Finishing The Hat

By Stephen Sondheim

American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is a towering figure in the genre of musical theatre. His body of work is held in such high esteem that a 1994 New York Magazine cover story even asked, “Is Stephen Sondheim God?”

He started out as a lyricist for the hit shows West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959) and went on to pen both the music and words for influential works such as Company (1970), which explored modern-day relationships, and Sweeney Todd (1979), whose unlikely protagonist was a murderous barber.

What this volume does is to collect his lyrical output from 1954’s Saturday Night through to 1981’s Merrily We Roll Along. As the subtitle spells it out, the lyrics are presented with “attendant comments, principles, heresies, grudges, whines and anecdotes”.

Sondheim has three key principles that he constantly reiterates: God is in the details, less is more and content dictates form.

For example, he points out that in the song Losing My Mind, the line “To think about you” is more effective than “And think about you” as it takes a character deeper into her obsession.

Not that Finishing The Hat is insufferably self-congratulatory. If anything, Sondheim is his own harshest critic and often points out what he considers to be flaws in his work.

He also takes potshots at some unexpected composers and lyricists, including Oscar Hammerstein II. Not only was he one-half of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the team behind South Pacific (1949) and The Sound Of Music (1959), he was also a mentor and surrogate father to Sondheim.

While acknowledging his debt to the man, Sondheim calls him out for redundancy and sometimes getting carried away with pretty images.

There are also juicy bits of trivia and arresting anecdotes scattered throughout the volume from the fact that he has stockpiled a lifetime’s supply of Blackwings pencils and yellow legal pads to Hermione Gingold’s surprising audition for A Little Night Music (1973).

This is essential reading for fans and anyone with an interest in the process of artistic creation. Sondheim’s musicals are, of course, essential for everyone.

If you like this, read: Art Isn’t Easy: The Theater Of Stephen Sondheim by Joanne Gordon. An academic look at Stephen Sondheim’s musicals.

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R U Watching?

A-Mei

All eyes are on how the Taiwanese diva will follow up her 2009 breakthrough album Amit. For Amit, she had scooped six trophies, including one for Best Female Vocalist, at the Golden Melody Awards last year.

There is no sign here of Amit, the alter ego unveiled on her last record, although her latest offering does display a split personality.

R U Watching? is daringly sequenced, with five ballads in a row, followed by five uptempo songs. Top lyricist Lin Xi writes the words for all the ballads, while A-Mei’s manager Chen Chen-chuan pens the words to the five fast tracks.

Artists would usually mix it up to keep things interesting for listeners with short attention spans. But A-Mei is confident enough that she can draw you in with her big emotive voice. And she does.

The first half works beautifully because of the quality of the material. The opener is a bluesy torch number, What Time Is It Already, while A Dialogue With Myself has her singing a duet with herself. Taiwanese newcomer Yen-J composed They, a sweet tale of romance. And My Dearest has A-Mei musing tenderly about a former lover.

When listeners get to the title track, after the halfway mark, the record’s tempo and character change: The song, with its mysterious, thrilling and shrill strings, sounds like it could be the Mandarin theme song to a James Bond-esque flick.

Should you wish to nitpick, you could moan that nothing in the upbeat quintet of tracks is as exhilaratingly brash as Come On If You Dare from her last record.

That said, A-Mei is unmistakeably at the top of her game and the confidence shows in her delivery throughout. Your loss, if you’re not watching – and listening, to – her.

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15

Khalil Fong

Hong Kong-based singer-songwriter Khalil Fong is singing the blues on his fifth studio album of original

material. The title refers to the age he first learnt to play the guitar, under the influence of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King.

In a spoken interlude at the beginning of Because Of You, the question is posed whether the new songs are different from his previous offerings. It is probably rhetorical since he has always plied his trade in soul and R&B, from his debut album Soul Boy (2005) to 2008’s Orange Moon. The difference is perhaps most apparent on the English-language opener Gotta Make A Change.

It is a call to social activism and is infused with the spirit of the blues: “It’s your world, don’t forget your world/Don’t you turn your back on the things that you do.”

It is apparent from his songs that Fong’s concerns go beyond the narrow and personal.

He rocks out on Tan Hua (the Dutchman’s Pipe Cactus) and Zhang Yongcheng (the name of skilled martial artist Ip Man’s wife), while Love- winning Strategy, Two Person Journey and Not So Easy explore modern-day relationships.

The quirkily titled No Mushroom Friends was

inspired by a news article about a murder committed by a man after he took some hallucinogenic mushrooms. The folksy ballad serves as a counterpoint to the dark topic and he puns “no mushroom friends” with “innocent friends” in Mandarin.

There are lots of singers on the R&B wagon, but Fong is one of the rare few taking the reins and heading off in a different direction.

My Girl

Kim Hyung Jun

The, Park Jung Min

Park Jung Min

SS501 bandmates Kim Hyung Jun and Park Jung Min square off with the release of their solo EPs.

It is all friendly competition as the group insist they are still intact.

Which probably means that they will stick together until a solo career or two takes off.

Kim’s dance-pop offering is more predictable, though still easy on the ears. The standout track here is oH! aH!.

He had me at: “Bomb-Bomb-B Bomb-Bomb-B Bomb-Bomb-B Bomb-B-Bomb Yo”.

Park mixes it up slightly. The mawkish Tears Of Happiness is thankfully followed by the more uptempo tracks Walk Away Walk Away and Not Alone.

The seasonal-sounding Every Day With You Is Christmas, complete with sleighbells, is the more successful ballad.

In the battle of heart-throb pictures that come with the musical offerings, Kim looks a tad chubby in some poses, while Park boasts sharper cheekbones and more liberal use of lipstick and eyeliner.

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The Adventures Of The Mad Chinaman

Esplanade Recital Studio/Tuesday

The title of home-grown singer-songwriter Dick Lee’s solo revue is taken from his 2004 autobiography. The show, as he jokingly told the full- house crowd, is for those who cannot read. Tickets for all three performances have been snapped up.

But even those who can read will enjoy this intimate evening of music and reminiscing which takes the audience from Lee’s childhood right up to 1989, the year in which the seminal album The Mad Chinaman was released and which made his reputation. The record, which gleefully fused Eastern and Western musical influences and featured a polyglot of languages, was a breakthrough effort and won him fans in the region as far afield as Japan.

The 54-year-old looked dapper in a pale pink suit in the transformed Esplanade Recital Studio. The usually bare staging area looked like a cosy living room, complete with a piano. Lee proved to be an engaging story-teller and often a self-deprecating and humorous one.

There was a running gag over his age and his announcement that he was born in “nineteen fifty-...” trailed off into a volley of coughs as he explained that he was allergic to his year of birth. He delved into family history and shared anecdotes about his father Lee Kip Lee, 90, and mother Elizabeth Lee, 77, who were in the audience on Tuesday night.

In between stories of his rascally shenanigans, Lee would take to the piano. He sang the nostalgia-laden Return To Beauty World from the 1985 album of the same name, the jaunty Wo Wo Ni Ni (literally, Me Me You You) from The Mad Chinaman and also paid tribute to his key influences – Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Elton John.

A highlight of the revue was when he performed a medley of stinkers, “a bunch of songs I can’t stand and I hope you hate them too”. They included “horrible song” Ballade Pour Adeline, the well-known piano piece popularised by Richard Clayderman, and an exaggeratedly twangy performance of the John Denver song Country Roads.

To the audience’s delight, Lee went on to parody the recent General Election to the tune of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Rihanna’s Umbrella. Sample lyric: “Vivian B, tell us, was it all an error error?”

Another crowd-pleaser was a segment on hilarious television clips from the 1980s, complete with Lee’s running commentary as he gamely made fun of his hairstyles and fashion faux pas. There were poignant moments in the show as well. Some might still remember the controversial Pope outfit he wore for his 50th birthday bash, but there is a sad story about a family tragedy that explains his fabulous themed birthday parties.

There was also a glimpse of the entertainer’s serious side when he explained why his album was called The Mad Chinaman. It came about because he was confused about his cultural identity and also because of his anger, as a Chinese, over the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989.

The final song of the evening was Home, the first National Day song written by a Singaporean, as Lee proudly pointed out. His mellifluous singing might not be as polished as, say, Kit Chan’s, but there was real emotion in his delivery and the crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Listening to Lee’s distinctively Singaporean songs, particularly those from his lesser-known albums in the 1980s, one cannot help but think that he was ahead of his time. The records might have bombed then but there is clearly an appreciative audience for them today.

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Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night

Kevin Munroe

The story: When her father is killed by a mysterious creature, Elizabeth (Anita Briem) seeks down-and-out paranormal investigator Dylan Dog (Brandon Routh) to look into the case. He does so with the help of his undead assistant Marcus (Sam Huntington). Based on the Italian comic book Dylan Dog by Tiziano Sclavi.

When American actor Brandon Routh was announced as the new Superman in October 2004, he flew from obscurity to celebrity overnight.

But Superman Returns (2006) failed to take off and his career was stuck in Clark Kent-like mundanity.

With a recurring role as a secret agent in season three of the TV series Chuck and now a lead film role, it seems that Routh might be making a return of his own.

Unfortunately, he is miscast as Dylan Dog. The strapping frame that made him the natural choice for donning a superhero cape feels somewhat out of place in this noirish crime thriller.

He is not quite persuasive as the wary investigator who has paid a price for dealing with werewolves and vampires. For one thing, his deadpan delivery could have been drier.

Still, his performance is not so bad that it sinks the film, which is buoyed by wry dialogue and a quirky sense of humour.

Providing some laughs is the newly undead Marcus (Huntington, incidentally, was also Routh’s sidekick in Superman Returns as photographer Jimmy Olsen) who reluctantly comes to terms with his unusual status and his now less-than-savoury dietary requirements.

The film also has fun melding the paranormal aspect of the story with more familiar concepts. There is a zombie support group and a shop supplying unusual spare parts.

Satisfyingly, good and evil are presented in shades of grey rather than a simple dichotomy of good humans versus evil monsters.

