- Infernal Affairs I-II-III. (Szigorúan Piszkos Ügyek)
- Initial D,
- S.P.L. (SPL A bosszúhadjárat)
- Confessions of Pain
- Flash Point

Unfortunately not all of them are released, e.g. the two Donnie Yen movie (SPL and Flash Point) had great tunes but are still not on CD. According to imdb he’s now working on a movie called Magazine Gap Road.

All movies of the Infernal Affairs trilogy were nominated for best originals film score award, but only the second won a prize for the best song which was played by Beyond, a Hong Kong rock band.

The movie itself is one of my favourites and had an over the top cast, great picture and directing, clever story and an amazing soundtrack, so its final perfection is made of many important details. Still I think the music part has great importance in it because what made the film so unique at its time was mainly the style and the mood it had. Chan’s soundtrack is not only a proper accompaniment but also a great music album that can stand on its own. It’s enjoyable without the movies, even many years after watching the scenes.

What I like the most is how atmospheric it is and how clever. There are countless different elements, styles, sounds mixed into one poweful, original piece of music. It’s all in great harmony and still provides a lot of surprises, new tones and rhythms to keep it interesting till the end. The sound is rich, especially the acoustic instruments make it very nice. Classical music, symphonic orchestras and choirs add the drama element, modern rock riffs, drums, electronic sounds make it cool, and we get some Chinese flavour on the top. There are some sad melodies perfectly fitting to the movie, the whole music is very passionate, original and still full of catchy tunes. My favourites are the first two albums. The Infernal Affairs I. soundtrack has a little commercial feel just like to movie but it would be my fav if I hadn’t listened to it waay too much. The second one is a bit more special for me, because it has Hungarian lyrics in 3 songs. It’s also more dramatic. I’d give 10 out of 10 points to them, and maybe 7 to the third one which I found less interesting.

All three movies have themes songs besides the score. One particular song that appears in all of them is Lost Time from taiwanese singer Tsai Chin, who is popular since the 70′s. Her song is what the main characters listened to in the hifi shop. This song is also included in the trilogy soundtrack release. Then, the first movie has a song written by Ronald Ng and sung by the main leads, Andy Lau and Tony Leung. The second movie has the Beyond song which won a prize, and there’s a song composed by Andy Lau, Jacky Chan, Marco Wan for the third movie and it is sung by Hacken Lee. These songs can be heard in the Music Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNUSpfr7Y7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48jqdsMNrGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI9Wu6Ltd7s

I just found a real rarity, that I didn’t even know it existed. I think movie soundtracks are less likely to get released in Hong Kong compared to Korea or Japan, many of them never get on a CD. That’s why I was surprised to see that a movie from the 90′s, the only one that Donnie Yen directed had its soundtrack released (in Japan). The Ballistic Kiss OST was available for a short time, now it’s OOP but sometimes can be found on ebay. The composer of this 1998 action movie was Yukie Nishimura. She (now 40) is a Japanese pianist and has many of her own albums out in Japan. She was also the producer of this soundtrack CD, and besides being the composer she plays the piano tracks. There are 11 instrumental songs on the album, mostly classical, symphonic music, with piano being the solo instrument in most of them. These nice melodies are important part of the movie, giving it a special, romantic mood. Sometimes the songs are a little dark and sad (like The Theme of Cat), but it just makes Donnie Yen look more cool and passionate on screen. I think piano tracks are more unique on this album while “usual” soundtrack pieces are average. I like the drifting melodies of The Chase and the angelic (sic!) sounds of Angel (Music Box Version) the most.

Gackt’s 23rd single, Redemption was released in January. The two songs on it are from the PS2 game, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. Tracklist:

1. Redemption
2. Longing
3. Redemption instru.
4. Longing instru.

The album consists of two song, Redemption, Longin and their instrumental / karaoke versions. Thefirst, Redemption is a simple, catchy rock song which is mainly sounds good because of Gackt’s nice voice. The second song, Longing is slower but more interesting. Has a darker, more emotional mood and it’s also more heavy, fits well the game (trailer).

