A Tale Of Two Rainie
Rainie Yang
The length of Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang’s hair is a good indicator of what her album will be like. The shorter and more chic her bob, the more grown-up and sophisticated her music sounds.
And the good news is that her do is looking short and sharp.
Her first album with new label EMI Music harks back to the adult pop of Longing For (2011) and firmly leaves behind her cutesy image and offerings of yore.
The Lala Hsu-penned Lightly Touching The Water is a poignant ballad that lightly touches upon a soured relationship: “Wish to continue being good to you/Don’t mind the disruption like a dragonfly touching water/Only afraid that I’m a disruption to you.”
Yang shines on the mid-tempo numbers as she gently tugs at the heartstrings without resorting to piercing notes or dramatic flourishes.
Another highlight here is the plaintive yet hopeful track penned by sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, Is That You At The Next Turn: “When will my dream not be fruitless/Will you be at the next crossing.”
Romantic happiness might not be on the cards in this album but her music dreams are coming to fruition here.
(ST)
Thursday, January 29, 2015
G.E.M. is the only singer of note from Hong Kong to break out in the world of Chinese pop in recent years. Before her, one might have to reach back to Hong Kong-based Khalil Fong, who made a significant impact on the scene. And he made his debut back in 2005 with Soul Boy.
(Born in Shanghai, G.E.M. moved to Hong Kong at the age of four and is now based there.)
In particular, her path to regional success via a China television show, I Am A Singer, reflects how the centre of the pop world has shifted over the years.
The paltry number of widely popular Hong Kong artists is a striking turnaround for the territory, which was once the epicentre of Chinese pop.
Cantopop hit its golden age in the 1980s and 1990s and its stars were seen beyond its shores as trendsetters and the epitome of cool. Leslie Cheung was melancholy on Wind Blows On (1983) and suave on Stand Up (1986), while Anita Mui was the bold shape-shifter on the cover of records such as Temptress (1986).
The likes of Cheung and Mui did have Mandarin releases, but their focus was very much on their home market. They were Cantopop artists, first and foremost, who would dip their toes into Mandopop every now and then.
The influence the territory exerted was so strong that it was in Hong Kong that Beijing-born Faye Wong launched her music career in 1989, even if it was not exactly by design. Still, she built a substantial body of work in Cantonese before releasing her first Mandarin album, Mystery, in 1994.
Hong Kong was so dominant that its Four Heavenly Kings – Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and (Beijing-born) Leon Lai – held sway in the world of entertainment, from music to movies, from the 1990s well into the 2000s.
Gradually, Taiwan began catching up in the sophistication of its pop machinery and it became the new hotbed of Chinese music. The likes of A-mei, who debuted with Sisters in 1996, and Jay Chou, who released his debut Jay in 2000, enjoyed, and still enjoy, massive success in the Chinesespeaking world.
Taiwan attracted Singapore artists such as Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua to launch their Mandarin music careers there. In contrast, just a little earlier, Kit Chan was straddling both Taiwan and Hong Kong with her Mandarin and Cantonese releases in the 1990s during the transitional period.
Meanwhile, as the China market began to open up, it grew in importance, given its large size. A singer could really be a regional star only if he or she was big in China as well.
In this regard, Mandarin-speaking artists from Taiwan had a language advantage over their counterparts from Hong Kong. It is not a coincidence that Fong releases his albums in Mandarin and G.E.M. sings in both Mandarin and Cantonese on her discs.
China is increasingly part of the equation in how success is defined, not just with its huge market, but also due to the widespread influence of its popular TV talent shows such as Voice Of China and I Am A Singer. The country is starting to be a tastemaker and not just a passive consumer of trends and stars created elsewhere. It is also producing talent who are making inroads abroad, including Golden Melody Award winner for Best New Artist Li Ronghao.
And that is the route taken by G.E.M. In doing so, she has broken out to a wider audience than she could have if she had remained focused on only Hong Kong.
There are Hong Kong artists who continue to put out mainly Cantonese fare and, among those who stick to that template, the most successful include Joey Yung and Denise Ho. And yes, their popularity does extend beyond the territory.
Tellingly though, Yung’s concert at the Max Pavilion in Singapore Expo in 2009 was a one-night engagement, as was her gig at the similarly sized Compass Ballroom at Resorts World Convention Centre in 2013.
That is nothing to sniff at for sure. But it also underlines G.E.M.’s sparkling achievement of a three-night run at the Max Pavilion.
(ST)
(Born in Shanghai, G.E.M. moved to Hong Kong at the age of four and is now based there.)
In particular, her path to regional success via a China television show, I Am A Singer, reflects how the centre of the pop world has shifted over the years.
The paltry number of widely popular Hong Kong artists is a striking turnaround for the territory, which was once the epicentre of Chinese pop.
Cantopop hit its golden age in the 1980s and 1990s and its stars were seen beyond its shores as trendsetters and the epitome of cool. Leslie Cheung was melancholy on Wind Blows On (1983) and suave on Stand Up (1986), while Anita Mui was the bold shape-shifter on the cover of records such as Temptress (1986).
The likes of Cheung and Mui did have Mandarin releases, but their focus was very much on their home market. They were Cantopop artists, first and foremost, who would dip their toes into Mandopop every now and then.
The influence the territory exerted was so strong that it was in Hong Kong that Beijing-born Faye Wong launched her music career in 1989, even if it was not exactly by design. Still, she built a substantial body of work in Cantonese before releasing her first Mandarin album, Mystery, in 1994.
