The Eagle

Kevin Macdonald

The story: Roman centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) sets out to recover the lost golden eagle standard of the ninth legion in order to redeem his family’s honour. He has only his slave Esca (Jamie Bell) to rely on when they venture to the north of Britain. Based on The Eagle Of The Ninth, the 1954 historical adventure novel by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Is it his masculine square jaw? Or is it his ability to project taciturn determination?

Channing Tatum, a military man in GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (2009) and a sergeant in the Army Special Forces in Dear John (2010), now straps on sandals and brandishes a sword as a Roman soldier in 2nd-century Britain.

The film begins promisingly enough. Director Kevin Macdonald paints a gritty and realistic-seeming portrait of life as a Roman in ancient times. There are scenes of combat at close quarters, of spectators at a fight between a gladiator and a slave and even of a physician carrying out an operation.

Things go south when Marcus heads north, beyond the edge of the known world to the Romans, for what sounds like Mission: Impossible circa 140 AD: He has to recover the titular symbol of Roman glory from fierce barbarian tribes all on his own.

Well, he does have his slave Esca (played by Jamie Bell), whom he relies on more and more as the latter speaks the native tongue and knows the lay of the land. Their uneasy relationship – master and slave, victor and vanquished – is explored a little and turned on its head but it is resolved a little too simplistically.

Macdonald’s documentarian background might be responsible for a long detour that does not sit well within the narrative.

When Marcus and Esca run into the Seal People, who are garbed in what can be thought of as tribal chic by way of Alexander McQueen; the study of the tribesmen’s habits and rituals that follows is almost anthropological.

Inexplicably, the ending of the film strikes a tone reminiscent of light-hearted buddy pictures that feels anachronistic and out of place.

The Eagle has landed, alas, with an ungraceful thud.

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Let The Bullets Fly

Jiang Wen

The story: In China in the anarchic 1920s, bandit Zhang Mazi (Jiang Wen) and conman Tang (Ge You) march into Goose Town pretending to be its new mayor and his counsellor to milk the rich for the benefit of the poor. But local mobster Huang (Chow Yun Fat) stands in their way. Based on a story by Sichuan writer Ma Shitu.

This film has been a runaway success in China, beating Feng Xiaogang’s tearjerker disaster epic Aftershock (2010) to become the highest-grossing local production of all time.

What is even more impressive about its feat is that it can be seen as an attack on greedy officials when corruption continues to be a sensitive issue in China today.

At one point, Tang counsels Zhang Mazi that in order to make money as an official, he has to levy taxes on the rich first, so that the rest of the townsfolk will follow. Then he has to return the amount paid by the rich and split the money collected from the poor so that 30 per cent goes to him and 70 per cent goes to the rich.

To which Zhang retorts: “Then we’ll be collecting taxes till 2010!”

Amid comparisons of Let The Bullets Fly to classic spaghetti westerns, there has been much discussion generated among Chinese netizens because of the messages that one can read into the film.

The word for horse and shorthand for Marxism is “ma” in Chinese, so does a horse-drawn train symbolise a China that is being led by an obsolete ideology?

Since goose and the shorthand for Russia are homonyms, is Goose Town meant to point towards Soviet socialism or maybe Soviet revolution?

And what does the title, a key piece of dialogue that is repeated in the film, really mean? Who are the bullets aimed at?

But even if some of the satire and symbolism fly over one’s head, what is left is a hugely entertaining film that brings together top-notch performances, great action sequences and humour that zips and zings. Writer-director-actor Jiang Wen also has fun with the slippery nature of truth and identity and giddily piles on twist upon twist as the story unfolds.

In part because of his imposing physique, Jiang seems to have an affinity for playing characters that seem larger than life, from the wine distillery servant in Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (1988) to the bandit with a heart of gold here.

He brings a glint of danger and adventure to his roles that is also sexually charged, as irresistible to Gong Li in Red Sorghum as to Carina Lau in Bullets.

At the same time, there is a deep- rooted decency and chivalry beneath his character’s swagger that makes the enigmatic Zhang such an appealing character to root for.

Jiang is well matched by Ge You who plays the wily and obsequious robbery- victim-turned-adviser to great comic effect. Yet his portrayal of Tang never feels like a caricature.

