Let's Not Grieve Anymore

Wan Fang

Has it really been eight long years since the singer’s last release, The Chance Of Love? Meanwhile, lesser singers with prettier packaging churn them out at an indecent rate.

Not that the 42-year-old Wan Fang has been twiddling her thumbs. She has been productive on the small screen and on stage, including an excellent turn in Stan Lai’s The Village for The Esplanade’s Huayi festival in February last year.

But this album proves that Wan Fang, who released her debut album in 1990, is still a force to be reckoned with as a singer.

She serves as a producer for the first time and also has a hand in writing several tracks, including highlights such as the gently heartbreaking Seeing Happiness Smiling At Me and the delicate titular track.

Her voice is like fine porcelain – there is a porous quality to it that lets light through – and time has not diminished the beauty of its translucence.

Loving You

Mei Xin

This is vintage packaging, the likes of which has not been seen since, oh, the 1980s. It is hard to imagine who this is supposed to appeal to except, maybe, for remote parts of China isolated from the rest of the world and the Internet revolution.

Listening to the album then comes as a surprise – it is better than what you would expect. The local singer has a pleasant voice and her debut album has worthy contributions from veterans of the music scene here such as Chen Jiaming and Jim Lim. Mei Xin herself composed one track, Because I’m Loving You.

She even goes back in time with a perky version of Yi Chuan Xin (literally, A Strand Of Hearts).

Now that is the kind of retro that is acceptable on an album.

2010 GREATEST LOVE

Waterman

This has definitely got to be one of the stranger routes a recording company has taken to release an album. Waterman was actually dreamt up by an advertising agency to promote a brand of bottled water. To create buzz, an album was launched under Waterman’s name.

It did well enough for the enigmatic masked crusader, whose motto is “Drink more water”, to release a second record.

Greatest Love is filled with messages about the power of love and the need to protect the earth and proceeds from album sales reportedly go to World Vision Taiwan’s Child Health Now charity campaign.

Still, it is hard not to think of a track like More Water as an advertising jingle: “Water More Water, even the dolphins are crying out in thirst, only water can quench this parched universe.”

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Aftershock

Feng Xiaogang

The story: On July 28, 1976, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck the Chinese city of Tangshan in Hebei in the wee hours of the morning. Reportedly, 655,000 people perished. Those who survived had their lives torn apart and one mother Li Yuanni (Xu Fan) has to live with the consequences when she is forced to make a choice between her seven-year-old twins – saving her son Fang Da or saving her daughter Fang Deng.

Adapting Zhang Ling’s novel Aftershock, China director Feng Xiaogang gives audiences both the tremors of the physical phenomenon as well as the emotional devastation wreaked by the earthquake.

Living in a geographically stable country, it can be hard to imagine the full force of nature’s fury when it is unleashed. What Feng has accomplished here is to convey the sense and the scale of the destruction – elemental, terrifying and absolute.

But unlike blockbusters such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004) where the shock and awe of the special effects scenes are often an end unto itself, here, it serves as a set-up to a far more moving story.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Yuanni’s husband is killed and her two children are trapped under two opposite ends of a beam. Lifting the beam at one end would save one child and kill the other; not making a decision would result in both dying as precious seconds ticked away.

Xu Fan’s excellent performance makes you feel the full weight of the impossible decision facing her and you ache with her when she finally picks her son over her daughter. She never forgives herself for that choice and regret and guilt seep into her life.

That fateful decision haunts Fang Deng as well. She hears her mother’s decision, but then miraculously survives and turns into a solemn little girl (played by Zhang Zifeng). She is later adopted by a couple from the People’s Liberation Army who are sent to Tangshan to help with rescue efforts, but she has to live with the knowledge of her mother’s choice.

Fang Da, too, is marked by the earthquake as his arm was crushed and he also has to deal with the weight of his mother’s expectations and hopes.

No one is left unscarred and yet, the film holds out the possibility of healing and reconciliation.

The story then moves to Sichuan when it is struck by an earthquake in 2008. Fang Da (Li Chen) and Fang Deng (Zhang Jingchu) both join in the aid efforts and end up meeting each other.

Feng adroitly refrains from showing us the recognition scene, effectively packing the heartwrenching reunion between mother and daughter with an even bigger emotional wallop.

This reviewer has not been so completely wrung out from a film since Isao Takahata’s classic anti-war classic Grave Of The Fireflies (1988).

Aftershock then ends with an actual survivor paying his respects at the earthquake memorial in Tangshan. It seems a bit abrupt but also makes the point that the upheavals experienced by that one family was multiplied hundreds and thousands of times.

