The 18 Martial Arts

Wang Lee Hom

Myself

Jolin Tsai

Two of Mandopop’s big guns go head to head, with their new releases out within a week of each other in Taiwan. So far, it has been neck and neck.

Wang Lee Hom, born in the United States but who is based in Taiwan, took the top spot on the album charts the week The 18 Martial Arts debuted, while dancing diva Jolin Tsai staked her claim to pole position a week later when Myself was released.

The more important question, though, is: Are they any good?

Wang’s disc is the more problematic of the two. On his 14th Mandarin album, he seems to be running low on ideas.

The singer-songwriter’s self-declared style of “chinked-out” music which he introduced in the album Shangri-La (2004) – mixing western genres such as hip-hop, rap and R&B with elements of eastern music – is no longer new.

Wang’s disastrous directorial debut feature Love In Disguise casts a large shadow over the album.

Right off the bat, opening track Dragon Dance incorporates chunks of movie dialogue, reminding one of that unpleasant viewing experience.

Things improve a little with the electropop and rap of Do You Love Me, which was also featured in the film. But its too-cutesy Mandarin title, complete with a heart icon in place of “love”, grates.

The ballad All The Things You Never Knew is meant to be a touching number but, instead, one is reminded of the chemistry-free and cringe-worthy romance in the movie between him and actress Liu Yifei.

If Love In Disguise was meant to boost album sales, the plan has backfired.

Jolin Tsai’s 11th Mandarin album is very much what one has come to expect from Tsai – perfectly serviceable, slick, danceable and disposable.

So what if she sounds decidedly less than stellar live and her dancing is slicker in music videos than on stage?

Thanks to technology’s wonders, it’s all good on disc even when she’s pilfering the synth line for Honey Trap from Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack.

For prime examples of what she does best, head for the slice of bouncy dance-pop that is Party Star, the breezily catchy Take Immediate Action and the slinky ballad Nothing Left To Say.

But while the album is titled Myself, it is hard to say what exactly Tsai reveals of herself. Beyond the pixels that is.

(ST)

The Stool Pigeon

Dante Lam

The story: Senior inspector Don Lee (Nick Cheung) enlists illegal street racer Ghost Jr (Nicholas Tse) to be his informant in order to nab the criminal Barbarian (Lu Yi). Ghost signs on as the driver for a planned heist and starts to feed Don with information. Matters become more fraught when Ghost realises he had previously crossed paths with Barbarian’s woman (Guey Lun-mei). Meanwhile, Don has his own demons to deal with.

They may be on opposite sides of the law but copper Don Lee and hoodlum Ghost Jr are really the same – they are both the walking wounded.

Don’s last promotion was for a successful drug bust, the result of an informant’s tip-off. That stool pigeon was found out and turned into a sitting duck as enraged gangsters tracked him down and hacked at him with choppers.

The guilt Don felt for being rewarded while failing to protect his source set off a chain of events that would further scar him emotionally.

As for Ghost Jr, life does not seem to have given him much of a break and the only thing he knows is cars and the world of illegal racing. While he is wary of Don’s offer to be an informant, he really has no choice.

He needs the money to save his sister, who has been pimped out to repay his father’s debt to loan sharks, so he agrees to be Don’s informant even though he does not trust him. Squeezed on every front, his is a lonely existence.

The pleasure here is in watching Nick Cheung and Nicholas Tse portray these two characters.

Roiling beneath Don’s placid exterior as a responsible and methodical cop are surging waves of rage and remorse that threaten to overwhelm him. Eventually they do in a bloody and shocking finale. And you see that arc clearly in Cheung’s portrayal.

He is matched by Tse, who has been a consistent scene-stealer in the recent ensemble films Hot Summer Days (2010) and Bodyguards And Assassins (2009). He finds a sweet, low-key vulnerability to the knocked-about Ghost Jr, particularly when he makes a connection with Guey Lun-mei. It is also nice to see her breaking out of the mould to play messed-up and ferocious for once.

Since it is Dante Lam at the helm, this is no sedate character study but a tense thriller with several taut action sequences worked in. This is familiar ground for the director who gave us Fire Of Conscience (2010) and The Sniper (2009).

Here, there is an emotional heft to all the brawling and battering. As Don and Ghost Jr become increasingly bruised, it is as if their damaged psyches are manifested physically.

