Kung Fu Chefs
Wing Kin Yip


As the title implies, this combines chop-socky action with chopping board exploits.
Wong Bing-Yi (a solemn-faced Sammo Hung) is cast out from his village after his dish makes everyone at a banquet ill. It turns out that he was set up by his vengeful nephew, though it seems strange that a supposed master chef like Wong would not be able to distinguish salt from poison.
No matter, it creates the chance for Wong to cross paths with promising chef and martial arts fighter Jung Kin-Yat (a cheeky Vanness Wu), whose love interest is the cutesy spunky Shen Ying (Ai Kago, a Ryoko Hirosue lookalike).
Mix in a cooking competition whose outcome is never in doubt and cheesy lines such as “Cooking is easy. Being a man is hard”, and voila, a bland blend.
(ST)

Marley & Me
David Frankel


The story: As readers of the 2005 best-selling memoir of the same name know, Marley is the world’s worst dog. Bought by American journalist John Grogan (Owen Wilson) soon after his marriage to fellow writer Jenny (Jennifer Aniston), the labrador retriever shares in the ups and downs of their lives and becomes an integral part of the family over the years.


They should have been tipped off when Marley was the only one in the litter of yellow labrador retrievers which came with a discount.
The Grogans soon find out why as the pup goes berserk during thunderstorms, chews through partition walls and does not understand the command “heel”.
Marley’s refusal to follow commands even gets him kicked out of obedience school after he shows up an uptight dog trainer (Kathleen Turner in a cameo).
At the same time, his shenanigans prove to be rich fodder for John’s increasingly popular newspaper columns for the Miami Herald.
As much as this is a story about a rascally dog, the film is also about John’s journey through life, from marriage to career developments to fatherhood.
While he has a good friend Sebastian (Eric Dane), whose swinging bachelor lifestyle is a pointed contrast to his own, Marley is often the one he would talk aloud to and is more of a constant companion.
Mostly, Marley & Me plods along in a not unpleasant, genial manner. The light-hearted tone, though, jars with parts of the film which delve into the bumps on the road that the Grogans face.
For example, John and Jenny do not have a perfect marriage. They go through a rocky patch when she has to deal with giving up her career for the sake of their children. And John, despite a successful column, is restless and wants a change in the direction of his career.
But somehow, watching the beautiful blonde and blonder movie stars deal with ordinary, real- people predicaments makes the issues less compelling.
One also cannot help but be distracted by the thought that this is the first film Wilson made after his suicide attempt in 2007, reportedly over the split from actress Kate Hudson.
To his credit, the actor, best known for his laid-back comic roles in films such as Wedding Crashers (2005), seems to have moved on from the incident and is amiably low-key as John.
There isn’t much for Aniston to do here in what is essentially a supporting role. Still best known for her turn as Rachel in the popular sitcom Friends, the actress has shown that she can do interesting work in offbeat films such as The Good Girl (2002). Too often, though, she seems to settle for more conventional wife/girlfriend roles that do not do her any favours, as is the case here.
As the film moves to its conclusion, the focus shifts back to Marley. Animal lovers, be warned, the ending is a teary one.
Perhaps what makes animal performances in films touching is the simple fact that animals do not act. You would not tell a dog to emote sadness, but instead you instruct it to paw at the door and whimper. In a way, that removes a layer of artifice from what we watch on screens.
Or perhaps here, it merely proves the old adage that a dog is a man’s best friend, even when the canine in question is the world’s worst.
(ST)

If You Are The One
Feng Xiaogang

The story: Qin Fen (Ge You) places a personals ad for a wife, and to his surprise, the beautiful Xiaoxiao (Shu Qi) responds. They form a tentative friendship which grows into something stronger.

