Christopher Wong’s score for the period drama The Rebel (2006) is a very large-scale orchestral work that captures the tensions and fears of anti-French factions in 1920s Vietnam under French colonial French rule.

The film’s scope is beautifully enhanced by Wong’s expansive score, with its opening theme that establishes a yearning for freedom, and tragic events that are soon to unfold. Wong applies a gentle female voice over large, eloquent strings, and the cue sets up the scores soothing melodic content before the heavy intrigue in the gripping cue, “The Assassination.”

Employing a ticking motif through wood taps, undulating brass, and searing strings, the opening rises and eventually crests in a brief swell prior to the cue’s meaty action center. Wong combines a skittering rhythm with Barryesque low brass, rising up as trumpets and piano play a kinetic chase motif, and the composer shows off a wonderful sense of colour, layering his brass before the inclusion of Vietnamese percussion. Another memorable cue is “Prison Break,” which begins with the shifting tones of a driving ostinato, with low brass and string pulses adding thickening tension. The piano rhythms are soon overtaking by primal percussion, which Wong punctuates with bawdy brass hits.

“Opium House” starts with a hard piano intro, while a steady ceramic chime stays steady as Wong adds waves of strings and brass before another rush of percussion, and while it has an Asian design, there’s something very retro seventies about the orchestrations. Bass sounds usually appear in clusters, and tones often rise and fall like chilling mists – a combination of sounds that evokes the dissonance and sparse use of piercing sounds from seventies thriller scores.

Most cues tend to slowly rise from lengthy silent gaps, although when there’s a main theme restatement, it’s often very emotional, or quite delicate, as in the lovely piano version, “Shower and Wine,” or the concluding section of “Motorcycle Escape.” “If We Could Forget Who We Are” is another simple piano/guitar rendition, and the repetition of the main phrase emphasizes trapped characters, while a lengthy, very apprehensive flute solo gives the cue a brief moment of deep warmth.

The Rebel’s strengths are the interplay between action and personal struggle, and Christopher Wong’s score is a very engaging work. The kinetic pacing of the action scenes almost seems to make the music more of a tertiary element, though; with the exception of the lengthy, Goldsmithian “Village Gun Battle / Attacking the Train,” Wong rarely gets enough room to really flesh out his ideas into meaty action cuts. The emotional cues tend to fare better, but it’s a score the composer ought to revisit; if not for a longer interpretation, than perhaps in a set of thematic suites where material can develop into dramatically meatier versions.

Other scores by Christopher Wong from MovieScore Media is Journey from the Fall, which also contains selections from The Anniversary, and First Morning.

© 2008 Mark R. Hasan