Despite its Italian inspiration, Dylan Dog actually calls to mind the American TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), with its mix of supernatural elements, action and comedy.

Even without new tricks, this Dog still entertains.

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Perfect Life

Yoga Lin

Taiwanese singer Yoga Lin’s last album Senses Around (2009) was an impressive concept album that pointed to his growth and ambition as a musician.

Perfect Life, the third record from the champ of the singing contest One Million Star in 2007, is yet another winner.

The 23-year-old works with a wide range of composers and lyricists. Yet, Perfect Life feels cohesive, even as it offers something to pique one’s interest and hold one’s attention throughout.

The opening title track teams American songwriter Roger Joseph Manning Jr with Hong Kong lyricist Lin Xi and the result is a joyful jolt of pop: “Such a perfect life/How can you bear not to live it well/How can you bear not to be happy.”

Wake Up, composed by Li Shih-i, has lyrics by Wyman Wong which slip in a reference to the hit sci-fi film Inception (2010): “Don’t care how bad these crazy times are/Just want to stay at level six of my subconscious.”

While Senses Around had the beautifully aching ballad that was Heartbreak, it is Freedom that will move you here: “Only you understand that I’m like a caged wild animal/Yearning for freedom among skyscrapers.”

While I used to think that Lin had a rather mannered way of singing, it seems less and less an affectation than his way of emotionally connecting with a song. Take his reading of the Chen Hsiao-hsia-penned Good Night, which comes on like an oasis of calm every time it is played on the radio. It is a soothing balm which ends the album on a lilting note of hope.

The tacked-on Fly My Way is rightly termed a bonus track as the theme song for an online game does not fit into the overall scheme.

I am not a fan of lazy covers albums, but an accompanying disc of added material is generous and welcome. After displaying impeccable taste in collaborators on the album, Lin also gets to show his eclectic taste in music on the bonus disc by taking on tracks from Blur’s Song 2 to Buddy Holly’s Everyday to Mavis Fan’s Darling.

Life might not be perfect, but music can sometimes make it seem so.

Break Time

U-Kiss

Attention, K-pop fans: This is the fourth EP and last on which we have the original seven members of Korean boyband U-Kiss. Alexander and Ki Bum have left but, already, their shoes have been filled on the group’s new EP after this disc, Bran New Kiss.

The change in line-up is unlikely to make any difference to their dance-

floor-friendly sound, in any case. Here, they tell you to Shut Up, Light It Up and to Rock Ya Body.

Surrender to the beat and move your feet, and marvel at how apt the album title turned out to be.

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In A Better World

Susanne Bier

The story: Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is a Swedish doctor who divides his time between working in a Sudanese refugee camp and living in Denmark. His 12-year-old son Elias (Markus Rygaard) is bullied at school and new boy Christian (William Johnk Nielsen) comes to his rescue. When Anton is later slapped by a stranger at a playground, Christian comes up with a terrible way to exact revenge.

The Best Foreign Language Film award is no more than a sideshow at the Oscars. But the category has often highlighted cinematic gems from around the world, including the devastating police state drama The Lives Of Others (2006) and the bleak humour of war in No Man’s Land (2001).

The Danish film In A Better World (2010), while not exactly in the same league, is still a worthy winner. It is a well-meaning film which asks moral questions about the way we live our lives.

Violence is everywhere in the film, from the barbaric acts perpetrated by a sadistic war lord in Sudan to bullying at school to a small incident at a playground, which quickly escalates to a random stranger slapping Anton around. The original Danish title is, in fact, The Revenge.

Anton, though, turns the other cheek at the playground and later tells his two sons and Christian: “You just can’t go around beating people up. That doesn’t help anything. What kind of world would we get? He’s a jerk. If I hit him, I’m a jerk too.”

The problem is, meekness is seen as weakness, particularly when the children have just learnt a different lesson: Elias stops getting bullied when Christian pulls a knife on the ring leader.

The film could easily have been didactic and preachy but Persbrandt’s Anton is not just a saintly do-gooder. Faced with the dilemma of whether or not to treat the war lord who storms into the medical compound with men and guns, Anton ultimately proves to be fallibly human.

Rygaard turns in a strong performance as the persecuted and easily influenced Elias, while Nielsen delivers the goods as the grieving and angry Christian.

There is plenty to mull over here and if anything, there is perhaps too much plot packed in, what with Anton’s crumbling marriage and Christian’s strained relationship with his father after his mother’s death.

But in the face of vigilante thrillers which barely bat an eyelid over the consequences of vengeance, In A Better World looks at the ugliness of violence squarely in the eye and asks how we should respond to it.

The lesson here is not an easy one to teach. It is an even harder one to learn.

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Opus VI – Atlantis

F.I.R.

Six albums in, F.I.R. are exploring and tinkering with their sound, pushing the boundaries of their musical map. The Taiwanese trio made their name with a distinctive pop-rock groove. Then, for a while, producer Ian Chen, guitarist/vocalist Real Huang and singer Faye Chan threatened to become predictable and boring.

On their latest album, however, they do not sound like their usual selves – and that is a good thing. There is a tinge of Irish folk to opener Atlantis while Chinese orchestral instruments can be heard on Flowers Aren’t Flowers.

These touches do provide some musical interest, even if one is not sure what point they are making with regard to the national or ethnic identity of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, the breezy and optimistic Say Hello and Screw (as in the metal fastener) show us another side of F.I.R., even if they are not exactly sailing into uncharted waters.

BLAQ Style 3D Edition (CD & DVD)

MBLAQ

Before K-pop fans get too excited, the 3-D effects here apply to a photo booklet and not the DVD. The album comes with a pair of low-tech blue- and-red-lens cardboard spectacles and squinting at the images is more likely to give you a headache than a rush of blood to the head.

Music-wise, the quintet are pretty much interchangeable with the other Korean boybands out there; even the track titles – Stay, Cry, You, Tonight, Darling – are as generic as they come.

Still, the songs from Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality (MBLAQ, above right) are consistently listenable with their R&B-influenced dance grooves.

The DVD includes two music videos and a making-of clip in which you get to see superstar Rain giving his proteges pointers. Unfortunately, it seems to come with only Korean subtitles.

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The Detective 2

Oxide Pang

The story: The near-sighted private detective Tam (Aaron Kwok) looks into a series of seemingly unrelated grisly murders upon the request of his police inspector friend Fung Chak (Liu Kai Chi). Their ongoing investigation alternates with the story of a young boy who grows up to be disturbed and violent when he finds out the truth about his parentage.

Late in this sequel to his 2007 hit The Detective, writer-director Oxide Pang slips in a homage to Roman Polanski’s noir classic Chinatown (1974).

It is an unexpected moment of quirk which does not feel out of place given that the film is set in Thailand, with Thai extras milling about and Thai pop playing in the background, and yet the key protagonists are Hong Kong actors speaking in (dubbed-over) Mandarin.

There is a fascinatingly gritty sense of time and place evoked with nary a tourist attraction in sight. It probably helped that Hong Kong-born Pang had started his film career in Bangkok as a colourist.

A film, though, has to get more than the mood and setting right. And where The Detective 2 comes up short is in the story. The set-up of a seemingly unrelated series of grisly murders is promising, but the way that Tam has his eureka moments is far too convenient.

It is also not quite clear how the police narrowed down their list of suspects to a bunch of psycho cuckoos, including TV veteran Cheung Siu Fai’s broad turn as a volatile and mentally unstable man.

Still, the story is less preposterous than star Aaron Kwok’s previous crime thriller outing Murderer (2009), in which the villain is revealed to be an adult in the body of a child. In fact, Pang seems to be taking a dig at it when Tam asks incredulously at one point: “Is it possible for a kid to be a killer?”

It also helps that Kwok slips easily into the role of the smarter-than-he-looks scrappy investigator with severe myopia and there is a genial vibe to the friendship between Tam and Liu Kai Chi’s inspector Fung Chak.

The Detective 2 is a little more rooted in reality, minus the supernatural elements of the first instalment. However, Pang seems to be stuck in horror-film mode and the overly obvious music score can be rather distracting at times.

The ending leaves the way open for another sequel, one which would likely focus on Tam’s past and the mystery of his parents’ murders. The premise alone makes it seem like it would be worth investigating.

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Beastly

Daniel Barnz

The story: High-school kid Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is rich, good-looking and arrogant. When he humiliates fellow student Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), she casts a spell that makes him look as ugly on the outside as he is inside. His only hope for the curse to be lifted is for Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) to see beyond the surface and fall in love with him. A modern-day retelling of the fairy tale Beauty And The Beast based on Alex Flinn’s 2007 novel.

Just because it is a teen-flick makeover does not mean it has to suck. Clueless (1995) was a clued-in update of Jane Austen’s Emma, while 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) was a smart and sassy take on Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew.

Beastly, however, is a heavy-handed and clunky affair weighed down by leaden lines and a lame story.

The film has one central message of looking beyond appearances – and it hammers that home repeatedly. Because it does not have very much to say, it relies heavily on a soundtrack packed with indie bands such as The Vines and Death Cab For Cutie to pad up scenes.

Writer-director Daniel Barnz seems to have no idea how teenagers actually speak and gives us howlers along the lines of “I guess this cage set me free”.

The plot mechanics are laboured as well. The way Lindy ends up in the same apartment as Kyle because of an accidental shooting simply makes no sense.

Playing the underwritten role of Lindy, Hudgens, from the High School Musical series, is sweet but bland.

The touted Next Big Thing Pettyfer comes off worse. This is strike No.2 for him after the critical lambasting and mediocre box-office performance of sci-fi drama I Am Number Four (2011).

Stuck in the sidekick roles are Lisa Gay Hamilton (from TV’s Men Of A Certain Age) as the kindly and wise housekeeper Zola from Jamaica and Neil Patrick Harris (TV’s How I Met Your Mother) as the blind wisecracking tutor Will. They deserve better.

Early on in the film, Kyle thunders: “Embrace the suck.” Erm, no thanks, I’ll pass.