Cheung and Tse had previously worked with Lam on the well-received action thriller The Beast Stalker (2008) and this is clearly a winning combination. In that collaboration, Tse was the guilt-wracked cop and Cheung, the sympathetic villain.

For his efforts, Cheung won both the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Critics Society’s Best Actor awards. If that was any indication, The Stool Pigeon could well be sitting pretty come awards time.

(ST)

Fried Rice Paradise

Singapore Repertory Theatre

Esplanade Theatre/Sunday

The secret to good fried rice is to make it with day-old cooked rice.

Apparently, this principle applies to musicals as well, though in this case, Fried Rice Paradise is a reworked version of a show that made its debut in 1991.

I had caught that earlier incarnation and the only thing I remember about it then was that it was not particularly memorable.

Good thing then that singer-songwriter Dick Lee, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, has almost completely overhauled the dish.

Only two characters from 1991 made it to this version – Bee Lean (Denise Tan), who makes a shiok fried rice based on her mother’s recipe, and her best friend Girly Danker (Candice de Rozario).

Instead of focusing on a middle-aged Bee Lean, the story is now set in 1979 and is about the young girl and her dreams of finding love and making her mark in the world.

Though she does not realise it, her neighbour and good friend Johan (Taufik Batisah) is mad about her. Instead, she is drawn to Hennessy Goh (Sebastian Tan), the son of nightclub owner Rickson Goh (Darius Tan).

To spice things up, Rickson has plans to redevelop the stretch of shophouses in the Jalan Calamansi area and needs to get Bee Lean’s father Choo Kew Teng (Lim Yu Beng) to sell his properties, by hook or by crook.

Despite the convolutions, the story is not particularly compelling since there is little suspense over how it will all turn out, while the characters come across as blandly generic or outrageously cartoonish.

What keeps this concoction bubbling along instead are the key ingredients of an easy-on- the-ear score, some likeable performances, clever choreography from Jeffrey Tan and a handsome and versatile set designed by Francis O’Connor.

The music spans a gamut of genres effectively, from the retro dance vibe of Disco Boogie Hustle Bump to the bouncy number Turning Twenty-one to the love ballad Stay. However, while a fun song, the appearance of Rasa Sayang, off Lee’s 1989 album The Mad Chinaman, in Act Two feels like an unnecessary diversion.

Meshing better was Denise Tan and her portrayal of the shy and gauche Bee Lean and Sebastian Tan as the louche son who has a change of heart about seducing her for his father’s ends.

In his first theatrical outing, Taufik seemed more comfortable singing than acting and there was a mismatch in the energy level between the two aspects. Also, it was hard to make out the words in his opening number, which was full of exposition to set the scene for the musical.

But in his solo numbers, the Singapore Idol winner was more in his element.

Meanwhile, stealing scenes as his feisty mother was veteran actress Rahimah Rahim while Darius Tan blithely mangled and massacred the English language in a nasally and over-the-top performance that became less funny over the course of the show.

The pacing was rather problematic as well. All that set-up by director Steven Dexter in the more enjoyable first half was followed by a jerky second act that meandered at some points and then felt rushed at others.

So yes, while the new version of Fried Rice is improved, it falls short of musical paradise.

(ST)

Weibird Debut Album

Weibird Wei

Another TV talent show winner, another debut. But there is nothing perfunctory about Weibird Wei’s record. Instead of immediately cashing in after emerging triumphant in the campus singing contest of the Taiwanese variety show Happy Sunday in 2007, he opted to concentrate on his studies first.

But he continued to write songs, for the likes of Rene Liu (Still The Same), Angela Chang (Again) and Claire Kuo (Understand).

The release of an EP in March last year whetted appetites with that distinctive refrain in Keep Waiting. While the syncopated R&B and slurred delivery seemed overly familiar at first, he managed to make the song his own.

With the long-awaited release of his first album, he proves that he is a singular talent to contend with.

Care has been taken from the song-writing through to the CD cover, a whimsical and classy black-and-white cut-out design that meshes well with the album’s vibe.

Opening number Did You Or Did You Not slows down the tempo and turns a simple question into a plaintive cry. It also seems to hint at Wei’s confidence as he urges you to “turn off the radio”.

Besides affairs of the heart, there is also the sense of a young man engaged with life on songs such as Stories and Reasons.

His is an appealing brand of unfussy guitar pop, one that complements the youthful wistfulness of his vocals.

