The Grandmaster
Wong Kar Wai
The story: This is Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai’s long-in-the-making biopic of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man, best known as the teacher of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. It traces the life of Ip (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) from his ascent in the world of martial arts in Foshan, Guangdong province, to his destitution during the Japanese invasion and, eventually, his settling down in Hong Kong to teach his skills. He crosses paths with Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), a highly skilled martial artist seeking vengeance for her father’s death.

Wong Kar Wai pulls no punches in the opening fight scene. As rain pours down, Ip Man takes on a small army of opponents and dispatches them gracefully.
The scene is beautifully lit and shot as the camera picks up on details, such as water splashes, and also conveys the vividness of the fight. Cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd (Seven Pounds, 2008) is a good fit for Wong’s aesthetic sense.
As Ip, Leung brings with him a softness and fluidity to the hand-to-hand combat that captures the Wing Chun essence of “yi rou ke gang”, or overcoming strength with softness.
The contrast is greater here compared to Donnie Yen’s more stoic and macho version of the same character in Wilson Yip’s Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man2 (2010).
Another showpiece sequence has Gong Er duelling with her sworn enemy Ma San (a compelling Zhang Jin) on a station platform as a train thrillingly rushes past them.
The action scenes are far more satisfactory than the murky who-turned-the-lights-out fights in Wong’s previous martial arts flick, Ashes Of Time (1994).
Still, there is no mistaking The Grandmaster for a run-of-the-mill gongfu flick.
Both Wilson Yip’s movies and Herman Yau’s Ip Man: The Legend Is Born (2010) resort to lazy button-pushing as evil Japanese and Caucasian characters naturally push audiences to root for the hero. In The Grandmaster, the Japanese invasion which drives Ip to dire straits is almost incidental.
Instead, what we get are regret and repressed passion, familiar tropes in Wong’s past films.
The romantic drama In The Mood For Love (2000) had Leung and Maggie Cheung circling each other achingly as their feelings remained as tightly bound as her fabulous cheongsams.
The gay drama Happy Together (1997) is drenched in regret and longing as it charts the tempestuous relationship between Leung and Leslie Cheung.
As a character remarks in The Grandmaster, how boring life would be if there were no regrets.
Ip Man and Gong Er fight each other once and it is a remarkably intimate and sensuous exchange. It sparks off something between them which is left to simmer for a long while.
Leung and Zhang are repeat collaborators with Wong and it is easy to see why. When the director goes in for loving close-ups, Zhang’s expressive porcelain oval face and Leung’s wry smile and sympathetic eyes evocatively fill the screen in a way few other actors’ features can.
They are helped by the entrancingly literary dialogue, a treat to savour as they speak in poetic lines.
Sometimes, though, you wonder if Wong’s penchant for that perfectly composed shot gets in the way of the film. Once too often, a scene would end with a carefully put together tableaux, as if offering a snapshot of a particular character and a certain time.
Even more distracting is Taiwanese actor Chang Chen’s Yixiantian character. Gong meets him on a train and helps him to evade arrest but, in the end, he turns out to be a red herring. There is a slight, humorous payoff to his story arc, but it ends rather abruptly in a cul-de-sac.
While you may wonder what was left on the cutting room floor, it has to be said that Wong’s films take time to work their magic. The kinetic Chungking Express (1994) and In The Mood For Love rank among my favourite films. Not exactly instances of infatuation at first sight, each has sparked off an enduring love affair.
(ST)

Ah Boys To Men 2
Jack Neo
The story: Having had a wake-up call in the first movie, Ah Boys To Men, Ken (Joshua Tan) is now an eager-beaver recruit out to prove that he can do well in Basic Military Training. This puts him on a collision course with the street-smart smoker Lobang (Wang Weiliang). When several of his section mates get pulled into a confrontation over I P Man’s (Noah Yap) girlfriend troubles, Ken decides to help them out.