Redemption MV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHRu5LnScXs and its lyrics

Artist: Gackt
Media type: CD Single
Released: 2006
Label: Nippon Crown
Rating: 8

The Wire Magazine’s electronica album of the year 2000. Susumu Yokota is one of Japan’s biggest house/techno DJs, but this album is more about the soft, ambient tunes.

Tracklist:

1. Saku
2. Tobiume
3. Uchu Tanjyo
4. Hagoromo
5. Genshi
6. Gekkoh
7. Hisen
8. Azukiiro No Kaori
9. Kodomotachi
10. Naminote
11. Shinsen
12. Kirakiraboshi

The album is full of dreamy, catchy, loop-based melodies. It can’t be described in details, it’s just the kind of music we expect when seeing the cd cover. Beautiful, delicate, picturesque. It has a little Japanese flavour, thanks to some instruments and melodies but what really makes us think of a Japanese garden is the mood. Its looping sounds remind us of a gently babbling stream and the beautiful melodies play like a sunbeam dancing among the cherry blossoms (sakura).

official site — amazon.com — realmedia samples

Media type: CD
Released: 2000
Label: Leaf
Rating: 8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475750/

Typhoon aka Taepung (2005) is a Korean action drama. Another big budget film from the end of last year, which is not as good as much it costed but still a decent movie. As many times before, it is about a North-Korean terrorist, who’s chased on sea and in many countries. The story seems to be simple but the characters and the action scenes make it a good movie that’s worth watching.

The actors are not only good but good-looking which is an important thing for a film that itself tries to impress us with its visuals. The most handsome is the bad guy, Jang Dong-Kun, who we could see in Promise (Wu Ji) last time, or in TaeGukgi. He plays Sin, a man who tried to escape from the North to the South as a child, but South Koreans sent them back resulting the whole bus of refugees to die, including his parents. Only he and his sister escaped then at the Chinese borders, and they had to survive alone. The child Sin soon decided to take revenge on the South Korean people. Later he and his sister got separated and didn’t see each-other for 20 years. Now, Sin is a modern day pirate who takes a US ship that carries some nuclear waste. So the South sends an agent (Lee Jeong-Jae) to take him but things are not that simple. The long lost sister comes in the story and we slowly start to sympathize with Sin, not only because he looks so good but because we understand him and see his sensitive side. The same fellow-feeling makes the good guy wish that they could be friends but of course they have to fight instead. How is the title related to the story? I won’t tell but expect some wind.

Directed by Kwak Gyong-taek. The movie will be released in the US this year by DreamWorks.

Starring: Jang Dong-gun, Lee Jeong-jae, Lee Mi-yeon, Kim Kap-soo
Directed by: Kwak Gyeong-taek
Written by: Kwak Gyeong-taek
Genre: action, drama
Year: 2005
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Runtime: 124′
Rating: 7

Stills: http://asiafan.org/gallery/v/stills/typhoon/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778020/

Korean drama, romance – 2006. Yoon-hee is harrassed by her rich husband, and one day decides to kill herself, but then she’s saved by a similarly unfortunate policeman. As the movie title suggests, they develop a romantic relationship which leads to further complications…

