Which soundtracks are available ?

[STSH]

I, for one, would love to hear any info about HK movie soundtracks available outside HK and in Chinatowns. Old or new movies.

I used to love going to Chinatowns here and looking for these. I found Taiwan's Rock Records were a good source. They released soundtracks for Tai Chi Master and Green Snake in the early 1990s.

[Brian Thibodeau]

I've got legit CD soundtracks to the films BEAST COPS, DOWNTOWN TORPEDOES, ARMAGEDDON (the Andy Lau flick) and THE STORM RIDERS. Not much to speak of, since so many Hong Kong movies are plagued with non-descript synth music, but they stood out from the pack. I may have others that I can list later.

Personally, if you're after movie songs rather than scores, several compilation CDs have been released over the years from various labels that gather together the year's movie songs, or movie hits from several years put out by a particular label. Again, I can post some links later on (provided the CDs are still in the market). Managed to track down Anita Mui's HEROIC TRIO theme song this way rather than buying a whole album of her songs (I'm only a so-so fan of her stuff), as well as many other tunes I liked, including the duet from the end of EASTERN CONDORS (which I don't think was actually created for that film), Nic Tse's excellent theme song from METADE FUMACA, that old Teresa Teng chestnut "The Moon Portrays My Heart" which has been used in countless shows (hell, I even heard it uncredited on an episode of MARTIAL LAW!) and many others.

I fell away from Cantopop for awhile as the movies themselves were eating up most of my money, but I've recently started snooping around the Chinese music stores again when I'm in Toronto. Plus, the local library here has tonnes of Canto CD's donated by the local Chinese community, so there's always something new to check out there.

[Mike Thomason]

I, for one, would love to hear any info about HK movie soundtracks available outside HK and in Chinatowns. Old or new movies.

I've got literally gaggles of Hong Kong soundtracks on CD here. But the problem you are going to have tracking them down is the inordinately short shelf life of HK film soundtracks -- many stay in print as little as three months. Once they are gone, they are seldom (if ever) repressed!

That being said though, check out the below link:

http://global.yesasia.com/en/brPrdDept. ... e=c&did=32

Sometimes older soundtracks do come into repressings, usually due to prior popularity. Hence the recent reappearance of the soundtracks for THE EAST IS RED & C'EST LA VIE, MON CHERI (under an approximation of its Chinese title NEW ENDLESS LOVE).

You can also try these folk in the US, as they have listed a few soundtracks that have long been OOP in Hong Kong (although, obviously, I can't vouch for their authenticity -- they could be bootlegs of older pressings):

http://www.imarnet.com/rocken/host.asp? ... rack%2Easp

Happy hunting!
Mike

[dleedlee]

You can also try these folk in the US, as they have listed a few soundtracks that have long been OOP in Hong Kong (although, obviously, I can't vouch for their authenticity -- they could be bootlegs of older pressings):

http://www.imarnet.com/rocken/host.asp? ... rack%2Easp

They are quite reliable. I've picked up odds and ends from them over the years. They only site I know of that carries the OST for Ashes of Time, Green Snake, etc. [edit] I see yesasia carries AOT now. For the longest time they didn't.

[LCanau]

Wasn't the OST of Swordsman 2 popular? It was never rereleased, unlike the one from Ashes of Time... Also with vocals by Lin Ching-hsia, Imarnet does list the sountrack for The Peach Blossom Land, which sells cheap. Wait what's a "cassette"?

[dleedlee]

Wasn't the OST of Swordsman 2 popular? It was never rereleased, unlike the one from Ashes of Time... Also with vocals by Lin Ching-hsia, Imarnet does list the sountrack for The Peach Blossom Land, which sells cheap. Wait what's a "cassette"?

I can't recall much about the Swordsman 2 OST but isn't that the odd one with mostly recordings from on the set? The B.Lin song from Peach Blossom Land is floating around the internet on .mp3. Try brigittelin.com. There used to be a CD for it but it looks like the cassette version is a new repackage.

