History Of Tomorrow
Mayday
The passing of time and growing older are themes that top Taiwanese band Mayday have explored before, on works such as Poetry Of The Day After (2008), and continue exploring on their ninth album, where they ask: “How did they get here? What comes next?”
“If we had never met, where would I be?/If we had never known each other, this song wouldn’t exist,” singer Ashin ruminates on opening track What If... With other songs touching on similar themes (Best Day Of My Life, Beginning Of The End), they cast their gaze to the past and look to the future.
In the five years since their last album, The Second Round (2011), two more members have gotten married, leaving Ashin as the sole bachelor. Perhaps those developments have prompted some of the introspection here.
What remains constant is the band’s ability to come up with compelling hooks that are by turns sunny, sweet and stirring.
One of the most moving numbers here is the poignant Here, After, Us as Ashin’s voice taps directly and deeply into the emotions: “Only hope that the future you will be happy/That’s what the future me wants most of all.”
While some of the tracks feel a little calculated – Party Animal fills the quota for a fast-paced arena anthem – the staunch friendship among the members remains genuine. There is a touching ode to their bond in Brotherhood: “Brothers, how have you been, it’s hard to imagine what things would be like without you.”
Fans of the band would feel the same way.
(ST)
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Pete's Dragon
David Lowery
The story: After his parents die in a car crash, Pete (Oakes Fegley as the 11-year-old and Levi Alexander as the five-year-old at the time of the accident) comes face to face with a dragon that he names Elliott. Six years later, the forest they live in is being cleared and lumberjack Gavin (Karl Urban) leads an expedition to track down Elliott. Meanwhile, park ranger Grace Meacham’s (Bryce Dallas Howard) maternal instinct is aroused when she comes across Pete. A remake of the 1977 musical live-action/ animated film of the same name.
The animated dragon in the 1977 film was goofy-looking with a mop of red hair and an impressive belly. For this live-action flick, Elliott has been completely reimagined.
While audiences today might be more familiar with the scaly, reptilian creatures of the fantasy
television blockbuster Game Of Thrones or the movie series adaptation of The Hobbit (2012- 2014), moviegoers get quite a different kind of dragon in this feel-good family film.
Elliott is green and furry and behaves like an overgrown puppy, be it bolting through the forest with abandon or chasing after his tail. Little details, such as the coat of fur being ruffled by the wind and a prominent chipped fang, help to bring him to life.
Thankfully, the film-makers resisted giving a speaking voice to the dragon, who communicates through expressive grunts and growls.
What makes the film tick is Oakes as Pete and the connection that he has with Elliott.
While he seems to have a remarkable command of English despite being essentially raised by an animal, the little boy touchingly mimics the dragon by howling when he is upset.
Bryce Dallas Howard, who recently faced down nastier creatures in Jurassic World (2015), provides maternal warmth, while screen legend Robert Redford plays her father, who once encountered
Elliott, with a twinkle in his eye.
With the trigger-happy Gavin, writer-director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, 2013) seems to be taking aim at how man’s first instinct, when confronted with the unknown, is to pick up a gun and shoot at it.
Still, it is safe for parents to take their little ones to watch Pete’s Dragon. The bigger lessons in this sweet and gentle film are about the family you make, the ties that bind and the fact that you can be a good friend, regardless of your size.
(ST)
David Lowery
The story: After his parents die in a car crash, Pete (Oakes Fegley as the 11-year-old and Levi Alexander as the five-year-old at the time of the accident) comes face to face with a dragon that he names Elliott. Six years later, the forest they live in is being cleared and lumberjack Gavin (Karl Urban) leads an expedition to track down Elliott. Meanwhile, park ranger Grace Meacham’s (Bryce Dallas Howard) maternal instinct is aroused when she comes across Pete. A remake of the 1977 musical live-action/ animated film of the same name.
The animated dragon in the 1977 film was goofy-looking with a mop of red hair and an impressive belly. For this live-action flick, Elliott has been completely reimagined.
