Autumn: Stories
sodagreen
Finally, harvest season is here.
After releasing the luminous Daylight Of Spring and the briskly rocking Summer/Fever in 2009, sodagreen’s ambitious four seasons project hit a road block. Two of the feted indie band’s six members had to fulfil their military service obligations and it was only last year that they were back at full strength again.
In keeping with the season, the mood on this album is autumnal as summer slips away and leaves begin to fall. The use of traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu and flute lend a sense of melancholy to the record.
Lead vocalist and songwriter Ching-feng’s pristine voice shimmers and aches on When I’m Alone: “When I’m alone, it’s like I’ve dropped into a deep ravine/When I’m alone, it’s like the whole world’s lies have been laid bare.”
The light may be fading as the days grow shorter but that does not mean it is just gloominess ahead.
The Gleaners offers up this intriguing imagery of life’s cyclical nature: “Burning my childhood, burnt my youth, burn out my sunset years/Until we are asleep in the earth, continue to be buried as future roots.”
For a change, bassist Claire takes over vocal duties on the lighthearted Idle Wings, while drummer Wei has a turn at the mic on the more compelling We Walked A Light Year.
There are rich pickings here to slowly savour while we wait for Winter to approach.
(ST)
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Passion
Brian De Palma
The story: Advertising executive Christine (Rachel McAdams) always gets what she wants, be it in the boardroom or bedroom. When her subordinate Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) shows her up over an ad campaign and sleeps with her lover Dirk (Paul Anderson), Christine goes all out to take her down. Driven to the brink, Isabelle starts popping pills. Things escalate to the point of murder. A remake of the French psychological thriller Love Crime (2010).
Canadian actress Rachel McAdams has often been cast in the sweetheart role, from her breakout film romantic drama The Notebook (2004) to the recent romantic comedy About Time (2013).
But she actually first came to attention for playing a malicious queen bee in the comedy Mean Girls (2004). Here, she slips easily into the role of the scheming, sexually adventurous and vindictive Christine.
She is unapologetic when stealing credit for Isabelle’s idea and adds: “You have talent, I made the best use of it.”
Later, she kisses Isabelle in the back of a car and tells her that she loves her. How very European.
Noomi Rapace’s Isabelle is harder to read. She is Christine’s subordinate and is clearly envious of her life. To some extent, she falls for Dirk precisely because he is Christine’s lover.
Before the film ventures down the path of dark obsession trod by Single White Female (1992), however, it veers off in a different direction.
The undercurrent of rivalry between the two women surges into outright animosity as Christine publicly humiliates Isabelle and pushes her to the brink.
Director Brian De Palma starts using a different lighting scheme and, suddenly, every scene has striped shadows. Then he goes for a split-screen effect to depict Isabelle at the opera and Christine at home.
All of these signal that something momentous is about to happen, but it is still not fully persuasive when the film suddenly turns into a murder-mystery.
It is also rather trying when De Palma uses the cliched waking-from-a-dream device, not once, but twice, even if he does add a twist to it.
The director is best known for his suspense and thriller films from Carrie (1976) to Scarface (1983) to Mission: Impossible (1996). He has also helmed some duds from the high-profile adaptation The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990) to the crime flick The Black Dahlia (2006).
Passion, belonging to the latter category, is unlikely to win him much love.
(ST)
Brian De Palma
The story: Advertising executive Christine (Rachel McAdams) always gets what she wants, be it in the boardroom or bedroom. When her subordinate Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) shows her up over an ad campaign and sleeps with her lover Dirk (Paul Anderson), Christine goes all out to take her down. Driven to the brink, Isabelle starts popping pills. Things escalate to the point of murder. A remake of the French psychological thriller Love Crime (2010).
Canadian actress Rachel McAdams has often been cast in the sweetheart role, from her breakout film romantic drama The Notebook (2004) to the recent romantic comedy About Time (2013).
But she actually first came to attention for playing a malicious queen bee in the comedy Mean Girls (2004). Here, she slips easily into the role of the scheming, sexually adventurous and vindictive Christine.
She is unapologetic when stealing credit for Isabelle’s idea and adds: “You have talent, I made the best use of it.”
Later, she kisses Isabelle in the back of a car and tells her that she loves her. How very European.
Noomi Rapace’s Isabelle is harder to read. She is Christine’s subordinate and is clearly envious of her life. To some extent, she falls for Dirk precisely because he is Christine’s lover.
Before the film ventures down the path of dark obsession trod by Single White Female (1992), however, it veers off in a different direction.
The undercurrent of rivalry between the two women surges into outright animosity as Christine publicly humiliates Isabelle and pushes her to the brink.
Director Brian De Palma starts using a different lighting scheme and, suddenly, every scene has striped shadows. Then he goes for a split-screen effect to depict Isabelle at the opera and Christine at home.
All of these signal that something momentous is about to happen, but it is still not fully persuasive when the film suddenly turns into a murder-mystery.
It is also rather trying when De Palma uses the cliched waking-from-a-dream device, not once, but twice, even if he does add a twist to it.
The director is best known for his suspense and thriller films from Carrie (1976) to Scarface (1983) to Mission: Impossible (1996). He has also helmed some duds from the high-profile adaptation The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990) to the crime flick The Black Dahlia (2006).
Passion, belonging to the latter category, is unlikely to win him much love.
(ST)
Monday, October 28, 2013
S.H.E 2gether 4ever World Tour 2013
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
It was a night when tears flowed freely.
After a filming accident in October 2010 left S.H.E member Selina Jen with terrible burns, she faced a long road to recovery.
In November last year, the Taiwanese pop trio finally released their 11th studio album Blossomy. And with Jen, Hebe Tien and Ella Chen together on stage once more, S.H.E’s comeback is complete.
Jen had to undergo months of physiotherapy before she could even stand and walk. Last Saturday night, she danced and pranced about and commanded the stage with ease and the capacity crowd of 8,000 cheered her on.
The emotions got to her early on during her solo segment when she was singing Dreams. She started crying and could not continue for a while. When the song ended, she said: “I’m sorry, that’s the earliest I’ve cried while singing that song in concert.”