Hong Kong was so dominant that its Four Heavenly Kings – Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and (Beijing-born) Leon Lai – held sway in the world of entertainment, from music to movies, from the 1990s well into the 2000s.
Gradually, Taiwan began catching up in the sophistication of its pop machinery and it became the new hotbed of Chinese music. The likes of A-mei, who debuted with Sisters in 1996, and Jay Chou, who released his debut Jay in 2000, enjoyed, and still enjoy, massive success in the Chinesespeaking world.
Taiwan attracted Singapore artists such as Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua to launch their Mandarin music careers there. In contrast, just a little earlier, Kit Chan was straddling both Taiwan and Hong Kong with her Mandarin and Cantonese releases in the 1990s during the transitional period.
Meanwhile, as the China market began to open up, it grew in importance, given its large size. A singer could really be a regional star only if he or she was big in China as well.
In this regard, Mandarin-speaking artists from Taiwan had a language advantage over their counterparts from Hong Kong. It is not a coincidence that Fong releases his albums in Mandarin and G.E.M. sings in both Mandarin and Cantonese on her discs.
China is increasingly part of the equation in how success is defined, not just with its huge market, but also due to the widespread influence of its popular TV talent shows such as Voice Of China and I Am A Singer. The country is starting to be a tastemaker and not just a passive consumer of trends and stars created elsewhere. It is also producing talent who are making inroads abroad, including Golden Melody Award winner for Best New Artist Li Ronghao.
And that is the route taken by G.E.M. In doing so, she has broken out to a wider audience than she could have if she had remained focused on only Hong Kong.
There are Hong Kong artists who continue to put out mainly Cantonese fare and, among those who stick to that template, the most successful include Joey Yung and Denise Ho. And yes, their popularity does extend beyond the territory.
Tellingly though, Yung’s concert at the Max Pavilion in Singapore Expo in 2009 was a one-night engagement, as was her gig at the similarly sized Compass Ballroom at Resorts World Convention Centre in 2013.
That is nothing to sniff at for sure. But it also underlines G.E.M.’s sparkling achievement of a three-night run at the Max Pavilion.
(ST)
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Genesis
JJ Lin
Aiyo, Not Bad
Jay Chou
It is the battle of the male Mandopop heavyweights as Singapore’s JJ Lin and Taiwan’s Jay Chou go head-to-head with their new releases.
Lin seems to have received a boost of confidence after finally nabbing the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin Male Singer for his 10th album, Stories Untold (2013).
Instead of simply remaking that winning record, he goes for an ambitious themed disc here, with the title Genesis, suggesting that he is at the start of something new.
Lead single Brave New World, mixing R&B and dubstep, is a cautionary tale about where we might be headed. It is timely, given the recent reports on how 2014 was the hottest year on record. He mourns over a steady beat: “I wake in the wasteland of Earth/New York is in a corner of the sea/ The sun has turned the landscape into a desert.”
Fans need not worry that he has abandoned his trademark ballads. The Gardens is a lush counterpoint to Brave New World and blooms – but only in a dream: “Fragrance still lingers in the gardens there, daffodils dance in the wind.”
His two guests on duets here are high-profile ones: Hong Kong’s G.E.M. on the love ballad Beautiful and American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz on inspirational English track I Am Alive. The pairings are decent without being exceptional, though the line “I am loveable; I am invincible” on I Am Alive feels a little too baldly needy. Actually, the album is strong enough to stand on its own without their addition.
Lin is at a stage of his career where it would be all too easy to coast but instead, he continues to explore the wide world of music.
While Genesis is a more exciting offering than Aiyo, Not Bad, Chou remains the undisputed Mandopop King on home ground. He has topped the G-Music album chart for three weeks, with Lin at No. 2 for two of them.
Chou’s opening salvo was Extra Large Shoes, a kiddyish number which conjures up the circus and images of cartoon shenanigans. Drawing inspiration from the iconic American comedian Charlie Chaplin, he professes: “If life needs a smile, just look at me/And forget all your troubles.”
The thing is that he has been down this vaudeville path before on Mr Magic from the 2008 album Capricorn and on Exclamation Mark (2011). Much of Aiyo, Not Bad is in a familiar vein. Far-Away Passing Traveller is the latest iteration of the China-style ballad and What Kind Of Man Are You is the calculated crowd-pleasing ballad.
No wonder Chou has been accused of making the same album over and over again. It is a testament to his skill as a songwriter, though, that when you listen to the record as a whole, you can still think, “Okay, not bad”.
But he might want to take a leaf from Lin who advises on Brave New World: “Can’t keep repeating the same tune.”
(ST)
JJ Lin
Aiyo, Not Bad
Jay Chou
It is the battle of the male Mandopop heavyweights as Singapore’s JJ Lin and Taiwan’s Jay Chou go head-to-head with their new releases.
Lin seems to have received a boost of confidence after finally nabbing the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin Male Singer for his 10th album, Stories Untold (2013).
Instead of simply remaking that winning record, he goes for an ambitious themed disc here, with the title Genesis, suggesting that he is at the start of something new.
Lead single Brave New World, mixing R&B and dubstep, is a cautionary tale about where we might be headed. It is timely, given the recent reports on how 2014 was the hottest year on record. He mourns over a steady beat: “I wake in the wasteland of Earth/New York is in a corner of the sea/ The sun has turned the landscape into a desert.”
Fans need not worry that he has abandoned his trademark ballads. The Gardens is a lush counterpoint to Brave New World and blooms – but only in a dream: “Fragrance still lingers in the gardens there, daffodils dance in the wind.”
