Two of My Favorite OSTs (YAP)(18)

(OST is short for original soundtrack, which always means the incidental music in movies.)
Have you ever watched a touching movie that when the touching scenes appeared and the slow and sad music played, you were moved to tears? Have you ever watched an interesting movie that when the funny scenes appeared and the light and lively music played, you laughed into tears? For a movie, not only the story, the performance of the actors or the scenes makes difference, the incidental music is also very important. Some is so important and wonderful that long time after watching the movie, people may forget the content of the movie but would still remember the music played in it. Kar-wai Wong’s Ashes of Time (东邪西毒) and Hocheung Pang’s Isabella are just two of this kind of movies to me.
The music in Ashes of Time was created by Frankie Chen. At the beginning of this movie which is about heroes’ loves, sounds of drum appear, from fast to slow, followed by the blend of some other percussion instruments, which creates a majestic and sad atmosphere. When the heroes and heroines lose themselves in love, the music goes and stands still for a while, and then goes again, giving the feelings of wanting to give up but just cannot, which is just the feeling in painful loves. I don’t know how to describe the music exactly in English; I just want to say that, the music really makes me get into the movie, as if I am one part of it, feeling what the characters feel, doing what they do.
The music in Isabella is the kind of Fado, which is one kind of traditional music of Portugal. Produced by Peter Kam and won the first price of incidental music in Berlin International Film Festival, it really has its magic. In many scenes, the editor just let the music play, no words, no other sounds, but as if we can get thousands of word from the music and the movements of characters. The movie was shot in Macao. Once ruled by Portugal, scenes of streets and houses in Macao meet the Fado very much.
The music of Fado is mainly played in the piano, violent and guitar, but it comes out unusual and fantastic. It really makes me crazy.