Their world tour started in Taipei in June and has taken them to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau as well as several cities in China. Singapore is the last leg of their tour.
After joking that fans could listen to the complete version of Dreams on disc, she thanked her supporters.
“I want to thank my fans for loving my flaws and my round face. When I was injured, your encouragement brought me back from the jaws of death.
“I couldn’t laugh, couldn’t run and jump, but I can do all that now. As long we’re alive, there’s hope, so never give up.”
Jen was later moved to tears again when Chen and Tien surprised her with an early birthday gift.
Jen, who turns 32 on Thursday, was handed a fake award for best television host from the other two. She took the opportunity to thank the important people in her life, from her husband and family to the doctors, who took care of her.
The concert did not just revolve around her though.
For her solo segment, Chen, who got married in May last year, laid to rest her former tomboyish image with a flapper-inspired gold number that showed off her sexy back.
She teased at one point that she had good news to share before adding: “I’m not pregnant yet.”
Among the three, Tien is the one who is a bona fide solo star with two well- received albums to her name. She performed Love and It’s OK To Be Lonely off the album To Hebe (2010) in a bohemian looking white dress with cascading hair to match.
While she was the most reserved on stage, it was also clear that the three women share a very close bond. And from their first album Girl’s Dorm (2001) till now, they have been through thick and thin together.
And through it all, they have been consistent hit-makers. They covered a good deal of ground at the gig from early favourite Underaged Lover to the Jay Chou-composed Tropical Rainforest to the playful Miss Universe.
And with two of the members now married, they seem to be more at ease with themselves and one another. Maybe it is because they no longer have to worry about being sweet young things and maintaining a dream-girl image. They joked about farting and boob size and Chen even kissed Tien and Jen in a bit of tomfoolery.
After all the tears that were shed, the three hour-plus-long concert ended close to midnight on a celebratory note.
The encore kicked off with Blossomy and they sang: “Finally, those you miss reunite/ Finally, all the injuries have healed/The flowers are blooming again, finally/My heart is again full of courage.”
They might have taken the words right out of their fans’ mouths.
(ST)
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
It was a night when tears flowed freely.
After a filming accident in October 2010 left S.H.E member Selina Jen with terrible burns, she faced a long road to recovery.
In November last year, the Taiwanese pop trio finally released their 11th studio album Blossomy. And with Jen, Hebe Tien and Ella Chen together on stage once more, S.H.E’s comeback is complete.
Jen had to undergo months of physiotherapy before she could even stand and walk. Last Saturday night, she danced and pranced about and commanded the stage with ease and the capacity crowd of 8,000 cheered her on.
The emotions got to her early on during her solo segment when she was singing Dreams. She started crying and could not continue for a while. When the song ended, she said: “I’m sorry, that’s the earliest I’ve cried while singing that song in concert.”
Their world tour started in Taipei in June and has taken them to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau as well as several cities in China. Singapore is the last leg of their tour.
After joking that fans could listen to the complete version of Dreams on disc, she thanked her supporters.
“I want to thank my fans for loving my flaws and my round face. When I was injured, your encouragement brought me back from the jaws of death.
“I couldn’t laugh, couldn’t run and jump, but I can do all that now. As long we’re alive, there’s hope, so never give up.”
Jen was later moved to tears again when Chen and Tien surprised her with an early birthday gift.
Jen, who turns 32 on Thursday, was handed a fake award for best television host from the other two. She took the opportunity to thank the important people in her life, from her husband and family to the doctors, who took care of her.
The concert did not just revolve around her though.
For her solo segment, Chen, who got married in May last year, laid to rest her former tomboyish image with a flapper-inspired gold number that showed off her sexy back.
She teased at one point that she had good news to share before adding: “I’m not pregnant yet.”
Among the three, Tien is the one who is a bona fide solo star with two well- received albums to her name. She performed Love and It’s OK To Be Lonely off the album To Hebe (2010) in a bohemian looking white dress with cascading hair to match.
While she was the most reserved on stage, it was also clear that the three women share a very close bond. And from their first album Girl’s Dorm (2001) till now, they have been through thick and thin together.
And through it all, they have been consistent hit-makers. They covered a good deal of ground at the gig from early favourite Underaged Lover to the Jay Chou-composed Tropical Rainforest to the playful Miss Universe.
And with two of the members now married, they seem to be more at ease with themselves and one another. Maybe it is because they no longer have to worry about being sweet young things and maintaining a dream-girl image. They joked about farting and boob size and Chen even kissed Tien and Jen in a bit of tomfoolery.
After all the tears that were shed, the three hour-plus-long concert ended close to midnight on a celebratory note.
The encore kicked off with Blossomy and they sang: “Finally, those you miss reunite/ Finally, all the injuries have healed/The flowers are blooming again, finally/My heart is again full of courage.”
They might have taken the words right out of their fans’ mouths.
(ST)
Thursday, October 24, 2013
A Low-Key Life
Sandee Chan
On her last album I Love You, John (2011), Taiwanese singer- songwriter-arranger-producer Sandee Chan showed a more playful side.
Her new work, A Low-Key Life, though, harks back to the darker-themed electronica of If There Is One Thing That Is Important (2008).
While she previously purred about loving John, here, she touches on infidelity on the track, Affair. She sings tenderly in the mid-tempo number: “Oh, we both know in our hearts who is more pitiful/Since it’s Sunday, hastily say a few words of penitence to myself.”
She ponders on Christine how deep love can be: “I shouldn’t fantasise that two people means twice the stability/Winning your heart doesn’t mean your soul is mine.”
It is not just romantic entanglements that occupy her. On Fickle, she has even weightier matters in mind: “When life and death are fickle, we need to rethink everything/Unease and reality are written into a beautiful antithesis.”
The music and vocals are soothing, but there is nothing low-key about the emotions and ideas.
(ST)
Sandee Chan
On her last album I Love You, John (2011), Taiwanese singer- songwriter-arranger-producer Sandee Chan showed a more playful side.
Her new work, A Low-Key Life, though, harks back to the darker-themed electronica of If There Is One Thing That Is Important (2008).