When you have a stack of albums to be reviewed and there is one that you keep wanting to return to, that’s as good a sign as any that Weibird is doing something right.

Fu Good

Della Ding Dang

No, the “Fu” is not a misspelling nor is it meant to be a rude title. It’s simply the corrupted Taiwanese variant of Feel.

More importantly, the track works as a slice of chirpy dance pop. Just as well, since it is the only new track in this best-of package from the Taiwan-based Ding Dang. Also included are songs spanning her three album releases from idol drama Autumn’s Concerto theme song I Love Him to her love duet with Mayday’s Ashin, Fireworks.

A collection of hits boosted by one or two new tracks is usually just an excuse to milk more money from fans though in this case, the offering is more substantial.

There is an additional disc of material which sees Ding Dang covering both Mandarin and English numbers such as Chao Chuan’s I’m A Small, Small Bird and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.

Bird is a great song, as sung by Chao. Yes, Ding Dang has the vocal range to sing it but that aching vulnerability is gone, replaced by subtlety-free showboating.

And that does not make me feel good.

(ST)

City Under Siege

Benny Chan

The story: While searching for gold, a group of circus performers stumble upon an old cache of Japanese biochemical weapons. By chance, Sunny (Aaron Kwok, far right) manages to purge most of the poison from his body and ends up with superhuman qualities. The other four become freakishly powerful, mutating into creatures with claws and coloured hair. Predictably, both Sunny and the lead villain Tai Chu (Colin Chou) fall for a newscaster named Angel (Shu Qi, right).

The superhero film gets the Asian treatment but unfortunately, the end results are unlikely to be saving anyone’s day.

For a while though, it seems as if producer, director and co-writer Benny Chan is on the right track.

His “creation” myth is plausibly rooted in history, imagining that the Japanese conducted wartime experiments in Malaysia to develop killing machines.

After the exposition accounting for how Sunny and company end up with their powers, the action shifts to Hong Kong. Tai Chu and his gang are now wreaking havoc on the city with their outrageous criminal exploits and only Sunny is able to stop them.

This could have worked as a tight superhero versus supervillains flick. Unfortunately, Chan, who last helmed the action thriller Connected (2008), then proceeds to throw everything and the kitchen sink into the film.

There is the romance angle between Sunny and Angel and the spanner in the works, Tai Chu, who develops an infatuation with the pretty newscaster as he grows ever more hideous and lonely.

Then there is Sun Hao (Wu Jing) and Hua (Zhang Jingchu) of the special police, who are bent on taking down the criminals.

It is never explained how the two know about the mutants’ condition or, more problematically, why they are not immediately pulverised in combat with them.

And we are not done yet. There is also a cynical satire of the media and advertising industry when Angel gets herself appointed Sunny’s sole agent and proceeds to market the heck out of him.

This would have worked better if it was not crowded out by all the other elements, making the film sprawling and unwieldy.

The relationship between Sun Hao and Hua is supposed to be touching but we barely spend enough time with them to care. There is more time devoted to the Sunny and Angel tie-up, but Kwok, once again, is trying too hard and you can see the effort in his acting.

And then 90 minutes into the film, we get a treading water interlude of Sunny being trained by Sun Hao and learning how to deal with the mutants.

It does not even set one up for the final showdown with Tai Chu since there does not seem to be anything particularly specific or difficult that Sunny has to do.

Ultimately, there is simply too much going on and while the action sequences are competent, the pace slackens every time Chan chases after another sub-plot. Not even Superman can pull all these disparate threads together.

(ST)

White Soliloquy

Toy Factory

Esplanade Theatre Studio

To commemorate its 20th anniversary, Toy Factory has chosen to pay tribute to veteran stage and television actor Bai Yan, now 91 and retired.

At first glance, this seems like a strange choice given that he does not have a particularly strong association with the theatre company. But the playwright, Toy Factory’s artistic director Goh Boon Teck, has used Bai’s lifelong career as an actor to broach broader themes about acting and the state of the performing arts in Singapore.

In contrast to its other current production, the musical December Rains, White Soliloquy – a translation that plays on the Mandarin characters for Bai Yan – is intimate in set-up. The only props on the stage are a large dirty mirror and a few empty wooden chairs, while the weight of the show rests on Nelson Chia (above), the only performer seen on stage.

Yet the scope of what this play tackles is epic. There is the narrative arc of biography, beginning with how China-born Yan Boyuan was mesmerised by the travelling Yin Yue Music And Dance Troupe and then taken in by them after being roped in as a stand-in.