While audiences today might be more familiar with the scaly, reptilian creatures of the fantasy
television blockbuster Game Of Thrones or the movie series adaptation of The Hobbit (2012- 2014), moviegoers get quite a different kind of dragon in this feel-good family film.
Elliott is green and furry and behaves like an overgrown puppy, be it bolting through the forest with abandon or chasing after his tail. Little details, such as the coat of fur being ruffled by the wind and a prominent chipped fang, help to bring him to life.
Thankfully, the film-makers resisted giving a speaking voice to the dragon, who communicates through expressive grunts and growls.
What makes the film tick is Oakes as Pete and the connection that he has with Elliott.
While he seems to have a remarkable command of English despite being essentially raised by an animal, the little boy touchingly mimics the dragon by howling when he is upset.
Bryce Dallas Howard, who recently faced down nastier creatures in Jurassic World (2015), provides maternal warmth, while screen legend Robert Redford plays her father, who once encountered
Elliott, with a twinkle in his eye.
With the trigger-happy Gavin, writer-director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, 2013) seems to be taking aim at how man’s first instinct, when confronted with the unknown, is to pick up a gun and shoot at it.
Still, it is safe for parents to take their little ones to watch Pete’s Dragon. The bigger lessons in this sweet and gentle film are about the family you make, the ties that bind and the fact that you can be a good friend, regardless of your size.
(ST)
Monday, August 29, 2016
Power Station Next Station World Tour In Singapore
Resorts World Ballroom, Resorts World Convention Centre/Last Saturday
Right from the get-go, Taiwanese duo Power Station revved up the energy level.
They came on with guitars blazing, tearing into an energetic opening medley. Yu Chiu-hsin and Yen Chih-lin are known for their brand of tuneful, rugged rock as well as their heart-on-sleeve ballads, which reveal a softer side.
Both their voices are instruments of vigour and power, and neither held back as they belted out the high notes with gusto.
You wondered if they could sustain this level of energy and singing for the entire concert. And they did, for an impressive three hours.
They took the full-house crowd of 6,000 on a thorough tour of their catalogue, beginning with their 1997 hit, Cruel Love Letters, through 1998’s Tomorrow’s Tomorrow’s Tomorrow, 2001’s Walking On Chung Hsiao East Road Nine Times, all the way to songs from their latest album, Light (2013).
There were noticeable tweaks to some of the material.
A guitar solo intro was tacked onto Cruel Love Letters and it was a bluesier, grittier version; while Tomorrow was pared down. The result was more intense renditions of the original recordings.
They also covered a few tracks, including an electrifying version of Faye Wong’s hit ballad Sky. Their take came with a propulsive rhythm and a sense of delight at the boundless expanse of the heavens.
What was unnecessary though was a perfunctory stroll through the hits of the four heavenly kings: Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok. It came close to feeling like a karaoke session and merely took time away from Power Station’s own material.
Interestingly enough, they had sung the theme songs for several Singapore television series and these were performed in a far more relevant segment.
The best known is probably the inspirational I Can Take Hardships for the period drama, Stepping Out (1999).
Their connection to Singapore goes even deeper and they invited home-grown songwriter Eric Ng on stage as a guest guitarist. It was Ng who co-composed the title theme track for their current tour, Next Stop.
While Yu did most of the talking during the gig, the most heartwarming moment belonged to Yen, when his two young daughters came on stage and sang along on I’ve Loved You.
He cajoled them by saying that next time, they could all sing Let It Go, the megahit from the animated film Frozen (2013).
Given the rousing vocal prowess of Power Station and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hits, that was the one thing the audience was reluctant to do.
(ST)
Resorts World Ballroom, Resorts World Convention Centre/Last Saturday
Right from the get-go, Taiwanese duo Power Station revved up the energy level.
They came on with guitars blazing, tearing into an energetic opening medley. Yu Chiu-hsin and Yen Chih-lin are known for their brand of tuneful, rugged rock as well as their heart-on-sleeve ballads, which reveal a softer side.
