MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Sight is an inspirational real-life drama biopic about the acclaimed surgeon Ming Wang. Born in China in the 1950s during the rule of Chairman Mao, Wang and his family was threatened with being deported to a remote area of the country as part of the Cultural Revolution; in an attempt to avoid being sent to a labor camp, Wang learned how to dance and play the erhu. With the help of his parents he eventually made his way to America with only $50 in his pocket and, after many years of hard work, earned a PhD in laser physics and graduated magna cum laude with the highest honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT. Wang is now a world-renowned laser eye surgeon and philanthropist, and is a Clinical Professor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, while continuing to be a competitive ballroom dancer and professional erhu player. The movie is based on Wang’s 2016 autobiography ‘From Darkness to Sight,’ is directed by Andrew Hyatt, and stars Terry Chen and Greg Kinnear.

The score for Sight is by composer Sean Philip Johnson, and this is the first score of his that I have heard. As far as I can tell this is only Johnson’s fifth or sixth feature score, almost all of which were also films directed by Andrew Hyatt. Johnson worked as a music editor in the 1990s and 2000s, wrote scores for documentaries and short films, made his feature debut in 2015 on the biblical drama Full of Grace, and most recently scored The Blind, a biopic of the ‘Duck Dynasty’ Robertson family. Clearly Hyatt sees something in Johnson’s music, and based on the strength of the music here I hope other directors do too going forward, because it’s excellent.

Sight is a large, warm, thematic score which successfully blends Americana-heavy western orchestral music with numerous passages of Chinese-inspired lyricism, much of which features outstanding erhu performances. The score has the old-fashioned and unashamedly emotional sound that is sadly missing from far too much of contemporary film music. It defiantly wears its heart on its sleeve, following the triumphs and tragedies of Wang’s story with extended passages of bold, expressive music. There are numerous themes running through the score, beginning with the central theme for Wang himself, as well as several secondary themes, including one for Lili the blind girl whose sight he attempts to restore, one for the hardships he faces while trying to survive in and escape from China, and one especially triumphant one which represents his success in overcoming adversity and becoming a world-respected surgeon.

The ”Triumph Suite” opens the album with one of the score’s signature sounds, a solo erhu performance by virtuoso Karen Han, which gradually picks up the rest of the orchestra and grows to an epic, sweeping scale full of tender-hearted emotion. Many of the inflections in Johnson’s writing are clearly inspired by the ‘traditional’ sound of Chinese folk music, and these carry through the entire piece, especially when the melody is carried by a bank of rich cellos. This is followed by “Lili’s Theme,” which again has a sound influenced by Chinese folk music, but has a slightly more tragic edge to the strings, capturing the plight of the little girl afflicted by blindness whose sight Wang hopes to restore.

The rest of the score unfolds in similar fashion. “Kajal Is the Miracle” is initially softer and more introspective, and features some especially lovely writing for woodwinds in combination with the strings, but slowly adopts a gorgeous religioso sound as it develops. “Sacrifice” opens with a striking duet for erhu and breathy ethnic woodwinds, before again picking up a deep bed of dark, poignant strings, and then both “The Dance and “Learning Erhu” feature the erhu in prominent roles, flashing back to Wang’s early years in China as a child, learning music and art.

“New Society” is dark and threatening, with ominous orchestral tones, shrill dissonances, and menacing rattling percussion combining to create a portentous picture of Mao’s China, the impact of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the devastating impact it had on so many families. Cleverly, Johnson makes repeated reference to both Wang’s theme and the Triumph theme throughout the cue, acknowledging the Wang family’s resistance to Mao. The subsequent trio comprising “The Uprising Is Over,” “As Long As We Are Together,” and “Maria’s Light,” offer a beautiful resolution to all this, and include several lovely and deeply emotional passages for violin, piano, erhu, and Chinese dizi bamboo flutes. The final moments of “Maria’s Light” stand out especially for the elegant flourishes in the violin writing.

The final cue on the album is the almost 17-minute “Sight Suite,” which offers a stunning reprise of everything the score has to offer – all the main themes, prominent performances from the Chinese instrumental ensemble including the erhu and the iconic yangqin hammered dulcimer, moments of darkness and unexpectedly intense drama, and powerful statements from the full orchestra, all of which imbued with the same rich vein of spiritual, uplifting, heartfelt emotion that the rest of the score contains. It’s just superb, one of the best cues of the year to date, and if you only listen to one part of the score, make it this one.

One other thing I have to say is that, in this era where so many scores are mocked up using samplers and keyboards for budgetary reasons, special kudos should be given to director Hyatt and the producers at Open River Entertainment and Reserve Entertainment for investing in the score and giving Sean Philip Johnson the resources to record with a decently-sized ensemble of live musicians and soloists. It really makes all the difference.

Sight is an excellent work from this relative newcomer, and as I said before I hope this is just the first of many such scores Sean Philip Johnson is given the opportunity to write in the coming years. This is the type of score that used to be the norm for this type of midbudget drama in the 1980s and 90s, and as such it could be that I’m slightly over-rating it due to the fact that scores like these are so rare these days, but frankly I don’t care. Anyone who, like me, is drawn towards emotional and thematic drama scores will find this to be a sight for sore ears.

Note: this album does not contain Colton Dixon’s original song “Rest of My Life”.

Buy the Sight soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• Triumph Suite (2:59)
• Lili’s Theme (1:16)
• Kajal Is the Miracle (3:38)
• Ming’s Loneliness (0:45)
• Sacrifice (2:18)
• The Dance (0:34)
• Learning Erhu (1:01)
• New Society (4:19)
• The Uprising Is Over (1:08)
• As Long As We Are Together (1:39)
• Maria’s Light (2:00)
• Sight Suite (16:51)

Sony Music (2024)

Running Time: 38 minutes 36 seconds

Music composed by Sean Philip Johnson. Conducted by XXXX. Orchestrations by XXXX. Featured musical soloist Karen Han. Recorded and mixed by XXXX. Edited by XXXX. Album produced by Sean Philip Johnson.