Galaxy Crisis: The Strangest Midnight Broadcast
Joanna Wang
At the Spring Wave Music Festival earlier this month, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Joanna Wang stood out with her striking green outfit and her inimitable brand of offbeat musical story-telling.
Those who had dived into her previous English album, The Adventures Of Bernie The Schoolboy (2011), will know to expect a richly imagined world of whimsy here as well.
This time, she ventures even further off the beaten track to come up with what could be a soundtrack to a space fantasy with titles such as Garden Party On Mars and Meteor One (Inside The Mind Of A Wrestling Fanatic).
Her musical influences are deliriously diverse and match the out-there themes of her songs.
The retro bossa nova-influenced Coins has her threatening: “I’ll buy you out, I’ll buy your house!/Yes that’s what it’s all about, I’ll buy them out!”
Other tracks will have you smiling at the mood of theatrical silliness.
The Antagonist begins thus: “This song falls in the category of/Those songs where protagonists feel sorry for themselves/Except I’m not the protagonist.”
The cartoonish-sounding Evil Nerd Theme has an unlikely refrain: “Yes deep down, deep down he’s just/A guy who likes anime!”
The smoky-voiced Wang could have just coasted along doing covers of jazz standards and Mandarin evergreens.
But thankfully, she has little interest in doing so.
She is having too much fun exploring the boundless music universe, so buckle up and enjoy the ride with her.
(ST)

Here We Go
MICappella
Local vocal group MICappella are on a roll. In the wake of their second-place showing in the television singing competition The Sing-Off China last September, they have now released their debut album with a gung-ho statement of intent.
The more upbeat numbers such as Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger and Jam Hsiao’s Princess are energetic and feature voice effects that are particularly impressive, given the guitars, synthesizers and drums used in the originals.
It is harder for them, though, to leave a distinctive stamp on ballads such as Mayday’s Minnan number Zhiming And Chunjiao and Hu Xia’s Those Bygone Years – their renditions are merely passably pleasant.
Also included on the album are two original tracks. The title track is a dancey thumper which spells out what they do: “Don’t need any instruments/Just need a type of voice/My efforts will have the world listening carefully.”
The emo ballad Forget It, in contrast, shows their more sensitive side.
Covers are well and good, but to really leave a mark, original material is still the way to go.
(ST)

At Any Price
Ramin Bahrani
This week’s other movie with fast and furious racing cars stars Zac Efron as Dean Whipple, a restless young man stuck in rural small-town America.
His father, Henry (Dennis Quaid), is a bitter seed salesman who favours his absent elder brother. This fuels Dean’s desire to get away. Car-racing offers a ticket out but when he chokes in an important competition, he gets overwhelmed by his frustrations.
The film takes an odd dark turn near the end and a terrible shared secret between father and son leads to an improvement in their relationship.
Efron cuts a dashing figure on the race track – no surprises in this department since he remains best known for breaking out as a teen idol on Disney’s High School Musical (2006).
But despite his golden-boy looks, his recent movie choices suggest he does not want to coast by on that alone. From the lurid The Paperboy (2012) to this family drama from writer-director Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, 2005), Efron seems to be seeking more challenging projects.
Kudos to him for showing some ambition but he needs a better vehicle than this ho-hum flick which never kicks into top gear.
(ST)

Emperor
Peter Webber
The story: World War II is over and Japan has surrendered. General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) arrives in Tokyo for the occupation of the country and tasks Brigadier General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) with a key mission – determine the extent of Emperor Hirohito’s (Takataro Kataoka) guilt in the Japanese war effort.