Part 1, which was released last November, did not make a convincing argument for splitting the film into two. Nevertheless, the combination of the Jack Neo brand name, a subject every Singaporean could easily relate to, and the use of special effects to create scenes of Singapore under attack was a formula for success. It is now the highest-grossing local film of all time with $6.2 million in takings.
Back then, I had wished the film would explore more of the onscreen friendships and relationship dynamics as there was clearly a sense of camaraderie among the fresh faces playing the recruits. Happily, this is what writer-director Neo focuses on here.
Part 2 picks up right where the previous instalment ended – when Ken realises his selfish behaviour is hurting those around him. The point is made literally as his father (Richard Low) gets into an accident while rushing to the hospital after Ken collapses from self-induced heat stroke.
Ken’s transformation in itself turns out to be not particularly interesting. It turns on a melodramatic event and so, while the character of his father is meant to tug at our heartstrings, it mostly feels baldly manipulative every time Low appears on screen.
What is interesting is how Ken’s change of heart sets him against everyone else. Ken is now a competitor to the original eager beaver Aloysius (Maxi Lim). He also starts to get on Lobang’s nerves.
Wang Weiliang makes Lobang a most compelling character to watch. Be it Lobang in smooth-talking mode or exuding menace while bearing a grudge or efficiently executing a revenge plan, his naturalistic performance makes it all convincing.
Another character getting more screen time is I P Man. He is dumped by his girlfriend, and this sets off a chain of events which leads to a faeces-throwing attack and an all-out fight.
It is a sideplot that is overly exaggerated. But Neo’s inclusion of it is a smart move as break-ups during national service are almost a rite of passage in themselves and a topic that is, again, easy to relate to.
So Part 2 checks off two of the three factors that made Part 1 a hit.
As for special effects, they are also employed here but are less satisfying as they are not on the same scale. A food court is turned into a battlefield of miniature vehicles and weaponry and an exercise in the jungle is overrun by wild boars. Not exactly gripping stuff after seeing iconic landmarks get blown up in Part 1.
The films are meant to commemorate 45 years of national service and the sense of a national education message from the Ministry of Defence looms large.
Every single milestone in Basic Military Training has to be covered, from throwing a hand grenade to shooting at the rifle range, from digging a shell scrape for a field camp exercise to undergoing a 24km (or 24-click, in army parlance) route march.
It takes weeks for boys to go through Basic Military Training and emerge as men. A film about the process should feel much, much shorter.
(ST)

Taiwanese diva A-mei opened her show at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday night by drumming up a storm. Then she proclaimed: “Singapore, we are back!” This was the encore edition of her Ameizing World Tour which sold out two nights in Singapore in January last year.
Her powerhouse vocals were fully charged and her stamina showed no signs of flagging even at the end of the 31/2-hour-long concert.
Highlights included a segment where she came on as her alter-ego Amit and rocked out to high-energy numbers such as Black Eat Black and the thrilling Minnan throwdown of Come On If You Dare.
Later in the gig, she pulled off a 50-minute medley of her stirring ballads from Blue Sky and Remember to I Want Happiness.
A-mei was the consummate performer and she had great rapport with the capacity crowd of 10,000. During her rendition of Rainbow and Teresa Teng’s Sweet Honey Honey, “kiss cam” cameras swooped in on couples, gay and straight and old and young, who happily kissed to the delight of the audience.
Love was all around and the most enduring one of all was between A-mei and her devoted fans.
(ST)

You Quietly Hide Away
Ellen Loo

Love? Or Not?
Cyndi Wang

Perspectives
Joi Chua

For those who missed Hong Kong singer-songwriter Ellen Loo’s playful and electrifying gig at the Esplanade last week, make a note to yourself: Don’t do it again.
Meanwhile, all is not lost as you can revel in the follow-up to her feted solo debut The Ripples (2010).
Her emotions are all on display on her sophomore album, You Quietly Hide Away. Over guitar licks on opener Who, she wonders: “I, I’m so tired/Am I living the wrong way/Have I committed a sin and deserve to be arrested.”
The quietly devastating Departure reveals a more vulnerable side of Loo: “You furtively, kiss away/I furtively, hide away.”
She also has the audacity to write a song from the point of view of a Lothario. Serves You Right opens with a tantalising image: “The old one’s over there, put the new one in the mouth, what awkwardness am I afraid of?”
And in You’re Nobody To Me, she lashes out at someone who had put her down. At the Esplanade gig, she said that while she would write people she knew into her songs, she would never reveal who they are.
Just do not expect her to suffer grievances in silence.
Real life makes its way into Taiwanese singer Cyndi Wang’s 12th album as well.
She has been entangled in a love triangle with Sonia Sui, star of hit television drama The Fierce Wife (2010-2011), and Sui’s on-off boyfriend of eight years, actor How Yao. And it is tempting to read the title as a pithy summary of her dilemma. The title track is a thumping dance number which has Wang deciding: “Loving and not loving are both not simple/Force it and both get hurt, lose it and fear loneliness.”
Who exactly is she singing about on Hooked On You and Wilful Lover? It certainly makes scrutinising the lyrics a more intriguing task than usual on an album by Wang.
The lyrics of local singer Joi Chua’s Received are telling as well. She croons: “I need to break free/Freedom starts with me.”
It is also the track which sounds most unlike the Chua of yore, with its sheen of electronica. The first time I heard it, I thought it was a new single by Hong Kong diva Sandy Lam.
Still, this marks a fresh and exciting direction for the singer best known for her ballads.
Not to worry, though, there is still a classic Chua-style ballad here, the moving Not Transparent. Love U, on the other hand, takes a more light-hearted approach on the subject of love.
The packaging is also unusual as the songs and other content, including ringtones and videos, are recorded onto a thumb drive shaped like a pair of eyeglasses. The design is a nod to both the title and to the optical shop Chua owns.
Despite being an EP with just three tracks, this might well change your perspective on the Joi Chua you thought you knew.
(ST)