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Lee Chien Na

Gina Lee

With so many singing competition winners jostling to release albums, no wonder the wait for those who did not win can be rather long.

Taiwan’s Gina Lee made it to the top 10 of the popular One Million Star show in 2007 but is releasing her Mandarin debut album only now.

Her Golden Horse win for Best New Performer in the romantic drama omnibus Juliets (2010) probably didn’t hurt.

A pity then that her promise in acting is not repeated in her music. The most interesting tracks here are the two Minnan songs which bookend the record.

Last Train puts an R&B spin on a rather conventional scenario – “The train slowly pulls out of the station/Leaving your love” – and even samples George Michael’s Careless Whisper.

Meanwhile, Ardently Thinking Of Him is retro-licious sounding, complete with lyrics about pining for an old love.

The rest of the album is, alas, largely mired in maudlin ballad territory.

Still, if things don’t work out for her musically, at least she has a back-up career option.

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Red Dragonflies

Liao Jiekai

The story: Junior college students Rachel (Oon Yee Jeng), Tien (Yeo Shang Xuan) and Jun (Ong Kuan Loong) explore disused railway tracks and then an accident happens. Years later, Rachel (played by Ng Xuan Ming as an adult) and Tien (played by Jason Hui as an adult) cross paths again.

The title references the 1990 Mandopop hit of the same name by the now-defunct boyband Little Tigers. The song is a light-hearted affair about youthful idyll and chasing after one’s dreams.

While the film takes on some of the same themes, the mood here is different. It unfolds at a leisurely and ruminative pace and works best when it focuses on the friends as they follow the abandoned railway tracks. It is an exploration for the audience as well as they wend through tunnels and lush foliage, and past homes with backyards and walls with graffiti.

What also helps to draw one in is the unforced banter and naturalistic interaction among the non-professional actors.

But since this is not enough to fill out a full-length feature, writer-director Liao Jiekai adds another dimension to the story. A 26-year-old Rachel returns to Singapore from abroad to hold an art exhibition and she reconnects with Tien.

The fact that they never mention Jun is intriguing at first but it soon becomes frustrating. Also, the ending of the film introduces some unexpected elements and throws up questions which remain unresolved.

Subtlety and a low-key approach are too often under-rated qualities in local productions but in this case, they are taken to the extreme and the movie ends up feeling murky rather than illuminating, on themes such as nostalgia, growing up and how the past shapes people.

The spirit of exploration is alive and well in Red Dragonflies but, unfortunately, this feature debut feels like it may have wandered off the tracks.

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Open Heart

Mark Chang

Taiwanese newcomer Mark Chang has often been compared to Dick And Cowboy’s Lau Tieh as they both have manly husky pipes. But Chang has gone the pop route instead of following the older man’s rocker ways.

Album opener Fall In Love And Go Under is a fairly typical emo ballad but it does play to his strengths as a singer.

The delicate ballad The Wind Is Still Blowing, composed by Chen Hsiao-hsia, also leaves an impression.

The runner-up of season four of the One Million Star singing competition shows us different sides of himself on the breezy Loneliness Convenience Store and the disco-tinged Human Shaped Standee.

But for all that, it never quite feels that he is opening up his heart to us in the music.

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Port Entropy

Shugo Tokumaru

Joy is such an elusive emotion to capture on record – which is why Japanese singer- songwriter Shugo

Tokumaru’s (below) last full-length album Exit (2007) is so precious.

His gee-whiz multi-instrumental DIY wizardry remains intact in Port Entropy, if in a less exuberant form. Tracks such as Lahaha and the bucolic yet buoyant Rum Hee come closest to conjuring that sense of playful happiness. The latter is definitely a highlight here, though fans would have heard it already on the Rum Hee EP released in 2009.

Elsewhere, the animated Drive-thru sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a cartoon, while Tracking Elevator offers a smooth ride by pairing his clear unblemished vocals with the sweet strum of guitars and a back-up chorus.

The tempo slows down on Linne and the toy piano-backed Orange, with Tokumaru evoking a more contemplative and ruminative mood in these.

Poised between the lyrical beauty of his debut album Night Piece (2004) and the giddy glee of Exit, Port Entropy occupies a place that is still enchanting and wondrous.

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A Chinese Ghost Story

Wilson Yip

The story: The young official Ning Caichen (Yu Shaoqun) is sent to Black Mountain to help solve

the village’s water woes. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful spirit, Nie Xiaoqian (Liu Yifei), not knowing that she is under the control of the 1,000-year-old Tree Demon (Kara Hui). Meanwhile, demon hunter Yan Chixia (Louis Koo) is out to vanquish the evil monster.

At its entertaining best, Hong Kong cinema offers genrehopping fare which merrily mashes up comedy, romance, fantasy and action.

Prime examples include Stephen Chow’s A Chinese Odyssey (1994) and Ching Siu Tung’s version of A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which is loosely adapted from a classic tale in the 18thcentury Pu Songling collection, Strange Tales Of Liaozhai.

Similarly varied, director Wilson Yip’s take on the latter is an enjoyable offering, even if it does not hit the giddy heights of those films.

The arc here is largely similar to the 1987 movie: Boy meets ghost, boy falls in love with ghost, boy seeks to free ghost. Yip’s twist is to have the demon hunter fall for the lovely spirit even before the scholar enters the picture.

While this adds tension to the movie, it dilutes the pure love story between boy and ghost, one of the main reasons the earlier version remains ingrained in the memory of those who have watched it.

Ching’s casting was pitch-perfect: Leslie Cheung was the handsome and timid Caichen, Joey Wong was the ethereally beautiful Xiaoqian and Wu Ma was the gruff and righteous ghost-catcher.

Indeed, the film was responsible for boosting the popularity of both Cheung and Wong.

In the new version, Yu Shaoqun, so memorable in the Mei Lanfang biopic Forever Enthralled (2008), makes the role of the scholar his own.

The pretty Liu Yifei, last seen in the disastrous romance comedy Love In Disguise (2010), is less convincing when she has to play coquettish, but she and Yu do make a cute couple.

In comparison, the relationship between Liu’s Xiaoqian and Louis Koo’s demon hunter seems a little out of place, particularly towards the end.

The 1987 flick is also indelible for Lau Siu Ming’s high camp portrayal of the Tree Demon, which seemed to be both male and female as its voice swung between a rumbly growl and a flirty squeal.

Kara Hui has fun in the arch villain role as well and the voice modulation remains intact.

Perhaps where the US$20-million (S$25-million) remake has an edge is in the use of special effects and the epic finale is a glorious showdown of flying fabric, flying swords and flying hair.

And there is nothing quite like it in Hollywood movies.

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The Seeds Of Hope

Yang Pei-an

Late-bloomer Yang Pei-an is proof that the seeds of hope will eventually flower.

In 2006, the Taiwanese singer released his debut record at the age of 35, wowing listeners with his soaring vocals on his breakthrough hit I Believe.

No wonder he is optimistic on his fourth full-length album.

Titles such as Dreams Start From The Heart, Fiery Phoenix and The End Of The Rainbow give you a good idea of the songs’ never-give-up theme.

The lyrics, too, reinforce the message of striving to achieve one’s goals. He sings on Dreams: “Every step is filled with unwavering persistence, only I can write my own exciting story.”

On the Phoenix track, a collaboration with Chemical Monkey Band, the rocker exhorts: “Not afraid of shattered bones or staggering along/Be brave and take a risk, let life be filled with limitless light.”

Even a ballad such as Moonlight is anchored by the same sentiment.

You know where to head the next time you need a pick-me-up.

The Next Me

Aaron Yan

Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit are not particularly known for their singing prowess, so a solo effort from member Aaron Yan does not have one exactly trembling in eager anticipation.

The singing is passsable and the title track is a tuneful offering with lyrics about the contradictory ambitions and emotions of a young man: “The next me/What role will I play/Loving gently on one hand/Hating passionately on the other/How many hearts can I have.”

Yan also teams up with Singapore singer Olivia Ong on Just One Look for an obligatory duet between label-mates. He covers Hong Kong singer Karen Mok’s Suddenly as well, but his version seems less deeply felt.

Still, the disc has already topped the album charts in Taiwan for two weeks.

As for Yan's next role, it's a case of the record company knows best. Despite rumours of them disbanding, Fahrenheit are reportedly attempting to heat up the charts with another group album.

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Norwegian Wood

Tran Anh Hung

The story: Tokyo college student Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) encounters a dead friend’s former girlfriend Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi) in the city and the two strike up a tentative relationship. At the same time, he is also drawn to Midori (Kiko Mizuhara), a free-spirited girl who is the opposite of Naoko in temperament. Then tragedy strikes again. Based on Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s 1987 novel of the same name.

This was never going to be an easy book to adapt for the big screen.

Haruki Murakami’s breakthrough novel was a deeply intimate portrayal of youthful melancholy, uncertainty and desire and how they all dissolve into one another.

Toru Watanabe is figuring out his identity and exploring his sexuality in a rite of passage that most young adults go through.

But for him, the shadow of his best friend’s unexplained suicide looms over everything.

In the book, we are privy to his thoughts and events are seen from his point of view. In the film, he comes across as more of a cipher.

In one scene, what is attributed to Toru in the book is said by Naoko in the film when she muses that it would be better if people went back and forth between 18 and 19 instead of growing older.

He merely reacts to what she says and we lose that little bit of insight into what makes him tick.

This idea of a passive Toru is reinforced by him constantly saying “Of course” in conversation. Co-scriptwriter and director Tran Anh Hung also portrays him walking through campus, almost oblivious to the student protests erupting around him in the tumult of the late 1960s.

It could be argued that the film-maker intends the passivity as Toru’s way of coping, but it also makes it more difficult to feel for the character.

The film also feels more intensely oppressive. Little touches of humour that leaven the mood in the book, such as the comic episodes involving Toru’s roommate whom he nicknames “Storm Trooper”, have been excised.

What keeps the movie watchable are the performances. Kenichi Matsuyama, best known as the detective L in the Death Note adaptations, imbues the character of Toru with a degree of vulnerability despite his passivity.

