Shigeru Umebayashi (梅林茂, Umebayashi Shigeru, [ɯmebajaɕiɕiɡeɾɯ]) (born February 19, 1951) is a Japanese composer.[1]
Once the leader and bass player of Japan's new wave rock band EX, composer Shigeru Umebayashi began scoring films in 1985 when the band broke up.[2] He has more than 30 Japanese and Chinese film scores to his credit[3] and is perhaps best known in the West for "Yumeji's Theme" (originally from Seijun Suzuki's Yumeji), included in director Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000). Umebayashi scored most of Wong Kar-wai's follow-up film, 2046 (2004), and House of Flying Daggers. He is also the composer for the music of the first Serbian spectacle, Charleston & Vendetta. Umebayashi received the special "Tomislav Pinter Award" at Avvantura Film Festival Zadar (Croatia) in 2013 during his stay as member of the official Jury.