My movie life

The films that move, scare and enthrall music maestro

The First Movie I Ever Saw

Enter The DragoN. I think I was six or seven. I saw it on TV. My brother was watching it and I was like, “Oh my God.” It was a guy who looked like me, but cooler. As an Asian kid in America, to see another Asian in the spotlight… In retrospect, I can see that he was connecting with people. You can’t just have explosions every five seconds. Jason Statham films are just bang, bang, bang. But Enter The Dragon… when I became a teenager, I was training in martial arts, reading Bruce Lee books. I got obsessed.

The Last Film I Watched On A Plane

I just got back from Taiwan. I saw

The Accountant. Ben Affleck. That was really good. I see most action blockbusters on planes, so I can just turn off, but I was just so enthralled by The Accountant. I have to give it up to that one. The story was really good. And it was bloody. I like Affleck as an actor, and it’s a really good concept – an accountant who kills people! I also like watching documentaries and indie breakout films on flights. Give me a great character to follow. Like Brad Pitt in Snatch.

The film That Al ways Makes Me Cry

The last one was Interstellar. It’s one of my favourite films because it mixes a lot of genres, a lot of concepts. There’s travelling through space, what you think the future will be like, the time-space continuum, and this very human connection – the power of love can transcend space and time. It really left me in a state. [ laughs] A lot of movies I watch on my laptop but you have to see

Interstellar at the cinema. And Hans Zimmer’s composition is one of my favourites.

The movie I wish I’d scored

The Matrix. I love the concept – future-sci-fi, and a very intelligent dialogue about things that really spark my mind, the questions I ask. It’s got a great storyline, a lot of emotion; those moments are where I’d really be inspired to write an epic score.

The Matrix was influenced by the original Ghost In The Shell, and when I was in college, I was in an anime club with 20 other nerds.

Ghost In The Shell was iconic for me, so to now do a remix of Ghost In The Shell’s theme is a dream, dream, dream come true!

The film That Scares Me Most

Home Alone. You’re a kid, you’re at home, these guys are trying to get you… No, I’m just playing with you. Let’s see… I’ll give it to

Alien. I love sci-fi; I see myself in fantastical situations… in space. So whenever I see a film where I imagine it could happen, it becomes real to me. Something like Scream, or movies where someone comes in with a knife, they’re not as real to me. With

Alien, it’s the suspense, and then when you see that face, and what’s going to come out of the mouth, it’s grotesque.

The Movie That Everyone Hates But I Love

There’s this one film that’s rated the worst ever made, and they did a documentary on it. What is it? Fuck. It’s about this troll… Oh wait, Troll 2! It became a cult classic. There’s screenings every year and nerds like me will go. I’m enthralled by it. I like to see the worst of the worst. And the director [ Claudio Fragasso] is such a douchebag. [ laughs] You kinda love to hate this guy. JG ETA | OUT NOW GHOST IN THE SHELL IS CURRENTLY IN CINEMAS.