While she previously purred about loving John, here, she touches on infidelity on the track, Affair. She sings tenderly in the mid-tempo number: “Oh, we both know in our hearts who is more pitiful/Since it’s Sunday, hastily say a few words of penitence to myself.”
She ponders on Christine how deep love can be: “I shouldn’t fantasise that two people means twice the stability/Winning your heart doesn’t mean your soul is mine.”
It is not just romantic entanglements that occupy her. On Fickle, she has even weightier matters in mind: “When life and death are fickle, we need to rethink everything/Unease and reality are written into a beautiful antithesis.”
The music and vocals are soothing, but there is nothing low-key about the emotions and ideas.
(ST)
Carrie
Kimberly Peirce
The story: Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a misfit at high school and she is taunted by the other girls when she gets her first period in the showers. It seems too good to be true when a popular jock asks her to the prom and her deeply religious mother Margaret (Julianne Moore) warns: “They’re all going to laugh at you.” When they do, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic powers to horrific effect. This is the third film adaptation of the 1974 Stephen King novel of the same name.
Many a prom has been ruined by a dubious hairdo or what-was-I-thinking fashion choice. But in the history of disastrous proms, none can top the one in Carrie.
Even if you did not watch the classic 1976 version, you might have come across the unforgettable image of Sissy Spacek drenched in blood from head to toe in her prom dress. There was also a film made for television in 2002.
If not, the trailer helpfully sums up the entire arc of the latest film. The finale is a messy bloodbath in which Carrie unleashes her powers.
The problem is that the lead-up to this all-too- expected ending is simply not very interesting.
Director Kimberly Peirce is best known for the gender-bending romantic drama Boys Don’t Cry (1999), which won Hilary Swank a Best Actress Oscar. But here, she seems to have little idea of how to move the story forward. Everything is just too one-note.
Margaret is a sexually uptight religious nutjob and you know she is crazy because her hair looks like it is in desperate need of some tender loving conditioning care.
Her idea of mothering is shutting Carrie up in the “prayer closet” and filling her head with dark talk of sin.
Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right, 2010) makes her creepy, but there is something almost cartoonish about the role.
The rest of the characters are pretty much just plot devices from b****y mean girl Chris (Portia Doubleday) to Sue (Gabriella Wilde), who tries to make amends by getting her boyfriend to ask Carrie out.
At least Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 2, 2013) makes you care for Carrie as she blossoms from awkward to pretty, and you just wish she could be freed from her mother’s clutches.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the film is that it barely registers on the scare scale. Maybe telekinesis is too tame in this day and age.
Flying books and cracking mirrors do not offer much thrill when special effects are routinely employed to more dramatic effect in films these days.
Even when the ante is upped at the end with half the school getting butchered, the outcome still falls short of being truly terrifying.
(ST)
Kimberly Peirce
The story: Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a misfit at high school and she is taunted by the other girls when she gets her first period in the showers. It seems too good to be true when a popular jock asks her to the prom and her deeply religious mother Margaret (Julianne Moore) warns: “They’re all going to laugh at you.” When they do, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic powers to horrific effect. This is the third film adaptation of the 1974 Stephen King novel of the same name.
Many a prom has been ruined by a dubious hairdo or what-was-I-thinking fashion choice. But in the history of disastrous proms, none can top the one in Carrie.
Even if you did not watch the classic 1976 version, you might have come across the unforgettable image of Sissy Spacek drenched in blood from head to toe in her prom dress. There was also a film made for television in 2002.
If not, the trailer helpfully sums up the entire arc of the latest film. The finale is a messy bloodbath in which Carrie unleashes her powers.
The problem is that the lead-up to this all-too- expected ending is simply not very interesting.
Director Kimberly Peirce is best known for the gender-bending romantic drama Boys Don’t Cry (1999), which won Hilary Swank a Best Actress Oscar. But here, she seems to have little idea of how to move the story forward. Everything is just too one-note.
Margaret is a sexually uptight religious nutjob and you know she is crazy because her hair looks like it is in desperate need of some tender loving conditioning care.
Her idea of mothering is shutting Carrie up in the “prayer closet” and filling her head with dark talk of sin.
Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right, 2010) makes her creepy, but there is something almost cartoonish about the role.
The rest of the characters are pretty much just plot devices from b****y mean girl Chris (Portia Doubleday) to Sue (Gabriella Wilde), who tries to make amends by getting her boyfriend to ask Carrie out.
At least Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 2, 2013) makes you care for Carrie as she blossoms from awkward to pretty, and you just wish she could be freed from her mother’s clutches.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the film is that it barely registers on the scare scale. Maybe telekinesis is too tame in this day and age.
Flying books and cracking mirrors do not offer much thrill when special effects are routinely employed to more dramatic effect in films these days.
Even when the ante is upped at the end with half the school getting butchered, the outcome still falls short of being truly terrifying.
(ST)
Escape Plan
Mikael Hafstrom
The story: Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is a security expert who escapes from prisons to point out the flaws in them. For his latest assignment, he is planted inside a top-secret facility. Ray soon realises he has been incarcerated for good and will need the help of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to make his escape.
The action genre does not seem like a particularly kind one for older actors, given its rigorous physical demands.
And yet, SylvesterStallone, 67, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, 66, continue to shoot them up in cinemas as though it were the 1980s.
Recent titles featuring them such as The Expendables (2010) and The Last Stand (2013) served up action with a self-aware tone which poked fun at their ageing with references to aches and pains.
There are no such subtleties here.
Escape Plan is essentially a B-grade thriller with a straightforward high concept: Watch Sly and Arnie bust out of a state-of-the-art prison, which is as high concept as it gets for these two.
The cells are transparent and the inmates’ every move is monitored by cameras.
There are no openings to the outside world and they have no idea if it is day or night. The guards are masked and heavily armed. In the cramped isolation cells, they get blinded by blazing artificial light.
Yet there is never any doubt Arnie and Sly’s characters will escape. Still, there is a certain pleasure in watching how the carefully set-up hurdles are overcome one by one.
Just do not quibble too much over the plot details.
