It should really be called the Blue Dissected Plateau. “But that does not quite have the same ring as the Blue Mountains, does it?” asks Mr Tim Tranter, owner-operator of Tread Lightly Eco Tours (http://www.treadlightly.com.au/).
Located 90 minutes from Sydney by car, the Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park is a sprawling 2,500 sq km of forested valleys, sheer cliffs and plunging waterfalls.For those who have been to Sydney and think of it as an urban, coastal cityscape, the proximity of the mountains is a lovely surprise.
And the best way to learn about it is to sign up for a fully guided bush walk conducted by someone such as Mr Tranter, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, served as a fire and rescue team member, and saves trapped snakes in his spare time.
The name of his company, Tread Lightly, reflects the philosophy of its tours:to leave a minimal imprint on nature through the use of eco-friendly resources. His four-wheel drive runs on liquefied petroleum gas and he wants to convert it to operate on natural gas, which pollutes even less.
Given his background and his love of the place, he is a fount of information.
The area is called Blue Mountains because the light refracted through the oil released by the eucalyptus or gum trees, makes the haze look blue from a distance.
That, however, is possibly the least fascinating aspect of the area’s ecology. It seems things are done differently Down Under, even when it concerns nature.
Fires are often seen as a destructive force but the frequency of their occurrence here has contributed to some unusual flora. The banksia plant, for instance, actually needs fire for its seedpods to burst open and scatter the seeds inside.
As we drive down a track through the bush, Mr Tranter grabs a leaf off a branch, crushes it and passes it to me. “Here, smell this,” he says. The oil in the eucalyptus leaves fuels the fire so that it burns faster, thus sparing the trunks from combusting.
He also points out edible shoots, leaves and fruits from what, to the undiscerning eye, looks like a big patch of green. “These shoots taste like carrots,” he says encouragingly.
Maybe my taste buds are not meant to sample nature raw and unprocessed. Another berry I try is mostly just chewy in texture.
He says the cockroaches can be eaten as well because they feed on nectar instead of faeces. Good thing we do not see any running around.
Most people who come to the Blue Mountains make a beeline for the Three Sisters at Echo Point, a spectacular sandstone formation. According to an Aboriginal legend, a witch doctor turned three sisters into stone to protect them from harm but he died before he could reverse the spell.
But there are other vistas with curiously little human traffic. At Anvil Point,we are greeted by a lush and verdant view of the valley with the bonus that it is completely deserted.
If you prefer your nature in a more familiar theme park-like setting, Scenic World (www.scenicworld.com.au) is a good bet. The picturesque railway is on the world’s steepest rail incline while the cable-car ride over Jamison Valley affords a bird’s-eye view of the plunging Katoomba Falls.
There are reportedly discussions underway to build a roller-coaster ride which will hug the escarpment. It seems hard to square this with eco-protection but it does sound like a heck of a ride.
For a change of pace, mosey over to Leura Mall for some shopping for everything from beaded lamps to scented candles to all kinds of sugar rush at an old-fashioned candy store.
My favourite shop here is Cafe Josophan for its delicious homemade chocolates. Even wild cockatoos know to head here for the muffin crumbs.
After a fruitful day spent exploring and hiking, unwind at a private guesthouse such as the Silvermere (www.silvermere.com.au), originally built in 1923 and handsomely restored.
There are also various spa resorts catering to different tastes, from the five-star Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa (www.lilianfels.com.au) to the exotic Japanese bath house Blue Mountains Sparadise(http://www.japanesebathhouse.com.au/).
If you need to balance your fix of nature with the bright lights of a big city, it is comforting to know that Sydney is nearby. Even for those who have visited, this cosmopolitan metropolis still offers fresh things to discover with new restaurants and nightspots constantly sprouting up.
See the city from a different perspective, on a motorbike(www.bluethunderdownunder.com.au) with Steve White, your friendly leather-wearing, Harley- revving guide.Granted it is a little difficult to keep up with the guide’s running commentary when you are riding pillion but you do get personally chauffeured to little-known viewing spots which offer uncluttered views of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The monikers of these iconic structures might seem a little prosaic but then, what’s in a name right?