Rinko Kikuchi seems to have an affinity for emotionally volatile roles. Feral in Babel (2006), she is touchingly fragile here.

Model-actress Kiko Mizuhara’s sunny charm is the perfect counterpoint to Kikuchi’s darker allure.

The protagonists unfold their drama amid beautifully framed outdoor vistas, a signature of Tran’s also seen in The Scent Of Green Papaya (1993) and Cyclo (1995). In a powerful scene set in a desolate spot with thunderous crashing waves in the background, Matsuyama telegraphs raw and overwhelming grief as Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s sweeping score builds to a climax.

By the end, we care enough that Toru seems to be taking a step in the direction of life and healing, even if he is not completely out of the woods.

(ST)

Tanya & The Cities 2011 Live Concert

Singapore Indoor Stadium

Last Saturday

Before we saw her, we heard her.

The concert opened with the first stanza of Breathe, local singer-songwriter Tanya Chua’s first-ever Mandarin single from 1999. It seemed to echo the song’s music video where her face could not be seen. Yet it still became a hit on the strength of the track and her unusual, lightly husky vocals.

Twelve years and seven Mandarin records later, Chua finally holds her first major concert on home territory. Clearly there was demand for it as more than 90 per cent of the 5,500 tickets were sold.

It is such a pity then that it was largely an underwhelming experience.

There appeared to be some problem with the microphone at the beginning, which led to fluctuations in the pitch and volume, and some words were swallowed up entirely.

Some of it could have been due to jitters as well. Chua admitted that she was nervous as she was singing to an audience which included primary school pals, relatives and family.

It did not help that much of her repertoire comprised ballads and mid-tempo songs and too often it seemed that the choice was to go even slower when giving songs a new spin.

The static staging contributed to the sluggish pace as well. She was rooted to one spot for long stretches, with the only movements restricted to her left hand checking her earpiece – something she repeated throughout the night.

Things improved with the first costume change when she appeared in a pink frock and projections transformed the bare black stage into lamp-lit alleyways.

One-third into the three-hour-long show she finally seemed to find her groove, in the India segment.

She told the audience that she had hit a bottleneck in 2005 and had eventually found her passion for making music again in India, where she had gone to practise yoga.

Looking relaxed, Chua played the guitar and was accompanied by the sitar as she took on Rihanna’s Umbrella and Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. It finally set off a ripple of excitement in the subdued crowd.

Another high point was when guest star Kit Chan strolled on stage as Chua sang the National Day song Home. After this stirring duet, Chan proceeded to steal the show. She demonstrated how one should take a sip of water on stage – slowly and with style – before taking on Leslie Cheung’s Cantonese hit Chase.

At her best, Chua breathed life into beautifully emotive songs about love with elegant metaphors such as evolution theory, cold-blooded creatures and projectile motion (on Darwin, Amphibian and Projectile). While she managed to deliver these on stage, there were not enough of these moments.

She has always composed much of her own material but it is on her last two albums, Goodbye & Hello (2007) and If You See Him (2009), that she came into her own as a lyricist with songs such as When You Leave, Blank Space, Who and If You See Him.

Unfortunately, it was not clear at the concert if she had a stronger affinity for these songs because of the inconsistent nature of the sound and her singing. And for a two-time Golden Melody Award winner for Best Female Vocalist with a rich body of work, that was disappointing.

(ST)

Singapore Movies

Free for iPhone, not available for Android phones and BlackBerry

Singapore ranks among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of cinema attendance per capita, so there is definitely demand for information about what is playing where right at your fingertips.

There is no one single app that will meet all your requirements but the good news is that many such apps are free, so narrowing down the field to two or three should cover most bases.

Singapore Movies has a comprehensive listing of films in alphabetical order, and it includes Tamil and Hindi titles. Also, digital and 3-D versions of movies have their own separate entries which include a short synopsis and the venues and times of screenings.

However, there is no search function and when you make a booking, you are taken out of the app and directed to the cinema operator’s website.

The US$1.99 version (S$2.50, Singapore Movies Plus) comes with a tab for Cinemas, useful if you want to know what is playing at a specific cinema rather than where a specific film is showing, and one for Days, which lets you know what is playing where up to six days in advance.

Angry Birds Rio

US$0.99 (S$1.25) for iPhone and free for Android phones, not available for BlackBerry

There are plenty of movie tie-in game apps and some are even free, including that for the animated film Hop (2011).

The smartest and most fun tie-up, though, has to got to be between the animated avian adventure Rio and the gaming phenomenon that is Angry Birds.

The popularity of the original game ensures that this app will outlast the movie. Already, Angry Birds Rio is lodged on the list of top 10 paid apps in the iTunes store, along with the original version.

Beyond offering fans of the game new levels to conquer, Angry Birds Rio has also cleverly worked in elements from the film, such as carnival music and more detailed backdrops, to distinguish it from Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons.

Instead of launching the incensed fowl at greedy pigs, the aim is now to rescue birds trapped in cages and to mow down mischievous marmosets.

And that is just in the first two stages revealed thus far. One of the best things about game apps is the constant updates and there are at least four more stages to come for Angry Birds Rio. It is enough to make you do the samba in glee.

IMDB Movies & TV

Free for iPhone and Android phones, not available for BlackBerry

Who was that actress in the comedy Bad Santa? You know, the one who was in the TV series Gilmore Girls? Instead of being driven up the wall as you rack your brains for the answer, the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) app whips up the answer as fast as you can type “Gilmore”. There she is, Lauren Graham. This app version of the comprehensive Internet website also gives movie trailers, entertainment news and US box-office results.

This is a treasure trove of trivia no movie buff will want to be without.

Runpee Mobile

Free for iPhone and Android phones, not available for BlackBerry

You have your supersized serving of soda, your snacks, your sweater – you are all settled in for a movie. But then the film turns out to be longer than you expected. And your bladder is beginning to protest.

It is RunPee to the rescue as this app handily pinpoints the less-than enthralling bits so that you can duck out to the toilet and back without missing anything essential. It tells you when it is safe to go by indicating how far into the movie the scene is, as well as visual and audio cues that should tip you off.

The app also indicates how long you can afford to be away and offers a summary of what you would have missed. It tells you whether there is anything worth staying on for after the end credits, a most useful feature since so many movies tack on bonus scenes at the very end.

So how accurate is the app at identifying the dud intervals? Frankly, if the movie is bad in the first place, feel free to walk out at any point. If the movie is good, you would not want to miss any of it.

Showtimezz (Singapore)

Free for iPhone, not available for Android phones and BlackBerry

Compared to apps such as iGV, which offer only information pertinent to a specific cinema chain, Showtimezz and Singapore Movies provide across-the-board listings.

In addition, the convenient thing about this app is that it allows you to book tickets within it rather than having to switch between the app and the phone’s web browser.

However, the listings are not as comprehensive as those on Singapore Movies.

The layout could also definitely be improved. The newest movies are added to the top but that is not very helpful if you are looking for an older release.

You have to scroll through the list until you find, or do not find, what you want as there is no search function.

Also, tapping on the movie name takes you to the YouTube page which lists the search results for the title. You have to tap on the less eye-catching “Showtime Information” bar in order to access the screening times.

(ST)

Empty Handed

Chang Chen-yue

With the dissolution of Super Band, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Chang Chen-yue has gone back to producing solo material. Frankly, it’s a relief to have A-yue sounding like A-yue again rather than as part of a not-always-convincing group.

For this five-track release, he ransacks his trove of unused demos, which happily betray no smell of mothballs.

Title track Empty Handed is irresistible and, with its thumping beat and cheesy synth line, could become a getai staple.

The Mandarin lyrics go: “Oh life, has always been a dream/A beautiful dream, then I wake up empty- handed/Oh love, hopefully it bears fruit/Wipe those tears away, there’s still tomorrow ahead.”

Such endearing optimistic underdog persona was all but buried beneath the glitz and hype of Super Band, which also included Wakin Chau, Lo Ta-yu and Jonathan Lee.

Chang’s versatility as a musician can be seen on the other tracks. He raps on the cheeky and witty OK 2010, while the ballads Perplexed, One Day and Blues show his more sensitive side.

Empty Handed is a satisfyingly filling offering.

Love And FanFan (CD/DVD)

Fan Wei-chi

Congratulations, FanFan. Next month, the Taiwanese singer-songwriter is finally tying the knot with her long-time boyfriend, TV host and actor Blackie Chen. What better opportunity to celebrate love and commitment than on her new album?

The Most Important Decision, written by Chen Hsiao-hsia and Daryl Yao, seems to encapsulate how the bride-to-be is feeling: “You are my most important decision/I’m willing to wake by your side every morning/Even quarrelling is satisfying, not icy/ Because true love is not about winning or losing, there’s only intimacy.”

Her soothing vocals are a natural fit for ballads and there are plenty of them here. The uptempo Loss Of Conscience, by sodagreen’s Ching-feng, however, marks a welcome change of pace and has her rocking out convincingly.

The accompanying DVD is a little odd since it comprises birthday greetings and wedding congratulations addressed to her. On the plus side, you get to hear singer A-mei gushing about FanFan’s warm lips and Blackie getting all mushy.

All together now: Awww.

(ST)

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Johnnie To

The story: Suzhou native Cheng Zixin (Gao Yuanyuan) is working in Hong Kong as a financial analyst. Her boyfriend of seven years dumps her, but she soon finds herself enjoying the attention of two men – financial hotshot Sean Cheung (Louis Koo) and award-winning architect Kevin Fong (Daniel Wu).

Film-maker Johnnie To is better known for his violent crime thrillers such as Election (2005), but romantic comedies are not exactly unexplored terrain for the man.

Without a strong gimmick as anchor, though – say Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng in fat suits in Love On A Diet (2001) – this offering, directed together with Wai Ka Fai, feels scattershot and adrift.

Sure, the cast is easy on the eye. The doe-eyed, fresh-faced China actress Gao reminds one of the pretty Gigi Leung, while Louis Koo and Daniel Wu are no slouches in the looks department, either.

