February 16, 2011

  • Review: Oldboy (Young-Wuk)

     

    Oldboy ****

     

    CHO YOUNG-WUK

    Milan 36480

    23 tracks – 57:11

    Limited edition of 1000 units.

    Director Chan-wook Park’s “Revenge Trilogy” is among Korea’s blockbusters of which Oldboy (2003) is the centerpiece.  The film is about a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years and is released with 5 days to find his captors.  Upon its release, Oldboy headed to film festivals where it tended to win for best film and has been named one of the 10 best Asian films ever made by CNN.  It received the 2004 Grand Prix at Cannes and 5 Grand Bell Awards at the equivalent of the South Korean Oscars.  One of those was for the score by Cho Young-Wuk.  Young-Wuk has been working in film for the past decade with a number of high profile directors employing his talents.  Oldboy is a score that constantly surprises by its engaging thematic ideas and blend of electronic and live instruments.  The somewhat film noir quality of the music is supported by the titles of the tracks which all come from film noir films or novels.

    The first thing to note is that there are moments of dialogue that appear on several tracks before the score begins, though they are generally quite brief.  The opening “Look Who’s Talking” features a good lyric theme that is overcome by techno-like beats.  Young-Wuk tends to take small motives and repeat them several times before shifting a pitch level and expanding upon them just slightly.  This technique is on full display in “The Count of Monte Cristo” which is almost mesmerizing in its melancholy.  More urban Hip-Hop pulses assert themselves in the musical texture at times as well (occasionally with a solo trumpet over the top of the textures).  The touching melodic ideas in the score though help keep the listener’s attention as they weave a sinuous line that shifts between darkness and reaches for light and hope.  “The Searchers” features a beautiful violin melody supported with tango-like rhythms in synth/strings that would be quite at home in any European film.  It is just one of the many thematic highlights of the score.  Young-Wuk uses a combination of samples, synths, and live orchestral instruments to weave an at times touchingly beautiful, at others mysteriously complex tapestry with occasional forays into popular electronic styles.  “Cries and Whispers” is a beautiful waltz that takes the melody into a sumptuously scored diversion.  These lighter moments and European dance forms are exquisitely scored and make up the majority of the music heard on the disc.  “Out of the Past” features another type of musical backdrop Young-Wuk employs where arpeggios bubble away under an essentially minimalist musical texture.  It is the waltz theme though that really makes the album itself worth tracking down.  Overall, there are times when the electronic sounds feel a bit like a post Kitaro/Tomita electronic backdrop but Young-Wuk tends to set such lyrical and gorgeous melodies over them that one soon forgets what influence if any these styles may have had and simply allows the score to unfold.

    The accompanying booklet is a simple insert with nothing about the film or its music, surprising for a limited edition release.  Still, Oldboy is quite a discovery for those looking to explore European-influenced Asian film music with strong and engaging themes that are blended into atmospheric and electronic sounds along with orchestra.  Contemporary techno or Hip-Hop-like music creates a good backdrop to the more action based sequences, though the presentation favors the composer’s melodic development.  Milan’s release is a bit of a nice surprise worth seeking out.