Getting there
Singapore Airlines, Qantas and British Airways fly direct to Sydney daily. The flight is about seven hours long.
The Blue Mountains are about an hour to 90 minutes away from Sydney by car. Another option is to travel by train from Sydney’s Central Railway Station. The journey can take from one to two hours, depending on your exact destination.

5 things to do
1 Do pack warm clothes, even when travelling in summer, as it can get chilly in the mountains.
2 Do bond with the locals. Stop by Glenbrook, the gateway to the Blue Mountains, to view wild kangaroos, kingfishers and cockatoos.
3 Do walk on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It can be quite “educational”. Once, a guided group – the first of the day – found an abandoned shopping cart filled with beer cans at the bridge’s highest point. They never found out who hauled it up there.
4 Do tour the Sydney Opera House and learn about the challenges in realising the audacious vision for the dramatic structure. It was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who died in November last year. Forced to resign as chief architect before the project was completed, he never saw the finished building.
5 Do hop on a boat for a sail and see Sydney from the water. There is plenty to explore given that this is the world’s largest natural harbour with over 240km of shoreline.

2 don’ts
1 Don’t forget to pack comfortable walking shoes for the hikes.
2 Don’t miss out on the diverse dining options, from the casual cafes in the warren of streets behind Bondi Beach to the hip, big-name restaurants.
(ST)

Passengers
Rodrigo Garcia


It would be safe to say that this will not be part of your in-flight entertainment.
After a plane crash, Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is assigned to counsel the survivors. When one of them turns out to be the charming Patrick Wilson (above,as the seemingly in denial Eric), you know that professional lines are going to be crossed.
The film cannot decide if it wants to be a conspiracy thriller, a romance or a family reconciliation drama and lurches distractingly from one genre to the next.
Director Rodrigo Garcia drops hints with his sombre colour palette that there is something else going on here but the last act is still preposterous.
(ST)

The Women
Diane English


Four women friends go through thick and thin in the city of New York.
With such a familiar premise and a sitcom-ish quality to the script and acting,this feels like a two-hour pilot for a Sex And The City knock-off.
When Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), who seems to have it all, finds out her husband is having an affair, her friends – magazine editor Sylvia (Annette Bening), housewife Edie (Debra Messing) and writer Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith) – rally around her.
Despite the modern-day setting, there is something really dated about The Women. Is it Ryan’s curls? Or the fact that she chooses not to confront her husband about his philandering ways? That is so 1930s.
Oh wait, that was when the original by George Cukor was made – in 1939.
The film even ends with that tired cliche – a birth scene, though Messing gives it her all and even makes it mildly funny.
But given the cast assembled, including Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, Bette Midler and Eva Mendes, one would have hoped for a little more spark and a little less fizzle.
(ST)

Alan's War
By Emmanuel Guibert


You never know what can happen when you ask a stranger for directions.
In the case of illustrator Emmanuel Guibert, then 30, it led to a firm friendship with the 69-year-old Alan Cope, an American who married and settled down in France. And their conversations led to this vividly written and drawn biography.
In 1943, during World War II, an 18-year-old Cope is drafted by the United States army. The most dangerous things, though, happen outside combat. He almost gets killed by a falling tree during training and just misses being crushed under a tank.
When he is eventually sent to France on a mission in February 1945, the war is ending and he does not see much combat action.
As a soldier, he is not perfect as he sometimes breaks rules. As a person, he can be stubborn as well. But he is also open-minded and generous, striking up friendships with some Germans, even though fraternising is forbidden.
The last part of the book takes a rather sharp turn when Cope has an epiphany at 55, realising he has never lived his life fully.
He sees in society “overcrowding by too many dogmas, false values, and wrong thinking; a kind of psychic illness that afflicts the human race and prevents people from knowing what to do with their lives”.
It prompts him to reconnect with the people in his life as a way of seeking closure.
While Guibert’s black-and-white ink washes are beautiful and bring Cope’s story to life by evoking landscapes, personalities and situations, they are never intrusive.
The tale is fully Cope’s, warts and all, and it is his voice we hear. This is an easy, intimate conversation between friends and you feel privileged to be able to sit in.