His two guests on duets here are high-profile ones: Hong Kong’s G.E.M. on the love ballad Beautiful and American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz on inspirational English track I Am Alive. The pairings are decent without being exceptional, though the line “I am loveable; I am invincible” on I Am Alive feels a little too baldly needy. Actually, the album is strong enough to stand on its own without their addition.
Lin is at a stage of his career where it would be all too easy to coast but instead, he continues to explore the wide world of music.
While Genesis is a more exciting offering than Aiyo, Not Bad, Chou remains the undisputed Mandopop King on home ground. He has topped the G-Music album chart for three weeks, with Lin at No. 2 for two of them.
Chou’s opening salvo was Extra Large Shoes, a kiddyish number which conjures up the circus and images of cartoon shenanigans. Drawing inspiration from the iconic American comedian Charlie Chaplin, he professes: “If life needs a smile, just look at me/And forget all your troubles.”
The thing is that he has been down this vaudeville path before on Mr Magic from the 2008 album Capricorn and on Exclamation Mark (2011). Much of Aiyo, Not Bad is in a familiar vein. Far-Away Passing Traveller is the latest iteration of the China-style ballad and What Kind Of Man Are You is the calculated crowd-pleasing ballad.
No wonder Chou has been accused of making the same album over and over again. It is a testament to his skill as a songwriter, though, that when you listen to the record as a whole, you can still think, “Okay, not bad”.
But he might want to take a leaf from Lin who advises on Brave New World: “Can’t keep repeating the same tune.”
(ST)
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
White Bird In A Blizzard
Gregg Araki
The story: When Kat (Shailene Woodley) was 17, her mother Eve (Eva Green) disappeared one day. It was no secret that Eve was disdainful of her husband Brock (Christopher Meloni), but did she just up and leave? In addition to coping with the loss, Kat is also dealing with her burgeoning sexuality and a suddenly disinterested boyfriend Phil (Shiloh Fernandez). Based on the novel of the same name by Laura Kasischke.
Indie film-maker Gregg Araki is closely associated with the movement dubbed as New Queer Cinema.
Actually, his characters run the gamut of sexual orientation in edgy works such as The Living End (1992), Totally F***ed Up (1993) and The Doom Generation (1995), and often, a sense of dread and nihilism pervades them.
A domestic drama, instead of being an unlikely fit for him as it might seem, turns out to be a good match for his off-kilter sensibility.
Instead of being a straightforward crime drama about the vanishing, the focus here is very much on Kat and her perception of the world around her.
The urgency of the question of what happened to Eve is blunted by the fact that it does not seem surprising for her to leave. In flashbacks, we see her as an increasingly unhappy wife who cannot even bother to hide her contempt for her husband.
There is an iciness to Green (Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, 2014) that makes her perfect for the role of distant wife and mother. It is as though she is a parody of a housewife, a fate that she is condemned to but has absolutely no interest in.
Then there is her erratic behaviour leading up to her disappearance.
She seems to be jealous as Kat blossoms into womanhood and a competitive dynamic creeps into the mother- daughter relationship. Eve wears barely there negligee and body-hugging outfits and all but flirts with Kat’s boyfriend Phil.
But is Kat a trustworthy narrator? How much of what she remembers is rationalisation of, or a defence mechanism against, her mother’s abrupt disappearance?
Nevertheless, Kat’s struggles with her hormones and growing up in a constricting small town are compelling.
Even as she deals with an on-off boyfriend, she finds herself drawn to the manly detective (Thomas Jane) assigned to the case.
Kudos to Woodley – star of a major film franchise, the young-adult dystopian The Divergent Series – for taking on more unusual projects.
The deadpan dialogue brings a welcome touch of humour (Kat intones: “My virginity disappeared, just like my mother”) and the dead-on music references including Depeche Mode and Joy Division are exactly what a moody teenager might be listening to in the late 1980s.
While White Bird primarily works as a character study, it also offers closure for its central mystery. Think of it as a movie that kills two birds with one stone.
(ST)
Gregg Araki
The story: When Kat (Shailene Woodley) was 17, her mother Eve (Eva Green) disappeared one day. It was no secret that Eve was disdainful of her husband Brock (Christopher Meloni), but did she just up and leave? In addition to coping with the loss, Kat is also dealing with her burgeoning sexuality and a suddenly disinterested boyfriend Phil (Shiloh Fernandez). Based on the novel of the same name by Laura Kasischke.
Indie film-maker Gregg Araki is closely associated with the movement dubbed as New Queer Cinema.
Actually, his characters run the gamut of sexual orientation in edgy works such as The Living End (1992), Totally F***ed Up (1993) and The Doom Generation (1995), and often, a sense of dread and nihilism pervades them.
A domestic drama, instead of being an unlikely fit for him as it might seem, turns out to be a good match for his off-kilter sensibility.
Instead of being a straightforward crime drama about the vanishing, the focus here is very much on Kat and her perception of the world around her.
The urgency of the question of what happened to Eve is blunted by the fact that it does not seem surprising for her to leave. In flashbacks, we see her as an increasingly unhappy wife who cannot even bother to hide her contempt for her husband.
There is an iciness to Green (Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, 2014) that makes her perfect for the role of distant wife and mother. It is as though she is a parody of a housewife, a fate that she is condemned to but has absolutely no interest in.
Then there is her erratic behaviour leading up to her disappearance.
She seems to be jealous as Kat blossoms into womanhood and a competitive dynamic creeps into the mother- daughter relationship. Eve wears barely there negligee and body-hugging outfits and all but flirts with Kat’s boyfriend Phil.
But is Kat a trustworthy narrator? How much of what she remembers is rationalisation of, or a defence mechanism against, her mother’s abrupt disappearance?