One of the challenges facing Sly, as security expert Ray Breslin, is that he has to figure out where the prison is located.
So he manages to improvise a sextant from a pair of spectacles and a pen which, miraculously enough, provides a detailed and accurate reading even though he had nothing to calibrate the rough-hewn instrument with.
This should definitely make it to the list of skills every camper needs.
What was also fun was watching the two veteran stars play off each other as they team up against the silkily menacing warden played by Jim Caviezel, currently one of the good guys on TV’s surveillance thriller Person Of Interest.
Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (The Rite, 2011) does a decent job with the pacing. He is also canny enough to give fans what they want, which means Sly and Arnie get to throw punches and also mow down the baddies with machine guns at some point.
It means you will not have to plot your own escape from the cinema hall before the movie is over.
(ST)
Mikael Hafstrom
The story: Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is a security expert who escapes from prisons to point out the flaws in them. For his latest assignment, he is planted inside a top-secret facility. Ray soon realises he has been incarcerated for good and will need the help of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to make his escape.
The action genre does not seem like a particularly kind one for older actors, given its rigorous physical demands.
And yet, SylvesterStallone, 67, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, 66, continue to shoot them up in cinemas as though it were the 1980s.
Recent titles featuring them such as The Expendables (2010) and The Last Stand (2013) served up action with a self-aware tone which poked fun at their ageing with references to aches and pains.
There are no such subtleties here.
Escape Plan is essentially a B-grade thriller with a straightforward high concept: Watch Sly and Arnie bust out of a state-of-the-art prison, which is as high concept as it gets for these two.
The cells are transparent and the inmates’ every move is monitored by cameras.
There are no openings to the outside world and they have no idea if it is day or night. The guards are masked and heavily armed. In the cramped isolation cells, they get blinded by blazing artificial light.
Yet there is never any doubt Arnie and Sly’s characters will escape. Still, there is a certain pleasure in watching how the carefully set-up hurdles are overcome one by one.
Just do not quibble too much over the plot details.
One of the challenges facing Sly, as security expert Ray Breslin, is that he has to figure out where the prison is located.
So he manages to improvise a sextant from a pair of spectacles and a pen which, miraculously enough, provides a detailed and accurate reading even though he had nothing to calibrate the rough-hewn instrument with.
This should definitely make it to the list of skills every camper needs.
What was also fun was watching the two veteran stars play off each other as they team up against the silkily menacing warden played by Jim Caviezel, currently one of the good guys on TV’s surveillance thriller Person Of Interest.
Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (The Rite, 2011) does a decent job with the pacing. He is also canny enough to give fans what they want, which means Sly and Arnie get to throw punches and also mow down the baddies with machine guns at some point.
It means you will not have to plot your own escape from the cinema hall before the movie is over.
(ST)
Friday, October 18, 2013
Fragile
Tizzy Bac
On their last album The Tell-Tale Heart (2011), Taiwanese indie band Tizzy Bac looked to master of the macabre, writer Edgar Allan Poe, for inspiration. This time around, it is the fragility of life that serves as muse.
There is a sense of urgency on synth-pop number One By One Oh We’re Gonna Die as lyricist and vocalist Chen Hui-ting warns “Don’t take it for granted and squander your youth and entire life” and “The colour of the story in the end will depend on the choices you’ve made”.
Existential angst is explored on This Is Because We Can Feel Pain: “Sometimes, standing in the face of terror/We need to get a grip and push on forward.”
The band are no one-note doomsday purveyors, though. Fragile is a rich and epic album that celebrates life as well.
Against a lush orchestral arrangement, gorgeous opener Tonight, Tonight, Tonight holds out an irresistible offer: “We can run away tonight, tonight, tonight/In the darkest night, the stars remain brilliant.”
Its sentiment is echoed in the closing number Armstrong’s One Small Step (I’ll See You In My Dream): “No matter how clamorous the world/Lift your head and you’ll reach the universe/In that vastness, I am a shimmer of light.”
May Tizzy Bac shine on.
(ST)
Tizzy Bac
On their last album The Tell-Tale Heart (2011), Taiwanese indie band Tizzy Bac looked to master of the macabre, writer Edgar Allan Poe, for inspiration. This time around, it is the fragility of life that serves as muse.
There is a sense of urgency on synth-pop number One By One Oh We’re Gonna Die as lyricist and vocalist Chen Hui-ting warns “Don’t take it for granted and squander your youth and entire life” and “The colour of the story in the end will depend on the choices you’ve made”.
Existential angst is explored on This Is Because We Can Feel Pain: “Sometimes, standing in the face of terror/We need to get a grip and push on forward.”
The band are no one-note doomsday purveyors, though. Fragile is a rich and epic album that celebrates life as well.
Against a lush orchestral arrangement, gorgeous opener Tonight, Tonight, Tonight holds out an irresistible offer: “We can run away tonight, tonight, tonight/In the darkest night, the stars remain brilliant.”
Its sentiment is echoed in the closing number Armstrong’s One Small Step (I’ll See You In My Dream): “No matter how clamorous the world/Lift your head and you’ll reach the universe/In that vastness, I am a shimmer of light.”
May Tizzy Bac shine on.
(ST)
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Plush
Catherine Hardwicke
The story: Plush frontwoman Hayley (Emily Browning) copes with the death of her brother and bandmate by writing songs about him. But the response to Plush’s new material is tepid. She works with replacement guitarist Enzo (Xavier Samuel) to give the songs some edge and their growing intimacy eventually turns sexual. Hayley, who is married with two young children, starts to pull back, but Enzo has other ideas.
This could have been a kinky little movie about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. But director Catherine Hardwicke tries to pack in too much and keeps shoving in the trappings of a thriller here.
Musical cues suggest something ominous is about to happen – and then nothing does. It gets a bit tiring after a few false starts.
For a while, Hayley’s downward spiral keeps one hooked. She might be married with children, but her behaviour is anything but wifely or maternal. Touring again to support a new album, she slips back into a hedonistic rock ’n’ roll lifestyle of boozing and sexual trysts with the replacement guitarist.
