JAPANESE composer Shigeru Umebayashi is known among film fans for his soundtrack work with Asian film auteurs such as Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou.

What is lesser known is the fact that he used to front a new-wave rock band, EX, who were popular enough to support guitar legend Eric Clapton when he toured Japan in the 1980s.

But film fans will recognise more readily his signature tune, the wistfully plucked violin that accompanied Maggie Cheung down the stairs in Wong's acclaimed 2000 flick, In The Mood For Love.

So how did a former rocker end up composing elegiac tunes for arthouse flicks?

The 58-year-old tells Life! in an e-mail interview: 'I got an opportunity to score films through the recommendation of Japanese actor Yusaku Matsuda, who also had a music album which I produced.'

The late Matsuda was best known for his role in the 1989 Hollywood flick about the Japanese underworld, Black Rain.

Umebayashi adds: 'In the beginning, I wrote music for both my band and films. In 1985, the band broke up and I've been scoring soundtracks full-time since.'

His latest work can be heard in Hong Kong thriller Murderer, now screening in cinemas here. It stars Aaron Kwok as a police inspector investigating a series of gruesome murders.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times' LIFE!.