Chow Yun Fat, after more dramatic roles in recent films such as Confucius (2010) and Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006), reminds us of the comic flair he showed in films such as The Diary Of A Big Man (1988). He has some fun here in two roles: as the local mobster Huang and as the mobster’s goofy body double.

A simple dinner scene with the three men illustrates just how good the film is: Their dialogue is rich and layered and the acting is spot-on as the camera swivels about and keeps what could be a monotonous and talky sequence visually interesting. Perfectly timed gunshots further accent the scene.

As with the black-and-white black comedy Devils On The Doorstep (2000), also directed by Jiang, Let The Bullets Fly could have been leaner than its 132 minutes.

But he has such a singular and exciting vision as a film-maker that even with a sprawling two-hour-plus running time, you will not want to dodge Bullets.

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Stranger Under My Skin

Eason Chan

Of the recent spate of comebacks in Mandopop, the biggest is, of course, China-born diva Faye Wong’s return to the stage. The hope is that there will be a new album to go with her concerts.

Meanwhile, the crystal-voiced singer has offered her fans a Mandarin duet, Because Of Love, with Hong Kong’s Eason Chan. It is the theme song to her hubby Li Yapeng’s movie, Eternal Moment (2011).

The idea of the two top vocalists working together is intriguing but their two voices are so different, it sounds like she is soaring in the ether while he is earthily poignant.

And yet, the beguilingly lilting song won’t leave my head.

It is a total contrast to the brassily lively Paradise, which sees Chan partnering Taiwanese singer-songwriter Kay Huang. While the talking point of his previous EP, Taste The Atmosphere (2010), was the trio of women singers he worked with, Stranger has the stronger collaborations.

Awaits Your Love is a gently affecting take on romantic longing.

All these are found on just the bonus Mandarin disc. On the Cantonese EP proper, Chan once again serves up an eclectic and engaging selection from the sweeping drama of Snow In June to the title track, which riffs on the well-known Romance d’Amour by Spanish guitarist Narciso Yepes.

The undisputed highlight here is Bitter Gourd, with its emotive melody by Kenix Cheang and masterful lyrics by Wyman Wong. It is a classic Eason Chan ballad in which his voice is pensive and tender and moving.

The humble melon has never been this satisfying.

Only For You

Show Lo

Am I listening to Show Lo or Will Pan?

Both are singer-actors releasing their eighth albums and have topped the album charts in their native Taiwan. Neither the material nor their voices are particularly distinctive.

The opening numbers here, Only You and Beautiful Mistake, sound like warmed-over K-pop while the ballads such as Silence Phobia tend to show up Lo’s weak voice.

Nowhere To Hide, which plays to his strength as a dancing king, and the breezy Let Love Show fare better.

It seems greater care went into the glossily produced 48-page photo album than the music album.

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The Lincoln Lawyer

Brad Furman

The story: Rakish small-time lawyer Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) operates out of his Lincoln sedan. When rich playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) is accused of assaulting a young woman, it is Haller whom he asks for. But there is more to the case than meets the eye. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

Have they run out of John Grisham legal thrillers to adapt?

In the mid-1990s, there was practically a film a year based on his bestsellers including The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise, The Pelican Brief (1993) starring Julia Roberts and The Rainmaker (1997) featuring Matt Damon. Indeed, Matthew McConaughey’s first major film role was as a lawyer in the John Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill (1996).

But interest waned after a while with diminishing box- office returns and Hollywood has now turned to award- winning American author Michael Connelly for inspiration.

Director Brad Furman and scriptwriter John Romano have fashioned a competent adaptation from the source material and The Lincoln Lawyer is engaging for the most part.

McConaughey’s roguish charm is put to good use as the slightly shady defence attorney who is so jaded by what he does that the only thing he fears is an innocent client.

He is a decent person at heart, though, and the audience knows this because he is still on friendly terms with his ex-wife (Marisa Tomei) and he tries to do right by his young daughter.

The film draws you in as Haller goes about uncovering the truth and he winds up in a legal and moral quandary when he finds out why Roulet had specifically picked him.

