Journey Into The Night
William Wei
Just when you think of William Wei as a guitar-playing troubadour, the Taiwanese singer-songwriter upends that image on his third album. Its title in Chinese, You Suo Wei, means something to fear and is also a pun on the phrase meaning “it matters”. And he confronts all manner of fears here.
Opening number Wolf is a rock number about keeping one’s impulsive animal instinct in check: “I’m afraid when the moon is full, in just a flash, I lose my cool/Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, there’s still a light on.”
He has not completely severed links to his previous style – sensitive ballad By Your Side harks back to tracks such as Because Love and Still Loving You on his self-titled debut (2010) and Someone Is Waiting (2012).
Elsewhere on this record, the Golden Melody Award winner for Best New Artist in 2011 ventures into electronica and collaborates with reggae group Matzka and rapper Soft Lipa. Eventually, it ends with Dawn, offering hope and reprieve.
This is thoughtful, adventurous work. Whatever fears Wei might have, stretching himself is not one of them.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Overheard 3
Alan Mak, Felix Chong
The story: Against the backdrop of property dealings in Hong Kong’s New Territories, a tale of greed and vengeance unfolds. Jau (Louis Koo) grows up with the thuggish Luk brothers, including Keung (Sean Lau Ching Wan), the right-hand man of the powerful Uncle To (Kenneth Tsang). He kills a major landowner in a car accident for To, who pays him off. Five years later, Jau is released from prison and plots an elaborate surveillance operation to take down the Luks with the help of expert hacker Joe (Daniel Wu).
Same concept, different story.
Writer-directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong of Infernal Affairs (2002) fame team up for a third surveillance thriller.
Overheard (2009) and Overheard 2 (2011) featured the same key actors – Lau, Koo and Wu – but as different characters. After all, to get overheard again on the part of the same perpetrators would simply be too much carelessness on their part.
By the third instalment, though, the idea is getting a little stale. And the three leads seem to be shuffled from role to role in each film as though they were playing some kind of musical chairs.
The first instalment remains the most compelling. Not only did the concept seem fresh then, but the film was also anchored by the dependable Lau as its moral centre.
In the less tightly knit Overheard 2, the focus shifted to Wu as he sought vengeance for past wrongs.
Somewhat confusingly, Wu again plays a tech- savvy character named Joe here, though the centre of the piece is now Koo.
Released from jail after five years and now a cripple, Jau is plotting to take down the crooked Luk brothers. He is driven by a mix of motives, including a thwarted romance with another Luk, Michelle Ye’s Yongyu.
Add Tsang as an imperious patriarch, Huang Lei as a wily businessman and Zhou Xun as a character linked to Keung and Joe and it is little wonder many of the characters seem underwritten.
The story of title grants and unscrupulous property developers with their bullying tactics is actually interesting enough to stand on its own, and there is a poignant lament about the cost of development and the debasement of land.
But since this is part of the Overheard series, there has to be a surveillance element worked into it.
The complicated web of relationships and land dealings plus the high-tech electronic monitoring make Overheard 3 feel overstuffed and underwhelming.
(ST)
Alan Mak, Felix Chong
The story: Against the backdrop of property dealings in Hong Kong’s New Territories, a tale of greed and vengeance unfolds. Jau (Louis Koo) grows up with the thuggish Luk brothers, including Keung (Sean Lau Ching Wan), the right-hand man of the powerful Uncle To (Kenneth Tsang). He kills a major landowner in a car accident for To, who pays him off. Five years later, Jau is released from prison and plots an elaborate surveillance operation to take down the Luks with the help of expert hacker Joe (Daniel Wu).
Same concept, different story.
Writer-directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong of Infernal Affairs (2002) fame team up for a third surveillance thriller.
Overheard (2009) and Overheard 2 (2011) featured the same key actors – Lau, Koo and Wu – but as different characters. After all, to get overheard again on the part of the same perpetrators would simply be too much carelessness on their part.
By the third instalment, though, the idea is getting a little stale. And the three leads seem to be shuffled from role to role in each film as though they were playing some kind of musical chairs.
The first instalment remains the most compelling. Not only did the concept seem fresh then, but the film was also anchored by the dependable Lau as its moral centre.
In the less tightly knit Overheard 2, the focus shifted to Wu as he sought vengeance for past wrongs.
Somewhat confusingly, Wu again plays a tech- savvy character named Joe here, though the centre of the piece is now Koo.
Released from jail after five years and now a cripple, Jau is plotting to take down the crooked Luk brothers. He is driven by a mix of motives, including a thwarted romance with another Luk, Michelle Ye’s Yongyu.
Add Tsang as an imperious patriarch, Huang Lei as a wily businessman and Zhou Xun as a character linked to Keung and Joe and it is little wonder many of the characters seem underwritten.
The story of title grants and unscrupulous property developers with their bullying tactics is actually interesting enough to stand on its own, and there is a poignant lament about the cost of development and the debasement of land.
But since this is part of the Overheard series, there has to be a surveillance element worked into it.
The complicated web of relationships and land dealings plus the high-tech electronic monitoring make Overheard 3 feel overstuffed and underwhelming.
(ST)
Coming Home
Zhang Yimou
The story: During the Cultural Revolution in China, Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming) was sent away to a labour camp as a political prisoner. He finally returns home when it ends in 1976, only to find that things have changed at home. His wife Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) blames their daughter, Dandan (Zhang Huiwen), for Lu’s recapture after an escape and, more devastatingly, no longer recognises him. He tries ways and means to rekindle her memory of him. Based on the novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi by Yan Geling.
It is a homecoming in more ways than one.
Coming Home reunites director Zhang Yimou and actress Gong since they last worked together on the opulent period piece Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006).
In spirit, though, it is closer to the earlier collaborations between the two in gritty dramas such as Red Sorghum (1987), The Story Of Qiu Ju (1992) and To Live (1994) – films which paint compelling pictures of China society with Gong as the charismatic centre in each offering.
And, once again, Zhang draws out a fine performance from his frequent leading lady.
Gong is the most restrained she has ever been, going for quiet naturalism and pulling her punches in a situation ripe for overacting.
Watch how she reacts when they meet again for the first time in years when her husband returns home, her blankly polite behaviour a contrast to his barely constrained joy, which turns to puzzlement and then sorrow.
She is matched by award-winning veteran Chen (Hero, 2002), who is unrecognisable when he first appears as an escaped prisoner buried beneath a layer of grime.
Later, when he realises that Feng no longer recognises him, he sets about trying to jog her memories of him, from posing as a piano-tuner to reading his old letters to her.
It is another tragedy of a family torn apart by the madness of the Cultural Revolution. And while the film does not dwell on it, there are chilling glimpses of its horrors from the poor letter-writing conditions Lu faced to the terrible fate that befalls Feng.
Although a bit slow-moving at times, this tale of love and sacrifice is genuinely moving and its emotive power builds up gradually.
After a string of big-budget martial arts epics such as Hero, House Of Flying Daggers (2004) and Golden Flower, Zhang proves that you can go home again.
(ST)
Zhang Yimou
The story: During the Cultural Revolution in China, Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming) was sent away to a labour camp as a political prisoner. He finally returns home when it ends in 1976, only to find that things have changed at home. His wife Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) blames their daughter, Dandan (Zhang Huiwen), for Lu’s recapture after an escape and, more devastatingly, no longer recognises him. He tries ways and means to rekindle her memory of him. Based on the novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi by Yan Geling.
It is a homecoming in more ways than one.
Coming Home reunites director Zhang Yimou and actress Gong since they last worked together on the opulent period piece Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006).
In spirit, though, it is closer to the earlier collaborations between the two in gritty dramas such as Red Sorghum (1987), The Story Of Qiu Ju (1992) and To Live (1994) – films which paint compelling pictures of China society with Gong as the charismatic centre in each offering.
And, once again, Zhang draws out a fine performance from his frequent leading lady.
Gong is the most restrained she has ever been, going for quiet naturalism and pulling her punches in a situation ripe for overacting.
Watch how she reacts when they meet again for the first time in years when her husband returns home, her blankly polite behaviour a contrast to his barely constrained joy, which turns to puzzlement and then sorrow.
She is matched by award-winning veteran Chen (Hero, 2002), who is unrecognisable when he first appears as an escaped prisoner buried beneath a layer of grime.
Later, when he realises that Feng no longer recognises him, he sets about trying to jog her memories of him, from posing as a piano-tuner to reading his old letters to her.
It is another tragedy of a family torn apart by the madness of the Cultural Revolution. And while the film does not dwell on it, there are chilling glimpses of its horrors from the poor letter-writing conditions Lu faced to the terrible fate that befalls Feng.
Although a bit slow-moving at times, this tale of love and sacrifice is genuinely moving and its emotive power builds up gradually.
After a string of big-budget martial arts epics such as Hero, House Of Flying Daggers (2004) and Golden Flower, Zhang proves that you can go home again.
(ST)
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Are music awards still relevant?
It is a question that pops up from time to time given how many there are out there. Publications give out awards, radio stations give out awards, websites give out awards and even soft drinks give out awards. That is taking the pop in sodapop a little too liberally.
It is practically suspect if a singer or album does not end up with some kind of accolade or other.
With Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards hitting a milestone 25th edition, it is a good time to take stock of the awards show even as it takes stock of the Chinese music offerings in a given year.
And the quick answer to the question is: Yes.
While there is a deluge of awards out there, there will always be room for an industry-wide exercise conducted by a respected panel. The Golden Melody Awards, Golden Bell Awards for television productions and the Golden Horse Awards for movies are considered Taiwan’s three major annual awards. But their influence extends to all of the Mandarin-speaking world, particularly the music and film awards.
While the Golden Melody Awards have been christened the Grammys of Chinese music, it is probably fair to say that the former has greater cache in comparison as the Grammys have been pilloried for being out of touch and irrelevant.
On the other hand, the Taiwanese award has tried to straddle mainstream relevance and music credibility. Four of Mandopop king Jay Chou’s albums have won for Best Mandarin Album, namely Jay (in 2001), Fantasy (in 2002), Ye Hui Mei (in 2004) and The Era (in 2011). But you also have feted indie singersongwriter Sandee Chan’s Then We All Wept In Silence taking the top honour in 2005.
It helps to have the judging panel helmed by respected figures such as this year’s Ni Chung-hua, a veteran who was responsible for bringing musicians such as rocker Wu Bai, singer-songwriter Chang Chen-yue and producer Lin Wei-che into the business.
And a credible award can also highlight changing trends in music.
A milestone year for the Golden Melody Awards could well be a watershed for pop music from China. One of the biggest surprises from the nominations this year is that the two frontrunners are both from China. The works of Li Ronghao and Li Jian are both in the running for five awards each.
Li Ronghao’s debut record Model is up for key awards Best Mandarin Album, Best Mandarin Male Singer, Best Newcomer and Best Album Producer and the title track is nominated for Best Lyricist for Hong Kong’s Chow Yiu Fai. Meanwhile, Li Jian’s Classic is in the running for Best Mandarin Album, Best Album Producer and three tracks have been nominated for Best Arrangement by Wang Zhiyi and Zhao Zhao.
In media reports, Ni has said that the awards will not be restricted to Taiwan and that the greatest consideration should be musicality regardless of where it is from and regardless of market response. And the stellar showing of China pop makes it clear that it is a force that cannot be ignored.
Just last year, the five nominees for Best Mandarin Album were all from Taiwan and Hong Kong. This year, works from China take up two of the five spots, thanks to Li Ronghao and Li Jian.
China is already a major market in Mandopop and artists have been flocking there to promote their albums and tour extensively. The flow of China pop outwards has been more of a trickle, but it was always only a matter of time before it makes bigger inroads into Mandopop as a whole.
True, a few of the big names in Mandopop have been born in China, including Faye Wong from Beijing. But they found success after moving to Hong Kong or Taiwan, in the case of Della Ding Dang.
Stars big at home in China, such as Han Hong, Lao Lang and Li Yuchun, have not enjoyed the same degree of success outside of it. Reasons bandied about have ranged from less slick packaging to differing tastes. But with convergence and greater interaction over time, there will be fewer obstacles to music from China getting a warm reception regionally.
Ni adds that the nomination list needs to be broad enough and not restricted to a few genres or a few people, otherwise, the awards will be acknowledged by a shrinking group.
Hip-hop’s growing visibility and acceptance is also reflected in this year’s nominations. Soft Lipa’s Renovate is up for Best Mandarin Album, Best Male Singer and Best Album Producer while rapper Dog-G is up for Best Lyricist for 100 Points.
It prompted Dog-G to remark: “Compared to when I first started out with MC HotDog, it feels that hip-hop has now taken root in Taiwan.”
They were dabbling in hip-hop in the early noughties and MC HotDog had won Best Album with Wake Up in 2007.
There is also the personal satisfaction factor to consider.
As a music reviewer, I get to see how my picks stack up. Chang Chen-yue’s Ayal Komod, Tizzy Bac’s Fragile, Wakin Chau’s Jiang Hu, The Rhapsody and Soft Lipa’s Renovate were among my favourites over the past year. It is always gratifying to have one’s choices affirmed by others.
Of course, when one does not see eye to eye with the nominees or rails over egregious omissions, it must be because the jury fails to recognise quality even when it stares them in the face.
Ultimately, an awards event is also another means of learning about the good music available out there and discovering voices that might have slipped under the radar. So before the results are unveiled on June 28, no prizes for guessing which China artists will be on my playlist.
(ST)
It is a question that pops up from time to time given how many there are out there. Publications give out awards, radio stations give out awards, websites give out awards and even soft drinks give out awards. That is taking the pop in sodapop a little too liberally.
It is practically suspect if a singer or album does not end up with some kind of accolade or other.
With Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards hitting a milestone 25th edition, it is a good time to take stock of the awards show even as it takes stock of the Chinese music offerings in a given year.
And the quick answer to the question is: Yes.
While there is a deluge of awards out there, there will always be room for an industry-wide exercise conducted by a respected panel. The Golden Melody Awards, Golden Bell Awards for television productions and the Golden Horse Awards for movies are considered Taiwan’s three major annual awards. But their influence extends to all of the Mandarin-speaking world, particularly the music and film awards.
While the Golden Melody Awards have been christened the Grammys of Chinese music, it is probably fair to say that the former has greater cache in comparison as the Grammys have been pilloried for being out of touch and irrelevant.
On the other hand, the Taiwanese award has tried to straddle mainstream relevance and music credibility. Four of Mandopop king Jay Chou’s albums have won for Best Mandarin Album, namely Jay (in 2001), Fantasy (in 2002), Ye Hui Mei (in 2004) and The Era (in 2011). But you also have feted indie singersongwriter Sandee Chan’s Then We All Wept In Silence taking the top honour in 2005.
It helps to have the judging panel helmed by respected figures such as this year’s Ni Chung-hua, a veteran who was responsible for bringing musicians such as rocker Wu Bai, singer-songwriter Chang Chen-yue and producer Lin Wei-che into the business.
And a credible award can also highlight changing trends in music.
A milestone year for the Golden Melody Awards could well be a watershed for pop music from China. One of the biggest surprises from the nominations this year is that the two frontrunners are both from China. The works of Li Ronghao and Li Jian are both in the running for five awards each.
Li Ronghao’s debut record Model is up for key awards Best Mandarin Album, Best Mandarin Male Singer, Best Newcomer and Best Album Producer and the title track is nominated for Best Lyricist for Hong Kong’s Chow Yiu Fai. Meanwhile, Li Jian’s Classic is in the running for Best Mandarin Album, Best Album Producer and three tracks have been nominated for Best Arrangement by Wang Zhiyi and Zhao Zhao.
In media reports, Ni has said that the awards will not be restricted to Taiwan and that the greatest consideration should be musicality regardless of where it is from and regardless of market response. And the stellar showing of China pop makes it clear that it is a force that cannot be ignored.
Just last year, the five nominees for Best Mandarin Album were all from Taiwan and Hong Kong. This year, works from China take up two of the five spots, thanks to Li Ronghao and Li Jian.
China is already a major market in Mandopop and artists have been flocking there to promote their albums and tour extensively. The flow of China pop outwards has been more of a trickle, but it was always only a matter of time before it makes bigger inroads into Mandopop as a whole.
True, a few of the big names in Mandopop have been born in China, including Faye Wong from Beijing. But they found success after moving to Hong Kong or Taiwan, in the case of Della Ding Dang.
Stars big at home in China, such as Han Hong, Lao Lang and Li Yuchun, have not enjoyed the same degree of success outside of it. Reasons bandied about have ranged from less slick packaging to differing tastes. But with convergence and greater interaction over time, there will be fewer obstacles to music from China getting a warm reception regionally.
Ni adds that the nomination list needs to be broad enough and not restricted to a few genres or a few people, otherwise, the awards will be acknowledged by a shrinking group.
Hip-hop’s growing visibility and acceptance is also reflected in this year’s nominations. Soft Lipa’s Renovate is up for Best Mandarin Album, Best Male Singer and Best Album Producer while rapper Dog-G is up for Best Lyricist for 100 Points.
It prompted Dog-G to remark: “Compared to when I first started out with MC HotDog, it feels that hip-hop has now taken root in Taiwan.”
They were dabbling in hip-hop in the early noughties and MC HotDog had won Best Album with Wake Up in 2007.
There is also the personal satisfaction factor to consider.
As a music reviewer, I get to see how my picks stack up. Chang Chen-yue’s Ayal Komod, Tizzy Bac’s Fragile, Wakin Chau’s Jiang Hu, The Rhapsody and Soft Lipa’s Renovate were among my favourites over the past year. It is always gratifying to have one’s choices affirmed by others.
Of course, when one does not see eye to eye with the nominees or rails over egregious omissions, it must be because the jury fails to recognise quality even when it stares them in the face.
Ultimately, an awards event is also another means of learning about the good music available out there and discovering voices that might have slipped under the radar. So before the results are unveiled on June 28, no prizes for guessing which China artists will be on my playlist.
(ST)
Thursday, May 22, 2014
rice & shine
Eason Chan
Fans get a double dose of Hong Kong’s Eason Chan on his new Mandarin release, rice & shine. Split into two parts, he works with China’s Radio Mars on Rice and with Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin on Shine.
Conceptually, the album is similar to what the singer did on The Line Up (2002), where lyricists Lin Xi and Wyman Wong were responsible for two different halves of one album.
In this case, Radio Mars did the music and lyrics for Rice, while Lin’s music was set to words by different lyricists for Shine.
The first collaboration with Lin that was plugged is Ni Gei Wo Ting Hao (Listen Up). It is a ballad that manages to capture something of Chan’s essence and master lyricist Lin Xi complements the tune perfectly with his nuanced wordplay. It goes: “Listen up, you must smile when you feel like crying/Actually, you know that troubles solve troubles/When the new arrives, the old will be forgotten/Tiny complaints only prove that life is not boring.”
JJ Lin has a knack for coming up with radio- friendly hooks but his work here, while easy to get into, also manages to be a little left of centre.
Another reason Chan wanted to work with Lin was because of the singer-songwriter’s ability to dabble in various genres.
Apart from the ballads, a highlight here is the jauntily jazzy Fang Qi Zhi Liao (Give Up Treatment). Wu Ching-feng from Taiwan’s sodagreen pens the sharp and darkly humorous observations here: “Lonely people are most afraid their phones won’t get a signal” and “Society forces you to burn, modern day thinking/I’m no good, why else do I have so many troubles/What the heck, suddenly remembered I forgot to take my meds.”
On the surface, Rice seems like the more upbeat counterpart to Shine.
Lead single Yu Le Tian Kong (High Light High Life) is a lively track shot through with sunshine. The lyrics, though, take a darker turn: “The sunlight is so dazzling/But my ideals are slowly rotting away.”
In fact, the mood is not all that different from Shine. Most of the tracks fall into the mid-tempo range and there is a light dusting of electronica here and there.
Where Chan gets to have a little fun is on Yu Ren Kuai Le (Happy Fools) as he lays on the Beijing accent.
Again, the sun is shining bright in the lyrics but there is an undercurrent of darkness tugging away at the song: “The dreams we have we have we have we have have woken/The person we love we love we love we love has gone/We enjoy loneliness, bear censure, see through everything/Each day we pass by, the sunlight is dazzling, sunlight is dazzling.”
The tracks on Rice feel more cohesive – perhaps not surprising, given that they were the work of one entity, but Lin’s music on Shine feels a little more compelling.
The debate as to which half of the album works better is one that Chan’s fans will relish.
(ST)
Eason Chan
Fans get a double dose of Hong Kong’s Eason Chan on his new Mandarin release, rice & shine. Split into two parts, he works with China’s Radio Mars on Rice and with Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin on Shine.
Conceptually, the album is similar to what the singer did on The Line Up (2002), where lyricists Lin Xi and Wyman Wong were responsible for two different halves of one album.
In this case, Radio Mars did the music and lyrics for Rice, while Lin’s music was set to words by different lyricists for Shine.
The first collaboration with Lin that was plugged is Ni Gei Wo Ting Hao (Listen Up). It is a ballad that manages to capture something of Chan’s essence and master lyricist Lin Xi complements the tune perfectly with his nuanced wordplay. It goes: “Listen up, you must smile when you feel like crying/Actually, you know that troubles solve troubles/When the new arrives, the old will be forgotten/Tiny complaints only prove that life is not boring.”
JJ Lin has a knack for coming up with radio- friendly hooks but his work here, while easy to get into, also manages to be a little left of centre.
Another reason Chan wanted to work with Lin was because of the singer-songwriter’s ability to dabble in various genres.
Apart from the ballads, a highlight here is the jauntily jazzy Fang Qi Zhi Liao (Give Up Treatment). Wu Ching-feng from Taiwan’s sodagreen pens the sharp and darkly humorous observations here: “Lonely people are most afraid their phones won’t get a signal” and “Society forces you to burn, modern day thinking/I’m no good, why else do I have so many troubles/What the heck, suddenly remembered I forgot to take my meds.”
On the surface, Rice seems like the more upbeat counterpart to Shine.
Lead single Yu Le Tian Kong (High Light High Life) is a lively track shot through with sunshine. The lyrics, though, take a darker turn: “The sunlight is so dazzling/But my ideals are slowly rotting away.”
In fact, the mood is not all that different from Shine. Most of the tracks fall into the mid-tempo range and there is a light dusting of electronica here and there.
Where Chan gets to have a little fun is on Yu Ren Kuai Le (Happy Fools) as he lays on the Beijing accent.
Again, the sun is shining bright in the lyrics but there is an undercurrent of darkness tugging away at the song: “The dreams we have we have we have we have have woken/The person we love we love we love we love has gone/We enjoy loneliness, bear censure, see through everything/Each day we pass by, the sunlight is dazzling, sunlight is dazzling.”
The tracks on Rice feel more cohesive – perhaps not surprising, given that they were the work of one entity, but Lin’s music on Shine feels a little more compelling.
The debate as to which half of the album works better is one that Chan’s fans will relish.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Aberdeen
Pang Ho Cheung
The story: Ching (Miriam Yeung) is a tour guide whose doctor husband Cheung (Eric Tsang) is having a fling with a nurse. She is haunted by a strained relationship with her dead mother. To (Louis Koo) is a star tutor married to a beautiful actress, Ceci (Gigi Leung). A strong believer that the beautiful will inherit the earth, he is worried about the prospects of their plain-looking little girl, Chloe. Dong (Ng Man Tat) is a Taoist priest who performs funerary rites. What seems like separate stories is revealed to be the portrait of one single family and of Hong Kong in miniature.
Aberdeen is an ambitious undertaking for Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho Cheung. The film’s Cantonese name, Heung Gong Zai, gives a better sense of the scope of the film. While it refers to Aberdeen, the English name of an area on Hong Kong Island, it also means Little Hong Kong.
In this portrait of the Cheng family, with patriarch Dong and his children Ching and To, Pang is also painting a picture of the territory’s chequered past as a British colony and the winds of change that have blown across it. Dong came from a family of fishermen but he had to learn new skills to make a living when those living on boats were forced to move into housing estates in the late 1960s.
History on large and small scale entwines as Pang explores its consequences in modern-day society.
The movie marks a change of style for the director as well. If you are looking for scabrous comedy of the sort found in previous works such as A.V. (2005) and the award-winning Vulgaria (2012), you might want to adjust your expectations. Admittedly, I do miss his outrageous sense of humour but Aberdeen, while more low-key, does have its funny moments, such as when Chloe asks for funeral rites to be performed for her pet chameleon Greenie.
There are also some entertainingly fantastical scenes, including Ching riding in a paper-offering taxi and Greenie as a Godzilla-like monster on the rampage.
For the most part, though, Pang has drawn inspiration from stories that have made their way into the news. They include the man who divorced his wife after the birth of their ugly children, not knowing she had gone for plastic surgery; model-actresses available for the picking at private parties; and callous tourists who posed with a stranded dolphin, reimagined as a beached whale here.
All this is meant to be part of a compelling tapestry, but Aberdeen feels scattered in a way that Pang’s best films do not. This is not the excellent movie about the weight of history, national and familial and its far-reaching consequences that John Sayles’ Lone Star (1996) is.
So it is thanks to Pang’s able ensemble cast that you get drawn in. Besides the main cast, Pang regulars such as Shawn Yue (Love In A Puff, 2010, with Yeung) and Chapman To (Vulgaria) also show up in interesting cameos.
In particular, singer-actress Leung is memorable in one of her meatiest roles in years. Some of the jibes about her character’s lacklustre acting career cut a little uncomfortably close to the bone, but Leung proves, once again, she is more than just a pretty face.
(ST)
Pang Ho Cheung
The story: Ching (Miriam Yeung) is a tour guide whose doctor husband Cheung (Eric Tsang) is having a fling with a nurse. She is haunted by a strained relationship with her dead mother. To (Louis Koo) is a star tutor married to a beautiful actress, Ceci (Gigi Leung). A strong believer that the beautiful will inherit the earth, he is worried about the prospects of their plain-looking little girl, Chloe. Dong (Ng Man Tat) is a Taoist priest who performs funerary rites. What seems like separate stories is revealed to be the portrait of one single family and of Hong Kong in miniature.
Aberdeen is an ambitious undertaking for Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho Cheung. The film’s Cantonese name, Heung Gong Zai, gives a better sense of the scope of the film. While it refers to Aberdeen, the English name of an area on Hong Kong Island, it also means Little Hong Kong.
In this portrait of the Cheng family, with patriarch Dong and his children Ching and To, Pang is also painting a picture of the territory’s chequered past as a British colony and the winds of change that have blown across it. Dong came from a family of fishermen but he had to learn new skills to make a living when those living on boats were forced to move into housing estates in the late 1960s.
History on large and small scale entwines as Pang explores its consequences in modern-day society.
The movie marks a change of style for the director as well. If you are looking for scabrous comedy of the sort found in previous works such as A.V. (2005) and the award-winning Vulgaria (2012), you might want to adjust your expectations. Admittedly, I do miss his outrageous sense of humour but Aberdeen, while more low-key, does have its funny moments, such as when Chloe asks for funeral rites to be performed for her pet chameleon Greenie.
There are also some entertainingly fantastical scenes, including Ching riding in a paper-offering taxi and Greenie as a Godzilla-like monster on the rampage.
For the most part, though, Pang has drawn inspiration from stories that have made their way into the news. They include the man who divorced his wife after the birth of their ugly children, not knowing she had gone for plastic surgery; model-actresses available for the picking at private parties; and callous tourists who posed with a stranded dolphin, reimagined as a beached whale here.
All this is meant to be part of a compelling tapestry, but Aberdeen feels scattered in a way that Pang’s best films do not. This is not the excellent movie about the weight of history, national and familial and its far-reaching consequences that John Sayles’ Lone Star (1996) is.
So it is thanks to Pang’s able ensemble cast that you get drawn in. Besides the main cast, Pang regulars such as Shawn Yue (Love In A Puff, 2010, with Yeung) and Chapman To (Vulgaria) also show up in interesting cameos.
In particular, singer-actress Leung is memorable in one of her meatiest roles in years. Some of the jibes about her character’s lacklustre acting career cut a little uncomfortably close to the bone, but Leung proves, once again, she is more than just a pretty face.
(ST)
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Grand Piano
Eugenio Mira
The story: The last time pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) attempted La Cinquette, a so-called “unplayable” piece, he choked because of stage fright. Five years later, the one-time star is back on stage performing before a packed crowd. Turning a page, he finds a threat scrawled on the score: “Play one wrong note and you die.”
Talk about performance anxiety.
Tom Selznick already has to deal with the pressure of returning to the stage after an inglorious break and, now, he has to deal with making sure that he gets every note right of La Cinquette (a piece created for the film, but which alludes to Rachmaninoff’s technically devilish Piano Concerto No. 3). Or die trying.
It is an intriguingly warped premise and Spanish director Eugenio Mira (Agnosia, 2010) conducts a virtuoso performance with it, one packed with drama and suspense.
Who, exactly, has his sights on Selznick? An obsessive fan taking things one step too far? A nutcase? Or someone with a precise, unknown, agenda?
To make sure that Selznick plays ball, the writer of the note threatens to shoot his wife Emma (Kerry Bishe), an actress who is in the audience.
And then the fun begins in earnest as the fabulously dextrous Wood juggles playing the piano with trying to make a call and sending a message – all the while trying to avoid being seen by the mysterious sniper.
Wood is best known for starring in the hit trilogy The Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003) and his wide-eyed look is put to good use here as fear, anxiety and determination play across his face.
Fittingly, for a thriller about a pianist and a piano, the use of music here is masterly.
From the opening credits in which the camera takes us inside the workings of one specific grand piano to Selznick performing under duress on stage, the score works beautifully in tandem with what is unfolding on screen as it teases, trills and thrills.
Credit here goes to Spanish composer Victor Reyes, whose film credits include the thrillers Red Lights (2012) and Buried (2010).
His work on Grand Piano was named Best Score at the Cinema Writers Circle Awards in Spain this year.
To relieve the tension, there are moments of comic relief.
There are the two worst concertgoers in the world bickering in loud whispers and flashes of black humour as characters get killed.
There is more enjoyment in store when the mastermind is eventually unmasked and the reason for the unusual request is revealed with a final flourish.
Tinkling the ivories has rarely been this much fun at the movies.
(ST)
Eugenio Mira
The story: The last time pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) attempted La Cinquette, a so-called “unplayable” piece, he choked because of stage fright. Five years later, the one-time star is back on stage performing before a packed crowd. Turning a page, he finds a threat scrawled on the score: “Play one wrong note and you die.”
Talk about performance anxiety.
Tom Selznick already has to deal with the pressure of returning to the stage after an inglorious break and, now, he has to deal with making sure that he gets every note right of La Cinquette (a piece created for the film, but which alludes to Rachmaninoff’s technically devilish Piano Concerto No. 3). Or die trying.
It is an intriguingly warped premise and Spanish director Eugenio Mira (Agnosia, 2010) conducts a virtuoso performance with it, one packed with drama and suspense.
Who, exactly, has his sights on Selznick? An obsessive fan taking things one step too far? A nutcase? Or someone with a precise, unknown, agenda?
To make sure that Selznick plays ball, the writer of the note threatens to shoot his wife Emma (Kerry Bishe), an actress who is in the audience.
And then the fun begins in earnest as the fabulously dextrous Wood juggles playing the piano with trying to make a call and sending a message – all the while trying to avoid being seen by the mysterious sniper.
Wood is best known for starring in the hit trilogy The Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003) and his wide-eyed look is put to good use here as fear, anxiety and determination play across his face.
Fittingly, for a thriller about a pianist and a piano, the use of music here is masterly.
From the opening credits in which the camera takes us inside the workings of one specific grand piano to Selznick performing under duress on stage, the score works beautifully in tandem with what is unfolding on screen as it teases, trills and thrills.
Credit here goes to Spanish composer Victor Reyes, whose film credits include the thrillers Red Lights (2012) and Buried (2010).
His work on Grand Piano was named Best Score at the Cinema Writers Circle Awards in Spain this year.
To relieve the tension, there are moments of comic relief.
There are the two worst concertgoers in the world bickering in loud whispers and flashes of black humour as characters get killed.
There is more enjoyment in store when the mastermind is eventually unmasked and the reason for the unusual request is revealed with a final flourish.
Tinkling the ivories has rarely been this much fun at the movies.
(ST)
Thursday, May 08, 2014
Rebel To The Right
Witness Huang
Nine years after his self-titled debut, American-Chinese rapper Witness Huang returns to a warm welcome from the Taiwanese hip-hop fraternity.
On the opening track, MC HotDog guests and Huang boasts: “My music’s going to make everyone high/I’m about to fly/So celebrate my return.”
Some of the tracks here deal with personal history. The Wanderer Returns is about him finding peace in religion, while Everything’s Gonna Be Alright is “about a Taiwanese kid who grew up in Texas”.
There is a sense that this album is about bearing witness to his personal transformation after having been through some tough times. My One And Only is a statement of fidelity from someone who has turned over a new leaf: “But now, I’m after stability/No more mixing alcohol/Just give the all-new Witness, only want just you.”
Stability? Fidelity? He is certainly rebelling against the worst of rap’s stereotypes.
(ST)
Witness Huang
Nine years after his self-titled debut, American-Chinese rapper Witness Huang returns to a warm welcome from the Taiwanese hip-hop fraternity.
On the opening track, MC HotDog guests and Huang boasts: “My music’s going to make everyone high/I’m about to fly/So celebrate my return.”
Some of the tracks here deal with personal history. The Wanderer Returns is about him finding peace in religion, while Everything’s Gonna Be Alright is “about a Taiwanese kid who grew up in Texas”.
There is a sense that this album is about bearing witness to his personal transformation after having been through some tough times. My One And Only is a statement of fidelity from someone who has turned over a new leaf: “But now, I’m after stability/No more mixing alcohol/Just give the all-new Witness, only want just you.”
Stability? Fidelity? He is certainly rebelling against the worst of rap’s stereotypes.
(ST)
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Lovelorn Aesthetics
Ming Dao
Previously part of the short-lived boyband 183 Club, which disbanded in the late noughties, Taiwanese actor-model Ming Dao is only now making his debut as a solo act.
The surprise is that he has a pleasant singing voice, one that can stand alone without blending with four other voices.
Unfortunately, the material here, a hodepodge of songs about love, is too generic.
The singer tries too hard to cover all the bases – from the title track that sounds like a synth-heavy Show Lo-lite number, to the ballad Tears Dried By The Wind, on which Ming Dao seems to be channelling Jay Chou (an impression strengthened by lyrics written by Chou’s regular collaborator Vincent Fang).
At least the opening track, Kiss Me, does something different with its big-band sound.
And the breezy pop of I Suddenly Want To Love Her is a theme song crying out for an idol drama.
The album cover has Ming Dao showing off his biceps while clutching a bouquet of roses to send the message that he is both manly and sensitive.
Maybe more lovelorn facets and less aesthetics would have made for a better record.
(ST)
Ming Dao
Previously part of the short-lived boyband 183 Club, which disbanded in the late noughties, Taiwanese actor-model Ming Dao is only now making his debut as a solo act.
The surprise is that he has a pleasant singing voice, one that can stand alone without blending with four other voices.
Unfortunately, the material here, a hodepodge of songs about love, is too generic.
The singer tries too hard to cover all the bases – from the title track that sounds like a synth-heavy Show Lo-lite number, to the ballad Tears Dried By The Wind, on which Ming Dao seems to be channelling Jay Chou (an impression strengthened by lyrics written by Chou’s regular collaborator Vincent Fang).
At least the opening track, Kiss Me, does something different with its big-band sound.
And the breezy pop of I Suddenly Want To Love Her is a theme song crying out for an idol drama.
The album cover has Ming Dao showing off his biceps while clutching a bouquet of roses to send the message that he is both manly and sensitive.
Maybe more lovelorn facets and less aesthetics would have made for a better record.
(ST)
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Breakthrough
Luantan-Ascent
Stay
James Morris-Cotterill
Raspy-voiced troubadours are having their moment in the sun. Singer-songwriter Luantan-Ascent has a breakthrough with Breakthrough and British-Chinese newcomer James Morris-Cotterill wants you to Stay.
With his long locks, moustache and brooding mien, Taiwan’s Luantan-Ascent looks like a collection of rocker cliches. His music is anything but.
Two years ago, he won Best Male Vocalist at the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Let You Replace Me (2012), a collection of songs and instrumental pieces he wrote for movies and TV over 10 years. Breakthrough is a more than worthy follow-up.
Inspired by the natural world, the record dives into the sea, emerges on land and takes flight on songs such as Out From Water, Streams In The Desert and Iceberg.
He ponders the relationship among them on Out From Water: “The sky is blue, the sea is bluer/The sea is broad, the land is broader/The land is wide, the sky is boundless”.
At other times, he takes on animal forms. He sings on the dance-rock of Lightning Jellyfish: “I live in the depths of the sea where there is no light/ Swimming pretty freely/Can’t tell whether to love or not”.
The final track here is The Pure World. After traversing the breadth and depth of nature, the album ends on a note of tentative hopefulness: “Am I really existing?/ Or just living along with others/Enough of that”. This is revelatory rock, propelled by everything from buzzing guitars to his magnetic voice.
Also in possession of a compelling set of pipes is James Morris-Cotterill. He opts for a more conventional approach on Stay, which offers a mix of covers and two original English numbers written by him.
He broke out on the TV reality show Chinese Idol last year, when he made it to the top six. Some of the songs he sang in the competition are found here, including Faye Wong’s I’m Willing and Eason Chan’s Long Time No See. And the title track is none other than Rihanna’s Stay.
Impressively, he does not just cover the songs, he manages to put his own spin on them. His own compositions, The Poison and Clarity, suggest an indie folk sensibility reminiscent of Damien Rice.
I would certainly stay around for his album of original material.
(ST)
Luantan-Ascent
Stay
James Morris-Cotterill
Raspy-voiced troubadours are having their moment in the sun. Singer-songwriter Luantan-Ascent has a breakthrough with Breakthrough and British-Chinese newcomer James Morris-Cotterill wants you to Stay.
With his long locks, moustache and brooding mien, Taiwan’s Luantan-Ascent looks like a collection of rocker cliches. His music is anything but.
Two years ago, he won Best Male Vocalist at the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Let You Replace Me (2012), a collection of songs and instrumental pieces he wrote for movies and TV over 10 years. Breakthrough is a more than worthy follow-up.
Inspired by the natural world, the record dives into the sea, emerges on land and takes flight on songs such as Out From Water, Streams In The Desert and Iceberg.
He ponders the relationship among them on Out From Water: “The sky is blue, the sea is bluer/The sea is broad, the land is broader/The land is wide, the sky is boundless”.
At other times, he takes on animal forms. He sings on the dance-rock of Lightning Jellyfish: “I live in the depths of the sea where there is no light/ Swimming pretty freely/Can’t tell whether to love or not”.
The final track here is The Pure World. After traversing the breadth and depth of nature, the album ends on a note of tentative hopefulness: “Am I really existing?/ Or just living along with others/Enough of that”. This is revelatory rock, propelled by everything from buzzing guitars to his magnetic voice.
Also in possession of a compelling set of pipes is James Morris-Cotterill. He opts for a more conventional approach on Stay, which offers a mix of covers and two original English numbers written by him.
He broke out on the TV reality show Chinese Idol last year, when he made it to the top six. Some of the songs he sang in the competition are found here, including Faye Wong’s I’m Willing and Eason Chan’s Long Time No See. And the title track is none other than Rihanna’s Stay.
Impressively, he does not just cover the songs, he manages to put his own spin on them. His own compositions, The Poison and Clarity, suggest an indie folk sensibility reminiscent of Damien Rice.
I would certainly stay around for his album of original material.
(ST)
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Brick Mansions
Camille Delamarre
The story: In 2018, a lawless enclave in Detroit, Brick Mansions, is ruled by the likes of drug kingpin Tremaine (RZA). When a powerful bomb is stolen by his gang, undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) has to infiltrate the area placed under martial law. To find the weapon and disarm it, he has to rely on Brick Mansions denizen and ex-convict Lino (David Belle) for help. As the timer on the bomb counts down to zero, Damien begins to question everything he thought he knew. A remake of the French film District 13 (2004).
There is a whiff of the familiar about Brick Mansions, and not just because it is a remake of District 13.
The late Paul Walker plays an undercover cop who has to work with criminal elements to battle a ruthless villain. It could well describe his work at one point or another on the popular The Fast And The Furious movie franchise.
Like his character, the movie too feels rather generic with its mix of swaggering villains, corrupt cops and earnest heroes with mad skills and a curious ability to dodge bullets. There is also not much chemistry in the odd couple pairing of cop and ex-convict.
The most fun parts in the movie are the parkour sequences.
Belle, who had also starred in District 13, is one of the founders of the urban sport.
And it is a joy to watch him jump over obstacles, scale walls and leap across buildings with such confident fluidity. It is as though he were a cat certain of his many lives.
There is less for Walker to do here; he was stretched more acting-wise in Hours (2014), in which he played a father trying to keep his newborn daughter alive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He showed in that high-concept film that there was more to him than being easy on the eyes as he channelled charm, grief, anger and desperation.
What Brick Mansions does offer are several chase scenes.
And knowing that Walker died in a high-speed crash makes them a tad uncomfortable to watch. At least director Camille Delamarre is not guilty of poor judgment in post-production – the action sequences do not end in fiery blasts.
One wonders if Fast & Furious 7, which is slated for release next year and Walker’s final film, will exercise similar restraint.
(ST)
Camille Delamarre
The story: In 2018, a lawless enclave in Detroit, Brick Mansions, is ruled by the likes of drug kingpin Tremaine (RZA). When a powerful bomb is stolen by his gang, undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) has to infiltrate the area placed under martial law. To find the weapon and disarm it, he has to rely on Brick Mansions denizen and ex-convict Lino (David Belle) for help. As the timer on the bomb counts down to zero, Damien begins to question everything he thought he knew. A remake of the French film District 13 (2004).
There is a whiff of the familiar about Brick Mansions, and not just because it is a remake of District 13.
The late Paul Walker plays an undercover cop who has to work with criminal elements to battle a ruthless villain. It could well describe his work at one point or another on the popular The Fast And The Furious movie franchise.
Like his character, the movie too feels rather generic with its mix of swaggering villains, corrupt cops and earnest heroes with mad skills and a curious ability to dodge bullets. There is also not much chemistry in the odd couple pairing of cop and ex-convict.
The most fun parts in the movie are the parkour sequences.
Belle, who had also starred in District 13, is one of the founders of the urban sport.
And it is a joy to watch him jump over obstacles, scale walls and leap across buildings with such confident fluidity. It is as though he were a cat certain of his many lives.
There is less for Walker to do here; he was stretched more acting-wise in Hours (2014), in which he played a father trying to keep his newborn daughter alive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He showed in that high-concept film that there was more to him than being easy on the eyes as he channelled charm, grief, anger and desperation.
What Brick Mansions does offer are several chase scenes.
And knowing that Walker died in a high-speed crash makes them a tad uncomfortable to watch. At least director Camille Delamarre is not guilty of poor judgment in post-production – the action sequences do not end in fiery blasts.
One wonders if Fast & Furious 7, which is slated for release next year and Walker’s final film, will exercise similar restraint.
(ST)
Oculus
Mike Flanagan
The story: Eleven years ago, siblings Tim, 10, and Kaylie, 13, were traumatised by the horrific deaths of their parents in a new house. Now, released from a psychiatric hospital, Tim (Brenton Thwaites) wants to move on, but Kaylie (Karen Gillan) is convinced that an antique mirror housing a demonic presence is responsible for what happened. With her brother’s help, she plans to outwit the spirit and destroy the mirror.
Made on a paltry budget, a horror flick goes on to scare up healthy takings at the American box office.
It is a formula that Blumhouse Productions has honed to perfection with the Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister franchises.
Its hot streak continues with Oculus, which it made with Intrepid Pictures and WWE Studios. The movie had a budget of US$5 million (S$6.3 million) and has earned more than US$21 million at the American box office after two weekends.
As opposed to more generic fare, there is an attempt to give the audience characters to root for and a little more complexity to the storytelling.
Director and co-writer Mike Flanagan splits the action between the two periods. Sometimes, it is clear which period it is in and, at other times, it seems to be the older characters regressing to their helpless and frightened younger selves in the present – under the influence of a mirror.
Or is it just Kaylie’s overactive imagination? She goes to great lengths in her preparations to take down the mirror, from setting alarms to go off every hour to remind them to eat, to having surveillance cameras record every moment and having her fiance call to check in regularly.
There is some early tension between her and Tim as he resorts to more plausible and rational arguments to counter her unshakeable belief, backed by research, that the mirror is responsible for deaths.
Did either of them have false memories? Is Kaylie just paranoid? Is Tim fully recovered or is denial his coping mechanism?
And why can’t somebody just smash the mirror already?
At least Oculus, which means eye, provides an answer to that basic loophole.
Eventually, things start to get spooky with lights going out, perceptions of reality getting warped and some icky scenes of characters causing bodily harm to themselves. At least they were not scored to an intrusive and overbearing music track.
While intercutting between past and present was a nice touch, the film drags on for too long before ending almost abruptly on a shocking note.
Crucially, the ending does not cheat and the integrity of the film is not shattered with a cop-out answer.
(ST)
Mike Flanagan
The story: Eleven years ago, siblings Tim, 10, and Kaylie, 13, were traumatised by the horrific deaths of their parents in a new house. Now, released from a psychiatric hospital, Tim (Brenton Thwaites) wants to move on, but Kaylie (Karen Gillan) is convinced that an antique mirror housing a demonic presence is responsible for what happened. With her brother’s help, she plans to outwit the spirit and destroy the mirror.
Made on a paltry budget, a horror flick goes on to scare up healthy takings at the American box office.
It is a formula that Blumhouse Productions has honed to perfection with the Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister franchises.
Its hot streak continues with Oculus, which it made with Intrepid Pictures and WWE Studios. The movie had a budget of US$5 million (S$6.3 million) and has earned more than US$21 million at the American box office after two weekends.
As opposed to more generic fare, there is an attempt to give the audience characters to root for and a little more complexity to the storytelling.
Director and co-writer Mike Flanagan splits the action between the two periods. Sometimes, it is clear which period it is in and, at other times, it seems to be the older characters regressing to their helpless and frightened younger selves in the present – under the influence of a mirror.
Or is it just Kaylie’s overactive imagination? She goes to great lengths in her preparations to take down the mirror, from setting alarms to go off every hour to remind them to eat, to having surveillance cameras record every moment and having her fiance call to check in regularly.
There is some early tension between her and Tim as he resorts to more plausible and rational arguments to counter her unshakeable belief, backed by research, that the mirror is responsible for deaths.
Did either of them have false memories? Is Kaylie just paranoid? Is Tim fully recovered or is denial his coping mechanism?
And why can’t somebody just smash the mirror already?
At least Oculus, which means eye, provides an answer to that basic loophole.
Eventually, things start to get spooky with lights going out, perceptions of reality getting warped and some icky scenes of characters causing bodily harm to themselves. At least they were not scored to an intrusive and overbearing music track.
While intercutting between past and present was a nice touch, the film drags on for too long before ending almost abruptly on a shocking note.
Crucially, the ending does not cheat and the integrity of the film is not shattered with a cop-out answer.
(ST)
Disney's Muppets: Most Wanted
James Bobin
The story: Picking right up from the happy ending of The Muppets (2011), the gang have to figure out what to do next now that they are reunited. Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) suggests that they go on tour with him as their manager. His nefarious reason for doing so is soon revealed – criminal mastermind Constantine escapes from a gulag and switches place with his lookalike, Kermit the Frog. Dominic and Constantine have their eyes on the British crown jewels, as Interpol’s Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) and CIA agent Sam Eagle get on the case. Meanwhile, Kermit finds himself stuck in Siberian prison with a zealous guard Nadya (Tina Fey).
Exotic locales, more stars and a (slightly) bigger budget – it looks at first as though this flick, a crime caper which ricochets from Berlin to Madrid to London to Siberia, has been saddled with the ills of sequelitis.
Instead of Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper, comedians Gervais (from television’s The Office), Fey (of 30 Rock fame) and Burrell (the lovable goofball patriarch from Modern Family) are the key non-Muppet actors. They are joined by the likes of Lady Gaga and Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) making cameos.
But the entertaining mix of anarchic energy and endearing good-heartedness remains from the previous film.
There is humour here but generally not of the ironic, too-cool-for-school variety – well, except for a pointed reference in the opening musical number to the fact that sequels are never as good as the films that come before them.
Otherwise, it is old-school humour that makes you moan or smile, sometimes both.
Exhibit one: The villain here is named Badguy. Exhibit two: Burrell’s moustachioed French inspector lives up to every cliche about laidback Europeans and their penchant for long lunches and holidays.
There are also the quick throwaway jokes squeezed into the frame. Slow news week: “Muppets dominate headlines” is a blink-and- you-will-miss-it faux newspaper headline.
What drives the story forward are tried-and- true devices such as mistaken identity and themes every true-blue Muppet fan knows about – such as the combustible love-hate relationship between Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
There are also the pleasures of watching Fey go gaga over Kermit and putting on an Eastern European accent, and the prison inmates delivering an enthusiastic version of the musical A Chorus Line’s opening number.
Now, that is a production with touring potential.
(ST)
James Bobin
The story: Picking right up from the happy ending of The Muppets (2011), the gang have to figure out what to do next now that they are reunited. Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) suggests that they go on tour with him as their manager. His nefarious reason for doing so is soon revealed – criminal mastermind Constantine escapes from a gulag and switches place with his lookalike, Kermit the Frog. Dominic and Constantine have their eyes on the British crown jewels, as Interpol’s Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) and CIA agent Sam Eagle get on the case. Meanwhile, Kermit finds himself stuck in Siberian prison with a zealous guard Nadya (Tina Fey).
Exotic locales, more stars and a (slightly) bigger budget – it looks at first as though this flick, a crime caper which ricochets from Berlin to Madrid to London to Siberia, has been saddled with the ills of sequelitis.
Instead of Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper, comedians Gervais (from television’s The Office), Fey (of 30 Rock fame) and Burrell (the lovable goofball patriarch from Modern Family) are the key non-Muppet actors. They are joined by the likes of Lady Gaga and Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) making cameos.
But the entertaining mix of anarchic energy and endearing good-heartedness remains from the previous film.
There is humour here but generally not of the ironic, too-cool-for-school variety – well, except for a pointed reference in the opening musical number to the fact that sequels are never as good as the films that come before them.
Otherwise, it is old-school humour that makes you moan or smile, sometimes both.
Exhibit one: The villain here is named Badguy. Exhibit two: Burrell’s moustachioed French inspector lives up to every cliche about laidback Europeans and their penchant for long lunches and holidays.
There are also the quick throwaway jokes squeezed into the frame. Slow news week: “Muppets dominate headlines” is a blink-and- you-will-miss-it faux newspaper headline.
What drives the story forward are tried-and- true devices such as mistaken identity and themes every true-blue Muppet fan knows about – such as the combustible love-hate relationship between Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
There are also the pleasures of watching Fey go gaga over Kermit and putting on an Eastern European accent, and the prison inmates delivering an enthusiastic version of the musical A Chorus Line’s opening number.
Now, that is a production with touring potential.
(ST)
Monday, April 21, 2014
Ah Boys To Men: The Musical
Resorts World Theatre
Last Saturday
With more than $14 million in total box-office takings, Jack Neo’s two- parter Ah Boys To Men was a runaway movie hit that made stars of its fresh-faced ensemble cast.
Wanting to leverage on its success was a no-brainer. The big question was how.
For those who cannot wait until Ah Boys To Frogmen comes along, this musical adaptation should be able to tide you over. But if you are not already a fan, this is unlikely to sway you.
This stage production takes the key plotlines of the national service-themed movies with a script by Goh Boon Teck and adds music numbers by producer- songwriter Don Richmond.
The Ah Boys and Men have largely returned. There is Tosh Zhang as the intimidating but good-hearted Sergeant Ong, Wang Weiliang as the street-smart Hokkien soldier Lobang, Maxi Lim as the eager beaver Aloysius Jin and Noah Yap as the lovelorn IP Man.
Taking over from Joshua Tan in the key role of spoilt brat Ken Chow is actor- singer Benjamin Kheng.
And once again, the recruits will learn to be men as they undergo basic military training.
One major advantage the musical has over the movies is its relative brevity. At 21/2 hours long, it moves at a brisker pace compared with the overlong flicks.
But since it is adapted from the films, some of the problems inherent in the movies remain.
Chow is still an unlikable character who is hard to get behind and his turnabout again hinges on a melodramatic accident. His section-mates are still painted in simplistic strokes and are mostly just cardboard characters. And IP Man’s revenge attack on a straying girlfriend (Patricia Mok trying to act cute) still feels like an overstretch.
This is where the casting is crucial. While Chow’s girlfriend crisis barely registers, Kheng at least casts him in a more sympathetic light whenever he sings with his raspy and resonant voice.
And Wang, who was a breakout star in the movies, proves that his charisma translates from the big screen to the stage. Then again, this should not be surprising given his getai background.
Happily, he gets to do a solo number, Brothers Forever, and his slightly raw rendition of the English and Mandarin number strikes just the right note.
Where the musical deviates most is probably in the inclusion of Filipino maid Leticia – but played by Chua Enlai instead of Michelle Chong, who plays a similar character on the television sketch show The Noose.
Dressed in what looks like an incongruous cosplay waitress costume, Chua milks some laughs with a Filipino accent and some funny lines. This is in keeping with director Beatrice Chia-Richmond’s broad and sometimes exaggerated tone.
As for the songs themselves, Cheong Or Geng was the best of the lot. It manages to incorporate army lingo in a natural way and gives voice to two opposing philosophies: “cheong”, which means to go all out, and “geng”, which means faking it to escape tough activities.
Also hitting the spot was the SOC (Standard Obstacle Course) rap as well as the catchy Recruits’ Anthem, the theme song of the first movie written by Zhang.
The hardest song to sit through was probably the English-and-Mandarin duet Father And Son by Richard Low and Kheng. It is meant to evoke the wide gulf between them but it just comes across as jarring because Low is simply not a natural singer.
As far as military-themed musicals go, the most entertaining is still playwright- songwriter Julian Wong’s Botak Boys. Maybe someone should bring that back for another tour of duty.
(ST)
Resorts World Theatre
Last Saturday
With more than $14 million in total box-office takings, Jack Neo’s two- parter Ah Boys To Men was a runaway movie hit that made stars of its fresh-faced ensemble cast.
Wanting to leverage on its success was a no-brainer. The big question was how.
For those who cannot wait until Ah Boys To Frogmen comes along, this musical adaptation should be able to tide you over. But if you are not already a fan, this is unlikely to sway you.
This stage production takes the key plotlines of the national service-themed movies with a script by Goh Boon Teck and adds music numbers by producer- songwriter Don Richmond.
The Ah Boys and Men have largely returned. There is Tosh Zhang as the intimidating but good-hearted Sergeant Ong, Wang Weiliang as the street-smart Hokkien soldier Lobang, Maxi Lim as the eager beaver Aloysius Jin and Noah Yap as the lovelorn IP Man.
Taking over from Joshua Tan in the key role of spoilt brat Ken Chow is actor- singer Benjamin Kheng.
And once again, the recruits will learn to be men as they undergo basic military training.
One major advantage the musical has over the movies is its relative brevity. At 21/2 hours long, it moves at a brisker pace compared with the overlong flicks.
But since it is adapted from the films, some of the problems inherent in the movies remain.
Chow is still an unlikable character who is hard to get behind and his turnabout again hinges on a melodramatic accident. His section-mates are still painted in simplistic strokes and are mostly just cardboard characters. And IP Man’s revenge attack on a straying girlfriend (Patricia Mok trying to act cute) still feels like an overstretch.
This is where the casting is crucial. While Chow’s girlfriend crisis barely registers, Kheng at least casts him in a more sympathetic light whenever he sings with his raspy and resonant voice.
And Wang, who was a breakout star in the movies, proves that his charisma translates from the big screen to the stage. Then again, this should not be surprising given his getai background.
Happily, he gets to do a solo number, Brothers Forever, and his slightly raw rendition of the English and Mandarin number strikes just the right note.
Where the musical deviates most is probably in the inclusion of Filipino maid Leticia – but played by Chua Enlai instead of Michelle Chong, who plays a similar character on the television sketch show The Noose.
Dressed in what looks like an incongruous cosplay waitress costume, Chua milks some laughs with a Filipino accent and some funny lines. This is in keeping with director Beatrice Chia-Richmond’s broad and sometimes exaggerated tone.
As for the songs themselves, Cheong Or Geng was the best of the lot. It manages to incorporate army lingo in a natural way and gives voice to two opposing philosophies: “cheong”, which means to go all out, and “geng”, which means faking it to escape tough activities.
Also hitting the spot was the SOC (Standard Obstacle Course) rap as well as the catchy Recruits’ Anthem, the theme song of the first movie written by Zhang.
The hardest song to sit through was probably the English-and-Mandarin duet Father And Son by Richard Low and Kheng. It is meant to evoke the wide gulf between them but it just comes across as jarring because Low is simply not a natural singer.
As far as military-themed musicals go, the most entertaining is still playwright- songwriter Julian Wong’s Botak Boys. Maybe someone should bring that back for another tour of duty.
(ST)
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Kimbonomics
Kimberley Chen
Just shy of turning 20, Taiwan-based Kimberley Chen has released the follow-up to her effervescent 2012 debut.
Then, she had managed to pull off the feat of being cute without being cutesy. She sounds more grown-up here but, thankfully, not too much.
After all, she is still a teenager and there is youthful vibrancy on the energetic Good Girl Hurry Up And Love and an endearing sweetness on Over The Moon: “Want to turn into a cat/Follow all your secrets/Hide in your embrace/Not go anywhere.”
Ballads such as Saying I Love You When We Break Up and Loneliness Howls take her in a more mainstream direction but the move never feels false – she still sounds distinctively like herself on them.
And that ability to leave her stamp on whatever she sings bodes well as she steps into her 20s – and on to the next stage of her music journey.
(ST)
Kimberley Chen
Just shy of turning 20, Taiwan-based Kimberley Chen has released the follow-up to her effervescent 2012 debut.
Then, she had managed to pull off the feat of being cute without being cutesy. She sounds more grown-up here but, thankfully, not too much.
After all, she is still a teenager and there is youthful vibrancy on the energetic Good Girl Hurry Up And Love and an endearing sweetness on Over The Moon: “Want to turn into a cat/Follow all your secrets/Hide in your embrace/Not go anywhere.”
Ballads such as Saying I Love You When We Break Up and Loneliness Howls take her in a more mainstream direction but the move never feels false – she still sounds distinctively like herself on them.
And that ability to leave her stamp on whatever she sings bodes well as she steps into her 20s – and on to the next stage of her music journey.
(ST)
Who is the true king or queen of Mandopop? Which are the songs that remain in the minds of fans years after they have been released?
For a radio station’s listeners, Jacky Cheung edges out Jay Chou, A-mei’s power pipes trump Faye Wong’s delicate croon, Stefanie Sun shines among local artists and the smoky vocals of Tiger Huang reign supreme.
An awards show might crown whoever is topping the charts, but it takes a massive exercise like radio station UFM100.3’s U1000 campaign to find the top 1,000 songs to paint a bigger picture.
Starting in February, the station’s listeners, aged 35 to 49, were asked to nominate their top songs in the past 30 years. More than 3,000 songs were suggested and this was winnowed to a final 1,500 based on factors such as chart performances and voting by the station’s DJs.
The public could vote only online for any number of songs and only one vote a song. From March 31 to April 14, the top 1,000 songs they voted were played on the airwaves.
Taiwanese singer Huang’s Not So Simple topped the list of Mandopop songs. This was the title track of her 2009 album, marking a triumphant comeback for the 50-year-old Pub Queen.
Composed by blind singer-songwriter Ricky Hsiao and with lyrics by Daryl Yao, the ballad managed to get under the skin of women of a certain age.
There is a certain weariness to it but Huang remains unbowed in the face of life’s vicissitudes. She comes to terms with who she is as she sings in her weathered, husky voice: “Past the age for dreaming, I would rather have peace and quiet than blazing glory.”
For a song that might have greater appeal for an older crowd, it seems to have tapped into a more universal vein of yearning and learning to let go.
Still, it was something of a surprise to see it top the charts. It is the newest song in the top 10, given that the other tracks are from the mid-noughties and earlier and its pole position cements it as an instant classic.
Facebook user Lynn Teo posted on the radio station’s page: “Thoroughly satisfying. It’s really Not So Simple to guess who would be No. 1. Quite like this song.”
Last year, UFM100.3 held a similar poll for the first time, but limited it to 500 tracks. Not So Simple was No. 41 then, while Faye Wong’s achingly tender Red Bean (1998) emerged tops.
Programme director of UFM100.3 Carine Ang says the station held the poll to find out which songs their listeners really liked and that they think are representative of the music scene. They decided to expand the poll this year after getting feedback that there were too few songs to choose from previously.
And what do the U1000 poll results show?
Chou might be the reigning king but Hong Kong’s Jacky Cheung is known as God of songs not for nothing. Cheung has the most number of songs in U1000 with 27, beating Chou’s count of 26.
More tellingly, Chou has just one song in the top 50 with Blue And White Porcelain (2007) coming in at No. 42. In contrast, Cheung has seven. His highest charting number is the mega-hit Farewell Kiss (1993) in runner-up position.
And Cheung’s successor as God of songs, Eason Chan, managed to chalk up 18 entries.
It really seems that the oldies are goldies based on the poll. Before jumping to the easy lament that the golden age of songs and songwriting is over, the results could have skewed this way for various reasons. The earlier artists emerged at a time with fewer entertainment options and distractions and there was time and space for songs to firmly take root.
The Internet has increased the reach of artists, but it has also fragmented the music market, with every niche taste and genre being catered to.
It could also be the nostalgia factor playing a part – nostalgia not just for the songs themselves, but for the various personal histories they evoke.
Hong Kong’s Four Heavenly Kings no longer have a stranglehold on the entertainment scene but their far- reaching influence remains. Andy Lau charted 18 times, Aaron Kwok seven and Leon Lai had four entries, including Will You Come Tonight (1991) at No. 10.
Among the female singers, Taiwanese diva A-mei powered her way to the top with 26 songs, with No. 8’s Listen To The Sea (1997) being her best performer. She eclipses Faye Wong, Fish Leong and Stefanie Sun, who all have 21 entries each (including duets). And rockers Mayday were the top band with 15 songs.
Younger upstarts were left far behind, including Taiwan’s Yoga Lin, who had just three tracks on the list.
The comparison is not completely fair, given how many more albums the veterans have released. But it suggests that winning a high-profile singing contest and putting out raved-about albums are different things from singing songs that people want to return to over time.
Of course, even a massive exercise such as this cannot be completely representative. The results will vary if it is held over a different period of time with a different survey pool and different voting methods. But even an imperfect poll can yield interesting results.
Local singers had a good showing.
Sun had 21 entries, Kit Chan and JJ Lin had 12 and Tanya Chua had eight. Mavis Hee had six entries, including the highest-charting local song with her hit Moonlight In The City (1996) at No. 4.
In part buoyed by the currently running xinyao musical If There’re Seasons, the Singapore folk movement also made quite an impact on the chart. The title track (from 2002) by Kit Chan was No. 12 while xinyao stalwart Liang Wern Fook’s Friendship Forever (1987) was No. 16. He had a total of six tracks on the poll, including The Sparrow With A Bamboo Twig (1990), previously banned from the airwaves for its dialect content, at No. 253.
And even though the initial call was for songs from the last 30 years, the late songbird Teresa Teng trilled her way to five spots, including The Moon Represents My Heart from the early 1970s at No. 56.
Going by this poll, there is no simple formula to determine what goes into an enduring song. Love ballads dominate, but that is not surprising given that they are the mainstay of mainstream Mandopop. Exactly what kind of love ballad would resonate though is the question that composers, lyricists and singers are all chasing after.
What the poll does show though is that you cannot put a good song down.
The top 20 tracks
1 Not So Simple: Tiger Huang
2 Farewell Kiss: Jacky Cheung
3 Love Tidal Wave: Jeff Chang
4 Moonlight In The City: Mavis Hee
5 Fairytale: Michael Wong
6 Red Bean: Faye Wong
7 Ten Years: Eason Chan
8 Listen To The Sea: A-mei
9 A Game, A Dream: Dave Wang
10 Will You Come Tonight: Leon Lai
11 How Can You Bear To Make Me Sad: Huang Pin-yuan
12 If There’re Seasons: Kit Chan (right)
13 Conquer: Na Ying
14 Dream To Awakening: Sarah Chen
15 Can’t Help Falling In Love With You: Harlem Yu
16 Friendship Forever: Liang Wern Fook
17 Love Letter: Jacky Cheung
18 Little Love Song: sodagreen
19 Home: Kit Chan
20 At Least There Is You: Sandy Lam
The full results are available at www.ufm1003.sg
(ST)
For a radio station’s listeners, Jacky Cheung edges out Jay Chou, A-mei’s power pipes trump Faye Wong’s delicate croon, Stefanie Sun shines among local artists and the smoky vocals of Tiger Huang reign supreme.
An awards show might crown whoever is topping the charts, but it takes a massive exercise like radio station UFM100.3’s U1000 campaign to find the top 1,000 songs to paint a bigger picture.
Starting in February, the station’s listeners, aged 35 to 49, were asked to nominate their top songs in the past 30 years. More than 3,000 songs were suggested and this was winnowed to a final 1,500 based on factors such as chart performances and voting by the station’s DJs.
The public could vote only online for any number of songs and only one vote a song. From March 31 to April 14, the top 1,000 songs they voted were played on the airwaves.
Taiwanese singer Huang’s Not So Simple topped the list of Mandopop songs. This was the title track of her 2009 album, marking a triumphant comeback for the 50-year-old Pub Queen.
Composed by blind singer-songwriter Ricky Hsiao and with lyrics by Daryl Yao, the ballad managed to get under the skin of women of a certain age.
There is a certain weariness to it but Huang remains unbowed in the face of life’s vicissitudes. She comes to terms with who she is as she sings in her weathered, husky voice: “Past the age for dreaming, I would rather have peace and quiet than blazing glory.”
For a song that might have greater appeal for an older crowd, it seems to have tapped into a more universal vein of yearning and learning to let go.
Still, it was something of a surprise to see it top the charts. It is the newest song in the top 10, given that the other tracks are from the mid-noughties and earlier and its pole position cements it as an instant classic.
Facebook user Lynn Teo posted on the radio station’s page: “Thoroughly satisfying. It’s really Not So Simple to guess who would be No. 1. Quite like this song.”
Last year, UFM100.3 held a similar poll for the first time, but limited it to 500 tracks. Not So Simple was No. 41 then, while Faye Wong’s achingly tender Red Bean (1998) emerged tops.
Programme director of UFM100.3 Carine Ang says the station held the poll to find out which songs their listeners really liked and that they think are representative of the music scene. They decided to expand the poll this year after getting feedback that there were too few songs to choose from previously.
And what do the U1000 poll results show?
Chou might be the reigning king but Hong Kong’s Jacky Cheung is known as God of songs not for nothing. Cheung has the most number of songs in U1000 with 27, beating Chou’s count of 26.
More tellingly, Chou has just one song in the top 50 with Blue And White Porcelain (2007) coming in at No. 42. In contrast, Cheung has seven. His highest charting number is the mega-hit Farewell Kiss (1993) in runner-up position.
And Cheung’s successor as God of songs, Eason Chan, managed to chalk up 18 entries.
It really seems that the oldies are goldies based on the poll. Before jumping to the easy lament that the golden age of songs and songwriting is over, the results could have skewed this way for various reasons. The earlier artists emerged at a time with fewer entertainment options and distractions and there was time and space for songs to firmly take root.
The Internet has increased the reach of artists, but it has also fragmented the music market, with every niche taste and genre being catered to.
It could also be the nostalgia factor playing a part – nostalgia not just for the songs themselves, but for the various personal histories they evoke.
Hong Kong’s Four Heavenly Kings no longer have a stranglehold on the entertainment scene but their far- reaching influence remains. Andy Lau charted 18 times, Aaron Kwok seven and Leon Lai had four entries, including Will You Come Tonight (1991) at No. 10.
Among the female singers, Taiwanese diva A-mei powered her way to the top with 26 songs, with No. 8’s Listen To The Sea (1997) being her best performer. She eclipses Faye Wong, Fish Leong and Stefanie Sun, who all have 21 entries each (including duets). And rockers Mayday were the top band with 15 songs.
Younger upstarts were left far behind, including Taiwan’s Yoga Lin, who had just three tracks on the list.
The comparison is not completely fair, given how many more albums the veterans have released. But it suggests that winning a high-profile singing contest and putting out raved-about albums are different things from singing songs that people want to return to over time.
Of course, even a massive exercise such as this cannot be completely representative. The results will vary if it is held over a different period of time with a different survey pool and different voting methods. But even an imperfect poll can yield interesting results.
Local singers had a good showing.
Sun had 21 entries, Kit Chan and JJ Lin had 12 and Tanya Chua had eight. Mavis Hee had six entries, including the highest-charting local song with her hit Moonlight In The City (1996) at No. 4.
In part buoyed by the currently running xinyao musical If There’re Seasons, the Singapore folk movement also made quite an impact on the chart. The title track (from 2002) by Kit Chan was No. 12 while xinyao stalwart Liang Wern Fook’s Friendship Forever (1987) was No. 16. He had a total of six tracks on the poll, including The Sparrow With A Bamboo Twig (1990), previously banned from the airwaves for its dialect content, at No. 253.
And even though the initial call was for songs from the last 30 years, the late songbird Teresa Teng trilled her way to five spots, including The Moon Represents My Heart from the early 1970s at No. 56.
Going by this poll, there is no simple formula to determine what goes into an enduring song. Love ballads dominate, but that is not surprising given that they are the mainstay of mainstream Mandopop. Exactly what kind of love ballad would resonate though is the question that composers, lyricists and singers are all chasing after.
What the poll does show though is that you cannot put a good song down.
The top 20 tracks
1 Not So Simple: Tiger Huang
2 Farewell Kiss: Jacky Cheung
3 Love Tidal Wave: Jeff Chang
4 Moonlight In The City: Mavis Hee
5 Fairytale: Michael Wong
6 Red Bean: Faye Wong
7 Ten Years: Eason Chan
8 Listen To The Sea: A-mei
9 A Game, A Dream: Dave Wang
10 Will You Come Tonight: Leon Lai
11 How Can You Bear To Make Me Sad: Huang Pin-yuan
12 If There’re Seasons: Kit Chan (right)
13 Conquer: Na Ying
14 Dream To Awakening: Sarah Chen
15 Can’t Help Falling In Love With You: Harlem Yu
16 Friendship Forever: Liang Wern Fook
17 Love Letter: Jacky Cheung
18 Little Love Song: sodagreen
19 Home: Kit Chan
20 At Least There Is You: Sandy Lam
The full results are available at www.ufm1003.sg
(ST)
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
That Demon Within
Dante Lam
The story: Hon Kong (Nick Cheung) is a ruthless criminal who dons a demon king mask when committing audacious heists with his gang. Hunted down by the police, he ends up wounded in a hospital, where cop Dave Wong (Daniel Wu) unwittingly saves him. There appears to be a deeper connection between the two men though and the encounter shakes loose Dave’s already tenuous grip on reality.
Hong Kong’s Dante Lam and Nick Cheung have been a winning combination in their past collaborations.
Cheung won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for action thriller Beast Stalker (2008) and just recently for the mixed martial-arts flick Unbeatable (2013), which was also nominated for Best Film and Best Director.
They are not an infallible duo though, and That Demon Within is a murky thriller that is clumsy in execution.
Partly it is because the reliable Cheung takes a backseat to the less compelling Daniel Wu (Control, 2013) here. Wu is more convincing as the rigid cop who is an absolute stickler for procedure and doing the right thing than as a man who begins to unravel.
And Lam’s heavy-handed and literal approach borders on the cheesy.
When Dave goes into a blind rage, the screen gets tinted with red. I was half expecting him to turn green next and morph into the angry Hulk.
The jerky stop-start pacing was also distracting. And then the film starts focusing on the gang behind the heists as they turn upon one another.
The idea of a funeral parlour serving as a front for vicious robbers is an interesting one. Stolen goods are smuggled in coffins and dead bodies and the setting is unusual and distinctive.
But instead of just exploring this one idea, Lam throws it into this messy movie which also wants to tackle the thin line between good and evil. The movie is further muddied with an excursion into mental instability.
As Dave loses his grip on reality, he plunges into a downward spiral that even a well-meaning superior cannot pull him out of.
The film ends with a flashback that is meant to shed light on his condition. But it will leave you with more questions than answers.
Dante Lam
The story: Hon Kong (Nick Cheung) is a ruthless criminal who dons a demon king mask when committing audacious heists with his gang. Hunted down by the police, he ends up wounded in a hospital, where cop Dave Wong (Daniel Wu) unwittingly saves him. There appears to be a deeper connection between the two men though and the encounter shakes loose Dave’s already tenuous grip on reality.
Hong Kong’s Dante Lam and Nick Cheung have been a winning combination in their past collaborations.
Cheung won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for action thriller Beast Stalker (2008) and just recently for the mixed martial-arts flick Unbeatable (2013), which was also nominated for Best Film and Best Director.
They are not an infallible duo though, and That Demon Within is a murky thriller that is clumsy in execution.
Partly it is because the reliable Cheung takes a backseat to the less compelling Daniel Wu (Control, 2013) here. Wu is more convincing as the rigid cop who is an absolute stickler for procedure and doing the right thing than as a man who begins to unravel.
And Lam’s heavy-handed and literal approach borders on the cheesy.
When Dave goes into a blind rage, the screen gets tinted with red. I was half expecting him to turn green next and morph into the angry Hulk.
The jerky stop-start pacing was also distracting. And then the film starts focusing on the gang behind the heists as they turn upon one another.
The idea of a funeral parlour serving as a front for vicious robbers is an interesting one. Stolen goods are smuggled in coffins and dead bodies and the setting is unusual and distinctive.
But instead of just exploring this one idea, Lam throws it into this messy movie which also wants to tackle the thin line between good and evil. The movie is further muddied with an excursion into mental instability.
As Dave loses his grip on reality, he plunges into a downward spiral that even a well-meaning superior cannot pull him out of.
The film ends with a flashback that is meant to shed light on his condition. But it will leave you with more questions than answers.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Beast In The Dark
Roger Yang Pei-an
Now this is more like it from Taiwanese singer Roger Yang.
His last album was the ill-conceived disc of English covers, Those Years (2011). He shakes off the torpor from that offering and unleashes his inner rock beast here.
His powerhouse, octave-scaling vocals are put to good use on evocatively bittersweet love songs.
On the title track, he teeters on the edge: “Love is like a beast that is deep in sleep/Because of the fear of getting hurt/I have no expectations of love/Can’t shake off this loneliness.”
The mood is sombre on Lonely Lovers as well: “The lovers are not hurt, they’re just not together/ Trust has not surrendered, there’s just no hope.”
It is not all doom and gloom, though. The vibe is more upbeat and optimistic on The Cocoon Of Life and Dream Racer. But it is tracks such as Beast which will draw you back into the album’s fold.
(ST)
Roger Yang Pei-an
Now this is more like it from Taiwanese singer Roger Yang.
His last album was the ill-conceived disc of English covers, Those Years (2011). He shakes off the torpor from that offering and unleashes his inner rock beast here.
His powerhouse, octave-scaling vocals are put to good use on evocatively bittersweet love songs.
On the title track, he teeters on the edge: “Love is like a beast that is deep in sleep/Because of the fear of getting hurt/I have no expectations of love/Can’t shake off this loneliness.”
The mood is sombre on Lonely Lovers as well: “The lovers are not hurt, they’re just not together/ Trust has not surrendered, there’s just no hope.”
It is not all doom and gloom, though. The vibe is more upbeat and optimistic on The Cocoon Of Life and Dream Racer. But it is tracks such as Beast which will draw you back into the album’s fold.
(ST)
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
Sabotage
David Ayer
The story: Breacher (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the leader of a Drug Enforcement Agency special ops team, which includes Monster (Sam Worthington) and his wife Lizzy (Mireille Enos), Grinder (Joe Manganiello), Sugar (Terrence Howard) and Neck (Josh Holloway). During a raid, they squirrel away US$10 million (S$12.5 million) for themselves but the money goes missing when they return for it. And then the members of the team start getting killed one after another in horrific ways.
This is quite a gathering of one-time stars.
There is Holloway from television’s Lost, Oscar-nominated Howard from indie drama Hustle & Flow (2005) and yesterday’s It Guy, and Worthington (Avatar, 2009). Then there is the granddaddy of them all, beefcake action star- turned-politician-turned-ageing action veteran Schwarzenegger.
They were all probably hoping to revive their sagging fortunes with this film – a la The Expendables franchise for has-been actions stars – but they might have just sabotaged themselves instead.
Writer-director David Ayer (End Of Watch, 2012) sets up the premise of the missing money at the start and then proceeds to abandon that in favour of a mystery-slasher flick as people start dropping like flies.
The tableaux of gruesome scenes feel like rejects from more elaborately stomach-turning murders on TV shows such as Hannibal, Dexter and True Detective.
Meanwhile, the survivors go all macho and aggressive in their posturing, with Enos (World War Z, 2013) possibly being the craziest of the lot.
More semi-famous names pop up as investigators as Olivia Williams (Dollhouse, 2009-2010) and Harold Perrineau (Oz, 1997-2003) look into the deaths. Jarringly, Williams’ character has a fling with Arnie’s Breacher.
By the time the movie reaches its perfunctory chase-scene ending, everyone is behaving like idiotic amateurs instead of the top special ops agents they are supposed to be.
Motivations are revealed and masks stripped away as revelations tumble out to no particularly compelling effect.
The last few minutes wrap up the film in indecent haste as vengeance is finally exacted. It is the final act of self-sabotage.
(ST)
David Ayer
The story: Breacher (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the leader of a Drug Enforcement Agency special ops team, which includes Monster (Sam Worthington) and his wife Lizzy (Mireille Enos), Grinder (Joe Manganiello), Sugar (Terrence Howard) and Neck (Josh Holloway). During a raid, they squirrel away US$10 million (S$12.5 million) for themselves but the money goes missing when they return for it. And then the members of the team start getting killed one after another in horrific ways.
This is quite a gathering of one-time stars.
There is Holloway from television’s Lost, Oscar-nominated Howard from indie drama Hustle & Flow (2005) and yesterday’s It Guy, and Worthington (Avatar, 2009). Then there is the granddaddy of them all, beefcake action star- turned-politician-turned-ageing action veteran Schwarzenegger.
They were all probably hoping to revive their sagging fortunes with this film – a la The Expendables franchise for has-been actions stars – but they might have just sabotaged themselves instead.
Writer-director David Ayer (End Of Watch, 2012) sets up the premise of the missing money at the start and then proceeds to abandon that in favour of a mystery-slasher flick as people start dropping like flies.
The tableaux of gruesome scenes feel like rejects from more elaborately stomach-turning murders on TV shows such as Hannibal, Dexter and True Detective.
Meanwhile, the survivors go all macho and aggressive in their posturing, with Enos (World War Z, 2013) possibly being the craziest of the lot.
More semi-famous names pop up as investigators as Olivia Williams (Dollhouse, 2009-2010) and Harold Perrineau (Oz, 1997-2003) look into the deaths. Jarringly, Williams’ character has a fling with Arnie’s Breacher.
By the time the movie reaches its perfunctory chase-scene ending, everyone is behaving like idiotic amateurs instead of the top special ops agents they are supposed to be.
Motivations are revealed and masks stripped away as revelations tumble out to no particularly compelling effect.
The last few minutes wrap up the film in indecent haste as vengeance is finally exacted. It is the final act of self-sabotage.
(ST)
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Hello
Wang Dawen
What better way to introduce yourself than with a simple and cheery Hello?
Over a bright and breezy track, Wang Dawen (above) sings on his Mandarin debut album: “Hello, it starts to revolve from this greeting/Hello, let me slowly get close to you/Is that fine?”
The American singer-songwriter tackled hard-hitting topics such as racial stereotypes and prejudice on his English-language album, American Me (2009).
There is no sign of the angry young man here though. Instead, there are mostly light and sunny tracks about love on numbers such as Firecracker and Beautiful.
Even the lone English track here, Shoes, swings along even as it gently touches upon Asian identity. “Baby, won’t you take off your shoes/Cause shoes really go outside/I know it’s not what you’re used to/Maybe it’s an Asian thing.”
On the other songs, his diction is still a little raw at times. But for someone who took intensive language classes in Taiwan to release this record, it is impressive that he had a hand in the lyrics of six of the nine Mandarin tracks.
So hello, Dawen, I think we will be seeing you around.
(ST)
Wang Dawen
What better way to introduce yourself than with a simple and cheery Hello?
Over a bright and breezy track, Wang Dawen (above) sings on his Mandarin debut album: “Hello, it starts to revolve from this greeting/Hello, let me slowly get close to you/Is that fine?”
The American singer-songwriter tackled hard-hitting topics such as racial stereotypes and prejudice on his English-language album, American Me (2009).
There is no sign of the angry young man here though. Instead, there are mostly light and sunny tracks about love on numbers such as Firecracker and Beautiful.
Even the lone English track here, Shoes, swings along even as it gently touches upon Asian identity. “Baby, won’t you take off your shoes/Cause shoes really go outside/I know it’s not what you’re used to/Maybe it’s an Asian thing.”
On the other songs, his diction is still a little raw at times. But for someone who took intensive language classes in Taiwan to release this record, it is impressive that he had a hand in the lyrics of six of the nine Mandarin tracks.
So hello, Dawen, I think we will be seeing you around.
(ST)
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