Chia, dressed all in white, is an engaging performer as he tells the tale, alternating between the roles of narrator, Bai and an assortment of other characters ranging from a dedicated fan in Penang speaking Mandarin with a Malaysian accent to a director on the set of a MediaCorp series with a strong Hong Kong accent.

What comes through most strongly is Bai’s unflagging spirit, which is mirrored in Chia’s indefatigable performance. Bai ekes out a living through the years of the Japanese Occupation, loses his savings in an investment after the war and then starts afresh, performing at several venues a night in order to support three families – his own in Singapore as well as his parents and his in-laws in China.

Through it all, he perseveres, holding on to the mantra that a man’s back must shoulder immense burdens before he can soar. The problem, though, is that Bai ends up seeming too saintly to be true.

Goh and director Jalyn Han also weave in vignettes ruminating on various aspects of the actor’s life. It was telling that some of these scenes provoked a bigger reaction from the crowd than when the story was simply about Bai, suggesting the biography portion could have been further tightened.

One such interlude was about a MediaCorp (or perhaps it was TCS then) A-lister, Cao so-and-so, throwing his weight about on set and generally behaving disgracefully. It certainly piqued interests and ears pricked up.

At one point, Chia started reflecting on his own experiences as an actor, adding yet another facet to the piece. What was rather jarring however was the diatribe against clueless bureaucrats and the constant struggle to justify spending on the arts. While the tirade did raise a few laughs, it ultimately felt out of place.

One caveat for those planning to catch the production. It is largely in Mandarin, with snatches of song and dialogue in other provincial dialects, and there are no English surtitles.

If you are caught off-guard, Chia’s musing about whether an actor’s dialogue is all in vain (bai le yan yu) will end up being unintentionally ironic.

(ST)

Hey!

Tuzi

Every Touching Moment

Stefanie Sun, Tanya Chua, JJ Lin, A-Do

JJ – A Night of Love and Music Live in Taipei

JJ Lin

Still on a patriotic high after the National Day festivities? Then lend your support to the local music scene by checking out these discs from home-grown talents.

Tuzi, meaning “rabbit” in Chinese, won the Channel U talent show SuperBand in 2008 and have taken the indie route in coming up with their debut album.

The indie vibe extends to the music as well, with definite influences from the British and American lo-fi, alternative scene.

Opening tracks Living Things and Forgot About It leave the strongest impressions while Little King works in a topical reference: “2010, everyone’s saying: ‘The outlook’s not good, everything’s not good.’/Furrowing brows, at a loss/How pitiful/What a bother!”

Overall, the vocals need more work and they are a little raw but that’s part of the charm here.

In contrast to the scrappy DIY vibe of Hey!, Every Touching Moment is a glossy, no-expense-spared production.

What better way to promote Singapore at Shanghai Expo 2010 than by getting our top Mandopop exports, from different labels no less, to collaborate on one song? Composed by JJ Lin with lyrics by Billy Koh, Taiwanese Eric Lin Chiu-li and the mono-monikered Venus, Every Touching Moment is a tuneful effort that does not overdo the sales pitch.

And that is certainly something to be thankful for. Okay, so it does work in the Chinese erhu and ethnic drums to slip in that multicultural Singapore message but nothing too jarring here.

At points, though, this feels more like a love song: “Don’t let love melt like an iceberg/Too late to turn back/With our perseverance/Embrace every touching moment in our hearts.” Even more subversive is the line which goes: “Watching the skyscrapers rise ever higher, my heart gets lonelier.”

Subversive is good but as a single, the accompanying 100-page photo book and DVD detailing the making-of process feel like overkill.

While he has to share the spotlight with Stefanie Sun, Tanya Chua and A-Do on the single, the stage is all his on the final Chinese pop offering this week as a dapper-looking Lin serenades a Taiwanese audience in an intimate setting.

Singaporean fans of the singer-songwriter will probably go green with envy after seeing this as a relaxed Lin natters away in between numbers, including Go! and Back To Back from his latest album 100 Days.

During the song Soy Milk And Dough Sticks, his supporters present him with a homemade cruller stuffed toy and even some soya-bean milk. Now that’s dedication.

Lin sounds great live and also takes on songs he wrote for others – A-mei’s Remember, Claire Kuo’s Wall In Your Heart and Cyndi Wang’s When You.