Author Lung Ying-tai once said of a book she wrote that it was a literary joss stick offered to the millions who were killed during the Chinese civil war.

This 10-hanky weepie is Feng’s cinematic joss stick to those who died during the Tangshan earthquake as well as his tribute to those who went on with the business of living despite having their lives shattered.

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Au Revoir Taipei

Arvin Chen

The story: After his girlfriend Fay leaves for Paris, Kai (Jack Yao) regularly parks himself at a bookstore to learn French and soon catches the attention of salesgirl Susie (Amber Kuo). When Fay breaks up with him over the phone, he decides to borrow money from gang boss Brother Bao (veteran singer Frankie Kao Ling-feng) in order to fly to France. In return, he has to pick up a package, setting off a chain of events that leads to several wild chases all over Taipei.

Writer-director Arvin Chen’s debut feature is a sweet and charming ode to Taipei’s varied night life. The ubiquitous 24/7 convenience stores, the night markets with their delicious street food and thronging crowds, the aunties doing their mass-dance routine outdoors – they are all here.

The details do not call unnecessary attention to themselves though and instead serve as unobtrusive backdrops to an engaging caper that stands on its own merit.

Kai runs into his friend Gao (Paul Chiang) before picking up the package and they head off to the night market for a farewell meal where they bump into Susie. Meanwhile, Bao’s nephew Hong (Lawrence Ko) wants to get his hands on the package as well. Detective Ji Yong (Joseph Chang) stumbles into the picture, chasing after the package while nursing a broken heart and a bruised ego.

It seems like an awful lot is going on but Chinese-American film-maker Chen handles things with a light touch and flair. Whenever the film threatens to sag, he injects some fresh momentum into it with another bit of humour or some action.

Accordingly, Au Revoir Taipei has been well received, picking up a Netpac Award for Chen at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival while Kuo, singer and TV drama actress, was named Best New Talent at the 12th Taipei Film Festival earlier this month.

Fresh faces Yao and Kuo are sweetly tentative together as they explore their nascent attraction while trying to rescue Gao, who has been kidnapped by Hong’s henchmen.

The villains though are more comic than menacing. Bao waxes lyrical about his lady love and wants to retire while Hong and gang are all dressed in orange suits, looking like a slightly demented boyband.

The supporting cast nail their quirky roles perfectly and the 1.89m-tall model-turned-actor Chiang steals scenes as the clueless, mild-mannered and good-hearted Gao.

Au Revoir Taipei can be thought of as a companion piece to Hsiao Ya-chuan’s Taipei Exchanges, about a cafe with a sideline in barter trade. Both radiate a gentle youthful whimsy and a very palpable affection for the city of Taipei. Inevitably you wonder: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a film like that about Singapore?

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Jay Chou World Tour Live in Singapore 2010

Singapore Indoor Stadium

When it comes to a concert by king of Mandopop Jay Chou, his fans are perfectly happy to shell it out. Aside from watching their idol perform live, they are also assured of a top-notch production with no expense spared.

The 31-year-old singer wowed audiences here with a glossy and entertaining show two years ago and he did the same again last Friday, the first of three sold-out nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

He first appeared teasingly as a hologram, seeming to float in space, dressed like a mummy with its bandages unravelling. Then a globular screen on stage opened up to reveal Chou inside. He was outfitted in a glittery silver concoction with crazy protrusions on his shoulders, like Elvis in his Vegas best – on steroids.

All this was just for the opening number Dragon Rider – the hologram tent and the globular screen were not seen again for the rest of the night.

Every single element for each song was carefully thought out, from the background visuals to the dancers’ costumes to the special effects which included lasers, jets of fire and platforms which rose and fell.

But was the show over-produced?

No doubt the production was top-notch, but it also felt a little frenzied, too busy moving from point to point to stop and breathe. There was no momentum to speak of in the first few songs as Chou kept disappearing for costume tweaks and changes after each number.

Also, his voice would sometimes disappear into the music and was barely discernible in the mix, particularly when he had to hit the high notes or sing falsetto. His songs are known for their rapid-fire rhythms and tongue-twisting lyrics and they proved to be challenging in a live setting.

The fans did not seem too bothered, though, and were happy to scream and sing along, even when it was just a video clip charting his decade-long career’s milestones in music and on celluloid.

To mark that journey, he covered songs from across his back catalogue, including some of his early hits such as Lovely Woman from his debut record Jay (2000) and Love Before The Century from Fantasy (2001).