There is also some smart casting here. Ryan Phillippe’s pretty-boy looks can sometimes work against him in roles but in this case, they add to Roulet’s inscrutability. In smaller roles, William H. Macy is reliably solid as a gruff investigator for Haller and Tomei brings some warmth and earthiness to the thankless part of the ex-wife.

While the climactic courtroom scene is suitably satisfying as Haller finds a way out of his conundrum, the film is not quite done yet. The tying up of loose ends feels too neat and convenient and a late-in-the-game revelation is not completely convincing.

Actually, what the film does is to make you appreciate even more legal television series such as The Good Wife which have to come up with a new premise every week.

While there is some legal jargon bandied about on The Lincoln Lawyer, anyone who has read crime thrillers or watched TV series about lawyers would be familiar with concepts such as attorney-client privilege.

It only goes to prove that there is indeed rule of law when it comes to the world of entertainment.

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Ed Harcourt

Esplanade Recital Studio/Sunday

Ed Harcourt is the singer- songwriter as Romantic poet.

The Briton wears his heart on his sleeve, writes lush and introspective songs about love, religion and alcohol and sings them in his evocative, husky and swoonsome voice.

While his music can sometimes feel baroque and even florid, his sensibility and use of language are thoroughly modern and equal measures of wit and self-loathing course through his work.

The evening started with him on the piano performing Lustre, the title track from his fifth and latest studio album, and Apple Of My Eye, which was backed by a thunderous beat.

It was a solo show but thanks to his adroit musicianship, the sound never felt scaled-down or puny.

He switched among the piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar, and on a thrilling rendition of I’ve Become Misguided, taken from his first EP, Maplewood (2000), he looped guitars and programmed drumbeats and howled through the ending of the song.

Instead of sticking slavishly to the recorded versions of his songs, which were performed by a full band, he tweaked them and made them work in a live setting for a solo show.

With his keen ear and exacting standards, one could hardly expect it to be otherwise. So fussy was he about his sound, he took his time to tune his acoustic guitar.

When someone yelled out “Hurry up!”, he responded with a curt: “Don’t tell me to hurry up, f*** you.”

But he was immediately contrite. He apologised and added: “Now you can go home and go ‘God, he’s an a***hole.’”

He certainly had a flair for the dramatic. He was a charismatic showman who could pound the ivories or tickle them, pull off a sped-up version of Black Dress and, when the amplifier failed, walk right up to the audience for an up-close-and- acoustic version of The Last Cigarette.

He was also adept at roping in the fans to participate in the songs: to howl like a wolf for Heart Of A Wolf, clap along on the final number and sing back-up on Born In The 70s with the line, “We don’t really give a f*** about you”.

By his own admission, his performance was an “equal balance of chaos and professionalism”. Whether due to jetlag or the “Singapore brunch, which is apparently beer and champagne”, he stumbled over his lyrics a few times, including on Bittersweetheart and Shanghai.

Before going into Until Tomorrow Then, he said to the packed studio: “Thank you for putting up with me and I’ll see you again in about 10 years.”

Come back sooner and all is forgiven.

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Saint Etienne

Esplanade Theatre Studio/Last Saturday

English indie dance trio Saint Etienne brought a touch of 1960s Swinging London to Singapore.

Lead vocalist Sarah Cracknell was in a go-go girl get-up with her white sequinned slip dress, knee-high boots and feather boa while retro-looking footage played on the video screens.

Not that the band’s music is that dated. After all, their first album, Fox Base Alpha, was released in 1991. It is just that they have always been comfortable absorbing a wide range of influences and some of their music could certainly sound at home in another era.

At the cosy, standing room-only Mosaic Club venue, they showcased their range by giving the audience the thumping synth-driven dance grooves of Burnt Out Car and Like A Motorway, and then mixing things up with the gently elegiac ballad Hobart Paving.

Cracknell said she loved that the space was dark, “which means you can dance and I won’t see you, but feel free”.

Their hit dance cover of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart and the anthemic He’s On The Phone got the crowd going as fans cheered and sang along during the choruses.