There is a famous black-and- white photograph depicting General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito standing next to each other.
MacArthur is resting his hands on the back of his hips, while Hirohito’s hands hang formally by his side. There is an awkwardly large gap between the two, a gulf reflecting the difference in the two cultures and the insurmountable distance between the victor and the vanquished. Neither man is smiling.
The movie Emperor is essentially the story of what leads up to that single iconic moment.
Even so, director Peter Webber (Girl With A Pearl Earring, 2003) opts for a more subtle set-up. For much of the movie, Hirohito is investigated and discussed and judged, but the man himself is not shown. It is as though the moviegoer is watching a version of the surrealist play Waiting For Godot (1953), in which the protagonist never appears.
Instead, it is left to Matthew Fox to carry the movie. In television dramas such as Party Of Five (1994-2000) and Lost (2004-2010), he plays bruised characters who are decent at the core.
Fox once again channels that quality of inherent decency into the character of Fellers, who has to maintain a delicate balance in his investigation.
On the one hand, Japan is teetering on collapse and a denunciation of the god-like emperor could tip the country over into outright revolt. On the other hand, there is demand for justice to be served in the aftermath of a brutal war.
Complicating matters is Fellers’ personal affection for Japan and his love for a Japanese woman, Aya (Eriko Hatsune). The latter could have all too easily been a tired cliche but it does provide an opportunity for Fellers to delve deeper into the Japanese psyche through his contact with Aya’s military official uncle.
Lightening the mood a little in the sometimes sombre proceedings is Tommy Lee Jones as he swaggers about as MacArthur, a man as keenly aware of the power of the media image as he was of the power of the gun.
(ST)

Christmas Rose
Charlie Young
The story: Public prosecutor Tim (Aaron Kwok) takes on an explosive case in which handicapped piano teacher Jing (Guey Lun-mei) accuses well-known doctor Zhou (Chang Chen) of molesting her during a medical check-up. It all hinges upon their contrasting testimonies as Jing and Zhou were the only two people in the room at the time.

How do we know what we know? How can we be sure of what we know?
Two movies opening here this week, Christmas Rose and military drama Emperor, explore the idea of the slippery nature of truth and, given that, how and whether we can determine guilt.
The stakes are higher in Emperor as the fate of post-war Japan hangs in the balance and the issues are handled with a lighter touch. Actress-turned-director Charlie Young tackles the same issues with a heavier hand in Rose.
Her legal drama’s he-said she-said set-up calls to mind David Mamet’s play Oleanna (1992), in which a male professor and his female student tangle over a charge of sexual exploitation.
It is no easy task to have audience sympathy shifting one way then the other, depending on who is holding court at the moment. While you do get tugged this way and that in Rose, it also feels quite manipulative in part due to Young’s penchant for close-ups and zoom-ins.
Guey’s Jing appears at first to be a defenceless young woman who falls prey to a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but the film is overly skewed towards her and it is not till much later that we get to hear Zhou’s conflicting version of events.
The verdict is revealed an hour into the film and the last act is essentially one shouty, teary revelation after another. It is meant to be cathartic, but instead feels mildly farcical as court proceedings are turned into a mass therapy session. For an effective court melodrama, watch Deannie Yip and Andy Lau in The Unwritten Law (1985) instead.
The cast of heavyweight stars here also means that plotlines have to be spread around, not necessarily to the film’s benefit.
Kwok’s Tim has a backstory that dovetails with the case, but it does not fully resonate and his half-hearted rivalry with the defence lawyer (Xia Yu) is mostly a distracting sideshow.
Tim even has an emotional breakdown scene over his father, but instead of being moving, the tears feel like they are merely award-baiting.
It is an ambitious project for a first- time director but, unfortunately, Christmas Rose is an unseasonal bloom that fails to fully blossom.
(ST)

Coexistence
Denise Ho
It was big news when Hong Kong singer Denise Ho came out of the closet at the Hong Kong Pride Parade in November. The bigger news is that doing so has freed her as an artist. She sounds honest and open here – completely comfortable in her own skin at last.
Opening track Alcohol And Cigarette is a loose- limbed piece of garage rock that sets the tone, if not genre, for what is to follow.
Faceless Person tackles head-on questions of identity and the lyrics point to the painful process of someone coming to terms with herself: “Every time I look at myself, that me I don’t recognise/ Will my life/Be forgotten like today’s news/Am I existing? Or am I merely living?”
Even though the lyrics are by prolific Wu Ching- feng from Taiwan’s sodagreen, there is no denying how close to the bone they cut.
The album title itself is a naked plea to live and let live but Ho has no interest in wallowing in victimhood. To the question of the song titled What Do You Love?, her response sounds like a manifesto: “I love freedom and my life/It’s not for anyone else to call the shots/And what do you love?”
She even makes a joyous foray into dance on Bye Bye, bidding farewell to “a world of the old me”, “a world of shallow rules” and “a world that’s upside- down”. The sound of Coexistence is a beautiful one indeed.
(ST)