Still, the focus was clearly on The Era, his most recent release. He performed eight of the album’s 11 tracks, such as the elegiac ballad Fireworks Cool Easily and the wry track Superman Can’t Fly, in which he lays out the frustrations and regrets he has had in the business. Oddly, he chose to skip album highlight Long Time No See.

A little after the mid-way mark, a nifty black-box contraption appeared on the stage. Different parts of it were visible depending on how it was lit. At the same stage, it took on different looks depending on the images projected upon it. At one point, it even seemed like Chou was exploring the interior of a house.

Very cool, but also distancing in effect since he was essentially singing songs such as the breezy Diary: Fly For Love in a small cubicle behind a panel of glass.

The highlights, for me, were when Chou actually forged a connection with the crowd on Can’t Tell Her, which ended the set, and in the glorious encore finale, Nunchucks.

For all the technical wizardry, the audience broke into the loudest screams when Chou mingled with the lucky fans in the front rows during Simple Love.

The 21/2-hour gig was already nearing its end before the entire audience finally rose to its feet. It did not take some new marvel or glitzy gizmo to do that. Instead, it was something simpler and more powerful – all Chou had to do was ask.

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DUO Eason Chan Concert Live 2010

Eason Chan

Ahead of his concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sept 18, check out what Eason Chan served up on his home turf.

The 18 gigs at the Hong Kong Coliseum in March and April were a personal record number for him. Maybe that explains why his voice was not quite up to its usual high standard and he sounded a little strained and tired at points.

Still, this generous three-CD spread takes you through his hits from 1998’s My Happy Era to 2006’s Under Mount Fuji, to this year’s No Man’s Land.

Apart from his own songs, Chan also performed a delightful array of covers including Faye Wong’s Promise, Kay Tse’s Street Of Wedding Invitations, and even a Japanese track, Mr Lonely.

What you won’t get to experience here, though, are the outrageous costumes worn by Chan and his charismatic stage presence. Those will have to wait till September.

Regeneration

Chemistry

The R&B duo Chemistry first created sparks 10 years ago when they won the Asayan talent search variety show, Japan’s version of American Idol.

They have gone on to release several No. 1 albums and singles, with Regeneration being their sixth full-length offering.

While Yoshikuni Dochin and Kaname Kawabata look like chalk and cheese on the album cover – one a sensitive lovelorn soul; the other, a boxer getting ready to do battle – they prove that their chemistry has not fizzled even though the opening number has them singing: “Go alone had to quit ya/On my own, better without ya”. The album includes Period, the opening theme for the hit anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

More satisfying, though, are At That Time, which incorporates a rap from Japanese hip-hop veteran Dohzi-T, and the slinky number Dawn.

1st Mini Album

2AM

Once upon a time, there was an 11-member Korean boyband called One Day.

They then split into two groups, 2AM and 2PM. Compared to the diurnal 2PM which went down the route of energetic dance music, the nocturnal 2AM went for a smoother R&B sound, in keeping with the vibe of its name.

The result was that 2PM emerged triumphant in the popularity stakes.

But with a repackaged version of their first album, 2AM have proven that night and day can meet.

Their catchy new single I Did Wrong ups the tempo and comes with an epic 10-minute music video that has group members Jo Kwon styled as a club DJ, Changmin as an ice hockey player, Seulong as a biker and Jinwoon as a basketball player.

The rest of the album, which includes material from their first two singles, slides into a less distinctive, if not unpleasant, groove.

The question, then, is this: If 2AM continue to move in the direction of fasterpaced numbers, what will distinguish them from 2PM? Will they get back together One Day?

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Old Cow Vs Tender Grass

Fok Chi Gai

It is pretty clear who had final cut approval for the film – the sponsors.

A certain brand of stout is mentioned by name, appears in several scenes with the label clearly displayed and even appears as an actual ad on the side of the cab driven by the lead Henry Thia.

When a China nurse, played by local radio deejay Siau Jiahui, gives some cockamamie spiel about moonlighting as a beer promoter in order to feel better about herself, you wonder if she has had too much to drink.

It all makes sense though, if you think of this movie as an extended advertisement for a handful of products padded out with bland stories.

Despite the slightly saucy title, which appears to reference the real-life older man-younger woman relationships of comedian Marcus Chin and film-maker Jack Neo, the relationship between Thia and Taiwanese newcomer Crystal Lin is supremely chaste. In fact, they sometimes seem to be in different movies.

Thia is recycling his hangdog expressions and sad sack persona from his comedies for the umpteenth time while Lin is stuck in a melodrama that has her trying to recover from some past trauma.

Meanwhile, another uninvolving romance between the nurse and another cab driver (Malaysian deejay-actor Jack Lim) is being played out.

