MovieScore Media release the score for The Jade Pendant, composed by Anne-Kathrin Dern. The film tells a tragic love story set against the lynching of 18 Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, in 1871. Based on harrowing true events, the characters of The Jade Pendant find themselves in a conflict raging between Asian and American values...

This was one of the weirdest and most pleasant listening experiences I've had in quite some time. Weird, because the score is a mismatch of styles, and pleasant, because I heard so many homages and beats from other notable soundtracks that I had a job keeping track of them.

The most obvious, which even a novice soundtrack collector will instantly spot, is 'Take Back What Is Ours' which has a segment that is not a million miles away from John Williams's 'Duel of the Fates' from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. But there are also nods to Marco Beltrami's score for The Woman in Black (2012) in 'He Will Take Everything' and James Horner's work on Titanic seems to have been the main inspiration behind the theme housed in the tracks 'Almost Like Home', 'Birth and Death' and 'Do You Have Any Regrets'.

Of this score's 19 tracks (49 min, 27 sec) I have to single out 'You Gave Me Everything' as the one standout piece of music.

Overall, this is a lovingly crafted score that by happy accident (?) also pays homage to some incredible past composers work.

9

Darren Rea