Wanting Everything In The World Asia Tour, Singapore
The Star Theatre, The Star Performing Arts Centre/Last Saturday
Holding a concert on the strength of one album is a risky proposition. The stakes are even higher when there is one hit song that everybody is there for.
In the case of Harbin-born, Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Qu Wanting, that song is Wo De Ge Sheng Li (You Exist In My Song).
About halfway through this concert, someone yelled out the title and she shot back in response: “Not yet.” Not surprisingly, she saved it for the encore and it was the final number of the night.
It is a ballad that showcases her emotive pipes as it starts in her warm lower register and builds to a big chorus: “You exist, in the deepest recesses of my mind/In my dreams, in my heart, in my song.”
Last Saturday, it capped a two-hour show, quite a feat given that she has released only that lone album, Everything In The World (2012). It means that she sang every single track on it, not counting the demo version of You Exist In My Song.
There are very few albums that deserve to be aired live in their entirety. Certainly, Qu’s record is not one of them.
More than half of her album is in English and her Mandarin accent seemed more noticeable at the show than on disc. Some of the English lyrics also seemed ungrammatical – “Redundancy catches me up” in Shell – or too familiar in their sentiment – “I’m crazy over you, do you feel the same way too” from new song More Than A Friend.
Among the English material, Drenched, featured in the romantic drama Love In The Buff (2012), was a standout. Qu played the piano as she performed the slow-burn number about passion and desire.
To her credit, she is a strong singer and distinctive enough to leave her stamp on even Teresa Teng’s well-worn classic ballad, I Only Care About You, which was among the covers she performed along with Coldplay’s Fix You.
Many of her own songs fall into a mid-tempo groove, not exactly the kind of material to get a crowd’s adrenaline pumping. To get her fans going, she ramped up the tempo and energy of some songs, including opening English track Jar Of Love and Mei You Shen Me Bu Tong (Not That Different).
Still, she remarked more than once that the 1,200-strong audience was really quiet and said: “You guys are so quiet I can hear every single mistake I make”.
Perhaps a smaller venue than the 5,000- capacity The Star Theatre would have worked better. As it was, the crowd filled up only the front half of the stall section. Even the stage seemed a little oversized though Qu, dressed in a black and silvery outfit and sporting bare feet, did her best to cover it.
There was much to like about her debut disc, from the lovely timbre of her voice to the emotional pull of ballads such as You Exist In My Song.
But it is probably too ambitious for her, at this point and on such a stage, to be Wanting Everything In The World.
(ST)

Back To Wonderland
Khalil Fong
There is a loosey- goosey laid-back vibe to Khalil Fong’s appealing sixth studio album. It picks right up from his last album 15 (2011), but that is not to say that the tracks sound alike.
Rather, the American-born, Hong Kong-based singer-songwriter displays an assured musicality as he dabbles in R&B, soul, pop, rock, jazz and even funk.
He caresses the Vincent Fang-penned lyrics for Thousand Paper Cranes with a lilting falsetto: “Paper cranes, you fold them gently, happy as free-flowing jazz/Maybe, letting you go, is just changing the way of loving you”.
Love Instantly, with lyrics by Luke “Skywalker” Tsui, is about seizing the moment and it sounds like an instant classic: “My love instantly, wants to prove it’s yours, no need to wait for guesses, there’s only one choice, now”.
These are the more obvious radio singles but it’s all good as Fong’s smooth vocals slip into the groove from song to song.
There are also some pleasant surprises in store. Take his collaboration with hip-hop duo Fama, whose lyrics for Mama Says manage to be both playful and thoughtful.
“Can you feel the music?”, he asks on the opening track. The answer is a resounding yes.
(ST)