The one constant in Saint Etienne’s eclectic music is Cracknell’s clear, delicate vocals, though her voice seemed a little thinner and strained in parts on the night. Still, she was a game performer and it was fun to watch her as she doesn’t so much dance as vogue daintily.

In the background, bandmate Pete Wiggs and stand-in musician Gerard Johnson fiddled with the keyboards and twiddled the knobs. Bob Stanley was ill and missing in action and when the band performed You’re In A Bad Way, Cracknell dedicated it to him as “he’s in a bad way”.

In keeping with the retro vibe, the band steered clear of the more experimental Sound Of Water (2000) and the harder edged Finisterre (2002)

Plus, there was the constraint of a short set, only about an hour long, as they had a second show later that night.

Regrettably, the set list for the first show contained only one song, Sylvie, from their excellent dance-pop record Good Humour (1998).

The sole new song they played is from their forthcoming album and it was dedicated to the “disco dollies and disco beavers and disco people” out there. Cracknell mused that the title should be DJ rather than Making Out To The DJ, which was what was printed on the song list the musicians had, as the latter title sounded a “bit rude”.

Makes sense since Saint Etienne have always been a class act when it comes to dance music.

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It's Time

Stefanie Sun

The sticker on the album proclaims that Stefanie Sun is not out to seek a breakthrough.

Instead, she just wants to be the best she can be.

It lets you know not to expect a radically different Sun on her first album in four years.

And initially, it does seem like business as usual. The slow-burn electronica of A Voice Within harks back to Matured from the album Leave (2002), while Tomorrow’s Memory is the latest in a long line of optimistic hit ballads, including My Desired Happiness from the 2000 album of the same name.

After all, why mess with a template that has worked for 10 albums? When a track such as KKY (the Mandarin title Kong Kou Yan means “empty words”) is so irresistibly catchy, who cares that its light rock leanings had previously been explored on First Day, off 2005’s A Perfect Day?

Of course, the other thing that remains constant is her unique, mesmerising and evocative voice. It is a pleasure to hear it again on new material.

One thing to nitpick would be that Sun has not raised the bar this time around after setting such high standards with her last comeback album, the statement- making Stefanie (2004). That saw her exploring different sounds on songs such as Slowly and Seed, composing the two tracks and writing the lyrics for one.

Listen more closely to this album, however, and the Sun who declares It’s Time seems to have matured after going through trials and tribulations. She sings on A Voice Within: “What’s with me, it’s like I’m trapped/Time is packed but my heart is empty/There was a day that time stopped/That I discovered only when the heart is free can there be/True happiness.”

And on Time And Tide, she sings: “When the wintry night grows warm, when the ocean is no longer that blue/When the moon’s pure white grows dark/It just means that happiness is no longer that simple.”

It is always tricky reading meaning in lyrics though, particularly when she co-wrote the words with lyricist Francis Lee for only one track, Fool’s Kingdom. This is probably the first song from the album heard by most fans. She sang it during her The Answer Is... Stefanie Sun world tour in July 2009.

Back then, it suggested that we would hear more of her own music and words on this album. While Sun did play a bigger role on the record, it was as producer rather than songwriter. Next time perhaps?

One More Time, One More Chance

Tiger Huang

Taiwanese pub singer Tiger Huang’s (left) Simple/Not Simple album in 2009 was a popular, acclaimed comeback that introduced her to a new generation of fans. So, it’s tempting to read her new album’s title and the first track off it to be plugged, Come Again, as an invocation of commercial lightning to strike twice.

While nothing here touches her manifesto torch song Not So Simple, the album is still worth investing in. There is more variety here beyond the whiff-of-the-familiar ballads such as the Tanya Chua-penned Come Again and the Ricky Hsiao-Daryl Yao number Let Nature Take Its Course.

The bouncy music hall opener Love Out Of The Box, the rock of Say It Do It and the sassiness of Does Not Bark prove that her smoky, husky vocals are versatile enough to handle a variety of material.

And on the ballad Exchange, Huang reveals her tender side: “My God-given stubbornness, you exchange it with your gentleness/To my insomnia habit, you say goodnight, may sweet dreams never end”.

There is poignancy here that lesser and younger singers cannot hope to muster.