As played by Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, 2011), Hayley is largely a babydoll-faced cipher. Mostly, she exhibits questionable judgment. She even agrees to film an uncomfortably suggestive music video at her home, in the presence of her husband and children.
Given that the film is helmed by Hardwicke, the rather passive female character is something of a surprise. After all, the American film-maker is better known for films with stronger and more proactive women such as in youth drama Thirteen (2003) and in the fantasy Red Riding Hood (2011).
Instead, Enzo is the more fascinating role here, baiting both men and women with his bad boy rocker vibe. One could well imagine Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 2010) as the charismatic guitarist of some dark indie band.
Like a singer going disastrously off-key in a crescendo, the movie goes all haywire in its final act. The consequences of Hayley’s reckless behaviour come home to roost in a spectacularly ludicrous fashion.
It is so campy and over the top that you could end up laughing out loud. That is not a good sign when the film in question is not a comedy.
(ST)
Catherine Hardwicke
The story: Plush frontwoman Hayley (Emily Browning) copes with the death of her brother and bandmate by writing songs about him. But the response to Plush’s new material is tepid. She works with replacement guitarist Enzo (Xavier Samuel) to give the songs some edge and their growing intimacy eventually turns sexual. Hayley, who is married with two young children, starts to pull back, but Enzo has other ideas.
This could have been a kinky little movie about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. But director Catherine Hardwicke tries to pack in too much and keeps shoving in the trappings of a thriller here.
Musical cues suggest something ominous is about to happen – and then nothing does. It gets a bit tiring after a few false starts.
For a while, Hayley’s downward spiral keeps one hooked. She might be married with children, but her behaviour is anything but wifely or maternal. Touring again to support a new album, she slips back into a hedonistic rock ’n’ roll lifestyle of boozing and sexual trysts with the replacement guitarist.
As played by Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, 2011), Hayley is largely a babydoll-faced cipher. Mostly, she exhibits questionable judgment. She even agrees to film an uncomfortably suggestive music video at her home, in the presence of her husband and children.
Given that the film is helmed by Hardwicke, the rather passive female character is something of a surprise. After all, the American film-maker is better known for films with stronger and more proactive women such as in youth drama Thirteen (2003) and in the fantasy Red Riding Hood (2011).
Instead, Enzo is the more fascinating role here, baiting both men and women with his bad boy rocker vibe. One could well imagine Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 2010) as the charismatic guitarist of some dark indie band.
Like a singer going disastrously off-key in a crescendo, the movie goes all haywire in its final act. The consequences of Hayley’s reckless behaviour come home to roost in a spectacularly ludicrous fashion.
It is so campy and over the top that you could end up laughing out loud. That is not a good sign when the film in question is not a comedy.
(ST)
Friday, October 11, 2013
Distance Of Love
Tai Ai-ling
Taiwan’s Tai Ai-ling has had enough of tears. The singer, also known as Princess Ai, has made a career out of torch songs that plumb the depths of a broken heart on albums such as Tone (2010).
This time around, it is a cheerier-looking Tai that greets us on the lyric booklet. There are other breakthroughs as well: Searching For Right Person has her contributing lyrics for the first time. She sings: “Don’t come too close, leave some breathing space/ Be more patient, let me see your manly sincerity.”
The first single Time Of Love is also faster-paced than usual for her. Listen closely, though, and the lyrics are not quite as upbeat as you might imagine: “Men often declare love as an excuse/But in their hearts, they want to be bad.”
Still, she has not ditched emo ballads completely. The title track, for one, will be familiar territory for her fans. She trills in the chorus: “108,000 miles is the distance of love/A passionate past/Whitewashed memories are like paint that’s peeling off.”
Sounds like she is not quite ready to make a clean break with her musical past.
(ST)
Tai Ai-ling
Taiwan’s Tai Ai-ling has had enough of tears. The singer, also known as Princess Ai, has made a career out of torch songs that plumb the depths of a broken heart on albums such as Tone (2010).
This time around, it is a cheerier-looking Tai that greets us on the lyric booklet. There are other breakthroughs as well: Searching For Right Person has her contributing lyrics for the first time. She sings: “Don’t come too close, leave some breathing space/ Be more patient, let me see your manly sincerity.”
The first single Time Of Love is also faster-paced than usual for her. Listen closely, though, and the lyrics are not quite as upbeat as you might imagine: “Men often declare love as an excuse/But in their hearts, they want to be bad.”
Still, she has not ditched emo ballads completely. The title track, for one, will be familiar territory for her fans. She trills in the chorus: “108,000 miles is the distance of love/A passionate past/Whitewashed memories are like paint that’s peeling off.”
Sounds like she is not quite ready to make a clean break with her musical past.
(ST)
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Rhythm Of The Rain
Vincent Fang
Mandopop lyricist Vincent Fang would probably never name one of his songs Rhythm Of The Dramatically Convenient Rain, for its literalness would be abhorrent to his lyrical sensibility.
Yet in his directorial debut, he has made an incoherent film which literally features the rain – all the time.
The bland romance between rocker Allen (Alan Ko) and sensitive Yujie (Ginnie Han) is a washout and filled with pointless hurdles. It is a relationship so contrived, it is hard for the audience to feel invested in it even when Allen’s former bandmate Sharon (Vivian Hsu) and roommate Yile (Shi Xialong) complicate the picture.
Emotions, let alone lyricism, are also missing in the segment where Yile accompanies Yujie to Singapore for an important operation – it plays like a promo clip for medical tourism here.
The competition combining rock music, calligraphy and wushu, which Allen and his band take part in, only serves to give cross-disciplinary collaborations a bad name. Perhaps the mash-up might have worked better as lyrics in a song.
The movie ends with a music video that flashes back to Yujie’s first love (who cares?) and a revelation which is meant to feel poignant but merely feels like a pointless cheap trick.
Singer-actor Kuo’s puppydog earnestness is the sole saving grace here.
(ST)
Vincent Fang
Mandopop lyricist Vincent Fang would probably never name one of his songs Rhythm Of The Dramatically Convenient Rain, for its literalness would be abhorrent to his lyrical sensibility.