10 Years
Jamie Linden
A high school reunion matters only to those who were there in the first place. You want to know who got fat, who got married, who got rich and what happened to the one who got away.
The drama 10 Years addresses these questions as Jake (Magic Mike’s Channing Tatum) and his ex Mary (Rosario Dawson) circle each other, singer Reeves (Oscar Isaac) gets another chance with loner Elise (Kate Mara) and married-with-children Cully (Chris Pratt) and Sam (Ari Graynor) squabble.
Too bad you are not really invested in the answers.
The cast is too sprawling and their backstories are not well sketched out.
There are a few poignant moments towards the end but it takes too long for first-time director Jamie Linden (screenwriter for We Are Marshall, 2006) to get there.
(ST)

The Impossible
Juan Antonio Bayona
The story: Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor) head to Thailand for Christmas with their three young boys: Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast). What is supposed to be an idyllic vacation turns into a nightmare as the impossible happens and a devastating tsunami tears away the coast on Dec 26, 2004. Based on a Spanish family’s real-life experience.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunamis it triggered was one of the deadliest natural disasters ever. It was estimated that more than 230,000 people died and almost 1.7 million displaced.
What is not conveyed in the numbers is the speed and scale of that terrifying wave sweeping in as people stood rooted to the spot, unable to process what they were seeing.
Incredibly, director Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage, 2007) has managed to do just that. As the water rushes in and coconut trees topple like dominoes, you think that he must have somehow spliced in documentary footage. Yet the scene was created from scratch with the help of a giant water tank as well as CGI.
The technical accomplishment is an impressive one but what gives the film its emotional power is the superb performances.
As Maria, Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, 2001) taps into a primal maternal instinct. In the harrowing aftermath of the tsunami, she spots Lucas drifting away from her and she goes after him with a desperate ferocity.
The character is also the moral centre of the film. Faced with the dilemma of whether to climb a tree for safety or to answer someone’s cries for help, she makes the ethical, not self-preserving, decision.
But after they are rescued, she has to face up to the serious injuries she has sustained and Watts gives a scarily realistic performance of Maria at death’s door.
The accolades have been pouring in and she is up for Best Actress honours from several awards, including a Best Actress Oscar.
Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, 2012) is reliably good as Henry as he searches for his wife and son. He seems to be handling things remarkably well until he breaks down during a phonecall to a family member.
To Bayona’s credit, the local people are not left out of the film. He even contrasts the kindness of the natives who have so little in the first place with the casual selfishness of some holidaying Westerners who do not even want to lend others their mobile phones.
The younger performers are also noteworthy, particularly Tom Holland, who had played the lead role in Billy Elliot: The Musical in London from Sept 2008 to May 2010.
Lucas is overwhelmed with fear and grief at first, and it was nice to watch him blossom when he finds that he can be useful at the hospital by helping to reunite separated family members.
The tsunamis were a terrible catastrophe and by crafting a movie about familial love and survival around it, Bayona leaves us with a sense of awe and respect at nature’s power – even as he holds out the comfort of hope.
(ST)

The Moment
Aaron Yan

Popu Lady
Popu Lady

While Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit’s Jiro Wang has put out a rock- flavoured solo project What Are You Waiting For (2012), bandmate Aaron Yan (below) opts for the tried and tested in his debut individual outing.
The Moment is filled with middle- of-the-road ballads and sentiments, with Yan penning the lyrics to two tracks – The Love Left, a cover of American singer Pink’s I Don’t Believe You, and Lonelier Than The Loneliest.
The chorus for The Love Left goes: “Perhaps you still love me, loosening your hand and giving me freedom in order to let me miss your tenderness.”
The emo streak continues on Bluff but at least that is cloaked in an upbeat tune as he sings: “Thought the one I loved, will remain beautiful regardless, I really don’t wish to understand howhelpless cruel reality makes me feel.”
Now that Wu Chun has left Fahrenheit and Yan has released this disc, Calvin Chen is the sole member of the boyband without a solo album to his name. He must be feeling the heat.
While prettyboy Yan wants you to pay attention to his music, newcomer girl group Popu Lady peddle wholesome sexiness on their debut EP. The music is as flimsy as their see-through dresses on the cover, as the five thin- voiced girls serve up sappy tracks such as Kiss Me and Keep On Loving, a treacly cover of Norwegian girl group M2M’s Pretty Boy.
Want To Turn Into An Apple has them crooning: “Want to turn into an apple, oh oh oh, let you take a bite, oh oh oh, let you have a taste.” Bite me.

