THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Rating: 
Original Review: The Joy Luck Club was a very moving film telling the story of an immigrant Chinese family's life in the old country, and Rachel Portman's lovely score was instrumental in conveying the emotional hardships they endured. With a definite Oriental influence running throughout, the album begins with 'The Story of the Swan', a delicate but beguiling theme for strings with ethnic instruments providing subtle textures in the background. A lot of the music is based around this main theme, with strings and woodwinds playing the vast majority of the music, and occasionally it is difficult to distinguish one cue from another without looking at the track listings, but there are a number of other highlights: especially 'Escape from Guilin', which has a slightly darker overtone but which remains undeniably beautiful; 'June Meets Her Twin Sisters' and 'An-Mei's New Home', both of which reach a wonderful emotional crescendo, and the concluding two cues, 'Swan Feather' and 'End Titles', which feature more prominent Chinese instruments in a final rendition of the main theme. With this, Only You and her Oscar winning turn for Emma, I would say that Rachel Portman will be at the forefront of women's composing for years to come.
Track Listing:
- The Story of the Swan (2:30)
- Escape from Guilin (5:35)
- Lindo's Story (1:50)
- Best Quality Heart (2:27)
- Upturned Chairs (1:58)
- June Meets Her Twin Sisters (2:58)
- His Little Spirit Had Flown Away (4:33)
- An-Mei's Mother Returns (1:50)
- Most Important Sacrifice (2:44)
- Tiger in the Trees (3:23)
- Lindo's Last Night (3:32)
- The Babies (3:57)
- An-Mei's New Home (2:38)
- Swan Feather (0:51)
- End Titles (3:15)
Running Time: 44 minutes 04 seconds
Hollywood Records 74321-18456-2 (1993)
Music composed by Rachel Portman. Conducted by J.A.C. Redford. Orchestrations by Rachel Portman and John Neufeld. Traditional Chinese instruments performed by Masakazu Yoshizawa, Chris Fu, Shufeng He, Karen Hua-Qi Han and Jim Walker. Recorded and mixed by John Richards. Edited by Bill Abbott. Album produced by Rachel Portman.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.