If you like this, read: The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
See Guibert’s deft touch in a different light with this comic romance between a mummy and an Egyptologist’s daughter set in Victorian London.
(ST)

College
Deb Hagan


The burning question here is: Why didn’t this go straight to video? Actually no, it should be, why did this even get made in the first place?
The mean-spirited film takes three high-school seniors and plonks them at a college’s orientation weekend. This turns into an excuse for an exercise in excess as they get sloshed, get hazed and get laid.
It is a mystery why bland Kevin (Drake Bell), nerdy Morris (Kevin Covais) and chubby Carter (Andrew Caldwell) are even friends since they barely have anything in common.
Carter is a bully who delights in being mean to Morris while Kevin is, well, bland.
The hangover you will have after partying on New Year’s Eve will be more fun than this.
(ST)

Bedtime Stories
Adam Shankman

The story: Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) has to come up with the winning theme for a proposed new project so that he, instead of the brown-nosing manager Kendall (Guy Pearce), can run the place.
At the same time, he has to babysit his sister Wendy’s (Courteney Cox) children with the help of her friend Jill (Keri Russell). He tells the kids fantastical bedtime stories which start to come true.

Bedtime Stories will not quite lull you to sleep but it will not keep you on the edge of your seat either.
Clearly, they had money to spend on this film. The audience is transported to a mediaeval castle town, outer space and even ancient Rome, the settings of the various fantasies. But you end up feeling like you are watching an attention-deficit child and the gimmickry only displays a lack of trust in the material.
Which is not all that inspiring in the first place. When Skeeter realises that his nephew and niece’s pronouncements are coming true, he is chiefly concerned with his own needs, including getting a Ferrari, kissing the girl and winning the contest.
In another plot device, the bedtime stories come true, but not necessarily in the way one would expect. While this creates a little interest, it also means sitting through two versions of the same tale.
As for the cast, the hardworking Sandler is back on the big screen for the second time this year after the hairstylist comedy You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, but maybe he should take a break. He dials in a low-key performance, coasting by on what he imagines to be his goofy charm.
Russell, playing the love interest, looks miffed and is probably wondering: “What am I doing in this movie?” At least she has a bigger role than Cox, who recycles her uptight- but-actually-decent persona from the sitcom Friends.
British comedian Russell Brand seems to be the oddball sidekick du jour and pops up here after the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), while Australian actor Pearce is somewhat miscast as the toadying Kendall.
If you want a movie about fairy tales with actual charm and heart, do pick up a copy of romance classic Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride (1987) instead.
(ST)

Ip Man
Wilson Yip


The story: In the thriving southern Chinese city of Foshan in the 1930s, martial arts expert Ip Man (Donnie Yen) tries to keep above the fray of martial arts schools competing fiercely for students. When war breaks out and the Japanese army swoops in, Ip can no longer keep a low profile.