Nevertheless, Kat’s struggles with her hormones and growing up in a constricting small town are compelling.
Even as she deals with an on-off boyfriend, she finds herself drawn to the manly detective (Thomas Jane) assigned to the case.
Kudos to Woodley – star of a major film franchise, the young-adult dystopian The Divergent Series – for taking on more unusual projects.
The deadpan dialogue brings a welcome touch of humour (Kat intones: “My virginity disappeared, just like my mother”) and the dead-on music references including Depeche Mode and Joy Division are exactly what a moody teenager might be listening to in the late 1980s.
While White Bird primarily works as a character study, it also offers closure for its central mystery. Think of it as a movie that kills two birds with one stone.
(ST)
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Li Ronghao
Li Ronghao
Thanks to a clutch of nominations at last year’s Golden Melody Awards last year, eventually winning Best New Artist, China’s Li Ronghao vaulted from obscurity into the limelight.
He has capitalised on that with a quick follow-up release.
His self-titled second album has successfully broken him into the Taiwanese market as it hit No. 1 on the authoritative G-Music album chart.
It might have been a speedy turnaround, but it is no rush job.
Like his sterling debut Model, his self-titled record is packed full of mid-tempo, classy pop.
The songwriter also had a hand in creating nine of the 10 tracks here.
Pretty much everyone sings about love in Mandopop, but Li stands out with his soothing, lightly husky pipes and unusual perspectives.
King Of Comedy adds a dark comic twist to the subject courtesy of lyrics by Hong Kong’s Wyman Wong: “Why do I get dumped for all the world’s romances/ Be a part-time actor for all tragedies/My guts are spilling out, I bawl exaggeratedly, like a made-in-Hong-Kong flick.”
The ballad Unsuited, about the failure to meet one’s romantic match, has been making its way up local radio charts.
Li ponders: “Still don’t understand, how to be most at ease/What counts as forgetting one’s manners, is it wearing the wrong laces?”
He can also rock out though, when the occasion calls for it and he cuts loose on a loose-limbed cover of iconic rocker Cui Jian’s Quick Let Me Behave A Little Badly On The Snowy Ground.
Even when he is behaving badly, Li remains a compelling class act.
(ST)
Li Ronghao
Thanks to a clutch of nominations at last year’s Golden Melody Awards last year, eventually winning Best New Artist, China’s Li Ronghao vaulted from obscurity into the limelight.
He has capitalised on that with a quick follow-up release.
His self-titled second album has successfully broken him into the Taiwanese market as it hit No. 1 on the authoritative G-Music album chart.
It might have been a speedy turnaround, but it is no rush job.
Like his sterling debut Model, his self-titled record is packed full of mid-tempo, classy pop.
The songwriter also had a hand in creating nine of the 10 tracks here.
Pretty much everyone sings about love in Mandopop, but Li stands out with his soothing, lightly husky pipes and unusual perspectives.
King Of Comedy adds a dark comic twist to the subject courtesy of lyrics by Hong Kong’s Wyman Wong: “Why do I get dumped for all the world’s romances/ Be a part-time actor for all tragedies/My guts are spilling out, I bawl exaggeratedly, like a made-in-Hong-Kong flick.”
The ballad Unsuited, about the failure to meet one’s romantic match, has been making its way up local radio charts.
Li ponders: “Still don’t understand, how to be most at ease/What counts as forgetting one’s manners, is it wearing the wrong laces?”
He can also rock out though, when the occasion calls for it and he cuts loose on a loose-limbed cover of iconic rocker Cui Jian’s Quick Let Me Behave A Little Badly On The Snowy Ground.
Even when he is behaving badly, Li remains a compelling class act.
(ST)
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Into The Woods
Rob Marshall
The story: To lift a curse of barrenness cast by the next-door Witch (Meryl Streep), a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) have to go into the woods and gather four items. Meanwhile, Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) has to sell off his friend, a milky-white cow; Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) is off to visit her grandmother; Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) longs to go to the festival; and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy) is locked away in a tower. Their paths cross in unexpected ways in the forbidding woods. An adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name.
Into The Woods is easily feted composer and lyricist Sondheim’s most accessible work. The characters here are all familiar ones from fairy tales we have all grown up with and some of the songs have a nursery-rhyme simplicity, even as he imbues them with his usual wit and depth of feeling.
Part of the fun is seeing how the various characters and stories collide and ricochet off one another in this intricately plotted brand-new tale, scripted by James Lapine, who had also penned the book for the original musical.
Which is why when Rob Marshall was slated to direct the big-screen adaptation, my first thought was: Please don’t screw this up.
Although his adaptation of Kander & Ebb’s Chicago (2002) won the Oscar for Best Picture, its sins included the casting of Richard Gere as a smooth-talking lawyer, who was silver-haired, not silver-tongued, and the cutting of the hilarious highlight number, Class, from the proceedings.
Happily, Marshall does a better job here. The film is beautifully staged, like a richly drawn storybook come to life.
Most of the actors here – including some pleasant surprises – can act and sing. Blunt, unexpectedly, shows a lovely set of pipes after we last saw her kicking butt in the science-fiction thriller Edge Of Tomorrow (2014). Crawford and Corden both have Broadway experience. Kendrick had already wowed us with her singing in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect (2012).
It is with some of the biggest names that casting falters a little.
Streep does not quite measure up to actress Bernadette Peters’ indelible Broadway take on the Witch. For one thing, she cannot keep up with the pacing of her opening number and ends up letting the music lead her instead of the other way around. But at least, this is a better setting for her to chew scenery than in the family drama August: Osage County (2013).