The unhappy marrige and aggressive husband drives Yoon-hee into the arms of a patheric policeman, who’s divorced, lonely, is in debts and have a history of problems at work because he’s not corrupt like his boss. The movie starts with a fight coreographed to tango music, this rhythm and melody stays throughout the movie. The soundtrack is very beutiful and romantic, the composer, Lee Dong-joon did the soundtrack of Swiri and Taegukgi too. The romance part of the movie is a little bit overacted and forced, we can see a lot of earlier scenes in playback, and some dancing in slow-motion. And a lot of little things that make it too movie-like, e.g. the random wall they lean on when kissing happens to be red with roses on the wallpaper, and the rain – always knows in which moment it has to start pouring. But when we are almost asleap the romance turns into an action movie, people start to fight, kill, shoot, run, shout, and the situation is even more dramatic. This movie has an interesting plot and exciting second half, so it’s worth watching. The only thing I didn’t like was the lead actor’s look, I think this movie needed a handsome, sensual, softer man (after all it’s a romance) and he’s rather rough and …well, I can’t say he’s not nice but… not my type. It was hard to enter into the spirit of romance seeing a guy that I would avoid. But he’s a very good actor and had better roles, e.g. in Bad Guy, where he plays the main character. That one really suited him. He played in five of Kim Ki-duk’s movies by the way.

trailer
music video
stilles: http://asiafan.org/gallery/v/stills/romance/

Starring: Jo Jae-hyeon, Kim Ji-su
Directed by: Moon Seung-wook
Genre: drama, romance, action
Year: 2006
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Runtime: 106 min.
Rating: 6
Music: Lee Dong-jun

Ayumi Hamasaki’s 40th single was released this week. The album titled Blue Bird contains 3 songs and 6 tracks together with remixes…

Tracklist

1. BLUE BIRD – 4:09
2. Beautiful Fighters – 5:17
3. Ladies Night ~another night~ – 4:04
4. BLUE BIRD (Harderground remix) – 6:24
5. BLUE BIRD (Instrumental) – 4:09
6. Beautiful Fighters (Instrumental) – 5:17

The titles song is a typical Ayumi song in Japanese, very catchy. It’s hard to say more, it’s simply a nice pop song from a pretty singer who has a beautiful voice. The second song, Beautiful Fighters is more dynamic with electronic sounds, but this is also a cathcing hit song. The third, Ladies Night is rock and then three remixes come. A pop album of a high standard, it’s worth getting it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430651

Japanese black comedy from 2004 starring Tadanobu Asano. I watched this movie because I liked the soundtrack so much. With expectations based on the music I was a little disappointed, even though I was prepared to see something comepletely mindless. The film also stars Vinnie Jones (Lock Stock.., Snatch, X-men). Director is Gen Sekiguchi, it’s his only movie so far.

Great movie for the fans os absurde humour and total confusion. The story: a man is unable to keep his wife dead, who comes back from the grave again and again, always in a different outfit. A hitmen ask everybody about what their “function” in life. A familyman is hypnotized into a bird and can’t change back, and a lot of other weird characters. Being a comedy it didn’t make me laugh not once. But thanks to the great soundtrack and the colorful pictures and the whole insanity it can be enjoyed. It’s even touching in the end.

Stills: http://asiafan.org/gallery/v/stills/ss5/

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Vinnie Jones, Hiroshi Abe, Reika Hashimoto, Sonny Chiba
Directed by: Gen Sekiguchi
Written by: Taku Tada
Genre: Vígjáték, dráma
Year: 2004
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Runtime: 120 min
Rating: 6

Utada Hikaru‘s 4th album has just been released in June. Featuring previous hit single songs it’s a nice, long-avaited pop/dance album.

Tracklist
1. This is love | 2. Keep Tryin’ | 3. Blue | 4. Nichiyou no Asa | 5. Making Love | 6. Dareka no negaiga kanau koro | 7. Colors | 8. One Night Magic | 9. Kairo | 10. Wings | 11. Be My Last | 12. Eclipse | 13. Passion

The song Passion is from the game Kingdom Hearts II and Dareka no negaiga kanau koro is from the movie Casshern which was directed by Utada’s husband. Colors, This Is Love and Keep Trying are songs that fans could hear in tv commercials before. You can watch the first hit, Be My Last also unplugged played by Utada on a guitar.

Artist: Utada Hikaru
Media type: Album
Released: 2006
Label: Toshiba-EMI Japan
Rating: 7