The Incredible Truth
Leong Tak Sam
The incredible truth about this movie is that it is spectacularly bad. Hong Kong’s Christy Chung should have stuck to slimming advertisements instead.
She plays Wei Ling, a stylist who travels to Japan to search for her friend, Jia Jia (Liu Yan), who has gone missing. Showing a complete lack of self-preservation skills, the stylist stays at a strange resort peopled by creepy characters. Chief among them is innkeeper’s daughter Michiko Shimizu (Megumi Kagurazaka), who goes from being intimidating to seductive to flat-out crazy.
The musical cues are loud and jarring and the acting is hammy and laughable. Chung tries her earnest best but fails in the face of a ludicrously lazy script.
For example, Wei conveniently finds a diary in the forest which spells out everything that happened.
It is so terrible that The Incredible Truth is good for a few laughs.
(ST)

This Is 40
Judd Apatow
The story: This is the spin-off sequel to writer-director Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (2007), in which the moviegoer was first introduced to the characters of Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd). She now runs a clothing shop and he owns a tiny record label. They are still married, have two daughters and are about to hit the speed bump that is the big 4-0.

Is writer-director Judd Apatow losing his Midas touch? After hits such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Knocked Up (2007), one was expecting yet another raucous comedy filled with potty- mouthed dialogue and laugh-out-loud situations.
Instead, this feels like Apatow’s attempt to go in a more dramatic direction.
This Is 40 strings up scenes from a marriage between the more uptight Debbie and the laidback Pete and ends up feeling episodic in nature.While there is plenty of smutty dialogue, much of the talk about sex is graphic in a way that is not particularly funny.
Where it works is in Apatow’s ability to convey that volatile mixture of intimacy and resentment that long-time couples share. One moment, Debbie can be needling Pete about his junk food-eating habits; the next, she is reluctantly examining his bottom for haemorrhoids.
It comes together in a sweet scene in bed when they fondly talk about how they would kill each other off.
Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man, 2009) and Leslie Mann (Funny People, 2009) make the relationship feel lived-in and the frustrations of the characters keenly felt.
That said, the movie is simply too long and the moments of genuine emotional connection are few and far between.
Instead of focusing on family – what with Debbie’s distant father Oliver (John Lithgow) and Pete’s childish dad Larry (Albert Brooks) and his brood of three very young sons – the script is burdened with unnecessary extras. There is Megan Fox as an employee Debbie suspects is stealing from her and Melissa McCarthy as a mother Pete has a run-in with.
You wonder how much of his own marriage Apatow is channelling since he and Mann are married in real life with two daughters, Maude and Iris, who play 13-year-old Sadie and eight-year-old Charlotte in the film.
There is more blurring of reel and real as the artist Pete is promoting is real-life under-the-radar act Graham Parker & The Rumour.
Perhaps a greater separation of fact and fiction would have helped. As it is, This Is 40 feels self- indulgent to an extent that previous Apatow comedies did not.
(ST)

Glass Anatomy: The Musical
Various artists
Often, soundtrack albums serve as a souvenir of a show one has enjoyed.
This is one of the rare occasions where the record works better than the full-fledged musical, an adaptation of the Taiwanese film Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (1983). Glass Anatomy is currently playing at the Esplanade Theatre until Sunday.
For starters, the songs are presented in their entirety, not in snippets. Also, they are not repeated ad nauseam as they were during the show.
Classic numbers such as The Same Moonlight and Please Come With Me are given an orchestral makeover complete with harmonising. Do You Have Any Beer Bottles To Sell starts off mournful and builds to a dramatic outpouring of emotions.
Pop star Della Ding Dang does a decent job taking on numbers first made famous by veteran singer Julie Su Rei. Having the requisite lung power certainly helps.
Also effective is local actress Audrey Luo’s take on the movingly steadfast Holding Hands, a track marred by overuse in the production.
Take the songs here and build your own musical in your head instead.
(ST)

The Big Wedding
Justin Zackham
The story: Alejandro (Ben Barnes) is getting married to Missy (Amanda Seyfried) and the guest list includes his divorced adoptive parents, Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton), as well as Don’s current partner Bebe (Susan Sarandon). Also attending are his Colombian Catholic biological mother Madonna (Patricia Rae) and sultry birth sister Nuria (Ana Ayora). The catch: Don and Ellie have to pretend they are still married in order not to offend Madonna’s conservative sensitivities. A remake of the French film My Brother Is Getting Married (2006).