All of this is handled clunkily, with clumsy scene transitions and an annoying soundtrack that hammers in the mood setting for each scene.

This old cow should just be put out to pasture.

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Just because the World Cup is over and the TV season in the United States is on hiatus does not mean the couch potato has to peel himself off the sofa.

It used to be that this was the time of year for less-than-stellar TV series and endless reruns. But that has been changing in recent years, with cable channels offering more original material and TV networks stepping up to the challenge.

Some things remain the same, though, and “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” continues to be an unshakeable mantra.

Vampires are still making a commercial killing, so series creators are finding ways to work them into the small screen. It is the same with werewolves.

This was probably the thought process that led to The Gates, in which an unsuspecting police chief and his family move into an exclusive community that seems too perfect to be true. Guess who, or what, are among the denizens?

Not that imitation is necessarily a bad thing, the only sin really is imitation that fails to ignite interest.

Hence, Pretty Little Liars, despite clearly taking its cue from Gossip Girl, a TV series about privileged kids behaving badly, will likely prove that nubile young girls mixed up in intrigue, sexual and otherwise, will always find an audience.

Amid all the usual fare, there are flashes of something different in some of these mid-year offerings.

Sure, Unnatural History is a cross between Hardy Boys mystery-solving and Indiana Jones-style adventures, but its wholesomeness is a welcome throwback to a more innocent time.

Bonus points must be given to the creators for making historical facts palatable, just like in the hit film, National Treasure (2004).

The most audacious new show, though, is Huge. Set in a fat camp, it puts the touchy issues of weight and self- worth front and centre.

Life! takes you through eight new shows – also including cop dramas Rookie Blue and Memphis Beat, crime dramedy Scoundrels and mystery thriller Persons Unknown – and sifts out the sizzlers from the snoozers.

There are more new offerings coming for couch potatoes.

Look out for sci-fi adventure series Stargate Universe (Syfy, StarHub Channel 526 from next Monday at 11pm); Haven, a supernatural mystery based on Stephen King’s novel Colorado Kid (Syfy, StarHub Channel 526, from Oct 11, Mondays at 10pm); Shattered, about a homicide detective with multiple personality disorder (Universal Channel, StarHub Channel 512, coming at the end of the year); and Caprica, a spin-off from the critically acclaimed sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica (AXN, StarHub Channel 511). Its air dates will be announced soon.

Pretty Little Liars

In a nutshell: Dead girl sends snarky text messages, presumably from the grave.

What: Move over Gossip Girl, there is a trashier and skankier show in town.

First, the similarities. Liars is also based on a best-selling book series about the woes of the popular “it” girls, by Sara Shepard in this case. It even has a Blair (Leighton Meester) lookalike in the shape of Aria Montgomery (played by Lucy Hale).

Both are about teenagers behaving like hedonistic adults but Liars ups the stakes further. In the first episode alone, one high-school girl is locking lips with a teacher, another is eyeing the boyfriend of her older sister and a third is kissing a girl.

Oh right, the story. There used to be a clique of five girls and then one of them disappeared and was presumed dead. So when the other four start receiving messages from the “dead girl” threatening to spill the beans on a shared dark secret, they will fight tooth and manicured nail to protect themselves.

So much mischief and intrigue, so little time. Welcome to your newest guilty pleasure.

Rookie Blue

In a nutshell: New cops learn the ropes.

What: No offence, but another cop show, really?

Cop shows have been done to death and pretty much from every conceivable angle. But while Rookie Blue does not break new ground, it does offer a promising mix of drama from both solving cases as well as the characters’ lives and loves.

In other words, this show is more like Hill Street Blues than CSI.

In the first episode, the personalities of the different cops are quickly and deftly sketched out. Also, by having them take on different assignments, the viewer is given a quick overview of the various duties in a precinct’s police station.

As this is a Canadian series, most of the fresh-faced cast might not be familiar. The exception is Gregory Smith, whom viewers saw grow up on the drama series, Everwood.

Following a new series can be a bit like starting a new relationship and there is always the risk of rejection, that is, cancellation, after you commit. Good thing that Rookie Blue has already been picked up for a second season by the ABC network.

Scoundrels

In a nutshell: Can small-time crooks go straight?

What: When Wolf West (nice to see David James Elliott of JAG playing scoundrel instead of saint) is handed a longer-than-expected jail sentence, it is up to his wife Cheryl (Virginia Madsen) to straighten out the West clan.

With its kooky family members, including a pair of twins played by Patrick Flueger (from sci-fi thriller The 4400) – one a lawyer, the other a lunkhead criminal – this comes across like a less nutty take on Arrested Development.