Johnny Depp, who had starred in a previous Sondheim adaptation, the macabre Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007), just seems to add a touch of campiness to every role he takes on these days, including as the Wolf here.
Quibbling aside, the fun and charm of the musical remain intact. Marshall does a great job playing up the comedy number Agony as two princes (Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen) pine for their respective beloveds at a dramatic waterfall setting.
He also tightens the pace by dropping musical numbers such as First Midnight, Second Midnight, Ever After and No More – with no harm done. There remains plenty to savour in Sondheim’s wise and poignant songs.
Fairy tales often paint a black-and-white picture, but Sondheim points out that “Witches can be right/Giants can be good”. In a world filled with shades of grey, we have to rely on one another for strength and support.
“No one is alone” is both an encouragement and a reminder that there is always another side to the story.
There are lessons here, and not just for children.
(ST)
Rob Marshall
The story: To lift a curse of barrenness cast by the next-door Witch (Meryl Streep), a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) have to go into the woods and gather four items. Meanwhile, Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) has to sell off his friend, a milky-white cow; Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) is off to visit her grandmother; Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) longs to go to the festival; and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy) is locked away in a tower. Their paths cross in unexpected ways in the forbidding woods. An adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name.
Into The Woods is easily feted composer and lyricist Sondheim’s most accessible work. The characters here are all familiar ones from fairy tales we have all grown up with and some of the songs have a nursery-rhyme simplicity, even as he imbues them with his usual wit and depth of feeling.
Part of the fun is seeing how the various characters and stories collide and ricochet off one another in this intricately plotted brand-new tale, scripted by James Lapine, who had also penned the book for the original musical.
Which is why when Rob Marshall was slated to direct the big-screen adaptation, my first thought was: Please don’t screw this up.
Although his adaptation of Kander & Ebb’s Chicago (2002) won the Oscar for Best Picture, its sins included the casting of Richard Gere as a smooth-talking lawyer, who was silver-haired, not silver-tongued, and the cutting of the hilarious highlight number, Class, from the proceedings.
Happily, Marshall does a better job here. The film is beautifully staged, like a richly drawn storybook come to life.
Most of the actors here – including some pleasant surprises – can act and sing. Blunt, unexpectedly, shows a lovely set of pipes after we last saw her kicking butt in the science-fiction thriller Edge Of Tomorrow (2014). Crawford and Corden both have Broadway experience. Kendrick had already wowed us with her singing in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect (2012).
It is with some of the biggest names that casting falters a little.
Streep does not quite measure up to actress Bernadette Peters’ indelible Broadway take on the Witch. For one thing, she cannot keep up with the pacing of her opening number and ends up letting the music lead her instead of the other way around. But at least, this is a better setting for her to chew scenery than in the family drama August: Osage County (2013).
Johnny Depp, who had starred in a previous Sondheim adaptation, the macabre Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007), just seems to add a touch of campiness to every role he takes on these days, including as the Wolf here.
Quibbling aside, the fun and charm of the musical remain intact. Marshall does a great job playing up the comedy number Agony as two princes (Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen) pine for their respective beloveds at a dramatic waterfall setting.
He also tightens the pace by dropping musical numbers such as First Midnight, Second Midnight, Ever After and No More – with no harm done. There remains plenty to savour in Sondheim’s wise and poignant songs.
Fairy tales often paint a black-and-white picture, but Sondheim points out that “Witches can be right/Giants can be good”. In a world filled with shades of grey, we have to rely on one another for strength and support.
“No one is alone” is both an encouragement and a reminder that there is always another side to the story.
There are lessons here, and not just for children.
(ST)
Blackhat
Michael Mann
The story: Computer expert Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) is released from prison to help track down a brilliant villain. American agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis) makes sure he stays on the straight and narrow while juggling the limits of cooperation with the Chinese side. Chen Dawai (Wang Lee Hom) is the People’s Liberation Army officer on the case and he ropes in his sister Chen Lien (Tang Wei). As they chase the shadowy mastermind from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta, the stakes get higher and higher.
There is no way of saying this nicely: Blackhat is a big steaming pile of bulls***, which is an especially shocking conclusion given that director Michael Mann has been feted for his work from historical epic The Last Of The Mohicans (1992) to crime thriller Collateral (2004).
One of the key challenges with a cyber thriller is: How do you make lines of code look sexy and exciting? The solution here is to cast hunky Hemsworth as an unlikely programmer. Not only is someone of Hathaway’s calibre needed to point out simple facts of logic, but the genius is also conveniently primed for action and even joins in on a police raid.
The top-notch line-up also flounders in this draggy and literal movie.
Hollywood star Hemsworth has been heating up the screen as god/superhero Thor, while Davis and Tang are well-regarded award-winning actresses. Wang is better known for his singing than his acting, but at least he is popular.
Because of the sprawling cast, there is a long and convoluted set-up just to get everyone in place. Yet, much of the characterisation and reasoning is just plain lazy. A China military officer needs someone he can trust on the operation? Who else but his sister who just happens to possess some specialised skills, which are ultimately rather underwhelming.
All this on top of a script saddled with a deadly combination of cliches and gaping plotholes. Despite being in the middle of a major crime operation, Hathaway and Chen Lien manage to operate independently – just so they can make googly eyes at each other.
It is the kind of movie in which an ex-convict can work at a top-level security outfit, a wad of magazines can stop bullets and police forces are shockingly inept (a cavalier cop ventures into a high-risk raid in a sleeveless top).