Yet in his directorial debut, he has made an incoherent film which literally features the rain – all the time.
The bland romance between rocker Allen (Alan Ko) and sensitive Yujie (Ginnie Han) is a washout and filled with pointless hurdles. It is a relationship so contrived, it is hard for the audience to feel invested in it even when Allen’s former bandmate Sharon (Vivian Hsu) and roommate Yile (Shi Xialong) complicate the picture.
Emotions, let alone lyricism, are also missing in the segment where Yile accompanies Yujie to Singapore for an important operation – it plays like a promo clip for medical tourism here.
The competition combining rock music, calligraphy and wushu, which Allen and his band take part in, only serves to give cross-disciplinary collaborations a bad name. Perhaps the mash-up might have worked better as lyrics in a song.
The movie ends with a music video that flashes back to Yujie’s first love (who cares?) and a revelation which is meant to feel poignant but merely feels like a pointless cheap trick.
Singer-actor Kuo’s puppydog earnestness is the sole saving grace here.
(ST)
Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen
The story: After her philandering husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for his dubious business dealings, high-flying New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) falls on hard times. She heads to San Francisco to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and later meets a very eligible aspiring congressman, Dwight Westlake (Peter Sarsgaard).
Although it is not billed as such, Blue Jasmine is very much Woody Allen’s take on Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize- winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
The prolific film-maker has transplanted the story from New Orleans to San Francisco while keeping the key characters intact.
Fragile southern belle Blanche DuBois is now shaky ex-socialite Jasmine and supportive sister Stella is sympathetic sister Ginger. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley (Marlon Brando’s breakout star turn in the 1951 film adaptation) is Ginger’s boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).
The work may seem at first too dark and heavy for Allen’s sensibility. He is, after all, known for ensemble pieces which delve lightly into romance and comedy in films such as To Rome With Love (2012), Midnight In Paris (2011) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996).
But his lightness of touch in the upbeat jazzy score and the touches of humour are a nice counterpoint to Jasmine’s unravelling.
Also, Allen does not stick slavishly to Streetcar’s plot. While Jasmine clashes with Chili, their relationship does not quite collide the way it does in Streetcar.
The director also holds out the promise of a happy ending for Jasmine in the form of the perfect Dwight, though eventually that unravels as well.
Everything hinges upon Jasmine’s unhinging and Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal, 2006) powers the film with her performance. An early clue that all is not quite right with her is the fact that she talks the ear off a reluctant fellow passenger.
Jasmine flits between denial and delusion and seems to have a rather tenuous grasp of the unpleasant present. The use of constant flashbacks to her moneyed tai-tai days mirrors how she easily slips into the past.
She is not the easiest person to get along with, with her posh airs and insensitive jibes about her sister’s life. Then there is also the awkward episode of a failed investment of Ginger (an engaging Sally Hawkins) and her ex-husband’s lottery winnings.
And yet, Blanchett also shows you the vulnerability of a woman buckling under pressure and anxiety.
Crucially, she does this without overacting, unlike, say Jessica Lange as Blanche in the 1995 television film adaptation of Streetcar.
Even a late twist in the tale does not diminish one’s sympathy for Jasmine and your heart goes out to her in the understatedly moving final scene.
(ST)
Woody Allen
The story: After her philandering husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for his dubious business dealings, high-flying New York socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) falls on hard times. She heads to San Francisco to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and later meets a very eligible aspiring congressman, Dwight Westlake (Peter Sarsgaard).
Although it is not billed as such, Blue Jasmine is very much Woody Allen’s take on Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize- winning play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).
The prolific film-maker has transplanted the story from New Orleans to San Francisco while keeping the key characters intact.
Fragile southern belle Blanche DuBois is now shaky ex-socialite Jasmine and supportive sister Stella is sympathetic sister Ginger. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley (Marlon Brando’s breakout star turn in the 1951 film adaptation) is Ginger’s boyfriend Chili (Bobby Cannavale).
The work may seem at first too dark and heavy for Allen’s sensibility. He is, after all, known for ensemble pieces which delve lightly into romance and comedy in films such as To Rome With Love (2012), Midnight In Paris (2011) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996).
But his lightness of touch in the upbeat jazzy score and the touches of humour are a nice counterpoint to Jasmine’s unravelling.
Also, Allen does not stick slavishly to Streetcar’s plot. While Jasmine clashes with Chili, their relationship does not quite collide the way it does in Streetcar.
The director also holds out the promise of a happy ending for Jasmine in the form of the perfect Dwight, though eventually that unravels as well.
Everything hinges upon Jasmine’s unhinging and Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal, 2006) powers the film with her performance. An early clue that all is not quite right with her is the fact that she talks the ear off a reluctant fellow passenger.
Jasmine flits between denial and delusion and seems to have a rather tenuous grasp of the unpleasant present. The use of constant flashbacks to her moneyed tai-tai days mirrors how she easily slips into the past.
She is not the easiest person to get along with, with her posh airs and insensitive jibes about her sister’s life. Then there is also the awkward episode of a failed investment of Ginger (an engaging Sally Hawkins) and her ex-husband’s lottery winnings.
And yet, Blanchett also shows you the vulnerability of a woman buckling under pressure and anxiety.
Crucially, she does this without overacting, unlike, say Jessica Lange as Blanche in the 1995 television film adaptation of Streetcar.
Even a late twist in the tale does not diminish one’s sympathy for Jasmine and your heart goes out to her in the understatedly moving final scene.
(ST)
Tokyo Family
Yoji Yamada
The story: An old married couple Shukichi (Isao Hashizume, far right) and Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki, right) travel to Tokyo to visit their three children. Eldest son Koichi (Masahiko Nishimura) runs a medical clinic, daughter Shigeko (Tomoko Nakajima) runs a neighbourhood hair salon and youngest son Shuji (Satoshi Tsumabuki, right seated) does set design for theatre. When Tomiko visits Shuji’s apartment, she is introduced to his fiancee Noriko (Yu Aoi).
