When younger I used to listen to a lot of soundtracks. More accessible than a lot of classical music and more involving than just about any popular stuff on the radio. These days, not so much, but I do listen to the odd score here and there, usually if I like the movie and found the music to be evocative.
As in the case of House of Flying Daggers. There are obvious comparisons with Hero of course, though I recall the music in Tan Dun's score for that movie to be more bombastic than Shigeru Umebayashi work. Then again, the themes for Hero were more epic, so it's only proper that the music reflect that.
Some of the tracks are achingly beautiful, drawing a tear from the eye. Others threaten to deteriorate into Kitaro-like blandness (though, again I didn't mind Kitaro either). Strangely, I'm not sure if I can detect a lot of difference between those pieces that move me and those that are merely pleasant.
There's the inevitable English language song during the end credits, which almost never work for me, as in this case. Kathleen Battle takes care of the "classical cred" quota, the score lacking Itzhak (Hero) Perlman and Yo-Yo (Crouching Tiger) Ma as instrumentalists. I think the Asian release of these movies (and corresponding soundtracks) feature local recordings, which would be interesting to listen to. Just as I prefer native language tracks (with subtitles) I'd have liked the entire viewing/listening experience to be free of western cultural panderings. On the other hand, it could be argued that Flying Daggers and its contemporaries are just that already. But whatever, I like them. And the music.