I’m Singing
Shennio Lin
Eight years after she emerged as the first runner-up on the third season of singing contest One Million Star, Taiwan’s Shennio Lin finally releases her first EP, whose title seems to be answering the question on the minds of whatever fans she has left.
Yes, she is still singing and, in fact, shining in mid-tempo ballads as they showcase her porous and emotionally evocative voice.
On Remembering You, reportedly based on her experience of having her boyfriend cheat on her with one of her best friends, the mood is more of sorrow than anger. She sings: “It’s not that I thought too much, the clues were all there/You loved me once/But in the end, you chose not to tell me.”
On the mesmerising A Better Tomorrow, she laments: “Later, later, time is like a thief/City lights have drowned out the starlight.”
The four-track EP also includes Waiting For Someone, the hit theme song of the romantic dramedy Cafe. Waiting. Love (2014), but not the Mandarin version of the mega-popular track Let It Go that she performed for the release of the animated film Frozen in Taiwan in 2013. On the Disney tune, she holds her own compared to original singer Idina Menzel, showing that she can belt it out without oversinging.
The important thing here, as the title proclaims, is that Lin is singing and there is the promise of more to come.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
The Angry Birds Movie
Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
The story: On idyllic Bird Island, the avian denizens are flightless and, mostly, happy. Because of an outburst at work, Red (Jason Sudeikis) is sentenced to anger management therapy, where he meets hyper Chuck (Josh Gad) and short-fused Bomb (Danny McBride). When Leonard (Bill Hader) sails over from Piggy Island, everyone is charmed at first. Then all the eggs get stolen and Red has to tap into the anger of the birds to launch a counter-attack on the thieving pigs.
Quick personality test. If you are upset about something, you:
A) Keep it all in and then explode in one go.
B) Have an urge to smash into things at great speed.
C) Destroy anything and everything in your path.
D) Have an urge to snack on eggs.
If your answer is A, B or C and you can also point to the specific bird associated with these angry types (A: Bomb, B: Chuck, C: Mighty Eagle), then, clearly, you are familiar with the Angry Birds game.
If you answered D, you are a pig – in the context of the film.
While the movie is probably a little more fun for players of the Rovio game – one of the most popular in the world since it was released in December 2009 for mobile phones – it is entertaining enough even for those who have no clue what the fuss is about.
The humour here is of the irreverent, anything-goes variety, so there are gags about anger management therapy involving yoga poses and confessional poetry, pigs performing country music and a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror flick The Shining (1980).
There is even a character arc for Red, who goes from an outcast teased for his bushy eyebrows to a reluctant hero who gets accepted for who he is.
Not bad considering he started out getting flung from a slingshot ad nauseam in a game.
Films based on video games have not set a very high bar in the past with clunkers such as Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li (2009).
The Angry Birds Movie is at least unlikely to ruffle your feathers or have you blowing up in anger.
(ST)
Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
The story: On idyllic Bird Island, the avian denizens are flightless and, mostly, happy. Because of an outburst at work, Red (Jason Sudeikis) is sentenced to anger management therapy, where he meets hyper Chuck (Josh Gad) and short-fused Bomb (Danny McBride). When Leonard (Bill Hader) sails over from Piggy Island, everyone is charmed at first. Then all the eggs get stolen and Red has to tap into the anger of the birds to launch a counter-attack on the thieving pigs.
Quick personality test. If you are upset about something, you:
A) Keep it all in and then explode in one go.
B) Have an urge to smash into things at great speed.
C) Destroy anything and everything in your path.
D) Have an urge to snack on eggs.
If your answer is A, B or C and you can also point to the specific bird associated with these angry types (A: Bomb, B: Chuck, C: Mighty Eagle), then, clearly, you are familiar with the Angry Birds game.
If you answered D, you are a pig – in the context of the film.
While the movie is probably a little more fun for players of the Rovio game – one of the most popular in the world since it was released in December 2009 for mobile phones – it is entertaining enough even for those who have no clue what the fuss is about.