Unfortunately, one is never quite sure why the two men are so besotted with her.

The relationship between Zixin and Sean starts off cute as they work in glass buildings facing each other, and they start to flirt using paper cut-outs and written messages. Inexplicably, he proceeds to stand her up after arranging a first date.

At the same time, she strikes up a friendship with Kevin, who looks like a homeless bum when we first see him but turns out to be a top architect who has lost his way because of alcohol.

These unlikely plot developments never feel plausible because of the ham-fisted script and the hammy acting, particularly from Koo.

Fast forward three years later and Sean is now Zixin’s boss. His idea of courtship seems to be to abuse his position by ordering her around and then trying to buy her affections with expensive gifts. It smacks of harassment, not endearment, and yet she is drawn to this capricious and insensitive man.

Meanwhile, who should move into Sean’s old office but a rejuvenated Kevin, who is still holding a torch for Zixin?

So now the film-makers are juggling two unconvincing relationships and striking one false note after another.

In the final showdown, it feels like Sean and Kevin are simply competing to see who can come up with the grander and more over-the-top declaration of love.

Modern-day romance has seldom seemed so dire.

(ST)

Limitless

Neil Burger

The story: Writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is stuck on his novel and then he gets dumped by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish). Things turn around when he is introduced to a drug that unleashes the brain’s full potential and he winds up brokering a huge financial deal for powerful businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro). Based on the 2001 novel The Dark Fields by Irish writer Alan Glynn.

It is popularly believed that humans use only 10 per cent of their brain’s capacity, so the premise that a pill could tap into their vast mental reserves is a seductive one.

The exhilaration of this state of heightened perception is conveyed by the camera hurtling through the streets of New York and into and through vehicles, neatly illustrating the title concept.

What does the protagonist do with such powers? First, he shows off his newfound prowess by dominating party conversations and picking up foreign languages just by listening to audio tapes.

Then – drumroll, please – he plays the stock market and structures a complicated corporate merger. Pragmatic, but not exactly a gripping tale.

Even when the darker aspects of the wonder drug begin to surface, Morra’s story remains uninvolved, in part due to Bradley Cooper’s (from the 2009 comedy The Hangover) somewhat slick performance.

The loopholes in the plot do not help.

Why does Morra not do a better job of ensuring a safe and steady supply of the pills, given how important they are? He should be smart enough to do that.

What is interesting is the notion that there are others who have climbed to pivotal positions in society on the back of the drug. The film suggests there is a larger conspiracy afoot but it does not fully explore this idea.

Towards the end, the movie veers off into so-bad-it’s-almost-good territory.

When Morra is trapped in his apartment by some criminal goons who are after the pill, he is desperate to get a hit of the drug so that he can transform into super-Morra. Let’s just say there is blood involved and much suspension of belief. In the final scene, he demonstrates his fluency in languages by speaking Mandarin to a Chinese waiter. It is stunningly, howlingly, cringingly bad.

Director Neil Burger had previously done the intriguing period mystery drama The Illusionist (2006), but with his latest work, you wonder if his supply of creative juices is running low. Either that or he has had too much of it.

(ST)

Natali

Joo Kyung Joong

The story: At an exhibition by sculptor Hwang Joon Hyuk (Lee Sung Jae), art critic Jang Min Woo (Kim Ji Hoon) turns up and insists on buying the piece titled Natali. The nude sculpture is modelled after the enigmatic Oh Mi Ran (Park Hyun Jin), who is Hwang’s former student and Jang’s former classmate.

Let’s just get straight to the sex scenes. After all, it is the first erotic film in 3-D to open in Singapore since Avatar (2009) made the technology popular and it does open with a series of love-making sequences between sculptor Hwang and his muse Oh.

The coital displays are carefully art-directed. There is the use of soft-focus lighting, sensuous background music and strategic draping of bedsheets.

Unlike the more explicit Lust, Caution (2007), where the sexual power play is integral to the story, here it is pretty much sex for the sake of sex. Conveniently, Hwang is a horny artistic type who also gets it on with the curator of the exhibition.

One could say that it was to the credit of writer-director Joo Kyung Joong that the use of 3-D was restrained and there were no body parts protruding out of the screen.

On the other hand, it also meant that the 3-D effects were not adding to the eye-popping quotient of the carnal episodes. In fact, it was often easy to forget that one was watching a 3-D film.

If anything was being thrust in our faces, it was the sometimes ungrammatical Mandarin and English subtitles. Mind you, this is not a post-conversion 3-D movie, where a producer decides to cash in on the craze after a film has already been shot in conventional 2-D, in the case of the fantasy adventure Clash Of The Titans (2010). Here, the decision to cash in was made right from the start.

Plot-wise, there is supposed to be some tension generated by the fact that the sculptor and the art critic have slightly differing versions of what happened between Hwang and Oh.

But since none of the characters is particularly interesting, the film ends up being a slow-moving talkfest. The critic makes some melodramatic revelations towards the end but the effect is more laughable than moving.

There is an unintentionally funny flashback scene, where Jang is shown scrubbing clothes on a washboard by the stream as he gazes loving at Oh. Have these people not heard of a washing machine?

Or maybe the film’s producers ran out of budget after using it up for the muted 3-D technology.

(ST)

Miss November

The Girl And The Robots

Effervescent electronica, brassy accents, playful vocals - it’s all there on the opening track Hello Girl, Hello Robots!.
It is the perfect introduction to Taiwanese trio The Girl And The Robots, comprising female vocalist Riin and programmers Jungle and Chuck.
But the group also show that there is more to their brand of electronica, packing into the album the sinuous synth lines of 2½-inch Dance Tune, the pop-rock-edged Regrets, You Don’t Know and the mid-tempo languor of Do As You Please and Yesterday.
The lyrics, mostly by Riin, don’t stray far from affairs of the heart and the dance floor. On Robot Lover, she purrs for you to push her buttons.

Pairing kittenish female vocals with electronica is nothing new in Western pop – think Nina Persson in Swedish band The Cardigans, or Inara George in Los Angeles-based duo The Bird And The Bee – but it is still something of a novelty where Mandopop is concerned.

While Riin’s voice is not quite as distinctive as Persson’s or George’s, this remains a debut to groove to.

After an unrelenting diet of ballads and K-pop-wannabes, the attempt by the group to break the mould is itself laudable – even if these Robots could still do with an upgrade.

Face

Benjamin Lin

Behind this debut album is an inspiring tale.

Once upon a time, Taiwanese Benjamin Lin was a rebellious teen who got himself involved in gangs. But his interest in music was kindled when he came across an old piano in a church – paving the road to his salvation. Encouraged by a fellow Christian, who later became his agent, Lin spent two years writing, arranging and even producing the tracks on offer here.

While one hardly expects a gangsta rap album from the 23-year-old, it is disappointing that there is practically no trace of his colourful past in his music.

Instead, he seems content to sing about love and sexy girls. Lyrics, however, are not his strong suit, and they sometimes come across as generic and bland. On the ballad Sorry, he warbles: “Sorry, I love you, I hurt you/Sorry, I’m too careless and don’t know your heart.”

Good thing, then, that he is a better composer than he is a lyricist. The musical arrangement is interesting, with its blend of stringed instruments such as violins and cellos and more contemporary touches such as R&B rhythms, best exemplified on the title track which even throws in some vocoder effects.

Still, Lin, how about facing up to the past the next time around?

(ST)

The Eagle

Kevin Macdonald

The story: Roman centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) sets out to recover the lost golden eagle standard of the ninth legion in order to redeem his family’s honour. He has only his slave Esca (Jamie Bell) to rely on when they venture to the north of Britain. Based on The Eagle Of The Ninth, the 1954 historical adventure novel by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Is it his masculine square jaw? Or is it his ability to project taciturn determination?

Channing Tatum, a military man in GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (2009) and a sergeant in the Army Special Forces in Dear John (2010), now straps on sandals and brandishes a sword as a Roman soldier in 2nd-century Britain.

The film begins promisingly enough. Director Kevin Macdonald paints a gritty and realistic-seeming portrait of life as a Roman in ancient times. There are scenes of combat at close quarters, of spectators at a fight between a gladiator and a slave and even of a physician carrying out an operation.

Things go south when Marcus heads north, beyond the edge of the known world to the Romans, for what sounds like Mission: Impossible circa 140 AD: He has to recover the titular symbol of Roman glory from fierce barbarian tribes all on his own.

Well, he does have his slave Esca (played by Jamie Bell), whom he relies on more and more as the latter speaks the native tongue and knows the lay of the land. Their uneasy relationship – master and slave, victor and vanquished – is explored a little and turned on its head but it is resolved a little too simplistically.

Macdonald’s documentarian background might be responsible for a long detour that does not sit well within the narrative.

When Marcus and Esca run into the Seal People, who are garbed in what can be thought of as tribal chic by way of Alexander McQueen; the study of the tribesmen’s habits and rituals that follows is almost anthropological.

Inexplicably, the ending of the film strikes a tone reminiscent of light-hearted buddy pictures that feels anachronistic and out of place.

The Eagle has landed, alas, with an ungraceful thud.

(ST)

Let The Bullets Fly

Jiang Wen

The story: In China in the anarchic 1920s, bandit Zhang Mazi (Jiang Wen) and conman Tang (Ge You) march into Goose Town pretending to be its new mayor and his counsellor to milk the rich for the benefit of the poor. But local mobster Huang (Chow Yun Fat) stands in their way. Based on a story by Sichuan writer Ma Shitu.

This film has been a runaway success in China, beating Feng Xiaogang’s tearjerker disaster epic Aftershock (2010) to become the highest-grossing local production of all time.

What is even more impressive about its feat is that it can be seen as an attack on greedy officials when corruption continues to be a sensitive issue in China today.

At one point, Tang counsels Zhang Mazi that in order to make money as an official, he has to levy taxes on the rich first, so that the rest of the townsfolk will follow. Then he has to return the amount paid by the rich and split the money collected from the poor so that 30 per cent goes to him and 70 per cent goes to the rich.