The DVD thoughtfully comes with piano sheet music for 18 songs written by him so that you, too, can stage your own cosy evening with Lin. It will have to do until his next concert here.

(ST)

Love In Disguise

Wang Lee Hom

He can write songs, he can sing and he has improved in his acting from the espionage thriller Lust, Caution (2007) to the period action-comedy Little Big Soldier (2010).

Here, pop idol Wang Lee Hom takes the next step and directs himself. Unfortunately, Love In Disguise is just one long self-indulgent exercise. This interminable cringe fest makes fellow popster Jay Chou’s directorial debut, Secret (2007), look like a cinematic masterpiece.

Wang’s alter-ego in the film is Du Minghan, a pop idol who mixes R&B grooves with traditional Chinese instruments and calls it “chinked-out music”. What a stretch.

Du falls for a music student Song Xiaoqing (China rising star Liu Yifei) because he sees CGI butterflies when she plays the guzheng (Chinese zither). He then disguises himself as a country bumpkin and gets into the music school where she is studying. He realises that she has a crush on another student Mu Fan (Qiao Zhenyu) and tries to help her get his attention.

Let the wincing begin.

The movie is at pains to point out, more than once, there is nothing as vulgar as romantic or sexual attraction between Du and Song. Rather, their bond is a matter of finding one’s soulmate. Even that half-hearted explanation does not justify the zero chemistry between the two leads.

Wang also seems eager to use the film as a vehicle to rebut criticisms and rumours. For example, there is the self-aggrandising ending about Du/Wang taking Chinese music to a new high. More pointedly, characters question if Du/Wang is gay to which he responds with an outburst of “Bulls**t!” at one point.

Like everything else, the moment strikes an awkward, false note. The only moment of truth comes when Du/Wang says: “I think I messed things up.”

(ST)

SINGFEST 2010 (DAY 1)

Fort Canning Park

Of the music festival’s line-up over the three days, Tuesday’s certainly takes the cake for being the most international. There was saucy Katy Perry from California, pop rock band Tokio Hotel from Germany and pop group Wonder Girls from South Korea.

Not every act left a good taste in the mouth, though.

After local singer Inch Chua, alternative rock band The Like and singer-songwriter Orianthi from Down Under warmed up the crowd, the five Girls came on around 8.30pm in an assortment of short dresses. They proceeded to underwhelm with their singing which sounded rather shrill and ragged.

They were also dwarfed by the size of the stage and could easily have done with another, say, five back-up dancers. Or perhaps they could have a live band instead of singing to a minus-one track as if this were a karaoke session.

When they disappeared for a costume change, a music video of theirs played on the screens. It was not a good sign that they sounded considerably better then.

Reappearing in matching denim outfits, they urged the crowd to sing along for Tell Me before ending with their big hit, Nobody.

Their moves were smoothest here, but then again, they have been doing the same routine to this track for two years now so they certainly have had plenty of practice.

Tokio Hotel were up next and while some might dismiss them as goth-lite, they definitely got the crowd going. Next to them, the Wonder Girls seemed like rank amateurs.

In his all-black get-up, lead singer Bill Kaulitz looked like a tall and gangly dark angel with out-of-control shoulder pads. The boys revved things up with their radio-friendly brand of pop-rock and even hauled a motorcycle onstage.

They also knew how to turn up the drama, so Dark Side Of The Sun came complete with jets of flames.

Perry is certainly no wallflower either and she raised temperatures up a notch when she bounced on stage in her two-piece floral bikini and launched into the cheeky I Kissed A Girl.

The party vibe was unmistakable with the large plastic beach balls, the inflatable sea creatures and the glitzy palm trees. Her band and back-up singers were also togged out in a riot of colours.

Knowing that she was the closing act after a long night, she teased the crowd: “Did you save yourself for me?” The answer was a resounding yes.

While the energy level dipped a little when she performed a couple of slower numbers, the mood perked right back up with the catchy hit Hot N Cold.

She picked a “sweaty young boy” and a woman in a blue wig to “dance your pants off” on stage and ended the number by kissing a boy – and a girl.

The bright-eyed party girl also showcased material from her upcoming new album. She strutted about for the in-your-face Peacock and ended the night with the sexy and sunny California Gurls.

The musical feast was over by midnight, leaving fans hungry in anticipation of the treats still to come.

(ST)