A Piece Of Summer II (2CD)
Cheer Chen

Between her Immortal Tour in 2010 and A Piece Of Summer II tour last year, Cheer Chen did not release a new album. So, if you have the Immortal Tour discs, you might want to skip this. Still, thanks to her body of work stretching over five full-length albums, there is little overlap between the two concert recordings.
Also, tracks have been reworked for the Summer gig from the dusting of electronica for Little Dust to the chugging-train intro for fan favourite Travel With Sound. New tracks include covers of songs such as Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose and Chang Yu-sheng’s Thinking Of You Every Day.
Another piece of Cheer for the hardcore fan or completist.
(ST)

Young & Dangerous: Reloaded
Daniel Chan
The story: Gangsters Chan Ho Nam (Him Law), Mountain Chicken (Oscar Leung), Tin Yee (Dominic Ho) and Pou Pan (Jazz Lam) run together as a group. Even though they are all members of the Hung Hing triad, they cross paths with Kwan (Sammy Sum) and end up seeking protection from Brother B (Paul Wong).

The Young And Dangerous series of Hong Kong gangster flicks in the late 1990s made stars out of the likes of Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan. So the hope behind this reload is presumably to turn TVB actors Him Law and Oscar Leung into big-screen idols as well.
But instead of leaving his mark with a fresh take, director Daniel Chan is merely content to offer up a dated tale with no surprises. Someone is wronged, someone is framed, vengeance is sought and, ultimately, justice is served, gangland-style.
Just because the original flicks were made then does not mean that the reboot has to also feel like it was from the last millennium.
Taiwan’s Monga (2010) showed that it is possible to inject new life into a well-worn genre and make the audience care about the story and the characters. It was also powered by strong performances from Mark Chao and Ethan Juan, who was named Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards.
While Him Law has the looks, his Chan Ho Nam is rather bland and expressionless and his romance with rich girl Chaoting (Hu Ran) perfunctory. Oscar Leung’s cheeky Mountain Chicken is not a strong enough character to make an impact either.
Things improve a little in the style department as the director plays up the comic-book roots of the film. Colourfully illustrated pages flip to transition between scenes, as the violence veers into the cartoonish with exaggerated blood-spilling in scene after scene of brawling.
The most cartoonish element, unfortunately, has to be the character of the villain Kwan. With eyeliner, a bad perm and a permanent slouch, he is guilty of bad taste among his crimes.
There is a cursory attempt to address the criticism that the Young And Dangerous films glamorise macho violence and gang life. Ho Nam and Brother B point out that they turned to the triads as a last resort and yet these revelations do not add much to character development. Nor do they temper the violence.
What is even more problematic is the ending in which justice is served in a fiery manner. Is this deliberately cruel vigilantism something the audience is supposed to rejoice over?
(ST)

Deadfall
Stefan Ruzowitzky
The story: Two accidents set things in motion. Brother and sister Addison (Eric Bana) and Liza (Olivia Wilde) survive a car crash after their casino heist and split up to maximise their chances of avoiding the law. Just-released-from-prison Jay (Charlie Hunnam) gets into a scuffle and then flees from the scene. Eventually, everyone converges at the isolated house of Jay’s parents, June and Chet (Sissy Spacek and Kris Kristofferson), as a furious blizzard rages away.