Ip who, you ask?
You might not be familiar with the man, but perhaps you have heard of his most famous disciple – gongfu superstar Bruce Lee. The movie was probably greenlit on the strength of that fact.
However, if it is a detailed biography of the late Ip Man you are looking for, this is not the place to find it. And no, Bruce Lee does not appear either.
It would be more accurate to think of this as a gongfu flick with Ip’s life serving as a loose narrative structure.
When the audience first meets Ip, he is a man in the prime of his life who seems to have it all. He is the acknowledged gongfu champ in Foshan despite not having a single student. He lives in a big house and has a beautiful wife (Lynn Xiong) and a young son.
His biggest problem, which he despatches while barely breaking a sweat, is a gang of ruffians from the north who go around challenging, and defeating, all the other teachers.
Biopics sometimes drown you in details but in this case, you wish there was some explanation of how Ip got to where he was at the beginning of the film. Instead, you barely get a sense of the man beyond the fact that he is a saint.
When war breaks out, Ip is turned out of his house and forced to scrape an existence from menial work. Still, he keeps his cool until his friends are killed in matches with Japanese karate fighters, organised for the amusement of General Miura (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi).
The showdown between Ip and Miura is the action highlight of the film but while the fight sequences are entertaining enough, there is nothing about them that is truly surprising or inventive.
With his martial arts background, Yen does a credible job with the combat scenes and to his credit, he imbues the upright and moral Ip with the hint of a smile and prevents the character from becoming too stuffy.
There is little for Xiong, singer-actor Aaron Kwok’s purported real-life squeeze, to do here in the role of the supportive wife.
Since this is not a strictly factual biopic anyway, it might have been nice to see her break the ornamental huaping (flower vase) mould and bust out some gongfu moves of her own.
(ST)

Journey to the Centre of the Earth 3-D
Eric Brevig


Journey is a film tailor-made to showcase 3-D technology.
The plot is an excuse to get geologist Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser), his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) and their guide Hannah (Anita Briem) to the otherworldly realm at the centre of the earth, one filled with exotic flora and fauna.
Naturally, the way there involves a jolting ride in an abandoned mine and lots of freefalling.
The 3-D effect took a little getting used to, especially when Fraser pops into larger-than-life view for the first time.
But the you-are-there impact was cool for the roller coaster ride, which could definitely have been longer. Another standout sequence was that of Sean crossing over a pathway of floating magnetic rocks.
Somewhat surprisingly, the real-life landscape of Iceland fared much better in 3-D than the computer-generated vistas, which seemed kind of flat in the distance.
On the whole, this is an enjoyable romp but you wonder if you should be watching this in an amusement park instead of in a cinema.
(ST)

Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam
Yusry Abdul Halim


This plays like an episode of the cheesy 1960s Japanese superhero TV show Ultraman, only with less subtle acting.
It is up to Cicakman (Saiful Apek), or Lizardman, to save the day when the evil Professor Klon (Aznil Nawawi) hatches a plot to turn the world’s water supply black.
Lurking in this Malaysian film is the interesting premise of a superhero struggling to earn his keep in the regular world. But this is something that director Yusry Abdul Halim is not interested in exploring.
Clearly the movie is not meant to be taken seriously when the arch-villain Klon first appears looking like an overgrown and unwashed hobbit.
But what little irreverent charm there is is simply overwhelmed by baddies who cackle incessantly, a noisy soundtrack and acting so exaggerated that this could be an invaluable how-not-to guide.
(ST)

Igor
Anthony Leondis

At the annual Evil Scientists’ Fair, the best in the land of Malaria (the awkward name being an example of the writer trying too hard to be funny) battle it out with their dastardly inventions. They are helped by Igors, those born with a hunched back and destined to be second-class citizens.
One such Igor (John Cusack) dares to dream above his station and successfully invents life in the form of the comically proportioned Eva (Saturday Night Live’s Molly Shannon). But her evil bone is not activated and she is instead brainwashed to become an actress who yearns for her big break.
This conceit is the funniest thing here, and Shannon gives a nicely restrained performance. Steve Buscemi as Scamper, the immortal rabbit with a death wish, and Sean Hayes as the none-too-bright Brain, also steal a couple of laughs as the oddball sidekicks.
But the whole is less than the sum of its parts, and like an invention missing the critical spark, the movie never feels fully alive.
(ST)