The humour here is of the irreverent, anything-goes variety, so there are gags about anger management therapy involving yoga poses and confessional poetry, pigs performing country music and a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror flick The Shining (1980).
There is even a character arc for Red, who goes from an outcast teased for his bushy eyebrows to a reluctant hero who gets accepted for who he is.
Not bad considering he started out getting flung from a slingshot ad nauseam in a game.
Films based on video games have not set a very high bar in the past with clunkers such as Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li (2009).
The Angry Birds Movie is at least unlikely to ruffle your feathers or have you blowing up in anger.
(ST)
Monday, May 23, 2016
Emily The Musical
Musical Theatre Ltd
School of the Arts Studio Theatre/ Last Friday
Stella Kon’s Emily Of Emerald Hill is an enduring dramatic work that has been repeatedly staged since 1984, with performers such as Leow Puay Tin, Margaret Chan and Ivan Heng stepping into her beaded slippers.
While they have shown theatregoers different sides to the Peranakan matriarch – imperious, maternal, vulnerable – she has always remained compelling.
In the latest re-imagining of the monodrama as a musical, theatregoers got one that seemed somehow diminished.
Partly, it was a consequence of the production expanding the story. Previously, it was just Emily alone, dominating the stage and the story of her transformation from naive 14-year-old bride to iron-willed woman of the house.
With a full-fledged cast of actors now parading across the simple stage depicting the interior of the house on Emerald Hill, that feeling of conspiratorial intimacy with Emily was lost. It also did not help that she was played by three actresses at different stages in her life: Melissa Wei-En Hecker in her youth, April Kong in her prime and Karen Lim in her old age.
In the programme, Kon, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical, says she was curious about the other characters. But it turns out that they were not very interesting.
Theatregoers got to see Kheong (Ian Chionh), Emily’s husband, in the flesh, but learnt precious little about him. And then in a rather jarring moment, he was suddenly gushing about another woman in song.
Mei Choon (Jasmine Blundell), girlfriend of Emily’s grandson, was essentially a sounding board for the older Emily. Unfortunately, she was prone to inane comments and the romance between her and the grandson was a yawn.
The dialogue tended to be clunky, which was also a problem for the lyrics. While there was a welcome attempt to insert some Peranakan patois into the songs, the lyrics were often too plain and lacking in wit and surprise.
The songs were not helped by the singers going off-key (or else there were some odd modulations going on in composer Desmond Moey’s score).
Some of director Sonny Lim’s staging decisions seemed a little strange, including an awkward ballad between a young Emily and her father which featured an inordinate amount of hand-holding between the two.
In the end, it seemed that the too-neat lesson Emily had to learn was this: If you love somebody, set him free, a point hammered home in a repeated anecdote about holding a bird in one’s hand.
The re-imagining might not be a triumph, but if there is anything theatregoers have learnt about Emily, it is that she has an indomitable spirit. She will be back, in one form or another.
(ST)
Musical Theatre Ltd
School of the Arts Studio Theatre/ Last Friday
Stella Kon’s Emily Of Emerald Hill is an enduring dramatic work that has been repeatedly staged since 1984, with performers such as Leow Puay Tin, Margaret Chan and Ivan Heng stepping into her beaded slippers.
While they have shown theatregoers different sides to the Peranakan matriarch – imperious, maternal, vulnerable – she has always remained compelling.
In the latest re-imagining of the monodrama as a musical, theatregoers got one that seemed somehow diminished.
Partly, it was a consequence of the production expanding the story. Previously, it was just Emily alone, dominating the stage and the story of her transformation from naive 14-year-old bride to iron-willed woman of the house.
With a full-fledged cast of actors now parading across the simple stage depicting the interior of the house on Emerald Hill, that feeling of conspiratorial intimacy with Emily was lost. It also did not help that she was played by three actresses at different stages in her life: Melissa Wei-En Hecker in her youth, April Kong in her prime and Karen Lim in her old age.
