Yu Fei, Music Supervisor on 'The Eight Hundred,' Blends Two Worlds With Her Score
In August, one of the few films in the world to premiere back at a movie theater was Guan Hu’s The Eight Hundred; its captivating story takes place in 1937 and surrounds a group of Chinese soldiers and draft dodgers in a heated battle against Japanese forces. Though it is a war epic and period piece, at its core, it is a film about contrasting worlds in the midst of changing times. Immaculate visuals and action packed sequences aside, there is no better way to capture The Eight Hundred’s themes of endurance and hope than the music of the film.
We had the wonderful chance to speak with Yu Fei about the music of The Eight Hundred. Together with an internationally formed team including composers Andrew Kawczynski and Rupert Gregson-Williams, the trio designed and crafted the melodies of the film. It is a score that has several global inspirations, and one which its creators tried to straddle the line between ancient and modern. It’s traditional Chinese instruments, mixed with newer synth sounds never fail to keep audiences on their toes and yearning for more. One of the track seven features a duet with acclaimed Chinese artist, Na Ying, and international opera singer, Andrea Bocelli. With every note, the film’s score is a perfect blend of several cultures.
MR: How does the music in the film relate to the themes of the film?
YF: Basically for the source music, there are a lot of the Chinese instruments, and the music needs to happen before 1937. For the score, Andrew was trying to design the sound using the real instruments as well as [newer instruments] like all of the synthesizer, for example. And even though he created some new sounds, he tried to use the real instruments rather than computerize all of those kinds of things-- just because this is a story based on real history as well. So that's basically how we designed it at the very beginning, based on the theme that we developed. Actually when I was doing the temp music at the first month I discussed with the director that we want a hero theme which could represent 800 [soldiers]. It's actually 425 people, but they said they have 800 soldiers inside. That's why we decided to have a theme to represent all of the heroes. And [it needed] to be really cheering, motivating, and melodic in order to put it into some of the really important parts.
MR: I'd love to know about the timeline of the process. Was there a lot of post scoring involved, and how much was done prior? I know some genres require different methods.
YF: The total thing took like a one and a half years or something like that. I mean, because I was contacted at the very end, and we had a lot of censorship and revisions. Basically they wrote the score every day, for five months. [In terms of] the pre score, we did the source music, we recorded a lot of the opera singers, all of these kinds of things, we did it before. And then we rerecord it again after and added even more Chinese instruments on top of that as well. When I started to work on it, it was a five hours cut. And when Andrew and Rupert worked on it, it was like three and half or something like that. It took me more than a month for all of the revisions; I put all of the temp it, and then they'd re-edit it, then I retemped it. Before the composers worked on it, I worked on it for almost three months. And then I started to do the ending credit song, this Andrea Bocelli and Na Ying piece, for around one month. Then a lot of revisions after that.
MR: Was there any recording after COVID hit?
YF: No, we finished before. COVID actually, It was super lucky because for this movie we had to fly a lot to Sophia, London, LA, China, everywhere. So we were lucky that it was before COVID.
MR: You had mentioned the Bocelli and Na Ying song, which is like an absolute banger to listen to. To have such a hard hitting song, especially at the beginning of the 20 tracks and then again at the end, could you go into like the process behind the song? How did that come about?
YF: So the idea actually came from the first time when I was doing the temp music. I was thinking that I wanted a song with no instruments. I just want a female singer to sing, with no background music. That's the very beginning of when I thought about how to design what I want. After a few weeks of working on that, I walked out of the studio and started to sing Londonderry air because we already had the song in the film when a soldier plays it on harmonica. This melody really stuck in my mind, is really one of the most important melodies in this movie. That's why I decided to reuse it again as a bookending. But this time, I not only just wanted a female singer, but also I want a male singer as a contrast. The song is about wanting a peaceful life which is universal. That's why I decided to get an internationally renowned singer to sing the duet. That's when I decided to invite Andrea on board. He just accepted immediately after he heard the song. He said, I want to do this not only for China, but also for the story. He felt like it was his duty to help me so that more people would know this story as well. I didn't want the song to sound like super classical music. I wanted it to be a little bit in a pop style or kind of like in between. That's why we added a lot of synthesizer, and a lot of electronic things to make it not sound too classical.
We recorded Na Ying first in China. And after that, I brought the tracks from China to Italy. A demo singer taught Bocelli how to sing the Chinese line at the very end. He recorded super fast. It was really amazing. So it really, really touched me, not just for the professional attitude, but also his general attitude towards the world. When I went back to China, Na Ying actually recorded it again because she heard Andrea's voice and she felt like a lot of things could be improved.
MR: When I listened to the rest of the score, words that popped up in my head were tension and release. Something's about to explode. It's always climbing, it's always going up. Was that something purposeful that you guys wanted to incorporate into the music?
YF: Yes. Everything is designed. First of all, we didn't want to use too much music for this movie. I don't want the music everywhere, like nonstop music. I don't want it because I still remember the first time when I watched the five hours cut without music. It was still touching. I feel moved by the actor and actress' performances and by the story itself. So that's why, I wanted to keep that same feeling when we scored the movie. We don't need music to make people cry. We don't need that. So that's why we just used the music at really important places. For example, we could build up the tension, and we could add more dynamics, based on the plot and how it develops. Andrew, the composer, was really amazing because he designed all of this tension. So everything is about contrast for this movie, same thing goes for the score. So that's how we designed the structure of the music for the movie.
MR: Was this your most challenging project?
YF: Yes, so far. Though I always feel like my next project is the most challenging one, but definitely Eight Hundred was one of the most.
Speaker 2: Were there any like specific sources of inspiration from other films or musical works that you wanted to bring out when scoring the movie or working on the music?
YF: A Russian song called Nightingale! One of the actresses is from Russia, but her father is from China. We designed this Russian song for her. It's actually a super famous Russian song. We also used a jazz song from before 1977. We also used some of the Chinese traditional source music as well to represent where the location is and the time.
MR: If there's one thing that you want audiences to feel or take away when they're listening and watching the movie, what would it be?
YF: This is a super special movie. I feel like it's my duty to do this movie justice so that more people to watch think about something afterwards. I don't want it to be like a popcorn movie, or a normal war movie. Even if someone thinks life is not easy or other negative attitudes, I want everybody, after they hear the ending credit song, to go think about something they appreciate and to be grateful for. That's what I want to express.
“The Eight Hundred” had a limited theatrical release in America in August. Be sure to check it out when it is available to rent or stream in the near future.