Howard Who?

If you’ve seen a Vietnamese-American film recently, chances are it was scored by Christopher Wong.

Before you think “Vietnamese-American film,” just ponder the fact that THE REBEL, scored by Chris Wong, is being released by The Weinstein Company. Or consider that THE ANNIVERSARY, scored by Chris Wong, reached the Oscar shortlist of its respective year. Or that Timothy Bui’s latest film POWDER BLUE (unfortunately not scored by Chris Wong) features a cast that includes recent Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker.

But what’s great is that unlike the great tearjerking dramas THE ANNIVERSARY and the Imaginasian-distributed JOURNEY FROM THE FALL (both directed by Ham Tran and scored by Chris Wong), THE REBEL is a straight-up martial arts period piece action film. Chris Wong gets to play with fun virtuoso orchestral cues that he recorded at the Capitol Records building for a movie that’s set in 1920’s French Indochine. Just think Jackie Chan fighting the Brits except here it’s Johnny Nguyen fighting the French…and Dustin Nguyen, who you may remember from 21 Jumpstreet!

That’s right…that’s Dustin just one person away from Johnny Depp!

And now the big news: tomorrow 9/30 Chris Wong’s soundtrack to THE REBEL gets released! The DVD of the movie has been available now at Best Buy, Amazon, Border, and Netflix. The film toured the film festival circuit before being picked up for distribution by the Weinsteins, and even played at the Vietnam National Film Festival, where Chris Wong won Best Music.

And the guy truly deserves it. He definitely reminds you more of the classic film composer than the newer crop of pop composers. Think more Jerry Goldsmith than Hans Zimmer. And it makes sense since Chris Wong studied under the late great Jerry Goldsmith. Additionally, Chris Wong’s alter ego is as a musical theatre composer, where his songs again catch you with amazing melodies that he knows how to weave with counterpoint.

So go buy the soundtrack at MoviescoreMedia.com. And below here’s the opening track off the soundtrack to whet your appetite in case you’re still not convinced.

A Letter To The People - Christopher Wong BUY

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 7:08 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Movies, Film Music, Theater, Howard Who?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.