For all the globe-trotting and jet-setting, the movie is deadly dull. The characters chase clues in some mockery of a treasure hunt that viewers are forced to go on. When the mastermind is finally unmasked looking like a British couch potato, it feels like a booby prize. In the annals of villainy, he must be one of the lamest ever.
The trailer had promised a fast-paced thriller. It lied.
(ST)
Michael Mann
The story: Computer expert Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) is released from prison to help track down a brilliant villain. American agent Carol Barrett (Viola Davis) makes sure he stays on the straight and narrow while juggling the limits of cooperation with the Chinese side. Chen Dawai (Wang Lee Hom) is the People’s Liberation Army officer on the case and he ropes in his sister Chen Lien (Tang Wei). As they chase the shadowy mastermind from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta, the stakes get higher and higher.
There is no way of saying this nicely: Blackhat is a big steaming pile of bulls***, which is an especially shocking conclusion given that director Michael Mann has been feted for his work from historical epic The Last Of The Mohicans (1992) to crime thriller Collateral (2004).
One of the key challenges with a cyber thriller is: How do you make lines of code look sexy and exciting? The solution here is to cast hunky Hemsworth as an unlikely programmer. Not only is someone of Hathaway’s calibre needed to point out simple facts of logic, but the genius is also conveniently primed for action and even joins in on a police raid.
The top-notch line-up also flounders in this draggy and literal movie.
Hollywood star Hemsworth has been heating up the screen as god/superhero Thor, while Davis and Tang are well-regarded award-winning actresses. Wang is better known for his singing than his acting, but at least he is popular.
Because of the sprawling cast, there is a long and convoluted set-up just to get everyone in place. Yet, much of the characterisation and reasoning is just plain lazy. A China military officer needs someone he can trust on the operation? Who else but his sister who just happens to possess some specialised skills, which are ultimately rather underwhelming.
All this on top of a script saddled with a deadly combination of cliches and gaping plotholes. Despite being in the middle of a major crime operation, Hathaway and Chen Lien manage to operate independently – just so they can make googly eyes at each other.
It is the kind of movie in which an ex-convict can work at a top-level security outfit, a wad of magazines can stop bullets and police forces are shockingly inept (a cavalier cop ventures into a high-risk raid in a sleeveless top).
For all the globe-trotting and jet-setting, the movie is deadly dull. The characters chase clues in some mockery of a treasure hunt that viewers are forced to go on. When the mastermind is finally unmasked looking like a British couch potato, it feels like a booby prize. In the annals of villainy, he must be one of the lamest ever.
The trailer had promised a fast-paced thriller. It lied.
(ST)
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Wake Up Dreaming
Jacky Cheung
It is the Cantopop God of Songs’ first new Mandarin album in seven years and the accompanying fanfare has been tremendous.
The first single, Use The Rest Of My Life To Love, is a track that plays to his strengths.
Lush and dramatic, with a cascading chorus, it fits the bill as the ballad his fans have long been waiting for (the opening phrase “Use how much time, keep waiting, for one love” might well be describing how they felt).
Indeed, Wake Up Dreaming on the whole is not about breaking new ground but very much about giving people what they want – which would be mainstream ballads such as Time Has Tears.
While there is the perky I’ve Fallen In Live With You about the simple joys of falling in love, it sounds a little too teeny-bopper for Cheung at this point.
Elsewhere, he professes his passion for singing.
He declares on I Just Want To Sing: “I just want to sing, until I bust my throat one day.”
And again on the title track, he professes: “Only in my dreams, not afraid to shout till my throat is ragged.”
We get it, he really, really wants to sing.
Surely, it is unbecoming for his voice to actually break during the phrase.
One expects more subtlety from the God of Songs.
Between Wake Up Dreaming and his previous Mandarin album, 2007’s By Your Side, he released the excellent Cantonese disc, Private Corner (2010).
There, he immersed himself fully in the jazz idiom and proved that he could swing it in that field.
It was a far more interesting proposition than his new Mandarin effort, which ends with the track Not Bad.
Should Cheung not be reaching for more than that?
(ST)
Jacky Cheung
It is the Cantopop God of Songs’ first new Mandarin album in seven years and the accompanying fanfare has been tremendous.
The first single, Use The Rest Of My Life To Love, is a track that plays to his strengths.
Lush and dramatic, with a cascading chorus, it fits the bill as the ballad his fans have long been waiting for (the opening phrase “Use how much time, keep waiting, for one love” might well be describing how they felt).
Indeed, Wake Up Dreaming on the whole is not about breaking new ground but very much about giving people what they want – which would be mainstream ballads such as Time Has Tears.
While there is the perky I’ve Fallen In Live With You about the simple joys of falling in love, it sounds a little too teeny-bopper for Cheung at this point.
Elsewhere, he professes his passion for singing.
He declares on I Just Want To Sing: “I just want to sing, until I bust my throat one day.”
And again on the title track, he professes: “Only in my dreams, not afraid to shout till my throat is ragged.”
We get it, he really, really wants to sing.
Surely, it is unbecoming for his voice to actually break during the phrase.
One expects more subtlety from the God of Songs.
Between Wake Up Dreaming and his previous Mandarin album, 2007’s By Your Side, he released the excellent Cantonese disc, Private Corner (2010).
There, he immersed himself fully in the jazz idiom and proved that he could swing it in that field.
It was a far more interesting proposition than his new Mandarin effort, which ends with the track Not Bad.
Should Cheung not be reaching for more than that?