Both their voices are instruments of vigour and power, and neither held back as they belted out the high notes with gusto.
You wondered if they could sustain this level of energy and singing for the entire concert. And they did, for an impressive three hours.
They took the full-house crowd of 6,000 on a thorough tour of their catalogue, beginning with their 1997 hit, Cruel Love Letters, through 1998’s Tomorrow’s Tomorrow’s Tomorrow, 2001’s Walking On Chung Hsiao East Road Nine Times, all the way to songs from their latest album, Light (2013).
There were noticeable tweaks to some of the material.
A guitar solo intro was tacked onto Cruel Love Letters and it was a bluesier, grittier version; while Tomorrow was pared down. The result was more intense renditions of the original recordings.
They also covered a few tracks, including an electrifying version of Faye Wong’s hit ballad Sky. Their take came with a propulsive rhythm and a sense of delight at the boundless expanse of the heavens.
What was unnecessary though was a perfunctory stroll through the hits of the four heavenly kings: Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok. It came close to feeling like a karaoke session and merely took time away from Power Station’s own material.
Interestingly enough, they had sung the theme songs for several Singapore television series and these were performed in a far more relevant segment.
The best known is probably the inspirational I Can Take Hardships for the period drama, Stepping Out (1999).
Their connection to Singapore goes even deeper and they invited home-grown songwriter Eric Ng on stage as a guest guitarist. It was Ng who co-composed the title theme track for their current tour, Next Stop.
While Yu did most of the talking during the gig, the most heartwarming moment belonged to Yen, when his two young daughters came on stage and sang along on I’ve Loved You.
He cajoled them by saying that next time, they could all sing Let It Go, the megahit from the animated film Frozen (2013).
Given the rousing vocal prowess of Power Station and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hits, that was the one thing the audience was reluctant to do.
(ST)
Terry Lin ONEtake Concert 2016 World Tour In Singapore
Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre/Last Friday
In many ways, Taiwan’s Terry Lin is an unlikely pop star.
Bespectacled and gangly, he is not quite idol material. Nor does he have the effusiveness of a natural entertainer.
Indeed, some of the staging for the concert was a little awkward as he introduced the erhu accompanist as his lover in a past life and the violin player as his current flame.
He also pretended to be an alien from space at one point.
But none of that mattered the moment he started to sing. When Lin sings, he performs an act of alchemy.
As he took on Jay Chou’s Fireworks Cool Easily, he transformed a melancholic pop tune into a thing of beauty shimmering with loneliness and longing.
There is a purity to his voice that makes every emotion ring bright and true, and his is a set of pipes that glides effortlessly over the high notes, even in falsetto.
It all came together wonderfully on ballads such as Losing You, What Does It Matter If I Win The World and The Departed, which he dedicated to his late mother.
Mandopop fans of a certain age would remember Lin and Lee Chi as the pop duo Ukulele from the early 1990s.
As a solo artist, he went on to chalk up a few hits, including Mona Lisa’s Tear and Bachelor’s Love Song. He performed these two tracks right off the bat, cloaked in a bright red coat and sporting shades and a perky pompadour.
There was a point to putting two of his best-known solo numbers up front.
He said to the audience of 6,000: “I usually put one at the beginning and one at the end, so that’s the whole show. Actually, I wanted to let you know I have a lot more good songs beyond these two.”
Many of the numbers during the two-hour-long gig were those he had sung on the popular China television reality show, I Am A Singer, in 2013. He emerged second, behind Chinese duo Yu Quan that first season and it gave his singing career a second wind.
At the concert, he performed Chyi Chin’s exquisite Night Night Night Night and a Mandarin version of Eason Chan’s dramatic Grandiose.
He even breathed new life into that hackneyed love ballad, Air Supply’s Making Love Out Of Nothing At All. This was despite the fact that the 50-year-old was nursing a slight cough and not quite in tip-top condition.