After a detour into the genre du jour of historical epics with The Banquet (2006) and Assembly (2007), director Feng Xiaogang is back doing what he does best – gently skewering modern society and making you laugh in the process.
The template here is taken from Taiwanese writer-director Chen Kuo-fu’s The Personals (1998), in which singer-actress Rene Liu was a single professional woman seeking a husband. This was the set-up for a wry look at love and life in modern Taiwan.
In If You Are The One, which Chen produced, it is a middle-aged man searching for a wife on the mainland.
Released in China on Dec 22 last year, the film struck a chord with audiences. It has earned 350 million yuan (S$78 million) at the box office, one of the highest-grossing Chinese films, and also set off a trend of people looking for spouses online.
The succinct, funny and poignant ad written by Qin Fen (a homonym of the Mandarin term for hardworking) is destined to be a classic circulated through e-mail messages and online forums.
He is realistic: “If you’re an angel, I won’t be able to handle you. I don’t expect you to look like that girl on the magazine cover, scattering souls with just one look.”
He is detailed: “I like a woman who knows how to fold clothes such that when you finish washing, ironing and folding them, they will look exactly like when you bought them from the stores. Specific enough?”
He is honest: “My character’s a 50-50 split and I’m not exactly an honest man. But I was born timid, even if it is not illegal to kill, I wouldn’t kill anyone. My conscience will be tortured by guilt if I do anything cruel to others.”
Yet who should walk into his life but the gorgeous Xiaoxiao, who responds to the ad for reasons of her own. Shu Qi downplays her natural sultriness and is a good foil to Ge, making it one of those rare odd couple pairings which actually seem plausible.
Feng and Ge have worked together in several films from the hit comedy Be There Or Be Square (1998) to the infidelity drama Cell Phone (2003) and the loose Hamlet adaptation The Banquet. They have a good thing going and Feng knows how best to showcase his leading man’s charms.
The genius of Ge’s performance is that he underplays the scenes, remaining unflappable and genial even when presented with increasingly unusual respondents to his ad.
The meetings with prospective partners are milked for laughs but are also a sly comment on society today. There is the grave plot saleswoman, the trader who likens picking a mate to betting on stocks and even a man who nurses a crush on Qin.
Feng riffs on anything and everything from China-Taiwan relations to materialism to the preferred frequency of sex in a relationship.
Unfortunately, the film is marred by the final act which takes place in Hokkaido.
Qin and Xiaoxiao, the not-quite-couple, go on the trip as she intends to make a symbolic clean break with her married lover where it had all started. Some forced dramatics are thrown in and derail the film.
But overall, this is an enjoyable film largely buoyed by Ge’s deft performance.
(ST)

Suspect X
Hiroshi Nishitani

The story: The body of a man has been discovered, his face pulverised and his prints removed. Police officer Kaoru Utsumi (Kou Shibasaki) is assigned to the case and she enlists the help of brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama), also known as Detective Galileo. His suspicions come to rest on a former schoolmate, the highly intelligent mathematician Tetsuya Ishigami (Shinichi Tsutsumi).

Suspect X is a crime thriller but it is not one of the usual suspects.
It has an impressive pedigree, based on the award-winning mystery writer Keigo Higashino’s popular Detective Galileo series and it reunites the principal cast from the hit TV adaptation.
Like the compelling Korean hit The Chaser (2008), we know who the killer is from the start.
We are witness to an act of violence that takes place when former hostess Yasuko Hanaoka (Yasuko Matsuyuki) receives an unwelcome visit from her loutish ex-husband.
After she and her daughter Misato (Miho Kanazawa) unintentionally kill him, things take an unexpected turn when her neighbour Tetsuya Ishigami knocks on her door and offers to help her out.
Knowing whodunnit in no way diminishes the pleasure of watching Suspect X. We watch with rapt attention as the neighbour constructs an alibi for mother and daughter, coaching them on how to stay a step ahead of the police.
Too many Hollywood cop flicks have a fetish for stylish and glamorous violence, and it is deeply satisfying to have a back-to-basics thriller which is all about the battle of wits between two superior minds.
The film signals its intentions early on when Professor Manabu Yukawa delivers a lecture on cause-and-effect rationality to detective Kaoru Utsumi, who is seeking his help on another case. The kicker though is the seemingly throwaway comment that love is irrational and cannot be resolved in an equation.
Suspect X pivots on a few of these little scenes which take on greater significance at the end of the film.
Cast-wise, pop singer-actor Masaharu Fukuyama imbues the cerebral physicist Yukawa with a light touch of playfulness while Kou Shibasaki has less to do in the role of earnest cop Utsumi. As the beauty in trouble, Matsuyuki brings together vulnerability and a streak of steely defiance.
The revelation here is Shinichi Tsutsumi. As Ishigami, he is calm and collected throughout, his eyes droopy, his movements slow and deliberate, yet he is able to convince one that the mind of a genius lies behind that misleading facade. His performance only serves to increase the power of the emotional wallop that hits you at the end of the film.
Not only is Suspect X a fine thriller, retaining the ability to surprise even when it seems that the case is closed, it is also, movingly, about the small acts of kindness which can sustain someone’s life and how love can be both a redemptive and destructive force.
Police procedurals such as Crime Scene Investigation may wow you with technical wizardry but such gizmos are useless when it comes to plumbing the unfathomable depths of the human heart.
(ST)