(ST)
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Mr Turner
Mike Leigh
The story: During the first half of the 19th century, J.M.W. Turner (Timothy Spall) was a controversial figure in the British painting community. He had a showman’s flair and was well-regarded by his peers but could also be stubborn and gruff. His personal life was messy as he fathered daughters he neglected and he used his housekeeper Hannah (Dorothy Atkinson) to satisfy his sexual needs. He later takes up with the widowed landlady Mrs Booth (Marion Bailey).
Writer-director Mike Leigh made his name with socially conscious realist dramas including Hard Labour (1973), High Hopes (1988) and All Or Nothing (2002), which are known for their depiction of the British working class.
So, the choice of a Romantic landscape painter at first appears to be a strange one for him.
Make no mistake, though, Mr Turner is very much a film about class.
An artist could move easily between the different stratas of society, from rarefied highfalutin’ circles of rich and/or noble clients, to his own, more modest household, to the everyday folks he comes across, including prostitutes, landladies and merchants.
Leigh brings it all to vivid life, whether it is the stately drawing rooms, bustling markets with pig’s heads displayed on tables or filling scenes with giddy girls, toadying sycophants and struggling artists.
He also has fun skewering the snobbish rich, some of whom conduct a hilarious, painful and interminable exchange on gooseberries which Turner is forced to sit through.
A word of caution: There are thick soupy accents here that you want to dip a piece of bread into and soak up. Without the aid of subtitles, they are definitely a challenge to decipher.
For his fine and funny turn, Spall has been showered with accolades, including for Best Actor at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
It probably helped the film that he and Leigh had worked together in the past, including in Topsy-Turvy (1999) and All Or Nothing (2002).
One might imagine that a painter who paints the light with such delicacy would himself be a sensitive soul, but instead, we get a heavyset man with a gruff manner.
Some of it could well be an act and we also get to see his warm relationship with his father (Paul Jesson) and Turner’s generosity towards a fellow painter, Haydon (Martin Savage).
Part of the reason he is drawn to Mrs Booth is because she sees that he is “a man of great spirit and fine feeling”.
Leigh, though, does not whitewash the less savoury aspects of Turner, including his deplorable treatment of many of the women in his life.
The actor’s wonderful array of grunts and snorts conveys everything from reluctant acquiescence to outright disdain.
(ST)
Mike Leigh
The story: During the first half of the 19th century, J.M.W. Turner (Timothy Spall) was a controversial figure in the British painting community. He had a showman’s flair and was well-regarded by his peers but could also be stubborn and gruff. His personal life was messy as he fathered daughters he neglected and he used his housekeeper Hannah (Dorothy Atkinson) to satisfy his sexual needs. He later takes up with the widowed landlady Mrs Booth (Marion Bailey).
Writer-director Mike Leigh made his name with socially conscious realist dramas including Hard Labour (1973), High Hopes (1988) and All Or Nothing (2002), which are known for their depiction of the British working class.
So, the choice of a Romantic landscape painter at first appears to be a strange one for him.
Make no mistake, though, Mr Turner is very much a film about class.
An artist could move easily between the different stratas of society, from rarefied highfalutin’ circles of rich and/or noble clients, to his own, more modest household, to the everyday folks he comes across, including prostitutes, landladies and merchants.
Leigh brings it all to vivid life, whether it is the stately drawing rooms, bustling markets with pig’s heads displayed on tables or filling scenes with giddy girls, toadying sycophants and struggling artists.
He also has fun skewering the snobbish rich, some of whom conduct a hilarious, painful and interminable exchange on gooseberries which Turner is forced to sit through.
A word of caution: There are thick soupy accents here that you want to dip a piece of bread into and soak up. Without the aid of subtitles, they are definitely a challenge to decipher.
For his fine and funny turn, Spall has been showered with accolades, including for Best Actor at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
It probably helped the film that he and Leigh had worked together in the past, including in Topsy-Turvy (1999) and All Or Nothing (2002).
One might imagine that a painter who paints the light with such delicacy would himself be a sensitive soul, but instead, we get a heavyset man with a gruff manner.
Some of it could well be an act and we also get to see his warm relationship with his father (Paul Jesson) and Turner’s generosity towards a fellow painter, Haydon (Martin Savage).
Part of the reason he is drawn to Mrs Booth is because she sees that he is “a man of great spirit and fine feeling”.
Leigh, though, does not whitewash the less savoury aspects of Turner, including his deplorable treatment of many of the women in his life.
The actor’s wonderful array of grunts and snorts conveys everything from reluctant acquiescence to outright disdain.
(ST)
Bring Back The Dead
Lee Thean-jeen
The story: Jia En (Jesseca Liu) loses her seven-year-old son, Xiao Le, in a car accident and she withdraws from the people around her, including her husband (Jacko Chiang). When nanny Madam Seetoh (Liu Lingling) offers to help bring the boy’s soul back, Jia En readily agrees. But strange things begin to happen soon after and she starts to wonder if it is really her son who has returned. Based on the short story Bringing Back The Dead by Wong Swee Hoon.
This marks a good start to a year that has a bumper crop of local films slated for release.
Writer-director Lee Thean-jeen’s third feature film after the comedies Homecoming (2011) and Everybody’s Business (2013) is easily his best work to date. He keeps a tight focus here, effectively dispensing with the back story in sepia-tinted flashbacks over the opening credits.
The characters are quickly sketched out and introduced: Jia En can be a stern mother, but she loves her son and losing him on his birthday hits her hard; her husband tries to be supportive, but is soon defeated by her overwhelming grief. Madam Seetoh is something of a wild card, appearing almost a little too conveniently just when she is needed.
Doing well to carry the movie on her shoulders alone as Jia En, former MediaCorp star Jesseca Liu goes through grief, desperation, hope, suspicion and mounting terror, taking the audience along on her roller-coaster of emotions.