Based on the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune, the premiere is snappily paced and Madsen is fun to watch as a harassed mother trying to hold it all together.

She came to fame in the 1980s with teen flicks such as Electric Dreams (1984) and is also remembered for her turn in the slasher film Candyman (1992).

Her career was resuscitated with an Oscar-nominated performance in the wine country drama, Sideways (2004), and this should cast her in the limelight once more.

This is the second time ABC is attempting to retool this series for an American audience. A 2008 pilot named Good Behaviour was not picked up. Guess bad behaviour is always more attractive when it comes to entertainment.

Persons Unknown

In a nutshell: Seven abducted, to what end?

What: It is always a good sign when a series poses interesting questions because that means viewers will want to stick around for the answers.

The set-up here is intriguing: Seven people, seemingly unrelated, are abducted from different places and then brought to what looks like an abandoned film lot.

Why have they been kidnapped? Who is monitoring their every movement? And why are they being served food in a Chinese restaurant?

The obvious reference here is the recently concluded sci-fi thriller Lost, in which a group of people marooned on an island have to figure out why they were brought there. There is even a close-up shot of an eye opening, echoing the very first scene of Lost.

Will viewers have the patience for another drawn-out mystery, though? Cast-wise, this series also lacks the draw of familiar names. Hopefully, the title will not turn into a bad joke about the series’ audience.

Huge

In a nutshell: Big – and proud of it.

What: If there is one group that is under-represented in the TV land of beautiful people, it is overweight people.

No wonder when Camryn Manheim won an Emmy in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her work on the legal drama, The Practice, she exclaimed: “This is for all the fat girls!”

Perhaps spurred by the success of the reality series The Biggest Loser, there is now a scripted series where the overweight folks are front and centre.

Star Nikki Blonsky is best known for her role as Tracy Turnblad in the film version of the musical Hairspray (2007). She brings a deliciously acerbic zing to the role of Willamena Rader, who is bundled off to fat camp by her parents. Will, as she prefers to be called, is big and sassy and refuses to be ashamed of her size.

At the end of episode one, she decides that she wants to stay on at the camp, and it should be interesting to see how she will continue to rock the boat.

Unnatural History

In a nutshell: National Treasure – high-school edition.

What: Henry Griffin (Kevin Schmidt) is not your typical teenager. He has travelled all over the world and gone on all sorts of adventures. And then his parents decide to send him to a regular high school in Washington DC.

All that esoteric knowledge he has gathered comes in useful, however, when he decides to solve the mystery of the death of his godfather, aided reluctantly by his cousin Jasper Bartlett (Jordan Gavaris).

If Pretty Little Liars feels like poison to parents, then this wholesome adventure and mystery series packed with factoids should be the perfect antidote.

The Gates

In a nutshell: Vampires and werewolves in suburbia.

What: Plus-sized folks are near invisible on the goggle-box but the undead are getting overexposed.

The Twilight juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down while The Vampire Diaries and True Blood are carving up the audience share on TV.

The Gates wants a piece of the action but there is too much going on and it ends up feeling scattershot.

Nick Monohan (Frank Grillo, right, in green T-shirt) is the new chief of police in an exclusive gated community and it seems like the American Dream come true for him and his family. Cue alarm bells.

First day on the job and he has to deal with a missing person, last seen outside his new neighbour’s house. Meanwhile, his teenage kids have problems of their own to tackle at school.

There is the sinister adult conspiracy and a teenage romance angle, except that it all seems too familiar, like a cut-and-paste job of other series.

The Gates could well be shut out of viewers’ affections for all things undead.

Memphis Beat

In a nutshell: Maverick cop sings the blues.

What: Good news – Jason Lee (right) is starring in a new series right after the redneck comedy, My Name Is Earl, ended last year.

Bad news – Memphis Beat is not very good.

The title and opening credits promised a sense of place, the American South, and there was some of that but the pilot simply was not very compelling.

Dwight is the old-hand detective used to doing things his way and inevitably, there is a clash between him and the new lieutenant (Alfre Woodard). So far, so predictable.

It was also not clear whe- ther the fact that Dwight literally sings the blues in a pub was a one-episode gimmick or a recurring element of the series.

Whatever it is, things need to click and soon, or Memphis will be taking a beating in the ratings.

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agoodday lian-lian-kan festival

Various artists

For a compilation album, this record feels remarkably coherent.

Maybe it is because it features the roster of artistes from a single label – A Good Day Records. The line-up ranges from up-and-comer Dadado Huang, who released his debut album in 2007, to stalwarts such as Ze Hwang, whose first commercial release was back in 1998.