In the programme, Kon, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical, says she was curious about the other characters. But it turns out that they were not very interesting.
Theatregoers got to see Kheong (Ian Chionh), Emily’s husband, in the flesh, but learnt precious little about him. And then in a rather jarring moment, he was suddenly gushing about another woman in song.
Mei Choon (Jasmine Blundell), girlfriend of Emily’s grandson, was essentially a sounding board for the older Emily. Unfortunately, she was prone to inane comments and the romance between her and the grandson was a yawn.
The dialogue tended to be clunky, which was also a problem for the lyrics. While there was a welcome attempt to insert some Peranakan patois into the songs, the lyrics were often too plain and lacking in wit and surprise.
The songs were not helped by the singers going off-key (or else there were some odd modulations going on in composer Desmond Moey’s score).
Some of director Sonny Lim’s staging decisions seemed a little strange, including an awkward ballad between a young Emily and her father which featured an inordinate amount of hand-holding between the two.
In the end, it seemed that the too-neat lesson Emily had to learn was this: If you love somebody, set him free, a point hammered home in a repeated anecdote about holding a bird in one’s hand.
The re-imagining might not be a triumph, but if there is anything theatregoers have learnt about Emily, it is that she has an indomitable spirit. She will be back, in one form or another.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Stone Cafe
Leah Dou
With Mandopop queen Faye Wong and Chinese singer-songwriter Dou Wei as her parents, it is pretty much a given that music would flow through the veins of Leah Dou.
At 19, she has released her first album, one that neatly sidesteps comparisons with her mother as it is entirely in English.
Clearly, English is her first language in a way that it is not her mother’s, judging by Wong’s handful of tracks in that tongue, including Eyes On Me.
Vocally, they do not sound the same either. Wong’s pristine, ethereal pipes are unique, although Dou’s voice has its own pull – less delicate and a little more earthy.
She has had a hand in writing all the material, which is indie-pop territory that steers clear of mainstream Mandopop.
Opening track My Days chugs along easily at mid-tempo in which she professes: “I dream in a different kind of way.” Dreaming Of Gregory takes an unusual melodic turn in the chorus.
She might be a teenager, but there is definitely a grown-up vibe to some of the material.
On the slinky Bitter Sweet, she urges: “Lay your hands on me/Give me just enough so it’s hard to breathe.”
This is not an album that is easy to listen to at one go as some of it feels a little indulgent.
Think of this as a new Cafe with potential, albeit one that needs some more tinkering.
(ST)
Leah Dou
With Mandopop queen Faye Wong and Chinese singer-songwriter Dou Wei as her parents, it is pretty much a given that music would flow through the veins of Leah Dou.
At 19, she has released her first album, one that neatly sidesteps comparisons with her mother as it is entirely in English.
Clearly, English is her first language in a way that it is not her mother’s, judging by Wong’s handful of tracks in that tongue, including Eyes On Me.
Vocally, they do not sound the same either. Wong’s pristine, ethereal pipes are unique, although Dou’s voice has its own pull – less delicate and a little more earthy.
She has had a hand in writing all the material, which is indie-pop territory that steers clear of mainstream Mandopop.
Opening track My Days chugs along easily at mid-tempo in which she professes: “I dream in a different kind of way.” Dreaming Of Gregory takes an unusual melodic turn in the chorus.
She might be a teenager, but there is definitely a grown-up vibe to some of the material.
On the slinky Bitter Sweet, she urges: “Lay your hands on me/Give me just enough so it’s hard to breathe.”
This is not an album that is easy to listen to at one go as some of it feels a little indulgent.
Think of this as a new Cafe with potential, albeit one that needs some more tinkering.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Growing Up
The Freshman
The first song from the album most fans would probably have heard is the ballad Holding On, as it was used in the recent Channel 8 drama, The Queen.