[LCanau]

I don't know exactly what went into the soundtrack but according to the site you mentioned there are two songs sung by Lin in it. I got them on mp3, with the songs from PBL awhile ago, probably on that site. One song 只记今朝笑 plays during the end credits (on the Mandarin version) and on that "trailer" that was on the old edition of the DVD (I have no idea if it appears on later editions) and the other one 天地醉 I don't think it appears in any form in the film (though I never watched it with the Mandarin track).

[mcmoinsen]

Chinese Odyssey 2002
Golden Chicken 2
Hero
House of Flying Daggers
Infernal Affairs
Leaving Me Loving You
Seven Swords
Silver Hawk
Star Runner
Warriors of heaven and Earth

Seems like there is not a real market for older OSTs. Sold out and not reprinted. But there are lots of sound tracks which actually were available once.

[sylvio]

Hi@all
First of all please forgive occasionally mistakes since I'm not a native English speaker.
What I wanted to say. There is a nice, little market for soundtracks in mainland China. For example I bought the CDs of Green Snake, The East is Red, Ashes of Time in Shanghai to prices you can't believe. It costs about US$1-2. That's very cheap. In Seoul I bought the soundtracks of Sword in the Moon as well as Chunking Express.

But also in Hong Kong your are able to find some good stuff. There are some good shops, but you first have to find them...

Soundtracks I possess:
-Green Snake
-East is Red, The
-Ases of Time
-Chunking Express
-Gorgeous
-Police Story I-III Boxset
-Police Story III
-Storm Riders
-A Man called Hero
-Infernal Affairs I-III Boxset
-Seven Swords (the most beautiful Soundtrack I have ever seen!!)
-Once Upon a Time in China

[isfahani]

I have been wondering if the soundtrack for the sadly underrated (imo) Three Swordsmen ever made it to CD? It has some stuff on it that I really like, for some weird reason, like the Reggae-ish synthpop.

I am also interested in getting some music that is in the neighborhood of the dramatic organ/keyboards stuff heard in the SB film "Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan"...

Anyone have any ideas? And thanks for all the info in the thread. OST's are very important and some film fans don't seem to realise how much so.

[jwinkler]

I keep monitoring buyoyo.com and sensasian.com as well. Sometimes, soundtracks are reprinted, but apparently in low copy numbers only as they go out of stock again rather quickly.

Johannes

[wblaik]

Thought I'd dig up this old thread

Who is it that actually sings the Duet with Sammo at the end of Eastern Condors? Anita Mui? Or did I miss read that

[Brian Thibodeau]

It's Joyce Godenzi. I think Youtube has clips from the TV show performance the cast of the film did (in costume), which should contain a bit with Sammo and Joyce singing the song, or at least part of it. Good thing I bring my iPod to work with me. Now you've given me a hankering to listen to it again!

[wblaik]

Wow. Never knew that.

Is the CD that had it on oop?

[Brian Thibodeau]

Is the CD that had it on oop?

I'll take a look when I get home tonight in a couple of hours, and then see if I can find someone selling it online (or post a sleeve scan so you know what to look for if you have a Chinatown nearby). It was a compilation CD and the title (only in Chinese on the sleeve) translated into something like Warner All Stars or something like that. I remember buying it blind and being very impressed that the Eastern Condors theme was on there, not to mention a lot of great pop music.

Incidentally, folks who are looking for movie theme songs (rather than scores) would probably do well to collect the various cantopop compilation CDs that get released nearly every year. Unlike the Hong Kong soundtracks variants, which often go out of print very quickly, compilation CDs tend to have some staying power because of the songs. It's a bit of a gamble sometimes whether of not you'll get something you're specifically after, but at the very least you'll get a great cross-section of tunes. I've probably picked up several dozen movie tracks this way.

[wblaik]

That'd be great thanks!

I've never had much luck with local chinatowns but if I can pic it up online I will.