Water Margin Soundtrack

[schleg64]

I just finished watching the Image release of "Water Margin" last week (the print looks and sounds fantastic). One of the things about the movie that really struck me as interesting was the music.

Parts of the soundtrack sounded like what you'd normally hear in a kungfu movie, but other parts of it sounded like something out of a spaghetti western-or even a gospel musical! The organs and guitars, along with the choir, made me feel like they belonged in another movie-although it did enhance the viewing experience once you got used to it.

My question is this: are there other kungfu movies that have an unusual or interesting music soundtrack (I'm not talking about movies that blatantly rip-off the music from other movies) that sets them apart from other MA films?

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Well most of them DO blatantly rip off music from other movies.... but sometimes it works really well I think!

For an example... in King Boxer, I thought the cues from DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER worked really well! And in Mars Villa, the music consisted mostly of whole themes from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, but even though I know that music by heart (being a Bond fan) I still think it works surprisingly well in that movie!

[venoms5]

THE WATER MARGIN consisted of music from the CLint Eastwood American western HANG'EM HIGH (1968), a film that was very reminiscent of the Italian variety. The truncated US release 7 BLOWS OF THE DRAGON had an apparently original score. Can't remember who did it but the music appeared in Shaw films before WATER MARGIN such as THE SWIFT KNIGHT (1971).

[quixote64]

The Secret Rivals movies have really good "borrowed" music too. They use the theme from The Big Gundown really well, especially in the 2nd one.