Going by the movies made about weddings, one would think that there is no such thing as a small, low-key ceremony.
From My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) to Bride Wars (2009), the occasion has to be big, bold and brash. And there has to be mayhem as one crisis after another unfolds, though everything gets neatly tied up by the time we get to “I do”.
The Big Wedding does not stray from the template. Even though it does not break the mould, it is pleasant enough as a sweetly amiable family comedy.
Here, the young couple getting married are almost incidental and in fact, Ben Barnes and Amanda Seyfried do not take up too much screen time.
Rather, part of the movie’s charm comes from watching veteran actors just doing their thing.
Robert De Niro gives a loose, relaxed performance as the patriarch who cannot commit to his new partner and is more likeable here than in the shrilly exaggerated Meet The Parents (2000).
There is an easy vibe to his squabbling and bantering with one-time best friends Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton as the three of them sort out their relationships.
And Robin Williams is nicely restrained, for once, in the role of a priest counselling the young couple.
To justify the “Big” in the title, there is also Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses, 2008) as a brittle sister whose marriage is on the rocks, while Topher Grace (That ’70s Show, 1998-2006) rounds up the ensemble cast as a doctor brother still holding on to his virginity.
Writer-director Justin Zackham (writer for The Bucket List, 2007) works in secrets, revelations, punches and a touch of naughtiness before the de rigueur happy ending rolls around.
(ST)

2013 Spring Wave Music Festival
The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay
Last Saturday
Spring Wave swept into Singapore for the first time last Saturday.
And the popular Taiwanese music festival brought with it a swell line-up of artists, including indie queen Cheer Chen, rocker Wu Bai, popster Jam Hsiao, smoky-voiced Joanna Wang, pop-rocker Chang Chen-yue and home-grown singer Olivia Ong. Each performed a set between 30 and 40 minutes long.
According to the organiser, Taiwan’s Friendly Dog Entertainment, 5,000 people attended the concert.
First among the headliners to take the stage at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay shortly after 3pm was Ong. Dressed in a black and white sleeveless top and a yellow skirt, she offered some breezy pop to help beat the heat.
She sang her own material such as ballad When The Seas Run Dry And The Stones Go Soft and covered English pop numbers such as Venus. She also tested fate with Let It Rain but the weather held.
The early birds who braved the sun came armed with umbrellas, caps and wet wipes. One group came with its own shade.
Mr Sun Jianhang, 26, from Shenyang and working in the logistics industry here, brought along a blue and orange tent. This was the result of experience gleaned from attending past festivals, such as the Strawberry Music Festival in China, he said.
Teacher James Wong, 41, was there with three friends and they came well equipped with mats, food and even card games. He said: “The concert is a very long one. To outlast it, we thought we had to be more prepared.”
Apart from the line-up of artists, there was also a showcase segment for the Singapore Press Holdings- organised Singapore Entertainment Awards 2013 (see other story).
Taiwan’s Bai An was the only regional artist present to collect her trophies for Most Popular Regional Newcomer and Singapore Entertainment Awards Media Award – Newcomer of the Year.
She graced the stage in a little black dress and performed three songs from her debut album of electronica pop, The Catcher In The Rye (2012).
The Singapore singers on hand to receive their prizes were Ming Bridges for Best Local Singer and Best Local Album, as well as The Freshman duo – comprising Chen Diya and Carrie Yeo – for Best Local Lyrics.
Singer Wang, dressed in striking green, took the stage next. From Coins, “a sarcastic song about spending money”, to lilting ballad Apathy, she entertained with her brand of kooky musical story- telling. She even turned American rock band Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun into a whimsical ditty.
Rocker Chang then turned the dial up to party mode. With his infectious sing-along hits such as Love’s First Experience and Freedom, he had the crowd up on its feet and dancing happily along.
He was dressed in what looked like a light khaki safari suit and he cheekily shook his bum as a farewell gesture after his final number.
In contrast, the vibe for indie queen Cheer Chen’s set was mellow and chill, thanks to the sensitively wrought ruminations of tracks such as Jealousy and Travel With Sound. But the versatile musician proved that she could also pick up the pace when she had a go on the drums.
It was left to consummate showman Hsiao to really work the crowd and he did so with ease, pointing to fans when he sang “miss you, you, you” from Can Only Miss You.
He powered through rock numbers Princess and Holmes and sassed his way through Michael Jackson’s Black Or White.
Even the light drizzle could not dampen the mood and it gave Hsiao the opening to quip: “It’s raining so I have to go.”
Six hours after Ong, veteran rocker Wu Bai came on stage. He closed the evening with an invigorating blast of music, taking the audience from an explosive Volcano to anthemic Minnan number No. 1 In The World. The concert ended close to 10pm.
He revelled in the outdoor setting and acknowledged every segment of the crowd, from those in front to “those on the left of the left”.
At his command, he also set off the Mexican wave on the sea of green. And the fans roared in delight.
Among them was teacher Bernice Tan, 24, who said that it was a good experience overall. Given the variable weather, she added: “Maybe they can have some shelters if they have another one in future.”
While Spring had come and gone for the concertgoers, for those planning to boogie at the late-night dance party, there was still another Wave to ride.
(ST)