Beautiful and moving, the track has been making its way up local radio charts and deservedly so.
Regrets linger over a hook that draws you in: “Can’t let go of all the things I didn’t say to you/So much more I want to say/How are you, can you hear me, miss you.”
On their second full-length album after debut Life Experiment 101 (2010) and EP The Dazy Eyes (2012), local duo The Freshman – comprising Project Superstar alumnae Chen Diya and Carrie Yeo – deal with all manner of growing pains while remaining steadfastly optimistic.
Over strumming guitars, Some Days begins on a note of innocence lost: “When I was little, I yearned for so much/Used to hold promises so dearly”. But the refrain, in English, spurs one on with “No, don’t give up”.
Meanwhile, the singer-songwriters’ effervescence finds an outlet on numbers such as Easy Does It and Sophomore’s Dream, which offer perky tunes and lyrics with a sense of fun (“Eat prata with me if you can’t sleep/Don’t ignore my calls”).
The pivotal title track in this consistently engaging album ends with a poignant plea: “The one who loves me, the one I love/Never change again.”
It is followed by the beguiling Bird, which quietly contemplates the cyclical rhythm of life. And so The Freshman gently take flight.
(ST)
The Freshman
The first song from the album most fans would probably have heard is the ballad Holding On, as it was used in the recent Channel 8 drama, The Queen.
Beautiful and moving, the track has been making its way up local radio charts and deservedly so.
Regrets linger over a hook that draws you in: “Can’t let go of all the things I didn’t say to you/So much more I want to say/How are you, can you hear me, miss you.”
On their second full-length album after debut Life Experiment 101 (2010) and EP The Dazy Eyes (2012), local duo The Freshman – comprising Project Superstar alumnae Chen Diya and Carrie Yeo – deal with all manner of growing pains while remaining steadfastly optimistic.
Over strumming guitars, Some Days begins on a note of innocence lost: “When I was little, I yearned for so much/Used to hold promises so dearly”. But the refrain, in English, spurs one on with “No, don’t give up”.
Meanwhile, the singer-songwriters’ effervescence finds an outlet on numbers such as Easy Does It and Sophomore’s Dream, which offer perky tunes and lyrics with a sense of fun (“Eat prata with me if you can’t sleep/Don’t ignore my calls”).
The pivotal title track in this consistently engaging album ends with a poignant plea: “The one who loves me, the one I love/Never change again.”
It is followed by the beguiling Bird, which quietly contemplates the cyclical rhythm of life. And so The Freshman gently take flight.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Style
Jeff Chang
Prince of love ballads Jeff Chang took part in the fourth season of the televised reality contest I Am A Singer and proved that he was music royalty indeed, finishing second behind Hong Kong-born Coco Lee.
One of the highlights of the show was his performance of Julie Su’s My Dear Child backed by a chorus of aboriginal moppets. The version of it found here retains the chorus and adds an evocative brass solo as Chang sings about the plight of vulnerable children.
But this is not simply a lazy collection of the tracks he performed during the competition. Instead, Chang goes for classics that showcase his pristine pipes, including Sandy Lam’s Suffer For You and Wang Leehom’s Crying Palms.
His cover of Sarah Chen’s Red Dust does not quite work, though, as the epic feel of the number cries out for a full-throated take rather than a delicate one.
The lone new song Grey, about paternal love, touchingly features the unpolished vocals of Chang’s father.
The remake of Chang’s own hit, Love Like A Tide, is unnecessary but it does show that he is still in fine form vocally since he first sang it in 1993 for his fifth Mandarin album, Worrying.
Trends come and trends go, but a beautiful singing voice will never go out of style.
(ST)
Jeff Chang
Prince of love ballads Jeff Chang took part in the fourth season of the televised reality contest I Am A Singer and proved that he was music royalty indeed, finishing second behind Hong Kong-born Coco Lee.