Lin also showed his range by singing in Cantonese and Minnan. And while a jazzy segment was meant to change up the pace, I would have preferred to hear more of his work from his Ukulele days.
Losing You was lovely, but what about Admit I’m Wrong and Journey Of The Young?
As if acknowledging the omissions, he encouraged fans who were left unsatiated to attend his upcoming concert at Taipei Arena in November.
A tempting proposition indeed.
(ST)
Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre/Last Friday
In many ways, Taiwan’s Terry Lin is an unlikely pop star.
Bespectacled and gangly, he is not quite idol material. Nor does he have the effusiveness of a natural entertainer.
Indeed, some of the staging for the concert was a little awkward as he introduced the erhu accompanist as his lover in a past life and the violin player as his current flame.
He also pretended to be an alien from space at one point.
But none of that mattered the moment he started to sing. When Lin sings, he performs an act of alchemy.
As he took on Jay Chou’s Fireworks Cool Easily, he transformed a melancholic pop tune into a thing of beauty shimmering with loneliness and longing.
There is a purity to his voice that makes every emotion ring bright and true, and his is a set of pipes that glides effortlessly over the high notes, even in falsetto.
It all came together wonderfully on ballads such as Losing You, What Does It Matter If I Win The World and The Departed, which he dedicated to his late mother.
Mandopop fans of a certain age would remember Lin and Lee Chi as the pop duo Ukulele from the early 1990s.
As a solo artist, he went on to chalk up a few hits, including Mona Lisa’s Tear and Bachelor’s Love Song. He performed these two tracks right off the bat, cloaked in a bright red coat and sporting shades and a perky pompadour.
There was a point to putting two of his best-known solo numbers up front.
He said to the audience of 6,000: “I usually put one at the beginning and one at the end, so that’s the whole show. Actually, I wanted to let you know I have a lot more good songs beyond these two.”
Many of the numbers during the two-hour-long gig were those he had sung on the popular China television reality show, I Am A Singer, in 2013. He emerged second, behind Chinese duo Yu Quan that first season and it gave his singing career a second wind.
At the concert, he performed Chyi Chin’s exquisite Night Night Night Night and a Mandarin version of Eason Chan’s dramatic Grandiose.
He even breathed new life into that hackneyed love ballad, Air Supply’s Making Love Out Of Nothing At All. This was despite the fact that the 50-year-old was nursing a slight cough and not quite in tip-top condition.
Lin also showed his range by singing in Cantonese and Minnan. And while a jazzy segment was meant to change up the pace, I would have preferred to hear more of his work from his Ukulele days.
Losing You was lovely, but what about Admit I’m Wrong and Journey Of The Young?
As if acknowledging the omissions, he encouraged fans who were left unsatiated to attend his upcoming concert at Taipei Arena in November.
A tempting proposition indeed.
(ST)
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Rainbow Bot
Stefanie Sun
When was the last time you looked at the world through a child’s eyes?
Inspired by motherhood, Mandopop queen Stefanie Sun has put out an EP that captures the sense of innocence and wonder of childhood.
The title number, Rainbow Bot, is the lone new song here. Over a laidback mid-tempo beat and with a carefree whistled accompaniment, she sings: “Does that cloud look like ice cream/Grasp it between your fingers and it’s a sandwich cookie.”
Other tracks seem to tap into her maternal instinct.
The home-grown star offers a very different version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine. In contrast to Axl Rose’s fervent wailing on the rock ballad, she evokes sweetness and even whimsy, through an arrangement which incorporates the ukulele, trumpet and xylophone. When she proclaims “I’d hate to look into those eyes/And see an ounce of pain”, you wonder if she is picturing her son, who is almost four.
Kepler, from her 2014 album of the same name, has been reworked into a sparer version. She launches into the song with no accompaniment save for the natural sounds of night and it feels utterly intimate, as though you were listening in on her singing a lullaby to her child.