Tokyo Story (1953) is often regarded as Japanese film-maker Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece and frequently appears on critics’ list of the greatest films of all time. In the authoritative British film magazine Sight & Sound’s once-every-decade critics’ poll, the black- and-white drama was third in 1992, fifth in 2002 and third again last year.
In other words, it is a daunting film to remake.
Fittingly, the director attempting it is someone of the stature of Yoji Yamada, best known for the long-running series of Tora-san films about a kind-hearted, unlucky-in-love vagabond, a cultural phenomenon spanning 48 films.
Not only that, he had also worked as assistant director on Tokyo Story and calls Ozu his teacher.
Tokyo Family stands on its own, and stands tall.
It was co-written by Yamada and Emiko Hiramatsu and keeps closely to Story in the plot and in terms of tone and sensibility. The focus is on family relationships and everything unfolds unhurriedly as the camera observes unobtrusively.
On the surface, not much happens. An old couple travel to Tokyo to visit their children, who try to fit them into their packed schedules. Quiet moments of interaction speak volumes.
Packed off to a seaside hotel by their oh-so-busy children, the elderly couple soon get bored. Tomiko remarks: “It’s hard to sleep in a wonderful bed like this.” She would rather enjoy the comforting warmth of a bed in her children’s homes.
While daughter Shigeko can be selfish and insensitive, there are no villains here.
Little episodes offer insights into the frustrations of the characters. At one point, Shukichi faces the threat of having nowhere to sleep for a night and ends up getting drunk at a pub with an old friend. He confesses: “What do I have to be happy about?”
There are moments of sweetness as well as when Tomiko stays at Shuji’s place and mother and son share a conversation about their other halves. The character of Shuji is a new addition as Noriko was a widow in the earlier film.
In Story, there was a pointed contrast between the kindness Noriko shows the old couple compared to how their children treat them. This time around, in addition to the Noriko, there is also Shuji. In the end, the unambitious son comes to be appreciated by his outwardly gruff father for his good-hearted nature.
True to the film’s tone, Yamada updates Family with subtle touches to ground it in modern-day Japan – a cab with a GPS navigation system, a Mandarin announcement at the train station to Chinese tourists.
The acting seems at first to be a bit stilted, as if in overt homage to an earlier period of film-making, but it turns out to be a way of marking generational differences in behaviour.
The cast is uniformly good, from Kazuko Yoshiyuki (Departures, 2008) as the sweet mother to Satoshi Tsumabuki (Waterboys, 2001) as the laidback Shuji. They make you feel like you have spent time with an actual family – and make you think about your own.
(ST)
Yoji Yamada
The story: An old married couple Shukichi (Isao Hashizume, far right) and Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki, right) travel to Tokyo to visit their three children. Eldest son Koichi (Masahiko Nishimura) runs a medical clinic, daughter Shigeko (Tomoko Nakajima) runs a neighbourhood hair salon and youngest son Shuji (Satoshi Tsumabuki, right seated) does set design for theatre. When Tomiko visits Shuji’s apartment, she is introduced to his fiancee Noriko (Yu Aoi).
Tokyo Story (1953) is often regarded as Japanese film-maker Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece and frequently appears on critics’ list of the greatest films of all time. In the authoritative British film magazine Sight & Sound’s once-every-decade critics’ poll, the black- and-white drama was third in 1992, fifth in 2002 and third again last year.
In other words, it is a daunting film to remake.
Fittingly, the director attempting it is someone of the stature of Yoji Yamada, best known for the long-running series of Tora-san films about a kind-hearted, unlucky-in-love vagabond, a cultural phenomenon spanning 48 films.
Not only that, he had also worked as assistant director on Tokyo Story and calls Ozu his teacher.
Tokyo Family stands on its own, and stands tall.
It was co-written by Yamada and Emiko Hiramatsu and keeps closely to Story in the plot and in terms of tone and sensibility. The focus is on family relationships and everything unfolds unhurriedly as the camera observes unobtrusively.
On the surface, not much happens. An old couple travel to Tokyo to visit their children, who try to fit them into their packed schedules. Quiet moments of interaction speak volumes.
Packed off to a seaside hotel by their oh-so-busy children, the elderly couple soon get bored. Tomiko remarks: “It’s hard to sleep in a wonderful bed like this.” She would rather enjoy the comforting warmth of a bed in her children’s homes.
While daughter Shigeko can be selfish and insensitive, there are no villains here.
Little episodes offer insights into the frustrations of the characters. At one point, Shukichi faces the threat of having nowhere to sleep for a night and ends up getting drunk at a pub with an old friend. He confesses: “What do I have to be happy about?”
There are moments of sweetness as well as when Tomiko stays at Shuji’s place and mother and son share a conversation about their other halves. The character of Shuji is a new addition as Noriko was a widow in the earlier film.
In Story, there was a pointed contrast between the kindness Noriko shows the old couple compared to how their children treat them. This time around, in addition to the Noriko, there is also Shuji. In the end, the unambitious son comes to be appreciated by his outwardly gruff father for his good-hearted nature.
True to the film’s tone, Yamada updates Family with subtle touches to ground it in modern-day Japan – a cab with a GPS navigation system, a Mandarin announcement at the train station to Chinese tourists.
The acting seems at first to be a bit stilted, as if in overt homage to an earlier period of film-making, but it turns out to be a way of marking generational differences in behaviour.
The cast is uniformly good, from Kazuko Yoshiyuki (Departures, 2008) as the sweet mother to Satoshi Tsumabuki (Waterboys, 2001) as the laidback Shuji. They make you feel like you have spent time with an actual family – and make you think about your own.
(ST)
Friday, October 04, 2013
Angel Wings
Rainie Yang
On her eighth studio album, Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang takes flight.
She has grown more confident, particularly over the course of the last three records, and sounds more alluring than the thin-voiced girl of the past.
Strangely enough, she is also sounding more and more like fellow popster Jolin Tsai. But while Tsai has been dancing up a storm, Yang has gone for ballads and mid-tempo numbers.
On the track Brave Love, there is a mix of bravura and vulnerability as she sings: “Just shout out loud, it’s good to be brave/Let me cry and let me fuss, let me understand suffering.”