To which Zhang retorts: “Then we’ll be collecting taxes till 2010!”

Amid comparisons of Let The Bullets Fly to classic spaghetti westerns, there has been much discussion generated among Chinese netizens because of the messages that one can read into the film.

The word for horse and shorthand for Marxism is “ma” in Chinese, so does a horse-drawn train symbolise a China that is being led by an obsolete ideology?

Since goose and the shorthand for Russia are homonyms, is Goose Town meant to point towards Soviet socialism or maybe Soviet revolution?

And what does the title, a key piece of dialogue that is repeated in the film, really mean? Who are the bullets aimed at?

But even if some of the satire and symbolism fly over one’s head, what is left is a hugely entertaining film that brings together top-notch performances, great action sequences and humour that zips and zings. Writer-director-actor Jiang Wen also has fun with the slippery nature of truth and identity and giddily piles on twist upon twist as the story unfolds.

In part because of his imposing physique, Jiang seems to have an affinity for playing characters that seem larger than life, from the wine distillery servant in Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (1988) to the bandit with a heart of gold here.

He brings a glint of danger and adventure to his roles that is also sexually charged, as irresistible to Gong Li in Red Sorghum as to Carina Lau in Bullets.

At the same time, there is a deep- rooted decency and chivalry beneath his character’s swagger that makes the enigmatic Zhang such an appealing character to root for.

Jiang is well matched by Ge You who plays the wily and obsequious robbery- victim-turned-adviser to great comic effect. Yet his portrayal of Tang never feels like a caricature.

Chow Yun Fat, after more dramatic roles in recent films such as Confucius (2010) and Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006), reminds us of the comic flair he showed in films such as The Diary Of A Big Man (1988). He has some fun here in two roles: as the local mobster Huang and as the mobster’s goofy body double.

A simple dinner scene with the three men illustrates just how good the film is: Their dialogue is rich and layered and the acting is spot-on as the camera swivels about and keeps what could be a monotonous and talky sequence visually interesting. Perfectly timed gunshots further accent the scene.

As with the black-and-white black comedy Devils On The Doorstep (2000), also directed by Jiang, Let The Bullets Fly could have been leaner than its 132 minutes.

But he has such a singular and exciting vision as a film-maker that even with a sprawling two-hour-plus running time, you will not want to dodge Bullets.

(ST)

Stranger Under My Skin

Eason Chan

Of the recent spate of comebacks in Mandopop, the biggest is, of course, China-born diva Faye Wong’s return to the stage. The hope is that there will be a new album to go with her concerts.

Meanwhile, the crystal-voiced singer has offered her fans a Mandarin duet, Because Of Love, with Hong Kong’s Eason Chan. It is the theme song to her hubby Li Yapeng’s movie, Eternal Moment (2011).

The idea of the two top vocalists working together is intriguing but their two voices are so different, it sounds like she is soaring in the ether while he is earthily poignant.

And yet, the beguilingly lilting song won’t leave my head.

It is a total contrast to the brassily lively Paradise, which sees Chan partnering Taiwanese singer-songwriter Kay Huang. While the talking point of his previous EP, Taste The Atmosphere (2010), was the trio of women singers he worked with, Stranger has the stronger collaborations.

Awaits Your Love is a gently affecting take on romantic longing.

All these are found on just the bonus Mandarin disc. On the Cantonese EP proper, Chan once again serves up an eclectic and engaging selection from the sweeping drama of Snow In June to the title track, which riffs on the well-known Romance d’Amour by Spanish guitarist Narciso Yepes.

The undisputed highlight here is Bitter Gourd, with its emotive melody by Kenix Cheang and masterful lyrics by Wyman Wong. It is a classic Eason Chan ballad in which his voice is pensive and tender and moving.

The humble melon has never been this satisfying.

Only For You

Show Lo

Am I listening to Show Lo or Will Pan?

Both are singer-actors releasing their eighth albums and have topped the album charts in their native Taiwan. Neither the material nor their voices are particularly distinctive.

The opening numbers here, Only You and Beautiful Mistake, sound like warmed-over K-pop while the ballads such as Silence Phobia tend to show up Lo’s weak voice.

Nowhere To Hide, which plays to his strength as a dancing king, and the breezy Let Love Show fare better.

It seems greater care went into the glossily produced 48-page photo album than the music album.

(ST)

The Lincoln Lawyer

Brad Furman

The story: Rakish small-time lawyer Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) operates out of his Lincoln sedan. When rich playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) is accused of assaulting a young woman, it is Haller whom he asks for. But there is more to the case than meets the eye. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

Have they run out of John Grisham legal thrillers to adapt?

In the mid-1990s, there was practically a film a year based on his bestsellers including The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise, The Pelican Brief (1993) starring Julia Roberts and The Rainmaker (1997) featuring Matt Damon. Indeed, Matthew McConaughey’s first major film role was as a lawyer in the John Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill (1996).

But interest waned after a while with diminishing box- office returns and Hollywood has now turned to award- winning American author Michael Connelly for inspiration.

Director Brad Furman and scriptwriter John Romano have fashioned a competent adaptation from the source material and The Lincoln Lawyer is engaging for the most part.

McConaughey’s roguish charm is put to good use as the slightly shady defence attorney who is so jaded by what he does that the only thing he fears is an innocent client.

He is a decent person at heart, though, and the audience knows this because he is still on friendly terms with his ex-wife (Marisa Tomei) and he tries to do right by his young daughter.

The film draws you in as Haller goes about uncovering the truth and he winds up in a legal and moral quandary when he finds out why Roulet had specifically picked him.

There is also some smart casting here. Ryan Phillippe’s pretty-boy looks can sometimes work against him in roles but in this case, they add to Roulet’s inscrutability. In smaller roles, William H. Macy is reliably solid as a gruff investigator for Haller and Tomei brings some warmth and earthiness to the thankless part of the ex-wife.

While the climactic courtroom scene is suitably satisfying as Haller finds a way out of his conundrum, the film is not quite done yet. The tying up of loose ends feels too neat and convenient and a late-in-the-game revelation is not completely convincing.

Actually, what the film does is to make you appreciate even more legal television series such as The Good Wife which have to come up with a new premise every week.

While there is some legal jargon bandied about on The Lincoln Lawyer, anyone who has read crime thrillers or watched TV series about lawyers would be familiar with concepts such as attorney-client privilege.

It only goes to prove that there is indeed rule of law when it comes to the world of entertainment.

(ST)

Ed Harcourt

Esplanade Recital Studio/Sunday

Ed Harcourt is the singer- songwriter as Romantic poet.

The Briton wears his heart on his sleeve, writes lush and introspective songs about love, religion and alcohol and sings them in his evocative, husky and swoonsome voice.

While his music can sometimes feel baroque and even florid, his sensibility and use of language are thoroughly modern and equal measures of wit and self-loathing course through his work.

The evening started with him on the piano performing Lustre, the title track from his fifth and latest studio album, and Apple Of My Eye, which was backed by a thunderous beat.

It was a solo show but thanks to his adroit musicianship, the sound never felt scaled-down or puny.

He switched among the piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar, and on a thrilling rendition of I’ve Become Misguided, taken from his first EP, Maplewood (2000), he looped guitars and programmed drumbeats and howled through the ending of the song.

Instead of sticking slavishly to the recorded versions of his songs, which were performed by a full band, he tweaked them and made them work in a live setting for a solo show.

With his keen ear and exacting standards, one could hardly expect it to be otherwise. So fussy was he about his sound, he took his time to tune his acoustic guitar.

When someone yelled out “Hurry up!”, he responded with a curt: “Don’t tell me to hurry up, f*** you.”

But he was immediately contrite. He apologised and added: “Now you can go home and go ‘God, he’s an a***hole.’”

He certainly had a flair for the dramatic. He was a charismatic showman who could pound the ivories or tickle them, pull off a sped-up version of Black Dress and, when the amplifier failed, walk right up to the audience for an up-close-and- acoustic version of The Last Cigarette.

He was also adept at roping in the fans to participate in the songs: to howl like a wolf for Heart Of A Wolf, clap along on the final number and sing back-up on Born In The 70s with the line, “We don’t really give a f*** about you”.

By his own admission, his performance was an “equal balance of chaos and professionalism”. Whether due to jetlag or the “Singapore brunch, which is apparently beer and champagne”, he stumbled over his lyrics a few times, including on Bittersweetheart and Shanghai.

Before going into Until Tomorrow Then, he said to the packed studio: “Thank you for putting up with me and I’ll see you again in about 10 years.”

Come back sooner and all is forgiven.

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Saint Etienne

Esplanade Theatre Studio/Last Saturday

English indie dance trio Saint Etienne brought a touch of 1960s Swinging London to Singapore.

Lead vocalist Sarah Cracknell was in a go-go girl get-up with her white sequinned slip dress, knee-high boots and feather boa while retro-looking footage played on the video screens.

Not that the band’s music is that dated. After all, their first album, Fox Base Alpha, was released in 1991. It is just that they have always been comfortable absorbing a wide range of influences and some of their music could certainly sound at home in another era.

At the cosy, standing room-only Mosaic Club venue, they showcased their range by giving the audience the thumping synth-driven dance grooves of Burnt Out Car and Like A Motorway, and then mixing things up with the gently elegiac ballad Hobart Paving.

Cracknell said she loved that the space was dark, “which means you can dance and I won’t see you, but feel free”.

Their hit dance cover of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart and the anthemic He’s On The Phone got the crowd going as fans cheered and sang along during the choruses.

The one constant in Saint Etienne’s eclectic music is Cracknell’s clear, delicate vocals, though her voice seemed a little thinner and strained in parts on the night. Still, she was a game performer and it was fun to watch her as she doesn’t so much dance as vogue daintily.

In the background, bandmate Pete Wiggs and stand-in musician Gerard Johnson fiddled with the keyboards and twiddled the knobs. Bob Stanley was ill and missing in action and when the band performed You’re In A Bad Way, Cracknell dedicated it to him as “he’s in a bad way”.