The other two songs are Nursery Rhyme 1987, written by xinyao leading light Liang Wern Fook and set to a different tune here, and the achingly poignant This World. It was by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Tsai Lan-chin, who died in 1987 at the age of 22 from illness.
Sweet Child O’ Mine was originally released on the seminal album, Appetite For Destruction in 1987, when Sun was nine.
Rainbow Bot is as much an invoking of her own childhood as a celebration of all children.
(ST)
Stefanie Sun
When was the last time you looked at the world through a child’s eyes?
Inspired by motherhood, Mandopop queen Stefanie Sun has put out an EP that captures the sense of innocence and wonder of childhood.
The title number, Rainbow Bot, is the lone new song here. Over a laidback mid-tempo beat and with a carefree whistled accompaniment, she sings: “Does that cloud look like ice cream/Grasp it between your fingers and it’s a sandwich cookie.”
Other tracks seem to tap into her maternal instinct.
The home-grown star offers a very different version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine. In contrast to Axl Rose’s fervent wailing on the rock ballad, she evokes sweetness and even whimsy, through an arrangement which incorporates the ukulele, trumpet and xylophone. When she proclaims “I’d hate to look into those eyes/And see an ounce of pain”, you wonder if she is picturing her son, who is almost four.
Kepler, from her 2014 album of the same name, has been reworked into a sparer version. She launches into the song with no accompaniment save for the natural sounds of night and it feels utterly intimate, as though you were listening in on her singing a lullaby to her child.
The other two songs are Nursery Rhyme 1987, written by xinyao leading light Liang Wern Fook and set to a different tune here, and the achingly poignant This World. It was by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Tsai Lan-chin, who died in 1987 at the age of 22 from illness.
Sweet Child O’ Mine was originally released on the seminal album, Appetite For Destruction in 1987, when Sun was nine.
Rainbow Bot is as much an invoking of her own childhood as a celebration of all children.
(ST)
Friday, August 19, 2016
Ben-Hur
Timur Bekmambetov
The story: In the latest adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a wealthy Jewish prince with a Roman adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell). Their competing loyalties eventually tear them apart as Messala rises through the ranks to become an officer in the Roman army, which is persecuting the Jews. When Judah is blamed for an assassination attempt on Pontius Pilate, he is sentenced to be a galley slave and his family is taken away on Messala’s orders. Years later, the brothers square off against each other in a chariot race.
A single scene defines the 1959 period action epic Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston – a heart-stopping chariot race in which the stakes are life and death itself as losers face the threat of getting crushed under the thundering hooves of the horses.
The chariot race remains pivotal to this latest adaptation and director Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012) does away with the flashy sharpened spikes of the souped-up vehicle seen in the 1959 hit.
He favours a grittier approach and still musters plenty of excitement. To get to this point, brother is pitted against brother and familial bonds against the mighty Roman empire.
While the family drama feels a little stilted, Bekmambetov does a good job contrasting the sumptuousness of life in Jerusalem – the feasting, the frescoed walls and the colourful outfits – with the dank and drab hell that is the confines of a galley slave.
Striking an odd note is Morgan Freeman as an African sheik who saves Judah and later trains him to be a charioteer. Playing a wise old man is par for the course for the veteran actor, but the showstopping braided hair seems to belong in another movie, if not another era altogether.
The ending is somewhat rushed and something of a stretch as it involves several miracles.
But then again, this is one of the rare occasions when a deus ex machina is justified since Jesus Christ (a beatific Rodrigo Santoro) shows up as a supporting character.
(ST)
Timur Bekmambetov
The story: In the latest adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a wealthy Jewish prince with a Roman adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell). Their competing loyalties eventually tear them apart as Messala rises through the ranks to become an officer in the Roman army, which is persecuting the Jews. When Judah is blamed for an assassination attempt on Pontius Pilate, he is sentenced to be a galley slave and his family is taken away on Messala’s orders. Years later, the brothers square off against each other in a chariot race.