The indie set-up started in 2003 and made its name with its first record: singer-songwriter Cheer Chen’s debut single, Sentimental Kills.

There are standouts aplenty, including Dadado Huang’s insouciant To Myself, NyLas’ distinctive brand of child-like pop on Lovely Times and Smokering’s laid-back contribution. And that’s just the first three tracks.

We then take a detour into the territory of sombre and atmospheric pop a la Mazzy Star with two English numbers, Hwang’s Soak and Ciacia’s haunting A Dialogue Between Me & My Ghost.

Natural Q’s A Good Day (Fine Weather) closes the set with a slyly breezy number on the vagaries of weather and love.

This is a snapshot of the state of indie pop in Taiwan today and it is a good day indeed.

Guardian

Y2J

Duets are often obligatory in albums and Mandorock falls into cliches. Yet, against the odds, duo Y2J have become commercially viable based on their mainstay of rock duets.

Comprising Yuming Lai and Jane Huang, both finalists from the second season of the star-making machinery One Million Star, the duo had their first album Live For You out in 2008. It earned them a nomination for Best Vocal Group at the Golden Melody Awards.

Beyond strong, powerful vocals, Y2J’s dynamic is powered by the “are-they-or-aren’t-they-a-couple” undertow. On Forgiving, he wails: “Your tears leave me helpless” and she answers: “Do you know I’ve endured humiliations for love/Striving to learn forgiveness/Can’t bear for our love to die halfway”.

The title track features a guest turn by aboriginal singer Biung Wang and has Huang urging Lai: “Please be my guardian, hold me/Help me quietly rediscover the true colour of love”.

For star-crossed lovers everywhere.

We Hold Each Other Happily

Yuki

There is a joyful innocence to the series of black-and-white photos in the lyric booklet which shows the Japanese singer-songwriter with her arms stretched out in an embrace. Except there is no one there.

Despite that slightly unsettling stance, the former member of the now-defunct punk rock band Judy And Mary has come up with a kookily optimistic album that can be hard to resist.

Present chugs along on guitar riffs as her voice swoops from the lower registers to a child-like squeal, Look Of Love gets jazzy, while “just life! all right!” has her intoning solemnly in English: “Baby corn and carrot/tomato, onion, green beans and spinach/cream cheese and LOVE”.

The disc is bookended by the tracks Morning Comes and Night Comes, lending a sense of symmetry to the musical journey.

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The Fantastic Water Babes

Jeffrey Lau

The story: After getting publicly humiliated by her boyfriend’s new squeeze, Gill (Gillian Chung) wants to get back at her by winning a swimming relay competition. There is one snag – she cannot really swim, so she kidnaps champion swimmer Chi (Alex Fong) to train her.

You could completely disregard the plot and it would not make much of a difference. The movie is really just a series of gags and the only question is whether the hit-to-miss ratio is high enough.

Answer: Not quite.

Still, there are some funny sequences such as when the entire island of Cheung Chau colludes to convince Gill that she has superpowers and her friends and neighbours end up having to do all kinds of ridiculous things. There is also a nicely executed mahjong scene about arcane local rules – essentially a standalone skit.

This is all familiar territory for writerdirector Jeffrey Lau as he had also helmed farcical movies such as Just Another Pandora’s Box (2010) and The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993), in which a bunch of A-listers from the two Tony Leungs to Maggie Cheung gamely make fools of themselves.

The star wattage here is dimmer.

Gillian Chung, one-half of Cantopop duo Twins, seems to hold back and does not quite throw herself into the whole zany enterprise.

Professional swimmer-turned-actor Alex Fong (Chi) fares better but it is Stephen Fung who proves he is gungho enough to do anything for a laugh.

When the director decides to shove Gill and Chi into some grand romance, the result is underwhelming. It is difficult to be emotionally committed to cardboard characters who have been manipulated for yuks all through the movie.

Even more bewildering is the CGI-heavy finale, which further distances the viewer from the story. It is as though, after all that onscreen craziness, Lau finally goes off the deep end.

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Eric Moo Moments 2010 Asia Tour

Singapore Expo Hall 8

Last Friday

The concert did not start off promisingly. Malaysia-born and Singapore-bred veteran singer Eric Moo is known for his big emotive voice but he had trouble with the high notes from the get-go.

The 47-year-old kept passing the buck to the 5,500-strong audience during the chorus of songs such as Can’t Forget The Past (Yi Wang Guo Qu) and Love Puppet (Ai Qing Kui Lei).

After a few songs, he explained that his voice was not in tip-top condition because he had been feasting on local delights such as laksa, char kway teow and durians since arriving here from Beijing, where he is now based. The late nights spent watching World Cup matches did not help either.