Like crime drama Fargo (1996) and wolf thriller The Grey (2011), winter is not just a backdrop but almost a character in its own right.
The blanket of white cloaks the landscape and gives it an otherworldly feel and as the temperature drops and the winds howl, the tension ratchets up in this character-driven ensemble piece which deftly mixes black humour and lacerating violence.
Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky is probably best known for the World War II drama The Counterfeiters (2007), which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
And for his English-language debut, he has assembled a top-drawer cast of character actors.
Eric Bana (The Time Traveler’s Wife, 2009) leaves a trail of dead bodies on his way to the rendezvous point and there is a fabulously vicious fight scene where he tries to get his hands on a snowmobile. While the sense of menace emanating from him could have been heightened in the finale, he does a great job being charming and even gentlemanly when he first encounters June alone at home.
There is also a fascinating bond between Addison and Liza, who seem to be unusually close for siblings. Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy, 2010) is confused and in need of protection one moment and then a sexy seductress the next. When she turns her big peepers on Jay, who happens to give her a lift on his way to his parents’ place, their sudden romance seems all but inevitable.
And Charlie Hunnam is all grown-up after his break-out role in the British TV series Queer As Folk (1999-2000). He brings a sense of vulnerability to his role as a scruffy and guarded ex-con who has fences to mend with his father.
Then there is also Sissy Spacek’s (Coal Miner’s Daughter, 1980) warm and loving mother and Kris Kristofferson’s (A Star Is Born, 1976) gruff father.
Adding more colour to the mix are Kate Mara (Ten Years, 2011) as a discriminated-against deputy sheriff and Treat Williams (from TV’s Everwood, 2002-2006) as her boorish father and boss.
The payoff is a deliciously twisted and tense dinner as criminals, lovers, family and cops come together for one unforgettable Thanksgiving.
(ST)

Rust And Bone
Jacques Audiard
The story: Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is an out-of-work former boxer with a young son in tow. He turns up at his sister’s place to live and finds a job as a bouncer for a night club. He meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) there and their paths cross again after the killer whale trainer loses her legs in a horrific accident. Based on Craig Davidson’s 2005 short story collection of the same name.

In the original short story Rocket Ride, it is a young man who loses his leg to the orca he performs with in a marine park show. Director and co-writer Jacques Audiard changes the gender of the character in order to combine strands from several stories into one film.
In doing so, he has crafted an unlikely love story from what sounds like lurid pulp fiction.
This is not the kind of romance served up in flabby romantic comedies churned out by Hollywood. Rather, it is about how two flawed people negotiate their way to a relationship.
In fact, it is almost like an anti-romance. The first time they lay eyes on each other is not a propitious meet cute. He breaks up a fight at the club and finds her at the centre of it, dressed sexily and hurt.
Later, after her accident, she chooses to reach out to him despite shutting out everyone else. Perhaps she feels protected in his presence or maybe, she is drawn to his strapping physicality.
Crucially, Ali does not tiptoe around her legless state. Neither does Audiard – he shows us the stumps wrapped in bandages, as Stephanie piggy-backs Ali into the sea and when the two have sex.
Yet the tone is neutral and matter- of-fact rather than fetishistic or sensationalistic.
The roles call for tough unsentimental performances and both leads deliver.
Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, 2007) has been getting all the attention for her turn which takes her from despair to guarded joy to a renewed sense of self when she finds herself in the unlikely position of managing Ali when he takes part in illegal kick-boxing matches.
Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, 2011) is just as good, if not better, as the restless and aimless man who finds an outlet for his frustrations in physical fights.
Ali has a rough brutishness to him and he continues to sleep with other women along with Stephanie.
But there is also a tenderness to him that Schoenaerts reveals gradually, not least through the interactions with his young son.
As the film wends on its surprising way, you go along for the ride as you are invested in the fate of the characters. Even though the ending feels a little rushed, whatever happiness they eventually eke out feels earned.
Audiard is one of the most exciting film-makers to have emerged in recent years, with films such as crime drama The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and prison drama A Prophet (2009).
A Palme d’Or contender, Rust And Bone cements that reputation as he finds the grace notes in a gritty tale of redemption and love.
(ST)