Chong Feng 7
Esplanade Concert Hall
Last Saturday


Chong Feng means “to meet once again” and this seventh installation of the popular concert brought together local and Taiwanese singers crooning hits from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The event was in many ways like a school reunion. The pleasure of meeting old friends you grew up with was, at the same time, tinged with anxiety. How have they changed? Will they still be recognisable?
These questions were particularly, and poignantly, relevant to Hee, who had not performed live in Singapore in eight years. At the height of her popularity in the mid-1990s, she was out-selling albums by the Hong Kong heavenly kings but faded away from the music scene in the early noughties.
In June 2006, she hit the headlines when she was arrested for harassing two guests in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, yelling at them to “Call me God”. She was the final act in the three- hour-long concert.
The 34-year-old appeared in a dark pink top, patterned pants and a sequinned cap. She seemed a little nervous, but smiled widely, clearly happy to be back on stage again.
She did not say much, preferring to let her music do the talking. She performed three songs, Regret, Sunshine Always Follows The Rain and her best-known hit Moonlight In The City.
It was a pleasure to hear the mellow honeyed warmth of her voice once more though it seemed to have narrowed in range and the lowest notes on Regret were now a bit of a stretch for her.
If Hee played the role of comeback kid, then Jiang Hu was the one-time class heart-throb whose gentle, lilting tenor was tailor-made for ballads. He still had it but the voice was a tad more fragile.
He said: “I’ve lost 70 per cent of my prowess, only 30 per cent left to fool you guys with.”
The clean-cut boyishness of the 1980s had given way to a look that would not be out of place in a hip-hop outfit. Jiang sported a dog-tag and wore a sports zip-up over army fatigue pants.
Clad in matching black suits, high achiever Su Xinquan, a doctor of 18 years, and xinyao singer Hong Shaoxuan, entertained the audience with a specially arranged medley of four songs, switching with ease between Mandarin and English numbers.
The class clowns turned out to be the even more linguistically talented TCR Acappella. The five-member group was a crowd-pleaser, hamming it up in Cantonese-accented Mandarin, Japanese-accented English and Thai-accented English.
They delivered two Chinese hits back to back with their original versions in Japanese and Thai and even showed off some smooth moves on the Grasshopper track Shi Lian Zhen Xian Lian Meng (Broken Hearts Club).
Chong Feng 7 also featured Taiwanese acts Kay Huang Yun-ling, Tseng Shu-chin, Nan Fang Er Chong Chang (Southern Duo) and Mu Ji Ta (Wooden Guitar).
It was a treat to have Huang, these days a judge for singing competition One Million Star, playing the piano and delivering tracks she wrote in her slightly husky vocals.
It was even better to hear that she was working on an album of new material.
A reunion need not be about simply reliving the past, it can also be about forging new connections and looking to the future.
(ST)

K-20: Legend Of The Mask
Shimako Sato


The year is 1949 and the place is Teito, Japan, in an alternate universe where World War II never happened. In this society with rigid class boundaries, K-20, The Phantom Thief with 20 Faces, steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Unwittingly, circus acrobat Heikichi Endo (an earnest, if slightly detached, Takeshi Kaneshiro) takes the fall for the real McCoy and is captured by detective Kogoro Akechi (a laidback, smirky Toru Nakamura).
The acrobat sets out to clear his name and finds an unexpected ally in the duchess Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu providing some comic relief), Akechi’s fiancee.
This period sci-fi flick borrows elements from movies ranging from Face/Off (1997) to the secret agent James Bond franchise. It cruises along pleasantly enough in handsomely rendered sets with an old-fashioned twist at the end.
Surprisingly, the film is not a manga adaptation. The characters were created by late author Rampo Edogawa, the father of the Japanese mystery novel.
(ST)

Forever Enthralled
Chen Kaige

The story: Beijing opera singer Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) was one of the biggest stars of his time. This biopic covers several key periods in the female impersonator’s life, including his rise to prominence, his successful American tour and his refusal to perform in Japanese-occupied China.