Fish Gills, meanwhile, features some vivid imagery courtesy of Singaporean lyricist Xiaohan: “It’s as though my heart has grown gills, waking after oxygenation/Red blood is waiting, I just want to bid you goodbye wordlessly.”
Her musical journey seems to be reflected in the light-hearted Cleverness.
She croons: “Sometimes I’m sad, but I don’t cry/Still love roses, but not ambiguity (aimei)/Maybe this feeling is called growing up.” Aimei (My Intuition) is the title of her first solo album in 2005.
There is also a hopeful line in the lyrics, which goes: “Maybe, maybe, maybe/ It’s really wonderful now.” Given that Angel Wings has thus far spent four weeks on top of the authoritative G-Music album chart in Taiwan, this is not just wishful thinking on her part.
(ST)
Rainie Yang
On her eighth studio album, Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang takes flight.
She has grown more confident, particularly over the course of the last three records, and sounds more alluring than the thin-voiced girl of the past.
Strangely enough, she is also sounding more and more like fellow popster Jolin Tsai. But while Tsai has been dancing up a storm, Yang has gone for ballads and mid-tempo numbers.
On the track Brave Love, there is a mix of bravura and vulnerability as she sings: “Just shout out loud, it’s good to be brave/Let me cry and let me fuss, let me understand suffering.”
Fish Gills, meanwhile, features some vivid imagery courtesy of Singaporean lyricist Xiaohan: “It’s as though my heart has grown gills, waking after oxygenation/Red blood is waiting, I just want to bid you goodbye wordlessly.”
Her musical journey seems to be reflected in the light-hearted Cleverness.
She croons: “Sometimes I’m sad, but I don’t cry/Still love roses, but not ambiguity (aimei)/Maybe this feeling is called growing up.” Aimei (My Intuition) is the title of her first solo album in 2005.
There is also a hopeful line in the lyrics, which goes: “Maybe, maybe, maybe/ It’s really wonderful now.” Given that Angel Wings has thus far spent four weeks on top of the authoritative G-Music album chart in Taiwan, this is not just wishful thinking on her part.
(ST)
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Insidious: Chapter 2
James Wan
The story: In the first film, Insidious (2011), Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) had to free their young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from demonic possession. The sequel picks up soon after the family relocate to live with Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey). Before long, strange things are happening again and ghostly figures appear.
There is a new master of horror and his name is James Wan. From the grisly Saw franchise to supernatural flicks Insidious and The Conjuring (2013), the Australian film-maker has a knack for, well, conjuring scares, and box-office hits, from modest budgets. Hollywood producers must love him.
His high productivity is another factor in his favour. Insidious: Chapter 2 hits screens just two months after The Conjuring.
Those who missed the first instalment need not worry. A police interview with Renai gives a quick summary of what happened previously.
Here, Wan’s grab-bag of tricks includes creaking doors, sudden loud noises and discordant music. Not exactly new but he does a decent job of maintaining a suspenseful, creepy atmosphere.
Some of it is in the set-up. When Josh and Renai’s two young boys are shown playing with a tin-can telephone, you just know, and hence anticipate, that the innocuous object will turn up again in some eerie scenario. The prop is used another time, albeit in a different context and hence, in a less expected manner.
Wan also plays with your expectations in other ways. In the case of a piano that seems to be playing itself, the reason is not as sinister as one might imagine.
There is also some interesting time-looping going on here. The film opens with video footage of a young Josh as he is questioned by a medium trying to find out what is haunting him. Events unfolding in the present eventually shed light on what takes place in that video.
In addition to the child-in-peril plot carried over from the first film, scriptwriter Leigh Whannell (Saw, 2004, and Insidious) adds another layer of unease. Is Josh who he says he is or has he been possessed by some malevolent force?
The cast is competent, from Rose Byrne (I Give It A Year, 2013) as the frazzled wife and mother, to Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, 2009) as the increasingly maniacal Josh. There are also some tension- relieving comic moments, courtesy of ghostbusting duo Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).
As the title suggests, and the ending confirms, Wan and Whannell are not quite ready to close the book on this horror tale yet.
(ST)
James Wan
The story: In the first film, Insidious (2011), Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) had to free their young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from demonic possession. The sequel picks up soon after the family relocate to live with Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey). Before long, strange things are happening again and ghostly figures appear.
There is a new master of horror and his name is James Wan. From the grisly Saw franchise to supernatural flicks Insidious and The Conjuring (2013), the Australian film-maker has a knack for, well, conjuring scares, and box-office hits, from modest budgets. Hollywood producers must love him.
His high productivity is another factor in his favour. Insidious: Chapter 2 hits screens just two months after The Conjuring.
Those who missed the first instalment need not worry. A police interview with Renai gives a quick summary of what happened previously.
Here, Wan’s grab-bag of tricks includes creaking doors, sudden loud noises and discordant music. Not exactly new but he does a decent job of maintaining a suspenseful, creepy atmosphere.
Some of it is in the set-up. When Josh and Renai’s two young boys are shown playing with a tin-can telephone, you just know, and hence anticipate, that the innocuous object will turn up again in some eerie scenario. The prop is used another time, albeit in a different context and hence, in a less expected manner.
Wan also plays with your expectations in other ways. In the case of a piano that seems to be playing itself, the reason is not as sinister as one might imagine.
There is also some interesting time-looping going on here. The film opens with video footage of a young Josh as he is questioned by a medium trying to find out what is haunting him. Events unfolding in the present eventually shed light on what takes place in that video.
In addition to the child-in-peril plot carried over from the first film, scriptwriter Leigh Whannell (Saw, 2004, and Insidious) adds another layer of unease. Is Josh who he says he is or has he been possessed by some malevolent force?
The cast is competent, from Rose Byrne (I Give It A Year, 2013) as the frazzled wife and mother, to Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, 2009) as the increasingly maniacal Josh. There are also some tension- relieving comic moments, courtesy of ghostbusting duo Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).
As the title suggests, and the ending confirms, Wan and Whannell are not quite ready to close the book on this horror tale yet.
(ST)
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