Pop Songs With Guitar
Crowd Lu

Listen To Clock
Peter Pan

Get Set, Go!
Tay Kexin

What becomes of a schoolyard singer without a schoolyard? Singer-songwriter Crowd Lu is finally graduating from university and is about to serve his compulsory stint in Taiwan’s military.
More than any other singer in recent years, he is closely associated with school life as his songs revolve around studying and friendship, particularly on his sterling debut, 100 Ways Of Living (2008).
He is well aware of that fact and even has a song called Schoolyard Singer here, in which he contemplates: “I am a schoolyard singer/Each time I cry/ It’s a composition/Please listen to my song/The scenery inside is beautiful.”
The Scent Of Night, previously released as a single, makes the best case for Lu successfully making the transition from college crooner to adult life. It has a sense of mystery and joy to it that is beguiling and is the best thing on the album.
But some of the other material here feels less fresh. Perhaps a change of environment is just the thing Lu needs to grow as a musician.
Growth can be seen in Taiwanese singer Peter Pan’s sophomore album Listen To Clock. It is an ambitious effort revolving around the concept of time and has several strong tracks, from the elegiac ballad Needle to the dark comedy of Get Shot By A Gun Even Just Lying Down.
A favourite here is Can’t Wait To Love which has Pan hitting his higher range over the catchy chorus: “Love ah love, can’t wait for it, it’s very strange/Like a pendulum that won’t stop, tick-tick- tock-tock in an endless cycle, to remind one that the time has come.”
The time might well have arrived for local singer-songwriter Tay Kexin, who proves there is such a thing as good music genes. The younger sister of popular singer- songwriter Tay Kewei, she has released a debut EP that showcases her range.
Bravely Prove is an upbeat optimistic number, while Turning Point is an emotive ballad that has her tackling her lower range. Lone English track Someday You’ll Be has a nice swing to it, as she croons: “Someday you’ll be free/From the troubles you’ve seen/Someday you’ll be/Better than you ever believed.”
The prospect of a better, full-length album from Tay is a cheery one indeed.
(ST)

Taxi! Taxi!
Kelvin Sng
The story: Prof Chua (Gurmit Singh) ends up driving a cab after going through a string of jobs, keeping this from his wife (Jazreel Low) and son. The streetsmart Ah Tau (Mark Lee) shows the booksmart Chua the ropes and also inadvertently spills the beans for the ex-professor. Meanwhile, Ah Tau has problems of his own. He is raising his young son (Chua Jin Sen) without a mother while pining for his tenant Regina (Gan Mei Yan).

Just to be clear, this is not the big-screen adaptation of the best-selling Diary Of A Taxi Driver: True Stories From Singapore’s Most Educated Taxi Driver (2010). Instead, the real-life Dr Cai Mingjie who wrote the memoir is merely inspiration for director Kelvin Sng’s movie.
Gurmit Singh’s overqualified cabbie Prof Chua is something of a stick-in-the-mud and his pride prevents him from being honest with his family about being fired from several jobs. He even lies about why a school visit to the lab his son thinks he is still working at is out of the question.
Mark Lee’s Ah Tau is the counterpoint to the strait-laced Chua. He is poorly educated, flouts the rules and is a loving if absent-minded father.
So yes, this is an odd-couple comedy of sorts.
Ah Tau gets Chua to loosen up and Chua teaches Ah Tau about responsibility.
Quite a bit has been made of the fact that Singh and Lee are reuniting in a feature film 11 years after the soccer comedy One Leg Kicking (2001). But frankly, their much-vaunted chemistry has been overhyped. On screen, they neither fizzle nor sizzle.
The chemistry is instead to be found between Lee and his adorable young co-star Jin Sen, who are totally believable as father and son.
Casting Jin Sen, better known as Dr Jia Jia from his popular Singlish comic skits on YouTube, was a smart move. He gets to milk his signature Hokkien catchphrase “kee chiew” (raise your hands) and steals every scene he is in, whether he is sulking over his father’s broken promises or gamely trying to rouse Ah Tau from sleep.
Lee is natural and persuasive as the irresponsible but ultimately good-hearted Ah Tau. It turns out that Lee can act when he is not too busy mugging for the camera.
Too bad the movie also spends less time on Singh’s Chua and his less engaging problems with his family. On top of his wife and son, he has to cope with a disapproving mother-in-law.
This might be actress-turned-entrepreneur Jazreel Low’s return to acting but it is not a role that calls for her to do much beyond looking worried and harried.
After a while, the film has nowhere to go and so the ending takes an odd turn into melodrama.
Taxi! Taxi! had potential for insightful and much-needed social commentary but ends up being an uneven ride.
(ST)

The Last Tycoon
Wong Jing
The story: Cheng Daqi (played by Huang Xiaoming and the older version by Chow Yun Fat) rises to the top of the underworld in freewheeling and turbulent Shanghai in the early 1900s. As the Japanese threat looms in the late 1930s, he has to figure out a way to survive and keep his first love Ye Zhiqiu (played by Joyce Feng and Yolanda Yuan) safe.