It did not seem like particularly responsible behaviour, given that his fans were there to hear him sing and not for the staging, which was bare-bones; nor for the costumes, which were kept simple.

They had grown up with his music since the days of xinyao in the 1980s and some had come with children in tow. Moo himself had taken his family along as well. His wife and two young daughters were seated in the front row.

Still, the audience was won over by the chatty entertainer as he reminisced about his salad days and bantered with his daughters from time to time: “Daddy’s working, okay?”

There was also no denying that he has accumulated a large body of work and many of his songs were part of an indelible soundtrack for those who grew up in the 1980s.

It was nice to rediscover some of them, such as Love Hidden Inside My Heart (Qing Yi Cang Xin Di), over the course of the evening.

While his voice was ragged at the edges, it retained its sonorous power in the more forgiving lower registers. And one had to give the man credit for still going through with an almost four- hour-long show.

His vocals gained some strength over the evening, no doubt helped by his many asides and the parade of guests. They included Radio 100.3 deejay Charmaine Yip, the singer’s younger brother and producer of the concert, Allan Moo, and fellow singer-songwriter Roy Loi.

Most incongruously, film-maker Jack Neo, 50, who was mired in scandal earlier this year when it emerged that he had an affair with a 22-year-old woman, also showed up on stage. He bantered with Moo for a bit and then apologised once more for having strayed. The crowd seemed forgiving but really, it was neither the time nor place for it.

Happily, the focus shifted back to the songs after that episode as Moo took on favourite tracks such as Those Days (Na Yi Duan Ri Zi), Life Is But A Dream (Hong Chen Lai Qu Yi Chang Meng) and the Minnan number Call My Name.

The set ended with Too Foolish (Tai Sha), one of Moo’s biggest hits and a track that is notoriously difficult to sing. Once again, he got his obliging fans to sing the difficult parts.

Fittingly, one of the songs during the encore was You Are My Only One (Ni Shi Wo De Wei Yi). The crowd sang with gusto: “Perhaps you don’t believe I am satisfied with this outcome/Although you are my first/Although you are my last/Although you are my only.”

It was a love song from his fans to Moo, ragged voice and all.

(ST)

Tone

Tai Ai-ling

There are ballads and then there are slow-burn torch songs. And Taiwanese singer Tai Ai-ling shows that she has the chops to pull off torch tunes.

Coming a year after the release of Love Sign, Tone is reportedly Tai’s break-up album. The first two cuts, Close Eyes and the title track, feature languorous stanzas that build up to power choruses.

Her voice is deliberately pushed to breaking point as she belts out: “Close my eyes and love till despair comes/I’m still waiting for that heaven you spoke of/Use memories, to heal, to gaze, to resist the waves beating on my chest”.

The electropop of Gone and indie rock stylings of Left-Right offer a welcome change of pace but Today, with its rap by Matzka, is an uneasy fit with the rest of the disc.

Only One

U-Kiss

Image-wise, the seven-member Korean boyband U-Kiss tend towards the fey side of the spectrum, probably using more eye- shadow than the entire cast of Glee combined.

Not that it matters once you put on the headphones because they sound just like any other boyband. That said, Only One is a consistently listenable and energetic album. The opening cry of “Are you ready?” on Binggeul Binggeul (Round And Round) is no routine boast as the lads serve up one slick slice of dance pop after another. Binggeul Binggeul has topped Radio 1003’s singles chart, one of the rare Korean tracks to do so.

Even better is Bang Bang Bang with its rhythmic rat-a-tat chorus as they proclaim: “I wanna rock”.

The album also includes remixes of their previous singles such as Man Man Ha Nee, Not Young and Talk To Me.

Sparklers

Amber Kuo

Cutie-pie Amber Kuo recently starred in the well-received romance Au Revoir Taipei. Which means that she has a back-up option in showbusiness should her singing career fail to take off.

On her third album, she veers between being bland and cute, her thin voice trying desperately to do justice to tracks such as the titular cut.

Things hit a nadir on Cartoon Life, a cover of Mika’s Lollipop. She goes for childish whimsy while mouthing nonsensical lines such as: “My God My God Oh, the world is so big/M’Car M’Car, the world has become so big with you”.

And Sparklers fizzles out.

(ST)

Despicable Me
Chris Renaud

The story: Gru (Steve Carell) is a big bad villain and for his next dastardly deed, he plans to steal the moon. First, though, he needs to get a shrink ray back from rival villain Vector (Jason Segel). As part of his plan to do this, he adopts three little orphan girls who go door to door selling cookies. Soon, Gru finds that his priorities begin to change.

