Jet Li's Fearless (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Contemplative and elegiac, this score for Jet Li's martial-arts movie is light years away from your usual Hollywood action music--even when the pace picks up, it remains evocative and elegant, with a tinge of underlying melancholy. For this we have to thank Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi (formerly of the rock band EX), who also gave us marvelous scores for Wong Kar-wai'sIn the Mood for Loveand Zhang Yimou'sHouse of Flying Daggers. Here he relies on roiling percussion, ethereal choirs, and Japanese and Chinese flutes to suggest both the 19th-century setting of the film and an end-of-an-era mood. Look for "Habanera" fromCarmenburied toward the end, performed by Japanese soprano Michiko Hayashi and--befitting such a relatively pared-down album--a lone piano.--Elisabeth Vincentelli