Cape No. 7 Original Soundtrack (OST)

Surprisingly enough, Van Fan stands at the epicenter of the Cape No. 7 phenomenon as the film's leading actor and singer. An underrated and often under-the-radar pop singer who generated buzz intermittently over the last six years, Van never quite established himself in the music scene, and all but disappeared from public eye before Cape No. 7. He gets his big break as both an actor and a singer this time around with Cape No. 7, in which he stars as a failed rocker who returns to his small hometown and ends up becoming the lead vocalist of a randomly assembled band. The Cape No. 7 soundtrack includes all of Van's insert songs from the film including the likable, if typical English-language rock track Don't Wanna (Track 2); the gentle string- and percussion-accompanied ballad "South of the Border" (Track 12); the melodramatic ballad "Love Letter" (Track 14); and the live movie version of Wu Le Bu Zuo (Track 10), an uptempo and dangerously catchy pop rock number composed by Van that I catch myself humming way too often.

One of the OST's most interesting tracks is "Wild Rose" (Track 13), which opens to the plucky chords of the traditional moon zither (yueqin), floating gently into an updated version of Franz Schubert's Heiden Roslein with Mandarin and Japanese lyrics. Van Fan's vocal here seems out of place, not soft enough to convey the song's folk lullaby quality, but the string instrumentation and dramatic children's choral interlude make up the difference. The other Japanese song in the soundtrack, "For Daughter" (Track 8), opens quietly with acoustic guitar and vocalist Ciacia's wispy voice, morphs into a percussion-heavy rock ballad, and then returns to soft sentiments for its closing, effectively capturing the ups and down of a father and daughter relationship through music.

Other than Wu Le Bu Zuo and the recurring instrumental theme, there are two songs in the film that are particularly memorable to me. One is the uplifting guitar and percussion aboriginal folk number Mainu Sun that Bjanav Zenror and Min Hsiung (the father-and-son policemen) perfum during the band audition. The other is the wonderfully childish "Love You to Death" (Track 4) that child actress Yang Qiao An (Dada) sings out loud in the hotel elevator. Her smile-inducing off-pitch rendition kicks off the album's track, which brings together the child-like vocals of Kitty Hsia and the strong R&B vocals of Rebecca Hsu for an unexpectedly harmonious love song. The refrain is priceless: "Love you so much that I don't fear death / But if you cheat, then go die."

Between every song on the soundtrack are Japanese dialogue tracks of the seven letters recited in the film. Usually I consider dialogue tracks on soundtracks to be unwelcome filler, but this time the setup works. Kageyama Yukihiko's sonorous recitation against the film's recurring instrumental theme actually makes for a peaceful and pleasant listen, and the seven dialogue tracks provide a sense of narrative progression to the soundtrack.

The Cape No. 7 soundtrack also earns many extra points with its completely wonderful packaging. The outer box is designed to resemble a mail parcel complete with stamps, address, and twine tie. Inside, the CD comes in an envelope-design sleeve. Lyrics for each song come on individual note-sized sheets that feature Chinese-translated versions of the seven letters on the back. If you go for the Preorder Version, you also get a mighty pretty stationary set with A4-sized paper and envelope.