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The Man From Nowhere

Lee Jeong-beom

The story: Cha Tae Sik (Won Bin) operates a small pawnshop in a dingy building and lives a quiet life. His only friend seems to be a little girl, So Mee (Kim Sae Ron), who lives nearby. When her junkie mother, Hyo Jeong (Kim Hyo Seo), steals drugs from some very nasty criminals, So Mee ends up being abducted. Cha vows to find her and will stop at nothing to do so.

If you need an actor to hold your attention on screen for two hours, Won Bin is your man. Even with an unkempt head of hair obscuring half his face, he prompts Hyo Jeong to remark that he is “easy on the eye”.

His breakthrough role came as a spoilt, rich young man in the romance weepie Autumn In My Heart (2000). He could easily have built a career acting in these idol dramas but instead of coasting along on his looks, he has chosen to pick roles which challenge him as an actor.

In this regard, he reminds one of Brad Pitt, who has sometimes defied expectations by taking on quirky characters in films such as True Romance (1993) and 12 Monkeys (1995). Happily, both actors have shown that they have the acting chops to pull off these challenges.

Memorably, Won Bin’s last role was as the mentally unstable son in Bong Joon Ho’s crime drama Mother (2009). Here, he is the mysterious man from nowhere who gets involved in a rescue mission because of his friendship with a little girl.

When we first meet him, there is a haunted look in his eyes. Cha is someone who has withdrawn from the world because of a personal tragedy but finds himself pulled back into it by So Mee, who latches on to him as she is shunned at school and neglected by her mother.

Kim Sae Ron, last seen as a girl abandoned by her father in the emotional drama A Brand New Life (2009), is adorable without being cloying and there is a gentle sweetness to her unlikely friendship with Cha. Because of the poignant ties between the two, I found myself more emotionally invested in this film even though the story arc is reminiscent of the action thriller Taken (2008), in which Liam Neeson is the distraught father searching for his abducted daughter.

Writer-director Lee Jeong Beom has also upped the stakes by giving the audience some truly vile villains. These evil criminals traffic in human organs and even involve children in their nefarious schemes. Admittedly, it is all rather manipulative but one hardly minds since these broad strokes add to the well-paced and gripping thriller by making it even more intense.

Cha’s transformation from a ghost of a human being to a relentless force of vengeance is exhilarating to watch. He turns out to be an ex-special ops agent with almost superhuman reflexes and Lee lines up several crackerjack sequences showcasing Cha’s skills with the knife and the gun.

The film was both a box-office and critical hit in South Korea. It was the top-grossing film last year and also swept seven awards at the Korea Film Awards, including Best Actor for Won Bin.

He might be playing a man from nowhere but he is definitely going places.

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Perfect Rivals

Han Yew Kwang

The story: Zhen Mei Mei (Irene Ang) and Chen Hao (Ha Yu) used to be lovebirds but are now bitter bak kwa business rivals. When a competition is announced, Mei Mei sends her younger adopted daughter Yuan Yuan (Mindee Ong) to spy on her next-door competitor. While disguised as a man, Yuan Yuan finds herself falling for Chen’s younger son Xiao Hu (Josh Lai).

This overcooked offering is simply all over the place. There is the food feud plot where the traditional way is pitted against modern and new-fangled methods, previously seen in comedies such as Chicken And Duck Talk (1988).

The contrast is seen between Mei Mei’s bright and shiny shop and Chen Hao’s dingy old-school set-up complete with wooden signboard. There is also a dig at her use of slick marketing with a Korean star.

But this was not enough for writer- director Han Yew Kwang to explore and he goes on to pile on the ingredients.

Fuelling the clash is the fact that the two business rivals used to be lovers. There is a complicated back story told in clunky chunks of flashbacks where we find out that Mei Mei was actually Chen Hao’s bak kwa master’s woman.

The younger version of the couple is played by different actors and just as well since Ang and Ha Yu do not make you believe for a moment that they could have been in love.

Then there are the other plot strands dealing with their children. The industrial espionage angle is merely a ploy for Mindee Ong to dress as a man so that she can fall for Xiao Hu. This gender-bender romance is another recycled plot element, seen in the hit Korean TV drama The 1st Shop Of Coffee Prince (2007).