In keeping with the retro vibe, the band steered clear of the more experimental Sound Of Water (2000) and the harder edged Finisterre (2002)

Plus, there was the constraint of a short set, only about an hour long, as they had a second show later that night.

Regrettably, the set list for the first show contained only one song, Sylvie, from their excellent dance-pop record Good Humour (1998).

The sole new song they played is from their forthcoming album and it was dedicated to the “disco dollies and disco beavers and disco people” out there. Cracknell mused that the title should be DJ rather than Making Out To The DJ, which was what was printed on the song list the musicians had, as the latter title sounded a “bit rude”.

Makes sense since Saint Etienne have always been a class act when it comes to dance music.

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It's Time

Stefanie Sun

The sticker on the album proclaims that Stefanie Sun is not out to seek a breakthrough.

Instead, she just wants to be the best she can be.

It lets you know not to expect a radically different Sun on her first album in four years.

And initially, it does seem like business as usual. The slow-burn electronica of A Voice Within harks back to Matured from the album Leave (2002), while Tomorrow’s Memory is the latest in a long line of optimistic hit ballads, including My Desired Happiness from the 2000 album of the same name.

After all, why mess with a template that has worked for 10 albums? When a track such as KKY (the Mandarin title Kong Kou Yan means “empty words”) is so irresistibly catchy, who cares that its light rock leanings had previously been explored on First Day, off 2005’s A Perfect Day?

Of course, the other thing that remains constant is her unique, mesmerising and evocative voice. It is a pleasure to hear it again on new material.

One thing to nitpick would be that Sun has not raised the bar this time around after setting such high standards with her last comeback album, the statement- making Stefanie (2004). That saw her exploring different sounds on songs such as Slowly and Seed, composing the two tracks and writing the lyrics for one.

Listen more closely to this album, however, and the Sun who declares It’s Time seems to have matured after going through trials and tribulations. She sings on A Voice Within: “What’s with me, it’s like I’m trapped/Time is packed but my heart is empty/There was a day that time stopped/That I discovered only when the heart is free can there be/True happiness.”

And on Time And Tide, she sings: “When the wintry night grows warm, when the ocean is no longer that blue/When the moon’s pure white grows dark/It just means that happiness is no longer that simple.”

It is always tricky reading meaning in lyrics though, particularly when she co-wrote the words with lyricist Francis Lee for only one track, Fool’s Kingdom. This is probably the first song from the album heard by most fans. She sang it during her The Answer Is... Stefanie Sun world tour in July 2009.

Back then, it suggested that we would hear more of her own music and words on this album. While Sun did play a bigger role on the record, it was as producer rather than songwriter. Next time perhaps?

One More Time, One More Chance

Tiger Huang

Taiwanese pub singer Tiger Huang’s (left) Simple/Not Simple album in 2009 was a popular, acclaimed comeback that introduced her to a new generation of fans. So, it’s tempting to read her new album’s title and the first track off it to be plugged, Come Again, as an invocation of commercial lightning to strike twice.

While nothing here touches her manifesto torch song Not So Simple, the album is still worth investing in. There is more variety here beyond the whiff-of-the-familiar ballads such as the Tanya Chua-penned Come Again and the Ricky Hsiao-Daryl Yao number Let Nature Take Its Course.

The bouncy music hall opener Love Out Of The Box, the rock of Say It Do It and the sassiness of Does Not Bark prove that her smoky, husky vocals are versatile enough to handle a variety of material.

And on the ballad Exchange, Huang reveals her tender side: “My God-given stubbornness, you exchange it with your gentleness/To my insomnia habit, you say goodnight, may sweet dreams never end”.

There is poignancy here that lesser and younger singers cannot hope to muster.

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The Man From Nowhere

Lee Jeong-beom

The story: Cha Tae Sik (Won Bin) operates a small pawnshop in a dingy building and lives a quiet life. His only friend seems to be a little girl, So Mee (Kim Sae Ron), who lives nearby. When her junkie mother, Hyo Jeong (Kim Hyo Seo), steals drugs from some very nasty criminals, So Mee ends up being abducted. Cha vows to find her and will stop at nothing to do so.

If you need an actor to hold your attention on screen for two hours, Won Bin is your man. Even with an unkempt head of hair obscuring half his face, he prompts Hyo Jeong to remark that he is “easy on the eye”.

His breakthrough role came as a spoilt, rich young man in the romance weepie Autumn In My Heart (2000). He could easily have built a career acting in these idol dramas but instead of coasting along on his looks, he has chosen to pick roles which challenge him as an actor.

In this regard, he reminds one of Brad Pitt, who has sometimes defied expectations by taking on quirky characters in films such as True Romance (1993) and 12 Monkeys (1995). Happily, both actors have shown that they have the acting chops to pull off these challenges.

Memorably, Won Bin’s last role was as the mentally unstable son in Bong Joon Ho’s crime drama Mother (2009). Here, he is the mysterious man from nowhere who gets involved in a rescue mission because of his friendship with a little girl.

When we first meet him, there is a haunted look in his eyes. Cha is someone who has withdrawn from the world because of a personal tragedy but finds himself pulled back into it by So Mee, who latches on to him as she is shunned at school and neglected by her mother.

Kim Sae Ron, last seen as a girl abandoned by her father in the emotional drama A Brand New Life (2009), is adorable without being cloying and there is a gentle sweetness to her unlikely friendship with Cha. Because of the poignant ties between the two, I found myself more emotionally invested in this film even though the story arc is reminiscent of the action thriller Taken (2008), in which Liam Neeson is the distraught father searching for his abducted daughter.

Writer-director Lee Jeong Beom has also upped the stakes by giving the audience some truly vile villains. These evil criminals traffic in human organs and even involve children in their nefarious schemes. Admittedly, it is all rather manipulative but one hardly minds since these broad strokes add to the well-paced and gripping thriller by making it even more intense.

Cha’s transformation from a ghost of a human being to a relentless force of vengeance is exhilarating to watch. He turns out to be an ex-special ops agent with almost superhuman reflexes and Lee lines up several crackerjack sequences showcasing Cha’s skills with the knife and the gun.

The film was both a box-office and critical hit in South Korea. It was the top-grossing film last year and also swept seven awards at the Korea Film Awards, including Best Actor for Won Bin.

He might be playing a man from nowhere but he is definitely going places.

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Perfect Rivals

Han Yew Kwang

The story: Zhen Mei Mei (Irene Ang) and Chen Hao (Ha Yu) used to be lovebirds but are now bitter bak kwa business rivals. When a competition is announced, Mei Mei sends her younger adopted daughter Yuan Yuan (Mindee Ong) to spy on her next-door competitor. While disguised as a man, Yuan Yuan finds herself falling for Chen’s younger son Xiao Hu (Josh Lai).

This overcooked offering is simply all over the place. There is the food feud plot where the traditional way is pitted against modern and new-fangled methods, previously seen in comedies such as Chicken And Duck Talk (1988).

The contrast is seen between Mei Mei’s bright and shiny shop and Chen Hao’s dingy old-school set-up complete with wooden signboard. There is also a dig at her use of slick marketing with a Korean star.

But this was not enough for writer- director Han Yew Kwang to explore and he goes on to pile on the ingredients.

Fuelling the clash is the fact that the two business rivals used to be lovers. There is a complicated back story told in clunky chunks of flashbacks where we find out that Mei Mei was actually Chen Hao’s bak kwa master’s woman.

The younger version of the couple is played by different actors and just as well since Ang and Ha Yu do not make you believe for a moment that they could have been in love.

Then there are the other plot strands dealing with their children. The industrial espionage angle is merely a ploy for Mindee Ong to dress as a man so that she can fall for Xiao Hu. This gender-bender romance is another recycled plot element, seen in the hit Korean TV drama The 1st Shop Of Coffee Prince (2007).

The sin is not so much in the recycling as in the fact that it does not work. Ong and Josh Lai are a rather mismatched pair: She brings some spunk to her character while he lurches about unconvincingly as a drunkard. Worse, there is an icky scene involving vomit and her taking a bath.

On top of that, there is the adopted older daughter Zhen Zhen (Pamelyn Chee) – which, yes, makes her name Zhen Zhen Zhen – and the connection she forges with Chen’s older son Xiao Ma (Taiwanese singer Stanly Hsu), who is soft in the head.

Apart from the unwieldy story, there are smaller details which niggle, such as Ang’s bad wig and the bizarre character of Mickey (Malaysian actor Alvin Wong), Mei Mei’s bodyguard- lover-cum-creepy-mascot.

On his previous film When Hainan Meets Teochew (2010), Han took one idea – effeminate man meets masculine woman – and ran with it.

This time round, he tries unsuccessfully to mix heartwarming family drama, gross-out comedy and scattered social commentary.

Unfortunately, the result is too tough to swallow.

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Buy 1 Get 1 Free

Hanjin Tan and MC Jin

Pairing jazzy pop with hip- hop is like mixing smooth velvety chocolate with

piquant chilli: It sounds dubious when you first hear about it but it all makes sense once you get a taste.

On the follow-up to his well-received debut Raw Jazz (2009), Hong Kong-based Singaporean singer- songwriter Hanjin Tan teams up with American- born Chinese rapper MC Jin. Tan sings in Mandarin and Jin raps in Cantonese and by an act of alchemy, they complement each other perfectly.

The dynamic duo tackle a gamut of topics in this freewheeling disc, ranging from insomnia to relationships to happiness.

There are highlights aplenty. Go Slow, Goodbye, Old Friend captures the poignancy of people drifting apart. Girlfriend is a humorous take on a doomed relationship – “The girl I like/Treats me like a girl” – while Lazy Day is a laidback ode to chilling.

On Sleeping Pills, Jin raps that he is “thinking of getting crazy with the duke of sleep/Now where have I got to counting sheep”. Tan chimes in with his mellifluous voice: “I’ve had three showers/still can’t slumber/I’ve had three pills/and then got up for a hamburger.”

