The reason you may feel that it sounds "cliché" is because I stuck to REAL Chinese orchestration, which is traditionally pentatonic and/or septonic and mostly melody- driven. It is Amercianized forms of this writing, a la Enter The Dragon and the rest of that generation of kung fu films that have skewed American audiences as to what you may believe to be true Chinese music.

I am a second degree black belt and have been a Hong Kong movie fan since the Run Run Shaw days back in the 70s. I know the lore of Wong-fei hong. I know his importance to Chinese culture. This film was no joke to me and I took the music very seriously. Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh are friends. Hence, I take this stuff VERY seriously. The thematic underpinnings of my score are as traditionally Chinese in structure as you can get. All based in the seven spiritual scales and relying on traditional performance methods as opposed to equal temperament.

Finally, the thing that most irks me about people commenting on this score being cliché or overly "Western" is that Wai Lap Wu's score is actually more Westernized than my own. He uses more synthesizers, Western modal writing and orchestration than I did. It's what your ear has become used to hearing as "Chinese" when, in fact, it's not.

I admit some of the action scenes are more American in musical texture, but even in those cues, the drumming patterns and chordal movement are centered on Chinese musical principles. It is after this foundation was created that other dramatic elements were added to the music. Before you assume what "faux tradition" is, do your homework. I did.
Regards, Michael Wandmacher,
Composer, The Legend of Drunken Master

In light of your letter, I have gained more respect and appreciation for your score and the research that went into it. Sometimes my bitterness towards the generally poor treatment of HK cinema by American studios gets misdirected, and indeed, my perception of what is traditional and what is too Westernized gets clouded by same. Thank you for your letter; I will do my homework in the future. -Bill

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Wow--Scathing review of my film [Go Tigers!]. I wonder why Roger Ebert (Ebert & Roeper), Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times), Steven Holden (New York times), Joe Leydon (Variety), Michael Rechtshaffen (Hollywood Reporter), Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly), Chris Ballard (Sports Illustrated) and Scott Simon (NPR) have given such glowing reviews of the film?

Have you ever made a film? Have you ever held yourself up to criticism? Try it sometime, it ain't easy (with types like you out there).
Kind Regards, Kenneth A. Carlson
Writer/Director/Producer, Go Tigers!

Thanks so much for writing. The endorsement of the men you mention would have been enough for me as a filmmaker to feel as though I'd done well. Arraying an army of positive reviews to combat my one negative one, however, is failing to affect in me a reconsideration of my opinion of your film. My review, if taken with a careful reading of the reviews that you mention, seem to agree on several key points, besides. The difference is that where I saw the balance and the emphasis of your film as falling in the wrong place, these other fine gentlemen found your film to be pitched perfectly. Chris Ballard's blurb, especially, seems to almost reflect a wish for more football and less commentary. That's been the response that I've been hearing a lot of in regards to your film on the festival circuit--people are very fond of the underdog sports film and your documentary provides some very fine footage of just such a scenario unfolding in real life.

Living as I do in one of the feed neighborhoods for Columbine High School, I saw many of the inciting factors of that massacre in the behavior of the athletes you profile in your film. Rather than give equal time to the kids victimized and risk making the title of your film ironic, I felt as though any overt criticism of the program was probably unintentional in that it felt almost an afterthought. I'm not looking to get preached at, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for less boosterism and more complexity, above and beyond the late interest in the mill levy issue. If your intention was otherwise, I apologize--understanding that it is indeed difficult to always portray what you intended after the movie goes through its growing pains. In response to your perhaps rhetorical query, my background is largely in theater and the criticism for that medium is not only more caustic but also more vital to the success of a regional production. I've had a show or two closed because of one voice. Writing film criticism for a popular website has set me up for a taste of my own medicine that is truly staggering; at the least what you do is seen as positive, while the critic's role, beyond the heyday of the Nouvelle Vague and Kael/Farber/Sarris in the U.S., is just somewhere south of Lawyer/Real Estate Agent/Used Car Salesman. I'd wager that criticisms of your film usually end with, "...interested in what he does next time." Mine usually end with, "Why don't you get a real job?" (Believe it or not, in the past year, I've logged something like a dozen serious death threats.) So yep, it's tough being on the hook for your creations and your passions. I'm sympathetic and am genuinely sorry that I seem to have wounded you, Mr. Carlson, and though you may not take it as a compliment or even as a good thing, I do look forward to following your career. -Walter

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A fabulous review of The Musketeer, a film I (regretfully) had to see yesterday (only because I write reviews for the local paper). Nice work. You're a much better swordsman than anyone was on screen, slicing n' dicing with seeming ease. Nice work.
Carl

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Hey! How could you not equate Glitter with Showgirls, especially since Eric Benet plays the same character in both?
Jonah

You are a scholar and a gentleman. How could I not, indeed? A magnificent point, one that I wish I had made myself. -Walter

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