Stories Untold
JJ Lin
He made his debut in 2003 with Music Voyager and a decade later, local singer-songwriter JJ Lin is a star releasing his milestone 10th album.
From a fresh-faced boy singing about being Booksmart, the still-boyish singer is now a bankable entertainer who continues to have a knack for writing strong tunes even as his range broadens.
Take lead single The Dark Knight, a canny collaboration with Mayday’s Ashin. The rousing rock number does not lazily ride on superhero popularity but thoughtfully explores that world: “Why after catching all the thieves, with no robbery witnessed in years/Yet poverty is like a flood, drowning the dignity of survival/At the peak of civilisation, mankind and bats are back living in caves”.
Another singer-songwriter making an appearance is Taiwan-based Wang Leehom, who plays the violin for the dramatic pop of lone English track One Shot.
Even Lin’s family gets in on the act as his brother Eugene duets with him on the nostalgic Fly Back In Time. Fun fact: The brothers were part of Ocean Butterflies’ Very Singers’ Training Course in 1999.
Of course, Lin gets to shine on his own as well with a classy romantic ballad Practising Love and a cheerful slice of upbeat pop Here Because Of You.
Less successful is the gimmicky Remember Me A Thousand Years Later. The point of the song seems to be to spot where snatches of melody had previously appeared in his earlier works. The title helps you with one example with its reference to 2005’s A Thousand Years Later.
Aside from the odd little homage to himself, Stories Untold is mostly a solid effort from a consistently entertaining home-grown star.
(ST)

Identity Thief
Seth Gordon
The story: With a simple phone call, Diana (Melissa McCarthy) steals the identity of accountant Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) from Denver. She goes on a spending spree with his credit card information, lands him in trouble with the law and even jeopardises his new job. With his life spiralling out of control, Sandy has to travel to Florida and bring Diana back with him to clear his name.

Identity theft is committed by people who are actually good at heart, according to the makers of this film. The thieves are just a little bit lost and surely it is not their fault if they had a terrible childhood.
If you buy this, I know a Nigerian bank account you can send some money to in order to claim your lottery winnings.
The problem is not that the film makes light of a serious issue. It is that it does not do it well.
The first act of the film is essentially a convoluted set-up to justify Sandy and Diana travelling together. And in order to get them on a good old-fashioned road trip as opposed to a quick plane ride, some other lame reason is whipped up by screenwriter Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 4, 2006).
Not trusting Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, the Oscar-nominated breakout star of Bridesmaids (2011), to hold your attention, he overcooks the plot by throwing in a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick) and two gang members who are after Diana as well.
There is also an extended and unnecessary interlude with a cowboy character (Eric Stonestreet from sitcom Modern Family) Diana picks up in a bar.
The jokes mostly miss the mark and a lame one about Sandy being a girl’s name is, lamentably, repeated.
Bateman (TV’s Arrested Development, 2003-2006, 2013) and McCarthy are a riot when given good material.
But they struggle here to overcome the thin characterisation: Sandy is mostly mousey as the guy who plays by the rules while Diana is a pathological liar the moviegoer is abruptly asked to feel sympathy for at the end.
Director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, 2011) has to shoulder some of the blame as well for the film’s uneven tone and problematic pacing. There is even a makeover scene for Diana which is not just cliched but also gratuitous.
The biggest crime this movie is guilty of is stealing your time.
(ST)