One of the highlights of the show was his performance of Julie Su’s My Dear Child backed by a chorus of aboriginal moppets. The version of it found here retains the chorus and adds an evocative brass solo as Chang sings about the plight of vulnerable children.
But this is not simply a lazy collection of the tracks he performed during the competition. Instead, Chang goes for classics that showcase his pristine pipes, including Sandy Lam’s Suffer For You and Wang Leehom’s Crying Palms.
His cover of Sarah Chen’s Red Dust does not quite work, though, as the epic feel of the number cries out for a full-throated take rather than a delicate one.
The lone new song Grey, about paternal love, touchingly features the unpolished vocals of Chang’s father.
The remake of Chang’s own hit, Love Like A Tide, is unnecessary but it does show that he is still in fine form vocally since he first sang it in 1993 for his fifth Mandarin album, Worrying.
Trends come and trends go, but a beautiful singing voice will never go out of style.
(ST)
Finding Mr Right 2: Book Of Love
Xue Xiaolu
The story: Jiajia (Tang Wei) is a casino hostess in Macau who keeps making bad life choices. Frank (Wu Xiubo) is a real estate agent in California with an ulterior motive who strikes up a friendship with an elderly couple. Their paths cross, thanks to a book, 84, Charing Cross Road, and thus begins a correspondence in which they share their joys and frustrations with each other.
To be clear, this has nothing to do with Finding Mr Right (2013).
The leads – Tang (Lust, Caution, 2007) and Wu (television series Sword & Spy, 2009) – return, but as different characters, with the same names, in a new story.
The association makes even less sense in Chinese – the title is When Beijing Meets Seattle 2 – as the film is largely set in Macau and California.
While the first film ripped off beloved rom-com Sleepless In Seattle (1993), this time, returning writer-director Xue Xiaolu turns to a book for inspiration. Helene Haniff’s 1970 work is about a 20-year correspondence between the author and a bookseller.
An epistolary romance in this day and age is quite a stretch, then again, believability is never quite the point of rom-coms.
The bigger problem is that Jiajia and Frank are rarely in the same place at the same time, and to get around it, Xue conjures up scenes in which one imagines talking to the other – making the point that how they imagine each other to be is not exactly how they are.
Tang and Wu have an easy rapport and it would have been nice if the film had kept its focus on them. Sure, include the sweet old couple Frank eventually finds himself genuinely caring for and the rich customer offering to pay for more than Jiajia’s time to flesh out the main characters.
But other minor players, such as a card-counting gambler and an unhappy China student, could have been done away with. Thirty minutes could easily have been shaved off the too-long running time.
As things stand, two rom-coms in and Xue still has not got it right.
(ST)
Xue Xiaolu
The story: Jiajia (Tang Wei) is a casino hostess in Macau who keeps making bad life choices. Frank (Wu Xiubo) is a real estate agent in California with an ulterior motive who strikes up a friendship with an elderly couple. Their paths cross, thanks to a book, 84, Charing Cross Road, and thus begins a correspondence in which they share their joys and frustrations with each other.
To be clear, this has nothing to do with Finding Mr Right (2013).
The leads – Tang (Lust, Caution, 2007) and Wu (television series Sword & Spy, 2009) – return, but as different characters, with the same names, in a new story.
The association makes even less sense in Chinese – the title is When Beijing Meets Seattle 2 – as the film is largely set in Macau and California.
While the first film ripped off beloved rom-com Sleepless In Seattle (1993), this time, returning writer-director Xue Xiaolu turns to a book for inspiration. Helene Haniff’s 1970 work is about a 20-year correspondence between the author and a bookseller.
An epistolary romance in this day and age is quite a stretch, then again, believability is never quite the point of rom-coms.
The bigger problem is that Jiajia and Frank are rarely in the same place at the same time, and to get around it, Xue conjures up scenes in which one imagines talking to the other – making the point that how they imagine each other to be is not exactly how they are.