A single scene defines the 1959 period action epic Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston – a heart-stopping chariot race in which the stakes are life and death itself as losers face the threat of getting crushed under the thundering hooves of the horses.
The chariot race remains pivotal to this latest adaptation and director Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012) does away with the flashy sharpened spikes of the souped-up vehicle seen in the 1959 hit.
He favours a grittier approach and still musters plenty of excitement. To get to this point, brother is pitted against brother and familial bonds against the mighty Roman empire.
While the family drama feels a little stilted, Bekmambetov does a good job contrasting the sumptuousness of life in Jerusalem – the feasting, the frescoed walls and the colourful outfits – with the dank and drab hell that is the confines of a galley slave.
Striking an odd note is Morgan Freeman as an African sheik who saves Judah and later trains him to be a charioteer. Playing a wise old man is par for the course for the veteran actor, but the showstopping braided hair seems to belong in another movie, if not another era altogether.
The ending is somewhat rushed and something of a stretch as it involves several miracles.
But then again, this is one of the rare occasions when a deus ex machina is justified since Jesus Christ (a beatific Rodrigo Santoro) shows up as a supporting character.
(ST)
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Indignation
James Schamus
The story: Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), the son of an over-protective Jewish butcher, leaves home in Newark, New Jersey, to attend college in Ohio. There, he meets the beautiful but troubled Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon) and their first date turns his world upside down. He later clashes with the school’s pedantic dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts) over religion and the boundaries of personal liberties. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by acclaimed American writer Philip Roth.
The story is set in the early 1950s against the background of American soldiers being shipped off to the Korean War. While some elements feel dated, Marcus’ frustration as he rails against older authority figures is easy to identify with.
Indignation hinges on the pivotal scenes between him and Caudwell. Letts, who is also an award-winning playwright and screenwriter of August: Osage County (2007), is the man you love to hate as the intransigent, blunt force of authority.
Lerman, who came to fame playing the teenage Percy Jackson in the adventure fantasy film adaptations The Lightning Thief (2010) and Sea Of Monsters (2013), has grown into an actor of some sensitivity in films such as the comingof-age drama The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) – and it is this quality that helps to keep this talky movie afloat.
As Marcus, he goes convincingly from bristling at the injustice of his interrogation by the dean for his decision to switch dorm rooms, to lashing out in a moment of exasperation. The price he pays turns out to be a heavy one, with war and death looming menacingly in the background.
The film also addresses Marcus’ sexual awakening, but the sexual mores of the time seem so quaint now.
(ST)
James Schamus
The story: Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), the son of an over-protective Jewish butcher, leaves home in Newark, New Jersey, to attend college in Ohio. There, he meets the beautiful but troubled Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon) and their first date turns his world upside down. He later clashes with the school’s pedantic dean Caudwell (Tracy Letts) over religion and the boundaries of personal liberties. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by acclaimed American writer Philip Roth.
The story is set in the early 1950s against the background of American soldiers being shipped off to the Korean War. While some elements feel dated, Marcus’ frustration as he rails against older authority figures is easy to identify with.
Indignation hinges on the pivotal scenes between him and Caudwell. Letts, who is also an award-winning playwright and screenwriter of August: Osage County (2007), is the man you love to hate as the intransigent, blunt force of authority.
Lerman, who came to fame playing the teenage Percy Jackson in the adventure fantasy film adaptations The Lightning Thief (2010) and Sea Of Monsters (2013), has grown into an actor of some sensitivity in films such as the comingof-age drama The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) – and it is this quality that helps to keep this talky movie afloat.
As Marcus, he goes convincingly from bristling at the injustice of his interrogation by the dean for his decision to switch dorm rooms, to lashing out in a moment of exasperation. The price he pays turns out to be a heavy one, with war and death looming menacingly in the background.
The film also addresses Marcus’ sexual awakening, but the sexual mores of the time seem so quaint now.
(ST)
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