Mention Chen Kaige and opera, and the first thing that comes to mind is the China film-maker’s Farewell My Concubine, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.
There are some surface similarities between the two films – the epic sweep, the elegant art direction – but unlike Farewell, Forever Enthralled is more concerned with events than characters.
In this sense, it would be more apt to compare it with martial arts biopic Ip Man (2008). Both story arcs are similar, portraying the protagonist at his peak, how he deals with challenges and finally his heroic defiance of the Japanese.
But Mei is less of a paper cut-out than Ip Man, even though it is hard to reconcile the spirited younger Mei played by real-life opera singer Yu Shaoqun with the older version, whom Cantopop Heavenly King Leon Lai portrays as languid and rather one-note.
At the beginning of his career, Mei challenges the strict rules of Beijing opera in order to inject a greater dose of reality into the art, going so far as to clash head-on with veteran actor Shisan Yan (Wang Xueqi in a poignant performance).
You get a sense of the artist as an iconoclast, and Yu does a marvellous job of conveying the steely reserve beneath the gentle exterior. There is then an odd disconnect when Lai takes over as Mei.
Making up for Lai’s underwhelming performance, the strong supporting cast steal the limelight in a number of key roles. Sun Honglei is impassioned and ultimately tragically sympathetic as Mei’s lifelong supporter Qiu Rubai, and Chen Hong, Chen Kaige’s wife, prevents Mei’s shrewd and protective wife from becoming a caricature.
However, the romance between Mei and male impersonator Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Ziyi, who can play sassy in her sleep) is less than convincing.
The relationship between a female impersonator and a male impersonator is tailor-made for an exploration of gender roles but Chen Kaige barely ventures there. This is a glaring omission since it is said of Mei that the peak of his artistry was that he was “more like a woman than the real thing”.
Forever Enthralled does not live up to its overwrought English title. Instead, it is a technically competent if emotionally distant by-the-numbers biopic whose stately pace starts to wear thin in the final act set during the Japanese Occupation.
Chen Kaige and opera still add up to Farewell My Concubine.
(ST)

New In Town
Jonas Elmer


Even the romantic comedy is not spared the economic realities of the times.
The set-up here seems pretty straightforward at first.
Chic city executive Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger, more reined-in from her Bridget Jones cartoon mode) from sunny Miami suddenly finds herself in wintry Minnesota on a work assignment.
The only attractive man for miles around happens to be union rep Ted Mitchell (a charming Harry Connick Jr who seems to have lost that weird sneer he had on TV series Will & Grace).
They get on each other’s nerves when they meet for the first time. And they clash at the factory too since she has been sent to retrench half the workforce.
No prizes for guessing what happens next.
But as much as this is a meet-cute fantasy romance, it is also a proletariat fantasy.
Factory workers who do not own the means of production get a boss who saves them from being kicked out into the cold, not just once, but twice. And then gives power back to them in a scheme to purchase the factory back from greedy capitalists.
A romantic comedy with Marxist undertones? That is certainly new in town.
(ST)

White Palms
Szabolcs Hajdu


As a child, Miklos Dongo was a promising gymnast in Hungary but, somehow, he ends up coaching Canada’s medal hope for the 2002 world gymnastics championship.
It is interesting to look at a film like this and marvel at all the ways that Hollywood would have mucked it up.
Award-winning Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu is not interested in a rah-rah tale of athletic triumph and personal redemption.
Instead, he presents viewers with a non-linear story with portraits of Dongo at ages 10 (Orion Radies), 13 (Silas Wind Radies) and 32 (Zoltan Miklos Hajdu).
The harsh training conducted by coach Ferenc (Gheorghe Dinica) robs Dongo of the ordinary joys of childhood. At 13, the unhappy gymnast runs away to join the circus. As a coach, he has to find a way to connect with his trainees and come to terms with his past.
There is a telling bit of dialogue by Ferenc when the big top folks come by the gym to look for a replacement trapeze artiste: “Hey! This is not a circus! Hey! They are not monkeys!”
But the director juxtaposes the gymnastics competition with the trapeze performance, brilliantly linking the two scenes through the use of music and sound.
It is not always clear whether you are looking at the spectacle of a competition or a death-courting circus act, or both.
But there is no doubt that Hajdu has crafted a compelling and surprising film.
(ST)