The sin is not so much in the recycling as in the fact that it does not work. Ong and Josh Lai are a rather mismatched pair: She brings some spunk to her character while he lurches about unconvincingly as a drunkard. Worse, there is an icky scene involving vomit and her taking a bath.

On top of that, there is the adopted older daughter Zhen Zhen (Pamelyn Chee) – which, yes, makes her name Zhen Zhen Zhen – and the connection she forges with Chen’s older son Xiao Ma (Taiwanese singer Stanly Hsu), who is soft in the head.

Apart from the unwieldy story, there are smaller details which niggle, such as Ang’s bad wig and the bizarre character of Mickey (Malaysian actor Alvin Wong), Mei Mei’s bodyguard- lover-cum-creepy-mascot.

On his previous film When Hainan Meets Teochew (2010), Han took one idea – effeminate man meets masculine woman – and ran with it.

This time round, he tries unsuccessfully to mix heartwarming family drama, gross-out comedy and scattered social commentary.

Unfortunately, the result is too tough to swallow.

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Buy 1 Get 1 Free

Hanjin Tan and MC Jin

Pairing jazzy pop with hip- hop is like mixing smooth velvety chocolate with

piquant chilli: It sounds dubious when you first hear about it but it all makes sense once you get a taste.

On the follow-up to his well-received debut Raw Jazz (2009), Hong Kong-based Singaporean singer- songwriter Hanjin Tan teams up with American- born Chinese rapper MC Jin. Tan sings in Mandarin and Jin raps in Cantonese and by an act of alchemy, they complement each other perfectly.

The dynamic duo tackle a gamut of topics in this freewheeling disc, ranging from insomnia to relationships to happiness.

There are highlights aplenty. Go Slow, Goodbye, Old Friend captures the poignancy of people drifting apart. Girlfriend is a humorous take on a doomed relationship – “The girl I like/Treats me like a girl” – while Lazy Day is a laidback ode to chilling.

On Sleeping Pills, Jin raps that he is “thinking of getting crazy with the duke of sleep/Now where have I got to counting sheep”. Tan chimes in with his mellifluous voice: “I’ve had three showers/still can’t slumber/I’ve had three pills/and then got up for a hamburger.”

It is clear that Tan and Jin had a great time making this album and their joy on this musical adventure is irresistible. This is an album that will have you bopping your head, nodding in recognition or simply smiling in delight.

One More

Relax-ONE

Six years is a long time between albums, especially when you consider that Buy 1 Get 1 Free was written and recorded in 10 days.

The follow-up to Relax-ONE’s 2005 debut could have sagged under the weight of such a long gestation. Instead, it offers an enjoyable romp that shows off different facets of the Taiwanese indie band.

They rock out on All I Want and Come Out N Play, go slow on Parallel and Leave and show their cheery, playful side on Hot Radio and Sunny For

Today. Some of the songs feel like they could be about the long journey en route to their second record. They might be documenting their own perseverance on Lucid Dream: “Don’t let go of my hand, don’t let it go/Let’s finish the dream we dreamed together.”

And when lead female vocalist Summer Hsu sings on You, “Not a day, not a day passes that I don’t think of you”, she is probably hoping that’s how their fans have been feeling.

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Mars Needs Moms

Simon Wells

Those Martians are such a nefarious bunch. They cannot take care of their own little tykes so they abduct Milo’s mom (Joan Cusack) in order to extract her superior child-rearing ability to download into nannybots.

It is up to nine-year-old Milo (Seth Green) to save her, with some help from the kooky tech-savvy human sidekick Gribble (Dan Fogler) and the rebellious Martian girl Ki (Elisabeth Harnois), whose limited knowledge of English comes from a TV show about hippies.

The film is based on the book by Berkely Breathed, who is best known for his sardonic Bloom County comic strip. And it is clearly aimed at the pre-teen set with its young hero and somewhat heavy-handed message about being nice to your mother.

But there are some rather odd touches to the story. The villain of the piece is an ancient and testy female Martian known as the Supervisor (Mindy Sterling), who looks like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982) with a bad wig. Somehow, she has managed to impose matriarchal control and banished the men, literally, to the garbage heap.

