The Broken Bureau

The Broken Bureau was both one of my best and worst experiences on a project. The state-funded film was about righteous detectives exposing the corrupt underbelly of greedy corporations. Despite being essentially Chinese Communist Party propaganda, the project was quite fun to work on. The director gave me complete creative freedom, and given the film's rather 90's look and feel, I seized on the chance to pay homage to my composing hero, Jerry Goldsmith.

The process of writing this music couldn't have been more effortless or enjoyable. I had just made a breakthrough in my composing technique with What the Forest Says and applied all the lessons I learned towards this score. With a director that was happy with anything I wrote, I could write everything I wanted to, including contemporary harmonies, complex counterpoint, transparent stratified orchestrations, modernistic rhythms, and motivic consistency - all the elements of a classic Jerry Goldsmith score. "Motorcycle Chase" is my second favorite piece I've written, right after "The Rescue" from What the Forest Says.

What a massive disappointment, then, that the film was simply terrible. It already had so few redeeming qualities, so I was utterly deflated when I learned some genius bureaucrat decided to rename the film from The Broken Bureau to Caught in trap. I begged with the director to change the title back, or at the very least make the new one grammatically correct and properly capitalized, but to no avail. The government had spoken.

Imagine what it's like to have written some of your best music for a project so shoddy, with such a stupid title, that you're embarrassed to tell anyone about it. That's when I swore I would never compose for another propaganda film again. But I don't regret this one. I finally got my chance to do a Jerry Goldsmith score, and in the Hans Zimmer era, that's a precious opportunity.