All Our Worldly Goods
Irene Nemirovsky


This could well be a Gallic take on a Jane Austen study on manners and courtship, sense and sensibility.
Pierre Hardelot and Agnes Florent are in love at a time when one’s class dictates one’s match. His grandfather is an iron-fisted industrialist while her family are brewers. When he defies social norms to marry Agnes, Pierre is cut off from the family business.
The outbreak of World War I soon dwarfs every other concern. In an economical 30 pages, Nemirovsky parses the psyche of a nation at war – despair, fear, numbness, hope, relief – with a few incisive episodes.
The couple get on with their lives after the war ends, only to face the outbreak of World War II decades later.
Nemirovsky marks the fragility of achingly casual happiness in the interim with a family outing to the woods.“They brushed aside the day, relegating it to the past, to obscurity, without a single regret. It had been one of the sweetest and most peaceful days of their lives. But they had no way of knowing that.”
The novel covers an extraordinary period in history when a generation lived through two world wars in the span of about 30 years. When World War II erupts, Pierre has to watch his son take up arms, knowing that even the illusion of the glory of war was gone as “they know that all our sacrifices were useless, that victory conquered no one”.
What is remarkable is the note of hope the novel ends on, all the more heartbreaking when you consider that Nemirovsky died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 39.

If you like this, read: All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. A searing indictment of the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of a young soldier from the trenches of World War I.
(ST)

Burma Chronicles
Guy Delisle


Is it Burma or Myanmar? Delisle addresses the different names for the country right off the bat and the choice of his title indicates he does not consider the ruling government to be a legitimate one.
Despite the overtly political start, Burma Chronicles is more a personal memoir of life in a repressed and isolated regime. When his wife Nadege, who works with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), receives her new assignment, Delisle and their toddler son Louis go along for the ride.
The cartoonist finds humour in learning about, and adapting to, a different country and culture. His black-and- white sketches offer charming, and sometimes instructive, anecdotes about such events as taking part in the water festival, surviving the rainy season or simply trying to find the right kind of ink.
While Louis is a universal ice-breaker with regard to meeting the locals, Delisle’s own profession opens some doors – he meets fellow illustrators and conducts private animation classes.
But inadvertently, politics intrude every aspect of life. For one thing, Nobel laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi is kept under house arrest near where they live.
Delisle also touches on the Orwellian regime’s control over the media, the exploitative gem trade, the easy availability of heroin in some places and the wildly different worlds of the privileged few vis-a-vis most ordinary Burmese.
His generally simple and direct style serves the stories well. And his depiction of sightseeing tours to Bagan and Lake Inlay displays wit and elegance. Instead of the usual six panels a page, he works in 15 wordless panels, conveying the harried, manic quality of such outings.
If you want a humane and humorous peek into the country, this is a good place to start.


If you like this, read: Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea by Guy Delisle (2007, US$10.17 (S$15.50), www.amazon.com). Here is a glimpse into another repressive regime from Delisle, who seems to have an affinity for them.
(ST)

Sex Drive
Sean Anders


Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a high-school senior who wants to lose his virginity but he is secretly in love with Felicia (Amanda Crew), his platonic female friend.
His best pal Lance (Clark Duke) is a chick magnet and just wants to help him get laid.
Didn't they already make this film?
Just because it is a teenage sex comedy does not mean it has to be generic. I enjoyed it when it was called Superbad (2007), which had heart and likeable characters along with the ribald humour.
Sex Drive, though, is merely content to cross one dated genre (teenage sex comedy) with another (the road movie) as Ian goes on a nine-hour car trip to keep a date with an Internet hook-up.
There are a couple of funny moments with a giant doughnut costume and Seth Green as a deadpan Amish but otherwise, Zuckerman as the blandly sweet Ian and Crew fail to leave much of an impression.
Mostly, this ride just limps along.
(ST)

Four Christmases
The story: Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have been wriggling out of Christmas family gatherings and spending their holidays in exotic locales. When they are found out, they end up visiting both sets of divorced parents. Hence the four Christmases of the title.