Crowd Lu
Esplanade Recital Studio
Last Saturday


Mrs This
Esplanade Recital Studio
Last Friday

Crowd Lu and Mrs This have each released an album, appealing mostly to students and those in their 20s and 30s, and both acts fall under the umbrella of Chinese indie pop. But their concerts proved to be very different experiences.
Lu, 23, delivered a mesmerising show, demonstrating why he is one of the most promising Taiwanese singer-songwriters to emerge in recent years. In contrast to his sunny demeanour and music, compatriots six-piece ensemble Mrs This mined a more melancholic vein of electronic pop-rock, a performance which sometimes threatened to slip into minor key monotony.
Lu’s songs about life and love from a young person’s point of view have resonated strongly with music fans and he sold out two shows at the 245-seat Esplanade Recital Studio.
Dressed in an orange T-shirt worn over another black one, bermudas, calf-high socks and white sneakers, and sporting his trademark black-rimmed glasses and mop top, he looked like an awkward, gangly, overgrown student.
But he captured one’s attention the moment he started playing the guitar and singing because he performed with his entire body. Eyes closed, fingers strumming, legs tapping and kicking away, he was completely into the moment.
He dove headlong into his songs with a passion that was palpable and his clear, bright voice, as open and direct as his personality, was a compelling and moving instrument.
His enthusiastic bursts of “Yeah!” punctuated the end of each song and were peppered all over his patter, which included anecdotes such as how his first single Yuan Ming, which appears to be about escaping from reality, was actually written when he was upset with a friend for not waking him up for class.
The female leads for Mrs This, A Mu and Hei Lang, also displayed a playful side in their banter, while to the crowd’s delight, bassist Fang Q showed off some Singlish phrases he had picked up.
Their music, however, was a tougher sell live. The vocals were in danger of being overwhelmed by the drums at times and the band could have been tighter as an outfit.
It did not help that the same few photo stills were recycled endlessly in the background and soon became annoying. Either add more photos or just do away with them entirely.
Mrs This were at their best on tracks such as And I and I See Many People, which were infused with a sense of much-needed drama.
There was no certainly no lack of drama in Lu’s gig and he kept the energy level high throughout.
He tackled the hard-to-reach notes on Really Feel Like Being Self-Indulgent, charmed his way through School Belle 2008, and got the audience to chorus “That’s right! That’s right!” on Good Morning, Beauty Of Dawn!
Lu’s gig was so entertaining, it did not even matter one whit that he skipped the chart-topping title track from his album 100 Ways For Living.
It is still early days for 2009, but you have the feeling that you have already seen one of the best concerts of the year.
(ST)

Traffic
Tom Vanderbilt


Driving is “probably the most complex everyday thing we do”, and yet we barely pause to think about it.
So it is a good thing that we have someone like Tom Vanderbilt who decides to examine this phenomenon in great detail, unearthing nuggets of interesting information and fascinating insights into this quotidian activity.
He unpacks certain basic questions and assumptions including what it means to pay attention on the road. He points out that if we were to process every single piece of information out there, we would be overwhelmed.
After all, when driving, we are travelling at speeds for which we are not evolutionarily adapted to.
Some of his conclusions seem counter-intuitive at first. For example, that more seemingly dangerous roads might actually have lower rates of accidents. On such roads, drivers take greater care while so-called safer roads with a multitude of signs and safeguards could actually encourage drivers to drive more dangerously.
The paradox is that when drivers feel more at risk, they behave more cautiously, making the roads safer.
Vanderbilt backs up his assertions with lots of studies and research material. But he handles it with a light and humorous touch so you do not feel like you are stuck in a morass of information.
Apart from academic studies, he also dives headlong into the infamous road snarls of cities such as Beijing and Mumbai and draws upon historical situations from ancient Rome to mediaeval England to give a sense of perspective to this thing called traffic.
There is certainly plenty to mull over here. One question: If we are not evolutionarily equipped to move at driving speeds, what does this say about flying?

If you like this, read: Stiff by Mary Roach. Another topic we do not think about much, human cadavers, is explored in an unexpectedly funny and illuminating manner.
(ST)