Despicable Me is a kiddy flick. Which is to say that those who will enjoy it most are likely to be from the under-12 set. They will dig the bright, cheery colour palette, the literal humour and the fact that Gru is really not a very scary villain.
Early on, to establish his despicable credentials, the audience is shown Gru jamming his air-polluting oversized vehicle between two cars – and then front- and rear-ending them. He steps into a coffee shop and uses his freeze ray to jump queue. Evil just ain’t what it used to be.
He is supposed to be a master villain but somehow you sense that his heart is not quite in it.
Comic actor Steve Carell from the sitcom The Office voices Gru with vaguely east European-accented English and the thought of him hamming it up in the recording studio is enough to raise a smile.
To aid him in his nefarious doings, Gru has an entire army of minions – excitable, quarrelsome little yellow creatures who talk with cutesy voices in an incomprehensible language. That is, until the DVD or Blue Ray comes out and includes the decoding of the high-pitched tittering as an extra.
Another major sidekick is the hard-of-hearing evil scientist Dr Nefario (comedian Russell Brand) who hears “dart gun” and invents a fart gun.
Meanwhile, Gru’s nemesis, the nerdy and cocky Vector, who has been stealing the limelight with more showy shenanigans, is prone to inventing guns which shoot resigned piranhas and bemused squid.
This is pretty much the level the film is pitched at and when it tries to be snarky, the change of tone feels out of place. When Gru attempts to get a loan from the Bank Of Evil, underneath that title is the punchline “Formerly Lehman Brothers”.
However, Despicable Me is not so much interested in coming up with zingers on topics of the day as it wants to warm the cockles of your heart. The audience learns how Gru desperately sought approval from his mother (Julie Andrews) as a child but nothing he did impressed her.
It is not hard to see where the story of Gru and the little orphan girls will end up. You just wish the entire process was a little less manipulative.
Stay on for the credits as a trio of irrepressible minions make a welcome return. They compete to see who can stretch out furthest into the audience, a nice little scene that also showcases the 3-D effects. Sometimes, it is the simplest gags that tickle the funny bone, regardless of one’s age.
(ST)

Love You No Matter What
Erica Chiang

I Am Not
Elisa Chen

Winding Road
Lu Yao

This week, we have three debut albums from three women. Say what you want about the state of the music business, it remains a magnet for those with music in their blood and stars in their eyes.
Erica Chiang took the tried-and-tested route of entering a singing competition and swung into the top four in the first Super Idol in 2008.
On her debut, the former golf caddie offers up a mix of original material and covers. She has a big voice but she is in no hurry to show it off, unleashing it only during the chorus of opener Unicellular.
The title track is unabashedly commercial: “I love you no matter what/Even if it means turning my back on the whole world/If there’s a happiness worth striving for/It’s to be with you”. No great shakes lyrically but Chiang imbues the song with warmth and sincerity.
Even on the covers such as Chiang Mei-chi’s Beloved, Why Aren’t You By My Side and Sandy Lam’s Weathered The Cold Wind For You, her voice, honeyed and slightly nasal, makes the songs her own.
Image-wise, she has gone for an understated androgynous look, wearing shirts and jeans and sporting a hat.
Meanwhile, Elisa Chen has gone for an all-out rocker-chick look complete with electric guitar and attitude on the CD cover. But her voice lacks that oomph such an image conjures.
In fact, my favourite track here is not a rock track but the ballad Ever Since. Over a piano-driven chorus, she croons: “You’re the greatest thing that’s happened to my life/Finally understand why life is worth waiting for”.
Bonus points to her for composing all the music and co-writing several tracks on her album even if the songs do not quite reflect her storied musical background. She was a music producer at 24, a member of a jazz group and had worked with local bands in the United States.
In contrast, Lu Yao’s background was in modelling. This is not the most promising of signs but the Harbin native has a set of passable pipes. She fares better on the slower numbers such as Crossing The International Date Line though her voice feels a tad thin on Regretful Beauty.
What makes listening to her album a trying experience is the fact that it has been put together with no regard for thematic unity or emotional continuity.
On Super Lover, an urban track trying uber hard to be hip, she goes: “Honey Honey I want to conquer your heart from the runway”.The next number, I Do, has her in the mood for mellow romance: “I do, I’m willing/This love will never forget/Even if I grow old one day”.
She has nailed one thing though. The road to success is indeed a winding one, and not everyone is going to reach that destination. With so many debuts jostling for attention, only those who offer a spark of something different are going to make it to the next stage of the journey.
(ST)