July 24, 2021
Sherri Chung’s KUNG FU TV Soundtrack Released
– Randall D. Larson
The 2021 martial arts action-adventure television series KUNG FU premiered on The CW last April. Produced by Warner Bros. Television, the series is an adaptation of the 1970s series of the same title, set in the present. The show stars Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen, who after a “quarter-life crisis” causes her to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, Nicky uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice — all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.
The series is scored by Sherri Chung, best known for her work on THE LOST HUSBAND (2020), NANCY DREW AND THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE (2019) and BATWOMAN (2019), after having collaborated for many years with composer Blake Neely om scoring the CW Arrowverse series, ARROW, THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL and DC’s LEGENDS OF TOMORROW.
“With the new series KUNG FU, Sherri Chung becomes the first Asian-American woman responsible for the music of an hour-long network drama — and the choice could not be more perfect,” wrote Jon Burlingame in Variety last April. “With the CW’s reimagining of the 1970s classic KUNG FU, Chung not only tackles the music of a talked-about series but is rediscovering her own personal heritage as well. ‘I was equal parts excited and terrified,’ she confesses. ‘This series is celebrating both Chinese culture and Chinese-American culture. It’s breaking down old rules and walls, and creating a new narrative. I feel like I’m really part of that, which is special and totally unexpected.’ ”
A digital soundtrack was released this week of Chung’s KUNG FU score by WaterTower Music, and is available on Amazon and other digital/streaming retailers.
For more info on the composer, see https://www.sherrichung.com/
Listen to Chung’s main theme for KUNG FU via WaterTower’s youtube page:
