Police Story 2013
Ding Sheng
The story: China cop Zhong Wen (Jackie Chan) makes his way to a bar, where he is meeting his estranged daughter Miao Miao (Jing Tian). Things get hairy when bar owner Wu Jiang (Liu Ye) prevents the patrons from leaving and holds them captive. It turns out that Zhong had crossed paths with a few of the hostages before. And Wu is determined to get to the bottom of an old case.

Adventure thriller CZ12 (2012) was supposed to be Jackie Chan’s last major action film. But without his trademark daredevil stunts, is a Jackie Chan film still worth watching?
In this case, not quite.
To be clear, Police Story 2013 still has action sequences, just fewer and nothing that is likely to result in a loss of life or limb for the famously – some would say recklessly – gungho star.
In his best films, such as Project A (1983) and Armour Of God (1986), the NG (no-good) blooper reels at the end were highlights packed with action. Among Police Story 2013’s bloopers, Chan seems to have more difficulty with the dialogue than any particular manoeuvre.
To execute a scene in which he tries to free himself from being bound to a chair with metal wires, it takes him several takes and only bloodied wrists.
The focus is very much on the plot, so too bad it comes up a little short.
There is some suspense built up at the beginning, when you wonder who Wu Jiang is and why has he taken the trouble to mount such an elaborate set-up.
Besides holding people hostage in the bar and making sure that Zhong is on the premises, he also demands to meet a specific hostage.
Once the pieces fall into place, there is an attempt at a Rashomon-type recreation of an old case.
One by one, those who are present that night add to the story of what went down and gradually fill in the puzzle.
When the mystery is finally unveiled, though, it feels like writer-director Ding Sheng is making a mountain out of a molehill.
And the question of why such an elaborate set-up is necessary in the first place is never really answered.
For the ending to be nicely sewn up, a new character has to be conveniently introduced at the last minute.
In films such as A Beautiful Life (2011), Liu Ye has shown that he can act; here, he is hampered by ham-fisted characterisation.
Although Chan’s role is better sketched out (the absent father element seems to have been drawn from his own life), Ding’s previous collaboration with him in action comedy Little Big Soldier (2010) was less laboured and more fun.
And by the way, why call this Police Story 2013 when it has nothing to do with the four comedy-action Police Story films made between 1985 and 1996, or even New Police Story, 2004’s darker reboot?
Doing so merely feels like a cop-out, not to mention draws attention to the fact that Chan’s best films are behind him.
(ST)

Thanks For Sharing
Stuart Blumberg
The story: Former sex addict Adam (Mark Ruffalo) has been sober for five years and is now helping others with the 12-step process of recovery. He is even ready to start dating when Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes along. His sponsor Mike (Tim Robbins) is supportive of Adam but wary of his own addict son, Danny (Patrick Fugit). Meanwhile, the incorrigible Neil (Josh Gad) unexpectedly finds friendship with the free-spirited Dede (Alecia Moore, better known as pop star Pink).

Perhaps the fact that writer-director Stuart Blumberg had co-written Oscar-nominated gay family drama The Kids Are All Right (2010) attracted this ensemble cast of big names to the film.
But lightning fails to strike twice for Blumberg.
Maybe the problem lies with the fact that addiction is not an inherently hilarious topic. And the light comic tone that Blumberg is going for in his debut directorial feature does not work.
Darren Aronofsky’s disturbing and harrowing Requiem For A Dream (2000) is a far more honest and compelling look at the subject instead.
Here, the stories never quite resonate.
The Neil-Dede plotline is too pat and feels mainly like an acting exercise for pop star Pink. She does an okay job but you never forget that she is Pink. And the chubby Neil borders on being a caricature whose main purpose is to milk some cheap laughs.
In the case of the Adam-Phoebe story, there is also some serious miscasting going on. Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count On Me, 2000) can play wounded and vulnerable in his sleep, but he has zero chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow’s health fanatic. Watching them play at being a flirty couple trading cutesy banter will have you cringing so much that it feels like a workout.
The Mike-Danny father-son strand is potentially the most interesting as it touches upon issues of trust and forgiveness. But it feels slight, given all the characters and material the film is juggling.
What I did learn from the film is that the terminology used in sex addiction is the same as that used in alcohol addiction. Hence, characters talk about being sober and also commemorate their length of sobriety. The idea is that sex addiction is as serious as any other kind of addiction and not just a flimsy excuse that Hollywood stars trot out for their bad behaviour.
In the end, Thanks For Sharing plays like a well-meaning public service announcement. But good intentions alone do not make a good movie, so thanks, but no thanks.
(ST)

Insignificance
Hebe Tien
Wait a minute, when did Taiwan’s Barbie Hsu go back to making music? It turns out, instead, to be S.H.E member Hebe Tien on the cover, looking unlike herself in close-up.
The album warrants greater scrutiny as well. Expectations were high after her well-received solo outings To Hebe (2010) and My Love (2011). And, at first, this new offering seems to fall far short in comparison.
There is a clear theme – insignificance – and there are some gorgeous photos in the CD booklet, thanks to a trip Tien took for the album to Icelandic glacier Vatnajokull.
But there is a languidness to the music that threatens to slip into a torpor now and then.
More attentive listening reveals some interesting imagery in the lyrics and some points of interest in the music and her singing.
The record was inspired by Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska’s Under One Small Star and the title track draws on it: “In the ugliest world, I occasionally catch a glimpse of the most beautiful poem/ Turns out the darkest sky has the brightest stars”.
Her singing is appropriately light-as- air for Impermanence, while Won’t If Not Drunk has an appealing loosey-goosey vibe.
Not quite so insignificant after all.
(ST)

The Best Memoryz
Z-Chen Chang
This is not the way to follow up a good album. Malaysian singer Z-Chen Chang’s In Love With... (2011) featured Valuable Advice and Met Too Soon, moving ballads that showcased his smooth emotive pipes.
But instead of building on that momentum, The Best Memoryz is a collection of eight covers and only two new tracks.
The choice of songs to reinterpret is also not compelling, what with ho-hum radio hits such as Jacky Wu’s Do You Only Think About Me On Nights Like This and Kelly Chen’s Love What You Love.
There is a touch of melancholia to Chang’s voice and it is on A-Sun’s affecting Leaves that he really gets to shine.
As for the new tracks, ballad The Best Memory feels like a so-so attempt to recapture past glories while the more uptempo Love Is My Own Strength is merely passable.
Not exactly the stuff fond memories are made of.
(ST)

Control
Kenneth Bi
The story: Insurance salesman Mark (Daniel Wu) is blackmailed by a mysterious figure and is forced to do his bidding, including crossing some dangerous crooks. When he is captured by Devil (Leon Dai) and his men, he insists on telling his story to the big boss, Tiger (Simon Yam).

Control could well have been inspired by something like The Usual Suspects (1995), in which the protagonist weaves a mesmerising tale with a stunning twist at the end.
Unfortunately, scriptwriter-director Kenneth Bi (Hainan Chicken Rice, 2005) is clearly not in control of the material here which veers off course during the crucial denouement.
The film actually begins promisingly. Set in an unnamed futuristic city in slick shades of black and grey, it seems to be an Asian take on the cyber-punk sci-fi noir genre.
It is unusual enough to be intriguing, but apart from an excuse to use some computer graphics, the setting ultimately does not matter.
So what we are left with is the tale of a man forced against his will to follow the instructions of an auto-tuned voice.
Since the identity of the puppet master is shrouded and what he actually wants (money? vengeance? an advanced degree in puppetry?) is under wraps, it falls to the poor victim to keep us hooked on the story.
Unfortunately, Daniel Wu (New Police Story, 2004) is not charismatic enough to reel you in from the get-go and make you care about what happens to him.
There is some curiosity over what Mark will be forced to do next but the stakes are never very high for the viewer.
The supporting cast of normally reliable actors do not fare well either.
Simon Yam (Eye In The Sky, 2007) appears to be slumming it in a hammy turn as crime boss Tiger while Kara Hui is once again an emotionally distraught mother, too soon after horror flick Rigor Mortis (2013).
As the machinations get more laboured and more characters get pulled in – including Mark’s old girlfriend Jessica (Yao Chen) – you begin to wonder how it will all be resolved.
There is more story-telling involved, and it might leave your jaw hanging – not from admiration, but from incredulity.
(ST)

Chinese Puzzle
Cedric Klapisch
The story: The follow-up to The Spanish Apartment (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005) continues with the story of Frenchman Xavier (Romain Duris) and his friends. He and Wendy (Kelly Reilly) have split up and she moves to New York from Paris with their two children. Xavier then heads for the Big Apple as well where his lesbian friend Isabelle (Cecile de France) is raising a child with her partner. He later reconnects with his ex, Martine (Audrey Tautou), who has two children of her own. Along the way, for the sake of a visa, Xavier gets hitched to a Chinese-American woman.

Meeting an old friend after a long time apart can be a fraught affair. Can you pick up where you left off? Will the conversation still flow easily? Have they changed? Have you?
In Before Midnight (2013), it was a pleasure meeting Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) again and seeing where they were nine years after Before Sunset (2004) and 18 after Before Sunrise (1995).
Add to that list of happy reunions writer-director Cedric Klapisch’s Chinese Puzzle. We first met Xavier in The Spanish Apartment (2002), a young Frenchman in Barcelona on the brink of adult and working life and figuring his way forward with the help of a group of friends from all over Europe.
In Russian Dolls (2005), the setting moved to St Petersburg where Xavier and his friends fall in and out of love.
And now, pushing 40, he is at yet another crossroads as life takes him to bustling Chinatown in New York and he has to take stock of his relationships with his ex-partner, children, friends and old lover, while keeping his publisher in Paris happy.
Romain Duris has shown his versatility as an actor, including his turn as a thug in the compelling The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), but he will always be remembered for playing Xavier.
He brings an easy charm to the highly self-aware and articulate character, someone who can be indecisive and passive at times, but ultimately has his heart in the right place.
The other actors slip easily into their roles as well, from Audrey Tautou (Amelie, 2001) as the older and wiser Martine to Cecile de France (Hereafter, 2010) as the butch Isabelle, settling down with a partner and baby and yet still behaving irresponsibly like a child.
Whatever their flaws and foibles, it is clear that Klapisch has great affection for this group of friends.
Apart from depicting their relationships with one another with honesty, warmth and gentle humour, he also tackles bigger themes of globalisation and culture through the trajectory of the three films.
There is a playful visual flair in Chinese Puzzle that elegantly conveys the frenetic vibe of New York City and lends the film an engaging energy of its own. It all culminates in a welcome bit of farce as the various plot situations all come colliding together.
Life can be complicated and never linear, as Xavier grouses, but he and his friends have also shown us that it can be a glorious mess filled with laughter, light and love.
(ST)

Love Lesson
Diana Wang
While Taiwan’s Diana Wang made it only to the final 42 on the first season of talent show Chinese Idol earlier this year, she impressed label Warner Music Taiwan enough to be offered a contract.
And the newcomer has since made quite a splash with her debut album as Love Lesson hit the No. 1 spot on the authoritative G-Music album chart.
But I am not quite feeling the love, even though a fair bit of the material here revolves around the topic, from ballad Too Young To Love to the emo title track.
Her voice is pleasant enough, but not particularly distinctive. The same goes for the material.
What leaves more of an impression are the upbeat Armoured Wizard and the sole English track, her cover of feted indie act Bon Iver’s Skinny Love.
Her take is a glossier pop version of the haunting and angry original. But the power of the song is such that it is easily the most memorable number here.
(ST)

The White Storm
Benny Chan
The story: Tin (Sean Lau Ching Wan), Wai (Nick Cheung) and Chow (Louis Koo) are three friends who grew up together and then signed up to be cops. Tin rises through the ranks and is senior to Wai, while Chow has to tough it out as an undercover mole for a drug lord. As they seek to bring down kingpin Eight-faced Buddha (Lo Hoi Pang) who operates in Thailand, friendships and loyalties are tested.

Oh no, not another drug movie, was my first thought.
Louis Koo played a weaselly drug peddler earlier this year in Drug War while Sean Lau Ching Wan and Nick Cheung have been on both sides of the cop-crook divide in other films such as Overheard (2009) and Nightfall (2012).
They have even teamed up in various combinations, though this marks the first time all three actors are in a film together.
But despite my initial reservations, The White Storm turned out to be a crackerjack of a movie which managed to be surprising in a well-worn genre.
It could have been another generic drug bust movie, but director and co-writer Benny Chan (New Police Story, 2004) ups the stakes by grounding the film with strong characters and extreme moral dilemmas.
The three seasoned actors inhabit their characters easily and also play off one another well.
Koo is the frustrated undercover mole, Chow, who is tired of living a double life. He lives in fear of picking up the wrong mobile phone and saying the wrong thing and just wants to be with his pregnant wife.
Lau is his superior, Tin, who is caught between wanting to protect his friend and pressure from his higher-ups to go after bigger fish – which means that Chow would have to remain as a mole.
And Cheung is the peace-maker, Wai, sandwiched between the other two and trying his best to keep their friendship from fraying as well as the mission from going under.
The film throws up some interesting questions.
What does it really take to motivate an undercover cop to stick it out?
Is a sense of duty enough or does there need to be something more personal given the sacrifices one is asked to make?
Later on, one of the three friends is put in an impossible situation of choosing who to save and, hence, who to sacrifice. Better yet, the movie examines the consequences of that fateful decision and how things sour after that.
Chan also packs in bursts of adrenaline rush in the action sequences ranging from a showdown in an abandoned building to an attack by helicopters in Thailand.
A pity then that the packed-with-gunplay finale is stretched out too long.
Right up till then though, the film has you in a firm grip.
(ST)

Midsummer's Equation
Hiroshi Nishitani
The story: The brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama) goes to the seaside town of Harigaura to attend a seabed mining plan debate. He stays at an inn and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a little boy Kyohei (Hikaru Yamazaki), who later helps him with the suspicious death of another lodger, retired cop Tsukahara (Sansei Shiomi). A vocal opponent to the mining plan is Narumi (Anne), Kyohei’s cousin and daughter of the inn’s owners, Setsuko (Jun Fubuki) and Shigeharu Kawahata (Gin Maeda). By the end of summer, everybody’s lives would have changed irrevocably. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Keigo Higashino.

The character of Manabu Yukawa, also known as detective Galileo, is a one-man pop culture cottage industry in Japan. The books by mystery writer Keigo Higashino are bestsellers and they are the basis of a hit TV series in 2007, and a second season this year. On the big screen, there was the excellent Suspect X (2008). So Midsummer’s Equation is a long-awaited follow-up film outing.
As with Suspect X, there is a central murder mystery set up. But what distinguishes the films are the fact that they are not just interested in the “how”, but the “why”.
Director Hiroshi Nishitani has once again delivered a puzzler that engages the mind and moves the heart.
Central to the stories is the coolly brilliant Yukawa (Fukuyama), whose unflappable nature and rational thinking make him great at deductive reasoning. “Truth is a map that teaches us about the world,” he says.
It also makes him something of a cold fish.
What is fun in Midsummer’s Equation is that we get to see a different side to him. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Kyohei (a naturalistic Hakaru Yamazaki) – a boy who does not give him hives on contact – and even teaches him about the value of science through a very cool rocket project.
Incidentally, actor-singer Fukuyama was also very good acting alongside another young co-star in Hirokazu Koreeda’s family drama Like Father, Like Son (2013).
Meanwhile, the other pieces of the puzzle are put into place. What is the secret shared between mother Setsuko and daughter Narumi? What is their connection to a murder which took place in 1998? Who was the man arrested for that murder and why is there a retired cop sniffing about the place now?
Compared to Suspect X, the case here is a little less satisfying because it is not as surprising or clever.
But Midsummer’s Equation still delivers when it comes to delving into people’s motivation and the consequences of their actions. Just when the case seems all wrapped up, more revelations follow as the film teases apart the secrets and lies and anguish that have been buried within a family over the years.
And Yukawa’s friendship with young Kyohei pays off too, in a beautifully low-key scene at the end.
If you are looking for a humane murder mystery to mull over, Midsummer’s Equation could well be your answer.
(ST)

Conversations With
Ruth Kueo
The debut EP from 22-year-old local singer Ruth Kueo is a promising charmer. Styling-wise, she goes for young and hipster, but the songs suggest a greater maturity.
Opening track Wait is breezy fare that is easy to like. She sings brightly and hopefully: “There are obstacles on the way and unhappiness sometimes/ But believe there’s a Mr Right/If true love comes/ Don’t reject him at arm’s length.”
Ballad There’s A Love and the mid-tempo Metamorphosis showcase her chops as a singer as she navigates the emotional journeys confidently.
She wrote all of the lyrics and had a hand in composing all the music – a good sign that she has more to say in conversations to come.
(ST)

Rigor Mortis
Juno Mak
The story: A former actor in vampire movies, Chin (Chin Siu Ho) moves into a derelict public housing block. Washed-up and alienated from his wife and son, he plans to kill himself in apartment 2442. His attempt is interrupted by the other denizens of the block, from cook/exorcist Yau (Anthony Chan) to kindly old Auntie Mui (Nina Paw) who lives with her husband Uncle Tung (Richard Ng). Chin later meets the distraught Feng (Kara Hui), who keeps hanging around 2442. When evil is awakened, Chin finds himself battling vicious ghosts and a powerful zombie.

The Hong Kong vampire movies of the 1980s such as Mr. Vampire (1985) were often a campy mix of comedy and horror.
Singer-turned-director Juno Mak might have been inspired by them, but Rigor Mortis is a different creature altogether.
His directorial debut not only revives a moribund genre, but it also does so in a way that is unexpected.
For starters, there is an atmosphere of chill and dread that pervades the movie.
From the dreary palette of greys to the oppressive setting in a crumbling building, Mak, who also wrote the script, builds the suspense gradually.
And thanks to great make-up, costumes and some nifty special effects, he manages to pull off some creepy moments – no mean achievement in an age where genuine scares are few and far in between.
Mak’s affection for the genre also comes through in the way the movie is steeped in vampire movie lore and in the gripping action sequences, particularly in the epic showdown between Chin and gang and a powerful zombie.
While movies about ghosts and the undead tend to fall short when it comes to characterisation, Rigor Mortis deftly balances a large ensemble cast and actually makes the various stories mean something.
Auntie Mui (an excellent Nina Paw) and Uncle Tung (Richard Ng) are a couple relying on each other in their old age. They bicker sweetly and she is forever helping out the other residents with little favours.
It makes the horror of what subsequently unfolds more powerful because you come to care for Mui in particular.
Feng, meanwhile, is trapped in her own private nightmare and only her son, Xiaobai, keeps her tethered to this world.
And then there is Chin playing Chin, a washed-up actor facing all manner of evil even as he battles with demons of his own.
The world of Rigor Mortis is a dark one, but Mak finds moments of kindness and tenderness in it, and handles them with an effectively light touch.
And then right at the end, he delivers an enigmatic ending that will keep you guessing.
Is Rigor Mortis a meta movie about the hopping vampire genre? Or did you just witness a distinctly Hong Kong version of hell?
What it is, without a doubt, is a gonzo piece of film-making that is Hong Kong cinema at its best.
(ST)

Beautiful World
Where Chou Hui
In the early noughties, Taiwanese singer Where Chou Hui’s sweetly mellifluous voice fronted hit ballads such as Really Wish To Love You Well. After all these years, she still sounds great and there is perhaps a touch more depth and maturity in her singing here and on her last album Own Room (2011).
The title track Beautiful World points to a rocky journey but there is also a show of optimism here. She sings: “Even if there are misunderstandings and arguments/When I turn around, I still wish to hold hands and share everything.”
Apart from her trademark balladry, Chou also dips her toes into dance territory here. It is not that Who Cares About Your Love or Thank You, Liar are terrible tracks, but Chou just comes across as Jolin Tsai-lite on them. It can be a beautiful world even without a jolt of electronica.
(ST)

Commitment
Park Hong Soo
The story: After his father is killed on a mission in South Korea, North Koreans Li Myung Hoon (Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P from boyband Big Bang), and his younger sister Hye In (Kim Yoo Jung) are sent to a prison labour camp. To save their lives, he becomes a spy in the South in the guise of a high-school student and becomes friends with outcast Lee Hye In (Han Ye Ri), who shares his sister’s name.

See T.O.P run, see T.O.P fight, see T.O.P look cool riding a motorbike. Fans of the dashing K-popster will be thrilled just to have their idol front and centre on the screen.
Alas, this is a feature film and not a music video, which means that attention also has to be paid to the pesky attendant details of story and character development.
For a spy thriller, Commitment is shockingly boring. Stretched to an overlong two hours, it fails to build up much excitement or tension or even make one care very much for the characters.
The high school scenes sit oddly with the ones of T.O.P getting all assassin-y and could have been played up for greater contrast. It could have been fun to delve into how Myung Hoon balances hitting the books by day and killing off spooks at night.
But in the hands of debut feature director Park Hong Soo, the scenes in school feel perfunctory, with the workman-like purpose of having Myung Hoon making his sole friend.
Meanwhile, the action scenes are linked to some far-removed power struggle in North Korea. It is confusing to know who is on which side, not that it seems to matter very much in the end.
T.O.P does have some natural charisma and he can emote – to a certain extent. Myung Hoon is a young man pushed to the brink but you do not feel the extremity of his situation.
And maybe it is a North Korean thing, but his relationship with his sister borders on being too close for comfort.
Perhaps the film is really an experiment to test the commitment of the K-pop star’s fans.
(ST)

Closed Circuit
John Crowley
The story: The crowded Borough market in London is bombed and Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) is arrested as the primary suspect. After his first lawyer dies, Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons-Howe (Rebecca Hall) are picked to represent Farroukh in court. The more they delve into it, the less straightforward the case seems.

The argument that unpleasant things have to be done in the name of safety and security is one that cannot be dismissed easily. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, this is an issue that has been wrestled with on shows such as the ongoing television drama Homeland.
In this film, the United Kingdom’s MI5 agency is peopled by such a shady bunch that the idea of them given carte blanche to do whatever they need to in the name of national security is downright scary. One of those behaving like a thug is played by Riz Ahmed, recently seen in the more nuanced political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013).
It all begins to seem rather far-fetched, but for a good while Closed Circuit is a legal mystery thriller that reels you in.
Two lawyers have to be assigned to the case because the suspect has to stand trial in both open court and closed-door proceedings due to the classified nature of some evidence. According to the rules, Martin and Claudia are not supposed to contact each other during the trial.
Adding to the complicated structure of the case is the fraught relationship between the two as they had had an affair.
Eric Bana (Romulus, My Father, 2007) and Rebecca Hall (The Town, 2010) are both engaging actors who keep the film grounded even as the cloak-and-dagger elements pile up.
And while the truth regarding Farroukh’s role in the bombing does propel the movie, in truth, he is only a minor character seen in a few scenes. Instead, director John Crowley (Boy A, 2007) puts Martin and Claudia in peril.
In order to wrap things up in a fairly brisk 96 minutes, there are some convenient lapses and loopholes in the story but at least you are kept guessing as to whether treachery, or justice, will triumph in the end.
(ST)

Friends
Anthony Neely
After the invigorating pop-rock of his last album, Wake Up (2012), American-born Taiwan-based singer Anthony Neely’s (right) new album feels less vital.
Even the title, Friends, seems a little bland.
Good thing his lightly raspy voice is still engaging on tracks such as opener Everything Is Love.
I am not too enamoured of the repetitive chorus though: “It’s all because of love, that’s love/Can’t let go, except for love, it’s still love/If you don’t love, are not loved/This little existence won’t exist.”
Better yet is Faithball, the theme song of the
2013 Taiwanese baseball movie of the same name starring Neely.
A direct translation of the Chinese title would be The Weight Of Sweat and the song makes strong use of sports imagery.
Over a catchy riff, Neely sings: “But my sweat, has weight, burnt into tomorrow’s sunlight/ Everytime I fall, I get closer to the earth of dreams, take a bow and raise the bat again.”
The slower songs do not leave as strong an impression. Here’s hoping he hits a homerun the next time out.
(ST)

REAL
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The story: Through a procedure called “sensing”, Koichi (Takeru Satoh) is able to enter the subconscious of his lover, Atsumi (Haruka Ayase), and interact with her. She has been comatose since an apparent suicide attempt and he wants to find out what happened and to try to wake her up. Based on the novel A Perfect Day For Plesiosaur (2011).

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (Tokyo Sonata, 2008) Real is a psychological thriller that reveals its mystery slowly.
For a while, it is content to explore the procedure of sensing.
The audience is eased into it from Koichi’s (Takeru Satoh, right, with Haruka Ayase) point of view as he experiences it for the first time.
Plugged into a machine, his mind enters a space that is their apartment.
But this virtual world is not the same as ours: A pen can float leisurely in space and images of gruesome deaths from Atsumi’s dark manga work flash before Koichi’s eyes.
Plenty of questions are thrown up. Why does she want Koichi to search for an old childhood drawing of a plesiosaur? Who is the soaking wet boy that Koichi keeps seeing or is that some side effect of the sensing?
And is the line between what is real and what is virtual being blurred? At one point, Atsumi says: “It’s all in my mind, right? Anything can happen.”
After a while, you get the feeling that Kurosawa is slowly building up to a twist in the tale. It is not that much of a surprise when it is revealed, but at least it makes some sense.
What happens after that, though, is less persuasive.
Real turns into a kaiju (Japanese monster movie genre) flick as Koichi and Atsumi are pursued by a p***ed-off plesiosaur. And the couple have to uncover some incident that took place on Hikone island, where they grew up.
While Ayase (Cyborg She, 2008) has to grapple with the role of the more opaque Atsumi, Satoh (Rurouni Kenshin, 2012) gets to bring a sense of urgency to the role of Koichi.
But because much of the story takes place in a nebulous subconscious world where characters can be hard to read, one feels emotionally distanced from what is unfolding. Maybe this is another of those stories which work better on the page than on the screen.
(ST)

3 Peas In A Pod
Michelle Chong
The story: Singaporean Penny (Jae Liew), Korean Peter (Alexander Lee Eusebio) and Taiwanese Perry (Calvin Chen) are schoolmates at an Australian university who decide to take a road trip together just before graduation. With Penny in love with Peter and Perry having a soft spot for Penny, things eventually come to a head during the journey and no one is left unscathed.

The trailers for 3 Peas In A Pod largely suggest a light-hearted romantic comedy. There is a classic love triangle in which the object of one’s affection is eyeing someone else and the scenario plays out with humour and some choice dramatic moments.
It is a reasonable expectation especially since writer-director Michelle Chong’s debut film Already Famous (2011) was also a light-hearted comedy.
While kudos are due Chong for not treading the same path here, Peas ends up being terribly convoluted in a way that is utterly frustrating instead of clever and satisfying.
In the final act of the film, revelations come tumbling out that cast everything that happened before in a different light. When done well, as in the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), such reversals make you want to rewatch the film.
Unfortunately, here, it just feels as though the earlier part of the movie was just one giant sleight of hand, a deliberate act of misdirection.
It did not help that Peter was a self-absorbed, self-serving and possibly manic depressive chap who treats Penny (newcomer Jae Liew) as a doormat and is constantly telling his friends to “speaka Engrishi”. And Perry is largely a cipher until the very end. These are not exactly roles to warm to.
A graduation road trip is a momentous occasion, poised as it is between the world of school and friends and the working adult life to come. But while the characters mouth words to that effect, the impact is not quite there.
The supposed simmering desire is also handled in an oddly chaste fashion. If it is a road trip movie with an honest exploration of attraction and sexuality that you are looking for, try Mexican drama Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) instead.
The casting for 3 Peas was off too.
Alexander Lee Eusebio, though a former member of K-pop boyband U-Kiss, is unconvincing as swoonworthy hunk Peter. In fact, Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit member Calvin Chen, playing Perry, was clearly more buff. This made a scene in which the other two are surprised by Perry’s physique seem downright silly.
And fans hoping to see Chong in action as an actress will have to be content with a cameo of her as a hotel staff with a thick Aussie twang.
The big winner here would have to be Tourism Australia, which gets a feature-length advertisement packed with postcard-perfect sun-drenched vistas.
(ST)

JJ Lin Timeline World Tour
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday

Surviving 10 years in the music industry is no mean feat. And what has made the journey more difficult for local singer-songwriter JJ Lin is that he has had to accomplish this mostly away from home, in Taiwan.
Two years after his last concert here, the boyish-looking star returns home to mark this milestone in his career. It was also an opportunity to express his gratitude as he thanked his family for all their support over the years.
He said to his parents: “Thank you for the extraordinary love every time I’ve been back and I hope I have not let you down.” He also gave a shoutout to his paternal grandmother, who died from liver cancer while he was in the midst of his Taipei gigs in July.
Clearly, he relished being back and early on, he teased his fans in Singlish after they had just cheered him: “How can like that? You call this loud?”
So what if, unlike Taipei, we did not get to see him serenading singer Hebe Tien?
We got to see Lin, 32, and his elder brother Eugene sing together on the heartwarming ballad Fly Back In Time. They were both enrolled in music company Ocean Butterflies’ Very Singers’ Training Course back in 1999, though Eugene later went into banking.
Lin would go on to release his debut album Music Voyager in 2003 and win the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist.
Keeping things in the Singapore family of singers was Lin’s second guest star. The capacity crowd of 8,000 went wild when Stefanie Sun appeared in a short dress to duet with him on She Says. The lyricist of the title track of his 2011 album was none other than Sun.
She joked that she had worn sexy singer Jolin Tsai’s dress to the concert and kept singing his praises as a “sweet guy”.
Another highlight of the show was Lin’s tribute to the late king of pop, Michael Jackson. He even tipped a hat to Jackson’s iconic look by wearing a red military-style jacket. On a stage that was filled with water, Lin danced up a storm and slinked his way through Billie Jean.
The jacket later came off to reveal a black singlet underneath, which he eventually ripped off to the delight of his fans.
It did take a while though for the concert to really kick into gear.
Lin first appeared looking like a futuristic space cadet with a fatal weakness for bling.
True, there were hits peppered along the way including Cao Cao, Never Learn and a fan favourite, Soy Milk And Dough Sticks.
His voice was also generally in fine form, going from tremulous and tender on the ballads to packing a punch on the rock numbers such as The Dark Knight.
And yet, there was not enough momentum built. In part, the intermittent video clips centring on aspects of time did not seem to have too much to do with what was unfolding on stage.
Still, by the time the encore rolled around, Lin was working up a party mood in the hall with energetic tracks You N Me and We Together. The almost three-hour-long concert closed with the groovy hip-hop of High Fashion and his monster hit ballad, River South.
Apart from his parents, brother, aunts and uncles, Lin also has an extended family of fans who have been with him all the way.
On a heartfelt rendition of Remember, a ballad he had written for Taiwanese diva A-mei, the entire stadium of spectators sang along. And when he crooned the final line – “We hold hands together and say we’ll walk to the end together” – his family of fans cheered in approval.
(ST)

Angel vs Devil
Tanya Chua
On her last album Sing It Out Of Love (2011), home-grown singer-songwriter Tanya Chua dealt with the death of her father in 2011 from the side effects of medication for Parkinson’s disease.
This follow-up to that Golden Melody Award- winning work finds her in a conflicted place emotionally – and that is good news for the record.
The album’s title suggest two extremes. On the one hand, there are the ballads with their bruised vulnerability. On the other hand, some of the numbers adopt a more cavalier, devil-may-care attitude.
Love Song To Myself seems defiant, but breaks down in the swirling chorus: “In this calm, blue quandary/I’m shouting and crying hysterically”.
Meanwhile, A Hundred Thousand Teardrops effectively uses hyperbole: “We accumulate a hundred thousand teardrops in our lifetime/Thought that if I finished crying it all, I could exchange bitterness for a good ending.”
No surprise that the lyrics are by Chua’s frequent collaborator Xiaohan, who has professed that she loves to cry.
But the album is not just drenched in tears. On the laidback Pheromones, she teases, “Want to commit a crime for me?” while Easy Come Easy Go with rapper MC HotDog has a more relaxed attitude towards love.
The rock-flavoured title track marries contrasting feelings and finds her confessing: “Afraid of losing love and afraid of being loved.”
There is no need for such hesitation here. With a rich range of musical styles from Chua and engaging lyric contributions from the likes of sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, Taiwan’s David Ke and Chua herself, Angel Vs Devil is easy to embrace.
(ST)

Baby Blues
Leong Po Chih
Here is a home-buying tip that will save you plenty of grief and trouble: When you come across a creepy- looking doll left behind by its previous owner, do not hang on to the property. If you are rich enough to buy a house, you are rich enough to get a brand- new creepy-looking doll.
Unfortunately, newlyweds songwriter Hao (Raymond Lam) and blogger Tian Qing (Janelle Sing) ignore that tip. They also pay no heed to the repeated dire warnings of a homeless man camped outside their huge house.
Tian Qing becomes pregnant with twins but one of the boys dies during birth. She then starts treating the doll as a newborn – surely that goes beyond post-natal depression.
It is the doll working its bad juju, which it likes to do while spinning round and pointing its hand out. Presumably, this is to take advantage of the 3-D effects.
Rather than raising scares, though, this infantile movie is likely to induce yawns instead.
(ST)