’Tis the season for festive comedies.
Just as the lights go up like clockwork in Orchard Road, you can be sure of an offering or two from Hollywood, milking the yuletide tradition of family gatherings for yuks in films such as Home For The Holidays (1995) and Christmas With The Kranks (2004).
In the latest twist on the formula, the writers up the ante by plying the harried couple with four different home gatherings, promising more excruciating embarrassments and awkward situations.
Take Brad’s brothers, for example. They are tattooed paramilitary types who take pleasure in body combat. So Brad soon finds himself the object of flying tackles as his curmudgeonly father (Robert Duvall) looks on in approval.
As the day progresses, Brad and Kate discover things they have kept from each other, such as Brad’s real name and Kate’s fat camp detours as a child. As the skeletons come tumbling out, she begins to question their relationship and where it is headed.
Four Christmases turns out to be a drama about two people learning to commit to each other in the guise of a genre comedy.
Sure, the lessons about familial and romantic love are pat but there is a welcome bounce and edge to the writing.
It certainly helps to have the couple in crisis played by the likeable and winsome Witherspoon and Vaughn, even though his gut is starting to look like it needs its own wardrobe.
Balancing broad comedy with romance is not an easy task but director Seth Gordon pulls it off deftly, delivering a worthy treat for the holidays.
(ST)

Rihanna!
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Thursday

Who is Rihanna exactly, and where does this 20-year- old from Barbados with the slick chart hits fit in with other female pop stars?
Her latest album is titled Good Girl Gone Bad, but she has some way to go before she can snatch that particular crown from Britney Spears.
Perhaps she fancies herself a consummate entertainer such as Madonna, wanting to Take A Bow for her showmanship.
After all, it seems that she is deliberately inviting such comparisons. The warm-up song before her concert began was, oddly enough, Spears’ Womaniser. And Madonna’s Music was sampled in the introduction to Please Don’t Stop The Music.
And yet, her concert on Thursday night offered few answers.
Rihanna started with Disturbia. She was dressed in dominatrix chic – an all-black ensemble with a sleeveless top that showed off her toned arms and form-fitting pants.
The tough yet sexy effect was unfortunately marred by a mike malfunction which silenced her, not the best way to start a concert. It was left to her hardworking back-up singers to carry the show while she went offstage.
That was not the end of the audio problems. While mostly serviceable, her voice came across as ragged and harsh at times, possibly due to the patchy sound system.
The crowd of almost 8,000 were not put off, though. They came determined to party and nothing was going to get in their way. Fans were on their feet from the opening number and screamed and danced throughout.
Rihanna delivered hits from her three albums, including the infectious SOS, the energetic Pon De Replay and the paean to infidelity, Unfaithful. The crowd lapped them all up eagerly.
But mostly, she seemed to be going through the motions, putting her sharp cheekbones to good use as she preened and posed while singing. It was MTV-ready and it all remained on the surface.
It did not help that even though the show was promoted as a 90-minute affair, it clocked in at a miserly 60 minutes. The singer hardly had time to thank her musicians and crew and did not even change costumes until her encore.
Dressed in a black-and-white showgirl outfit, she ended the evening with her biggest hit, Umbrella, and soaked in the adulation from the crowd.
“I cannot wait to come back. Singapore, I love you,” she claimed.
Yea, yea, but we barely knew you.
(ST)

The Good, The Bad, The Weird

Story: The paths of train robber Yoon Tae Goo (Song Kang Ho), bandit leader Park Chang Yi (Lee Byung Hun) and bounty hunter Park Do Won (Jung Woo Sung) cross over a much-coveted treasure map.
But they are not the only ones after it as the Japanese army and yet another gang of baddies have their sights set on the parchment as well in this actioner set in turbulent 1930s Manchuria.