Hong Kong director Wong Jing’s recent output has run the gamut from appalling – Treasure Hunt (2011) – to enjoyably rambunctious – Treasure Inn (2011).
The big-budget epic-wannabe The Last Tycoon falls somewhere between the two.
Cheng Daqi’s rise to power is sketched out in a few key scenes, including an all-out street fight with knives and hooks and poles. Huang Xiaoming cuts an appealing figure as the raffish ruffian amid the action, which Wong helms with some flair.
Cheng, it is established, is a mobster with morals – he does not touch gambling and prostitution. What is less clear is how he then makes money.
Another big action sequence that Wong pulls off spectacularly is a Japanese bomb raid of Shanghai.
Unfortunately, the scenario is undercut by singer Joanna Wang crooning Waiting All My Life as Wong chooses to stage a dramatic run-in between Cheng (now played by Chow Yun Fat), his first love Zhiqiu (now played by Yolanda Yuan) and her husband.
That is the bigger problem with The Last Tycoon summed up in one scene: It cannot decide whether it wants to be an action drama or a grand romance and the film cannot convincingly marry the two genres.
The movie might well have worked as a stand- alone action drama.
Apart from the action sequences, Chow gets to show his dramatic chops in a banquet speech that has him skilfully navigating between his mobster backer Hong Shouting (Sammo Hung) and the wily military man Mao Zai (Francis Ng).
The romance, in contrast, is iffy.
It does not help that Chow and Yuan do not generate enough sparks together, which makes some of the dilemmas he faces feel less urgent than they should be.
Worse, Wong is such a literal film-maker we keep getting flashbacks to an early rooftop scene between Cheng (then played by Huang) and Zhiqiu (then played by Feng).
Nor does having two actors each playing those two key roles seem entirely necessary as it breaks the emotional bond between the audience and those characters.
The ending hinges upon the staging of a Chinese opera and there is some satisfaction in the payoff, even if it does remind one that Tsui Hark had used a similar plot turn to far greater effect way back in 1986 with Peking Opera Blues.
(ST)

‘A Wild Man's Dreams’ Wong Hong Mok In Concert 2012
Esplanade Concert Hall
Last Saturday

Singer-songwriter Wong Hong Mok was torn.
The xinyao veteran, better known as Huang Hongmo, told the audience: “I’ve always been someone on the sidelines and I feel very awkward to be thrust in the limelight. But I love singing.”
And so, he decided to mount his first solo show, 22 years after his debut album, A Wild Man’s Dreams (1990), was released.
He was noticeably nervous and forgot some lyrics and his grasp of the run-down was rather shaky. At the end, he revealed why he was in a light brown shirt and black jeans for the entire evening – he had forgotten to change despite getting a blazer for the occasion.
The fact that Wong, 53, was honest about his little slip-ups was charming in its way and the near full-house audience took it all in its stride. The atmosphere was convivial as his fans applauded and shouted words of encouragement.
They were there for his distinctive gruff and sonorous voice and Wong did not disappoint as he took on tracks such as the nostalgic Wan Zhong Feng Qing (Ten Thousand Sensations) and the title track from his second album, Confessions Of A Stupid Bird.
What sets him apart from his more genteel contemporaries is not just his voice. It is also the way he wholeheartedly embraces nature in tracks such as A Tree’s Conviction and Flower Date. And the visuals of waves, clouds over mountains, flowers and birds projected onto the screens on stage reinforced that notion.
Some of his compositions are like aural paintings as they sketch out the beauty of nature.
Lakeview At Sunset and Mountain Passion conjure up visions of tranquil calm and majestic awe respectively and it was a treat to listen to original singer Deng Shuxian perform them in her still sweet and clear voice.
It is a reflection of xinyao’s collaborative nature, and perhaps Wong’s reticent nature, that his albums often featured vocal turns by others.
Other than Deng, he also roped in long-time music buddies Zhang Jiaqiang, Liu Jinxiang and Zhou Xuanli to help him out on stage.
One memorable segment had them covering songs written by others; including the Hokkien number Red Peach Blossoms and the pop track One Day I Will.
Over 31/2 hours, including a 20-minute intermission, Wong sang, played the guitar and shared stories about his songs and his life.
His personality came through on the tender Mother, the bluesy love song Addicted To You and That Year, about the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 which overthrew the Qing dynasty.
He saved the most familiar for last and A Wild Man’s Dreams was the rousing finale for the set. The song opens with a dramatic howl and the crowd howled along.
From Wong’s beaming face, one could tell that a wild man’s dreams had been fulfilled.
(ST)