Tang and Wu have an easy rapport and it would have been nice if the film had kept its focus on them. Sure, include the sweet old couple Frank eventually finds himself genuinely caring for and the rich customer offering to pay for more than Jiajia’s time to flesh out the main characters.
But other minor players, such as a card-counting gambler and an unhappy China student, could have been done away with. Thirty minutes could easily have been shaved off the too-long running time.
As things stand, two rom-coms in and Xue still has not got it right.
(ST)
Mon Roi
Maiwenn
The story: Lawyer Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot), short for Marie Antoinette, shares her name with the doomed wife of French monarch Louis XVI. Mon Roi is French for My King and the one who rules Tony’s heart in this contemporary French romance is wild man-child Georgio (Vincent Cassel). Their relationship is both exhilarating and emotionally eviscerating.
Love is a battlefield, rocker Pat Benatar once sang.
And in the case of Tony and Georgio, it is a drawn-out war with skirmishes, attacks and injuries sustained over many years.
If the story had unfolded chronologically, it would not have been very interesting.
But French actress-film-maker Maiwenn (Polisse, 2011), who directed and co-wrote the film, breathes some tension into the work using flashbacks.
We first see Tony undergoing rehabilitation at a facility after she injured herself in a skiing accident and it is suggested that she had tried to take her life. How did she end up in such a state?
How did the relationship between Tony and Georgio sour to such an extent?
After all, they fell for each other so fiercely at the start, the kind of amour fou (“mad love”) that has them desperately clawing at each other in a restaurant kitchen.
Blinded by passion, Tony tumbles into a relationship with Georgio and, only much later, is struck by the chilly realisation that she does not know him at all.
For her all-in and intense performance, Bercot (Clement, 2001) was named Best Actress at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Cassel (Black Swan, 2010) provides the caddish charisma for a role you have to both love and hate. Or at least, he has to make you understand why Tony is besotted and, ultimately, entrapped by him.
Providing an outsider pers- pective in this hermetic world is Tony’s brother, Solal (Louis Garrel).
But there is only so much a third party can say or do to those mired knee-deep in an emotional morass.
Only Tony can decide to claw her way out of the battlefield.
(ST)
Maiwenn
The story: Lawyer Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot), short for Marie Antoinette, shares her name with the doomed wife of French monarch Louis XVI. Mon Roi is French for My King and the one who rules Tony’s heart in this contemporary French romance is wild man-child Georgio (Vincent Cassel). Their relationship is both exhilarating and emotionally eviscerating.
Love is a battlefield, rocker Pat Benatar once sang.
And in the case of Tony and Georgio, it is a drawn-out war with skirmishes, attacks and injuries sustained over many years.
If the story had unfolded chronologically, it would not have been very interesting.
But French actress-film-maker Maiwenn (Polisse, 2011), who directed and co-wrote the film, breathes some tension into the work using flashbacks.
We first see Tony undergoing rehabilitation at a facility after she injured herself in a skiing accident and it is suggested that she had tried to take her life. How did she end up in such a state?
How did the relationship between Tony and Georgio sour to such an extent?
After all, they fell for each other so fiercely at the start, the kind of amour fou (“mad love”) that has them desperately clawing at each other in a restaurant kitchen.
Blinded by passion, Tony tumbles into a relationship with Georgio and, only much later, is struck by the chilly realisation that she does not know him at all.
For her all-in and intense performance, Bercot (Clement, 2001) was named Best Actress at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Cassel (Black Swan, 2010) provides the caddish charisma for a role you have to both love and hate. Or at least, he has to make you understand why Tony is besotted and, ultimately, entrapped by him.
Providing an outsider pers- pective in this hermetic world is Tony’s brother, Solal (Louis Garrel).
But there is only so much a third party can say or do to those mired knee-deep in an emotional morass.
Only Tony can decide to claw her way out of the battlefield.
(ST)
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