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)