Too bad the film is not interested in this part of the tale. Instead, the focus is on the rescue mission adventure yarn which is passably engaging, if not exactly out of this world.

Sterling also provides the funniest moment of the film as she barks away in “Martian” as the credits roll.

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JJ I Am World Tour

Singapore Indoor Stadium

Last Saturday

This is a good time for fans of home-grown Mandopop.

Kit Chan had her comeback concert at the Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts last month, Stefanie Sun is releasing her new album tomorrow after a four-year hiatus and next month, Tanya Chua will be holding her first major solo gig here.

And of course, another top local act making waves is JJ Lin, who returned home for his latest concert after touring eight cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, last year.

Over three hours, the singer-songwriter entertained the capacity crowd of 8,000 with a mix of stirring ballads and catchy tracks.

He emerged on stage in a white and red coat, with white headgear that looked like it belonged in a B-grade sci-fi flick. After the opener Cao Cao, the coat was removed to reveal a silver blazer and pants get-up which showed off Lin’s toned body.

While he performed hits from across his career, 100 Days (2009) was probably the most heavily featured album and the fans were treated to songs such as the moving title track, the bluesy, jazzy Obsession and the popular number, Back To Back.

Ballads are a clear strength for Lin and while he said that he was not in tip-top physical condition, his emotive voice came through and he could still shoot for the high notes and falsetto range.

In a stripped-down segment, he showed his musicianship by playing the keyboard and singing a cover of Killing Me Softly, as well as the national song, Home, and She Says, the title track of his latest release.

A key asset for Lin as a songwriter is his versatility and apart from the slower numbers, he also crafts winning electro-pop. Songs such as X, Go! and High Fashion livened things up onstage and also gave him the chance to show off some dance moves.

The biggest jolt of the evening, though, was when guest star Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao joined Lin onstage for Michael Jackson’s Black Or White. The tribute to the late King of Pop seemed a little jarring at first, but it was certainly fun and the two were definitely having a blast.

Hsiao then gave a loose-limbed and raucous rendition of his song Princess, ignoring Lin’s jokey exhortation to not sing too well.

The other guest star was newcomer Zhang Jing, who hails from China, and the effect was a study in contrasts.

While Lin and Hsiao had a bromance brewing, Lin and Zhang were like a mismatched couple when they duetted on Only Told You. It did not help that he was wearing a lightsuit that seemed to be inspired by the movie Tron, while she was dressed like the girl next door.

After a very long list of thank-you’s, the evening ended with some of Lin’s best-known hits such as River South and A Thousand Years Later.

He said that while it felt good to sing here, it also made him feel the most nervous as he wanted his family and friends to see the best of him.

But his nervousness hardly showed and he was confident enough to ask his fans to sing along even in the absence of karaoke-style lyrics to prompt them. And they did. It was their way of telling him: Welcome back, homeboy.

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Jay Chou The Era World Tour Live (DVD)

Jay Chou

Ten Years Of Rainie – Whimsical World Live (DVD)

Rainie Yang

If you did not manage to get good seats at your favourite singer’s concert, there is always the DVD release for you to relive the experience and from the best vantage points possible.

The footage for Mandopop king Jay Chou’s disc is taken from Taipei Arena last June, the start of his world tour which also included a stop in Singapore.

You get to see him acting as a human beatbox on Love Before The Century and singing about forgetting his lyrics on I’m Not Worthy, and all in close-up.

Live at the concert venue, the black-box contraption with nifty visual effects was cool but distancing as Chou was singing behind a glass panel at points. On DVD, it is mostly just cool since the question of distance is moot.

Even cooler were the little moments of spontaneity captured. The camera zooms in on Hong Kong singer Eason Chan in the audience and Chou then does a mash-up of Where’s The Promised Happiness with Eliminated, a song he wrote for Chan.

Another highlight is seeing Chou’s ex Jolin Tsai turn up as a surprise guest star and then watching the two dance up a storm.

There is also some obligatory behind-the-scenes footage, including a sweet snippet featuring his grandmother trying on his costumes and then attempting some dance steps.