It is clear that Tan and Jin had a great time making this album and their joy on this musical adventure is irresistible. This is an album that will have you bopping your head, nodding in recognition or simply smiling in delight.

One More

Relax-ONE

Six years is a long time between albums, especially when you consider that Buy 1 Get 1 Free was written and recorded in 10 days.

The follow-up to Relax-ONE’s 2005 debut could have sagged under the weight of such a long gestation. Instead, it offers an enjoyable romp that shows off different facets of the Taiwanese indie band.

They rock out on All I Want and Come Out N Play, go slow on Parallel and Leave and show their cheery, playful side on Hot Radio and Sunny For

Today. Some of the songs feel like they could be about the long journey en route to their second record. They might be documenting their own perseverance on Lucid Dream: “Don’t let go of my hand, don’t let it go/Let’s finish the dream we dreamed together.”

And when lead female vocalist Summer Hsu sings on You, “Not a day, not a day passes that I don’t think of you”, she is probably hoping that’s how their fans have been feeling.

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Mars Needs Moms

Simon Wells

Those Martians are such a nefarious bunch. They cannot take care of their own little tykes so they abduct Milo’s mom (Joan Cusack) in order to extract her superior child-rearing ability to download into nannybots.

It is up to nine-year-old Milo (Seth Green) to save her, with some help from the kooky tech-savvy human sidekick Gribble (Dan Fogler) and the rebellious Martian girl Ki (Elisabeth Harnois), whose limited knowledge of English comes from a TV show about hippies.

The film is based on the book by Berkely Breathed, who is best known for his sardonic Bloom County comic strip. And it is clearly aimed at the pre-teen set with its young hero and somewhat heavy-handed message about being nice to your mother.

But there are some rather odd touches to the story. The villain of the piece is an ancient and testy female Martian known as the Supervisor (Mindy Sterling), who looks like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982) with a bad wig. Somehow, she has managed to impose matriarchal control and banished the men, literally, to the garbage heap.

Too bad the film is not interested in this part of the tale. Instead, the focus is on the rescue mission adventure yarn which is passably engaging, if not exactly out of this world.

Sterling also provides the funniest moment of the film as she barks away in “Martian” as the credits roll.

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JJ I Am World Tour

Singapore Indoor Stadium

Last Saturday

This is a good time for fans of home-grown Mandopop.

Kit Chan had her comeback concert at the Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts last month, Stefanie Sun is releasing her new album tomorrow after a four-year hiatus and next month, Tanya Chua will be holding her first major solo gig here.

And of course, another top local act making waves is JJ Lin, who returned home for his latest concert after touring eight cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, last year.

Over three hours, the singer-songwriter entertained the capacity crowd of 8,000 with a mix of stirring ballads and catchy tracks.

He emerged on stage in a white and red coat, with white headgear that looked like it belonged in a B-grade sci-fi flick. After the opener Cao Cao, the coat was removed to reveal a silver blazer and pants get-up which showed off Lin’s toned body.

While he performed hits from across his career, 100 Days (2009) was probably the most heavily featured album and the fans were treated to songs such as the moving title track, the bluesy, jazzy Obsession and the popular number, Back To Back.

Ballads are a clear strength for Lin and while he said that he was not in tip-top physical condition, his emotive voice came through and he could still shoot for the high notes and falsetto range.

In a stripped-down segment, he showed his musicianship by playing the keyboard and singing a cover of Killing Me Softly, as well as the national song, Home, and She Says, the title track of his latest release.

A key asset for Lin as a songwriter is his versatility and apart from the slower numbers, he also crafts winning electro-pop. Songs such as X, Go! and High Fashion livened things up onstage and also gave him the chance to show off some dance moves.

The biggest jolt of the evening, though, was when guest star Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao joined Lin onstage for Michael Jackson’s Black Or White. The tribute to the late King of Pop seemed a little jarring at first, but it was certainly fun and the two were definitely having a blast.

Hsiao then gave a loose-limbed and raucous rendition of his song Princess, ignoring Lin’s jokey exhortation to not sing too well.

The other guest star was newcomer Zhang Jing, who hails from China, and the effect was a study in contrasts.

While Lin and Hsiao had a bromance brewing, Lin and Zhang were like a mismatched couple when they duetted on Only Told You. It did not help that he was wearing a lightsuit that seemed to be inspired by the movie Tron, while she was dressed like the girl next door.

After a very long list of thank-you’s, the evening ended with some of Lin’s best-known hits such as River South and A Thousand Years Later.

He said that while it felt good to sing here, it also made him feel the most nervous as he wanted his family and friends to see the best of him.

But his nervousness hardly showed and he was confident enough to ask his fans to sing along even in the absence of karaoke-style lyrics to prompt them. And they did. It was their way of telling him: Welcome back, homeboy.

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Jay Chou The Era World Tour Live (DVD)

Jay Chou

Ten Years Of Rainie – Whimsical World Live (DVD)

Rainie Yang

If you did not manage to get good seats at your favourite singer’s concert, there is always the DVD release for you to relive the experience and from the best vantage points possible.

The footage for Mandopop king Jay Chou’s disc is taken from Taipei Arena last June, the start of his world tour which also included a stop in Singapore.

You get to see him acting as a human beatbox on Love Before The Century and singing about forgetting his lyrics on I’m Not Worthy, and all in close-up.

Live at the concert venue, the black-box contraption with nifty visual effects was cool but distancing as Chou was singing behind a glass panel at points. On DVD, it is mostly just cool since the question of distance is moot.

Even cooler were the little moments of spontaneity captured. The camera zooms in on Hong Kong singer Eason Chan in the audience and Chou then does a mash-up of Where’s The Promised Happiness with Eliminated, a song he wrote for Chan.

Another highlight is seeing Chou’s ex Jolin Tsai turn up as a surprise guest star and then watching the two dance up a storm.

There is also some obligatory behind-the-scenes footage, including a sweet snippet featuring his grandmother trying on his costumes and then attempting some dance steps.

The extras on Taiwanese singer-

actress Rainie Yang’s offering are meatier, including an extensive documentary on her decade in show business.

Yang talks about starting out in the girl group 4 In Love – the other members were Cloudie, Sunnie and Windie – and later moving into hosting and acting in idol dramas. She also addresses the controversy that erupted when she responded with “Only eight years?” after mistakenly thinking that the second Sino-Japanese War lasted 11 years.

As for the concert itself, Yang works the whimsical theme throughout. She “flies” in on a winged horse, sits on a swing that looks as though it is being borne aloft by a whole bunch of balloons and also wears a chandelier outfit and a Lego skirt.

All this is no doubt fascinating and entertaining but only for those who like her brand of bubblegum pop.

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How Do You Know

James L. Brooks

The story: National softball player Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is dating self-absorbed major league baseball jock Matty (Owen Wilson) when George (Paul Rudd), who is the target of a corporate criminal investigation, comes along, forming a love triangle.

The love triangle is the most basic of romantic comedy set-ups. In this case, nice girl hooks up with party guy and then meets nice guy. Cue romantic conundrum.

Despite the cliched set-up, it is clear that writer-director-producer James L. Brooks is going for a more honest exploration of what happens when people meet and then gradually, and unexpectedly, fall in love.

The first time Lisa and George go on a date, she makes it clear that she is attached and interested in only being friends. Even as her attraction to him grows, Lisa holds on to that assertion.

And yet, despite straining for something different, the film gets pulled back to more conventional territory with the character of Matty.

He is a player who sleeps around and his casual chauvinism is played for laughs. Anyone can see he is not the right guy for Lisa.

It is also a pity that the writing is lacklustre, a disappointment given Brooks’ vast experience in television and film classics such as The Simpsons and Broadcast News (1987). Except for a moment of great comic timing in a hospital ward scene late in the film, the repartee lacks zing and zip.

Half the time, the script calls for Reese Witherspoon to frown and look puzzled and it is the hugely affable Paul Rudd instead who gives the more winning turn as the vulnerable George.

He can even take a lame line such as “You gave me temporary amnesia” and kind of make it work.

Among the supporting cast, Owen Wilson brings laidback charm to the table and Kathryn Hahn steals some attention as George’s high-strung secretary Annie. The blustery Jack Nicholson, as George’s wily father and boss, almost seems to be in a different movie and the criminal investigation side plot feels tacked on.

Caught in two minds, How Do You Know winds up feeling like a watered- down romantic comedy.

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All About Love

Ann Hui

The story: When former lovebirds Macy (Sandra Ng) and Anita (Vivian Chow) meet again after many years, both are pregnant. As they sort out their feelings for each other, they also have to decide whether they want to keep their babies.

It has been more than 10 years since the doe-eyed Vivian Chow left show business and her fans will be relieved that she still looks gorgeous. But some things have changed, and for the better.

In her heyday, she was the unofficial leader of a brigade of yunu – beauties who built careers around a sweet and pristine image.

For those who always found the entire shebang too manufactured and cloying, it will be a welcome surprise to see her cutting loose as Anita. She smokes, hooks up with a much younger man Mike (a doggedly earnest William Chan) and passionately smooches her co-star, Sandra Ng.

The two make for a believable couple and the ever-reliable Ng even makes the commitment-phobic lawyer Macy likeably flawed.

Macy reluctantly takes up a case defending ad man Robert (Eddie Cheung) from charges of spousal abuse and ends up coaching him on the art of making love.

The film also gamely takes on gender politics and discrimination. Over drinks with a group of lesbians, Macy becomes the target of criticism when the rest find out that she is bisexual and Macy spells out the irony of a minority group turning against someone who is different.

Meanwhile, Anita has to fight discrimination for being unmarried and pregnant at the bank where she works.

Like The Kids Are All Right, the film’s liberal leanings are never in doubt, though the point is never jammed down your throat. If anything, the message here is more live and let live.

Director Ann Hui, better known for her serious-minded arthouse dramas, handles the proceedings with a light touch.

While the feel-good ending is utterly improbable, it is also sweetly optimistic in suggesting that love, after all, is all you need.

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