'Music and martial arts have the same principles

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2012)

....both grapple with complex chords and melodies' so aptly quoted in the film, nothing can be more truer about Tan Dun's heavenly background score. It transforms an already beautiful movie into something almost divine and ethereal. Using multiple scales to convey a change of scene, moods and settings each composition blends masterfully into each other like a jigsaw piece puzzle to paint a beautiful canvas. If you just close your eyes throughout the movie the music is powerful enough to convey what is going on the screen!
Tan Dun uses the minor pentatonic scale with an added 2nd note very characteristic of Chinese traditional music. But surprisingly he uses a very different signature scale - (called Raag Bhairavi of Indian classical music); gives a kind of haunting melancholic melody that runs throughout the movie. The transitioning between scales and melodies is pure musical genius!