The extras on Taiwanese singer-

actress Rainie Yang’s offering are meatier, including an extensive documentary on her decade in show business.

Yang talks about starting out in the girl group 4 In Love – the other members were Cloudie, Sunnie and Windie – and later moving into hosting and acting in idol dramas. She also addresses the controversy that erupted when she responded with “Only eight years?” after mistakenly thinking that the second Sino-Japanese War lasted 11 years.

As for the concert itself, Yang works the whimsical theme throughout. She “flies” in on a winged horse, sits on a swing that looks as though it is being borne aloft by a whole bunch of balloons and also wears a chandelier outfit and a Lego skirt.

All this is no doubt fascinating and entertaining but only for those who like her brand of bubblegum pop.

(ST)

How Do You Know

James L. Brooks

The story: National softball player Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is dating self-absorbed major league baseball jock Matty (Owen Wilson) when George (Paul Rudd), who is the target of a corporate criminal investigation, comes along, forming a love triangle.

The love triangle is the most basic of romantic comedy set-ups. In this case, nice girl hooks up with party guy and then meets nice guy. Cue romantic conundrum.

Despite the cliched set-up, it is clear that writer-director-producer James L. Brooks is going for a more honest exploration of what happens when people meet and then gradually, and unexpectedly, fall in love.

The first time Lisa and George go on a date, she makes it clear that she is attached and interested in only being friends. Even as her attraction to him grows, Lisa holds on to that assertion.

And yet, despite straining for something different, the film gets pulled back to more conventional territory with the character of Matty.

He is a player who sleeps around and his casual chauvinism is played for laughs. Anyone can see he is not the right guy for Lisa.

It is also a pity that the writing is lacklustre, a disappointment given Brooks’ vast experience in television and film classics such as The Simpsons and Broadcast News (1987). Except for a moment of great comic timing in a hospital ward scene late in the film, the repartee lacks zing and zip.

Half the time, the script calls for Reese Witherspoon to frown and look puzzled and it is the hugely affable Paul Rudd instead who gives the more winning turn as the vulnerable George.

He can even take a lame line such as “You gave me temporary amnesia” and kind of make it work.

Among the supporting cast, Owen Wilson brings laidback charm to the table and Kathryn Hahn steals some attention as George’s high-strung secretary Annie. The blustery Jack Nicholson, as George’s wily father and boss, almost seems to be in a different movie and the criminal investigation side plot feels tacked on.

Caught in two minds, How Do You Know winds up feeling like a watered- down romantic comedy.

(ST)

All About Love

Ann Hui

The story: When former lovebirds Macy (Sandra Ng) and Anita (Vivian Chow) meet again after many years, both are pregnant. As they sort out their feelings for each other, they also have to decide whether they want to keep their babies.

It has been more than 10 years since the doe-eyed Vivian Chow left show business and her fans will be relieved that she still looks gorgeous. But some things have changed, and for the better.

In her heyday, she was the unofficial leader of a brigade of yunu – beauties who built careers around a sweet and pristine image.

For those who always found the entire shebang too manufactured and cloying, it will be a welcome surprise to see her cutting loose as Anita. She smokes, hooks up with a much younger man Mike (a doggedly earnest William Chan) and passionately smooches her co-star, Sandra Ng.

The two make for a believable couple and the ever-reliable Ng even makes the commitment-phobic lawyer Macy likeably flawed.

Macy reluctantly takes up a case defending ad man Robert (Eddie Cheung) from charges of spousal abuse and ends up coaching him on the art of making love.

The film also gamely takes on gender politics and discrimination. Over drinks with a group of lesbians, Macy becomes the target of criticism when the rest find out that she is bisexual and Macy spells out the irony of a minority group turning against someone who is different.

Meanwhile, Anita has to fight discrimination for being unmarried and pregnant at the bank where she works.

Like The Kids Are All Right, the film’s liberal leanings are never in doubt, though the point is never jammed down your throat. If anything, the message here is more live and let live.

Director Ann Hui, better known for her serious-minded arthouse dramas, handles the proceedings with a light touch.

While the feel-good ending is utterly improbable, it is also sweetly optimistic in suggesting that love, after all, is all you need.

(ST)