I got sidetracked by the soundtrack: musical lingerings of various films

While going through the Bridget Jones trilogy, I was in awe of the song choices—especially in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), when “I’m Not in Love” by 10cc was played. It was the perfect combination: a corny movie and captivating music. 

Films with their distinctive music choices always resonate with me long after watching them. Whenever I decide to listen to the soundtrack, I am reminded of the movie and overcome with the feelings that come with it. After sifting through a catalog of movies from my memory, here are some films I have been drawn to for this reason!

Submarine (2010) 

Submarine (2010) dir. Richard Ayoade

In brief, this movie is like if Amelie, in Amelie (2001), was a teenage British boy in the late 80s. It is an eccentric coming-of-age film with a soundtrack created by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. Oliver, the teenage boy, is experiencing his first love and trying to mend his parent’s marriage. When he told his parents about his new girlfriend, his father made him a cassette tape of songs that follow the stages of love (and heartbreak).

Submarine (2010) dir. Richard Ayoade

The song “Hiding Tonight” correlated to the infatuation Oliver was experiencing. The beautiful melodies were paired with such childish lyrics that they aligned perfectly with Oliver’s naïve, childlike nature.

And you better bring a change of clothes

So we can sail our laughing pianos 

Along a beam of light

But I’m quite alright hiding tonight

The eccentricity of the lyrics perfectly matches the essence of Oliver and his girlfriend, Jordana. Their playful behavior, including setting off fireworks in an abandoned amusement park and sitting inside a bathtub in a junkyard, reflects Turner’s lyrics. Yet, all this mischievousness is counteracted with a slower-paced tempo and vulnerable acoustics, creating a beautiful sonic and visual landscape. Adolescent feelings are often brushed aside, often being brushed aside by adults as they are seen as frivolous. Rather than making the music anything like a nursery rhyme, Turner takes Oliver’s “wide-eye” view of life seriously through the use of a more mellow melody.

Drive My Car (2021)

Based on a combination of Haruki Murakami’s short stories from his novel Men Without Women, this movie showed the spectrum of feelings between love and loss. Set mostly in Hiroshima, Japan, a screenwriter-actor suffers the death of his cheating wife and throughout the movie, he learns to deal with the traumatic loss with the help of his 20-year-old chauffeur, who also reveals her grave past.

Drive My Car (2021) Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Murakami always showed his appreciation for music within his writings— this movie title is named after the Beatles song with the same name. The instrumental soundtrack, composed by Eiko Ishibashi, captures the emotional subtleties throughout the movie. The drums evoke a jazzy feel whereas the delicate strings bring a more emotional tonality, highlighting complex feelings being untangled within the film. This film score is perfect for a long drive accompanied by wistful gazes at the oncoming sights, much like the long and uncut driving shots in the movie. The height of the music gradually builds until all at once, you realize you are blanketed by the amalgamation of percussion, keys, and strings. Let the movie and the music inch up on you (this movie is three hours long but it is so worth it).  

Fallen Angels (1995)

Any movie directed by Wong Kar-Wei is sure to have a deeply pervasive soundtrack. Fallen Angels takes place in Hong Kong and shows various separate storylines, but they all have the theme of yearning for human connection within an isolating urban city.

Fallen Angels (1995) Dir. Wong Kar-wai

The most evocative scene is when the assassin, Ming, “broke up” with his logistical agent through the means of a jukebox song, which was “Forget Him” (忘記他) by Shirley Kwan. The dream-like song with the light airy vocals, told the obsessive agent to forget about her relationship with the assassin. Heartbroken, she is slumped over the jukebox, covered in its reflected warm hues; this melancholic scene flawlessly matches the song’s trance-like nature. Wong’s use of music pairs perfectly with the scenario depicted, creating an auricular spectacle.

To forget him means forgetting joy

means locking my heart and soul

in the same cell as pain and suffering

The listlessness prevails. The movie shows all the characters forming relationships, but none that go beyond shallow ones. When that boundary is crossed, the relationship is terminated, thus “locking their heart and souls” into an indefinite cycle of isolated agony further detaching themselves from each other. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. With the agent’s eye covered by her fringe, it is just like the lyrics: her soul is trapped and wallowing in desolation.

In all these films, the soundtrack plays an immense role in the storytelling. If a picture tells a thousand words, these songs must be an entire dissertation. From highlighting subtle details to being a method of indirect monologue, the music is used as a rhetorical tool that reinforces the movie’s message and lingers with you long after the closing credits stop rolling.

Add these movies to your Letterboxd watchlist! Come for the plot – stay for the soundtrack.

Article by Shannon Cheng