This is a Korean take on the spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966), the Sergio Leone classic in which three men who do not trust each other have to work together in order to get to a buried treasure.
Director Kim Jee Woon, who helmed the bloody crime drama A Bittersweet Life (2005), re-imagines the story with three of South Korea’s top male stars.
Song Kang Ho, the award-winning actor in films such as the sci-fi horror flick The Host (2006), provides some comic relief as the blustery and blustering train robber Tae Goo, who unwittingly steals the treasure map in the first place.
Versatile hunk Lee Byung Hun, whose credits include the hit thriller Joint Security Area (2000), jarringly sports earrings and eye-liner in his wild-eyed portrayal of the ruthless Chang Yi, who is out to claim the map for himself.
Heartthrob Jung Woo Sung, star of the romance A Moment To Remember (2004), is the cool and collected Do Won, who has been offered a reward for hunting down Chang Yi.
Perhaps the combined star power accounts for the success of the film, touted by the distributor here as the highest-grossing blockbuster in Korea in 2008.
But that cannot hide the fact that the thin plot merely serves to move the action along from one set-piece to another. No doubt well choreographed, but the overlong gunfights feel like exercises in excessive violence after a while.
Late-in-the-game revelations about Tae Goo are simply not enough to make you care about the thinly-drawn but quick-on-the-draw characters.
By the time of the climactic three-way shootout between the protagonists, you are strangely liberated by the fact that you do not care who lives or dies.
In another misjudged display of excess, the film refuses to end even then, but drags out for another few improbable minutes.
At its best, violence in Korean films explore issues of morality, for example in Park Chan Wook’s vengeance trilogy.
Here however, Kim seems satisfied with violence as a guns a-blazing, bullets a-whizzing end in itself, but too much shoot ’em up action leaves one as stone cold as the corpses which litter the set after a while.
So much sound and fury, signifying oh so very little.
(ST)

Dragon Hunters

You know the school holidays are here when kiddie flicks begin popping up in cinemas.
On paper, what sets the computer-animated Dragon Hunters apart is that it hails from Europe and is based on the French TV animated series of the same name created by Arthur Qwak, who co-writes and co-directs the film.
It also boasts Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as the voice of the hero Lian-Chu.
Not that this would matter one whit to the target audience.
The quest is straightforward. The big and strong Lian-Chu, Gwizdo, his childhood friend, and Hector, their pet dragon which acts like a little dog, have to go to the ends of the earth to destroy the terrifying monster, World Gobbler.
They are accompanied by Zoe, a talkative little girl who believes that she has found in Lian-Chu the heroic knight of her fantasies.
What lifts the film from its formulaic set-up are the lovely visuals as the story takes place in a world which is literally disintegrating.
While the vistas of floating, drifting land masses are reminiscent of computer games, the big-screen effect is both whimsical and gorgeous. So this one is not just for kids.
(ST)

American Widow
Alissa Torres/Art by Choi Sung Yoon

When the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York collapsed on Sept 11, 2001, as the result of a large-scale terrorist attack, almost 3,000 civilians perished.
Among them was Eddie Torres, who had just started his new job at brokerage house Cantor Fitzgerald the day before.
American Widow is the memoir of his wife Alissa Torres, who was 71/2 months pregnant at the time. It is about her coming to terms with the tragedy and how she navigated the tangled web of aid and compensation that followed.
After an initial outpouring of compassion and promises, red tape slowed down the handing out of monies and she found herself mired in frustration.
On top of all that, she had to battle post-natal depression and a backlash as family members of the 9/11 victims began to be seen by some as opportunists greedy for government handouts.
Her reaction was: 'It felt bad to be hated. It felt even worse to be envied.'
The text is complemented by Choi Sung Yoon's cleanly drawn black-and-white illustrations.
They are shaded in aquamarine, giving a slightly unreal edge to Torres' story, reflecting her own disbelief and struggle to come to terms with what had happened.
The advantage of the graphic novel medium is its flexibility, and good use is made of that here. For example, a one-panel page depicting the emptiness of Ground Zero speaks volumes.
American Widow also tells the story of Torres' husband, who came from Colombia and then snuck into the United States via Mexico, in search of a better future.
He bursts into life, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a two-page spread of photographs and identification cards. And an epic tragedy becomes at once intimate and personal.

If you like this, read: The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman (1996, US$23.10 or S$33.88, Amazon.com). This depiction of the Holocaust, with the Nazis as cats and Jews as mice, has been hailed widely as a modern-day classic.
(ST)

The Little Book
Selden Edwards
Think of this as the literary offspring of the central ideas in the time-travel crowd-pleaser Back To The Future (1985) and Forrest Gump (1994), in which the titular character is inserted into pivotal moments in history.
Rock star and one-time baseball wonder pitcher Wheeler Burden is transported from 1988 back to 1897 Vienna, Austria, where he meets his father, World War II hero Dilly, who is himself transported to the same time and place from 1944.
The mechanics of this, wisely perhaps, are never explained. Instead, the author offers an emotional rationalisation for these feats.
It so happens that fin de siecle Vienna is something that Burden is deeply familiar with, having learnt all about it from his beloved preparatory school mentor Arnauld Esterhazy, who also taught Dilly.
Just as Back To The Future's Marty McFly had to fend off the amorous attentions of his teenage mother, there are complicated liaisons between supposed relatives in this book.
Freud would have a field day with this and he appears in the book, attempting to psychoanalyse Burden, whom he believes to be severely deluded.
First-time author Edwards, who started writing the book in 1974, also serves up cameos from rock legend Buddy Holly and composer Gustav Mahler to American writer Mark Twain and a young Adolf Hitler.
He recreates a detailed sense of time and place, and also has fun with the circular nature of cause and effect inherent in time-travel stories.
The characters, though, come off as too black or white - they are either noble or despicable.
The writing also has a somewhat stilted quality to it and can be a little repetitive at times.
But as befits a former headmaster, there is a well-designed lesson plan here that draws you in, holds your attention and makes you think.

If you like this, read: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2004, $23.44 with GST, Books Kinokuniya). This devastating tale of the impact of time-travelling on a relationship is at its heart a deeply moving romance.
(ST)

Camera Obscura
Esplanade Concert Hall/Wednesday

Scottish band Camera Obscura seem at once dated and timeless.
They came on stage in dresses and ensembles of collared shirts and pants, with nary a T-shirt or a pair of jeans in sight.
Lead vocalist Tracyanne Campbell was in a cream outfit with white stockings and the entire group could have been out for a quiet night on the town - circa the 1950s.
But like fellow Glaswegian band Belle & Sebastian, also formed in 1996, they mine a rich vein of timeless melodic pop paired with arch observations.
Sample lyric: You're not a teenager/So don't act like one/Sure she is a heart-breaker/Does she have one?
For most of the 80-minute set though, the near-capacity crowd of 1,500 were content to stay in their seats.
The line-up was heavy on tracks from their last two albums Let's Get Out Of This Country (2006) and Underachievers Please Try Harder (2003), and fans were also treated to three songs from their forthcoming album.
Campbell's voice, however, was decidedly less ethereal and dainty compared to the recordings. The iffy lower range and flattening of the higher notes pointed to her vocal limitations in a live setting.
The fact that the band were static on stage, barely budging from their positions throughout the show, did not help.
It took a while for the crowd to warm up and during an early lull between songs, someone yelled 'It's oh so quiet' to scattered laughter.
Still, the band injected some welcome surprises into the set, segueing into Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al from Let's Get Out Of This Country and leaving their stamp on a cover of Abba's Super Trouper.
By this time, the fans were won over by Campbell's unassuming, low-key charm. Before launching into Super Trouper, she noted: 'Just for the record, we actually didn't write this song.'
Responding to shouted-out requests for obscure numbers such as San Francisco Song, she demurred: 'It's always amusing when people ask us for songs we've forgotten how to play.'
The track that finally roused the house was If Looks Could Kill, with its thumping bass-line and joyous hand-claps. It prompted Campbell to quip: 'We need to write a few more songs that can get us that reaction.'
On the closing number Razzle Dazzle Rose, Camera Obscura proved that, unlike their namesake - an optical device - they were no dated curiosity, pulling off an exquisitely drawn-out finale that drew enthusiastic claps and cheers.
(ST)