Bringing back the dead involves a ritual with all manner of instructions to follow strictly and any detail could easily go wrong.
Most crucially, Jia En asks: “How will I know if he returns?” “You’ll know,” is the short answer from the medium.
Horror flicks often require one to suspend disbelief because of too-convenient or ludicrous plot twists. Not in this case – the story logic is impeccable and devastating.
Lee does not go for cheap scares, instead he builds tension with quiet moments and assured pacing. He wants to fill audiences with dread of a malevolent spirit, but he also wants them to be emotionally invested in the story.
For, ultimately, Bring Back The Dead is a moving tale of parental love and the twisted lengths it can compel one to go to.
(ST)
Lee Thean-jeen
The story: Jia En (Jesseca Liu) loses her seven-year-old son, Xiao Le, in a car accident and she withdraws from the people around her, including her husband (Jacko Chiang). When nanny Madam Seetoh (Liu Lingling) offers to help bring the boy’s soul back, Jia En readily agrees. But strange things begin to happen soon after and she starts to wonder if it is really her son who has returned. Based on the short story Bringing Back The Dead by Wong Swee Hoon.
This marks a good start to a year that has a bumper crop of local films slated for release.
Writer-director Lee Thean-jeen’s third feature film after the comedies Homecoming (2011) and Everybody’s Business (2013) is easily his best work to date. He keeps a tight focus here, effectively dispensing with the back story in sepia-tinted flashbacks over the opening credits.
The characters are quickly sketched out and introduced: Jia En can be a stern mother, but she loves her son and losing him on his birthday hits her hard; her husband tries to be supportive, but is soon defeated by her overwhelming grief. Madam Seetoh is something of a wild card, appearing almost a little too conveniently just when she is needed.
Doing well to carry the movie on her shoulders alone as Jia En, former MediaCorp star Jesseca Liu goes through grief, desperation, hope, suspicion and mounting terror, taking the audience along on her roller-coaster of emotions.
Bringing back the dead involves a ritual with all manner of instructions to follow strictly and any detail could easily go wrong.
Most crucially, Jia En asks: “How will I know if he returns?” “You’ll know,” is the short answer from the medium.
Horror flicks often require one to suspend disbelief because of too-convenient or ludicrous plot twists. Not in this case – the story logic is impeccable and devastating.
Lee does not go for cheap scares, instead he builds tension with quiet moments and assured pacing. He wants to fill audiences with dread of a malevolent spirit, but he also wants them to be emotionally invested in the story.
For, ultimately, Bring Back The Dead is a moving tale of parental love and the twisted lengths it can compel one to go to.
(ST)
The Theory Of Everything
James Marsh
The story: This biopic of famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) spans from his days as a brilliant student at Cambridge University to the onset of a debilitating motor-neuron disease and his international success as a scientist. Adapted from the memoir Travelling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen (2013), by his ex-wife Jane Wilde, played in the film by Felicity Jones.
Even for those whose knowledge of science remains a yawning black hole, the work A Brief History Of Time (1988) by Stephen Hawking might well elicit a flicker or two of recognition.
It is a publishing phenomenon that has sold more than 10 million copies and helped to explain concepts such as the big bang and black holes to the man in the street.
The picture of Hawking on its cover is probably the mental image most have of him: a man whose body is crippled, but whose mind is brilliantly uncaged as it probes the mysteries of the universe.
What this film shows us, with great warmth and honesty, is not just the wheelchair, but the man in it.
The film begins in 1963 in Cambridge and Hawking is a physics geek with an endearing smile. He is attending mixers, hanging out in pubs and coxing and all these everyday activities seem poignant, given the disease that is lurking and waiting to trip him up.
What might merely be klutziness in another seems like a sinister sign of his body’s impending betrayal.
It is also clear that he is very intelligent as he speaks rapturously about a single unified equation that would explain everything in the universe.
Thanks to the considerable charms of Redmayne (Les Miserables, 2012), equations on a board have not looked this compelling since the John Nash drama, A Beautiful Mind (2001).
At heart, the film is also a moving romance between Hawking and Wilde.
As smart as Hawking is, theirs is very much a relationship between equals; Wilde’s strength of character is remarkable when she eventually learns what she has to deal with.
That relationship is brought to vivid life, thanks to the sensitive characterisation and the wonderful, breakout performances of Redmayne and Jones (Like Crazy, 2011).
Not everything is conveyed with words. When Hawking’s condition deteriorates to the point he needs to sit in a wheelchair, she does not say anything but merely brings it out one breakfast.
Hawking is no saintly figure here. He experiences doubts and frustrations, displays his humorous side and, yes, has sexual desires as well – he subscribes to Penthouse magazine and his nonplussed caregiver (Maxine Peake) has to turn the pages for him.
Despite Wilde’s best attempts to keep their family together, the cost of doing so takes its toll on her. At one point, she ropes in her choir teacher Jonathan Jones (Charlie Cox) to help out. He becomes a family friend, an additional pair of hands and another man about the house.
Things become complicated but unfold with a remarkable lack of melodrama. And being in a wheelchair does not mean that one is immune to falling in, or out, of love.
James Marsh – who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for the fascinating Man On Wire (2008) about Philippe Petit’s illegal high- wire walk between New York’s Twin Towers in 1974 – has taken an extraordinary story and turned it into a gripping and relatable drama. And this is possibly the best use ever of the well-worn device of time rewinding at the end of a movie.
Remarkably, Hawking, now 72, has long outlived the dire prognosis of his disease and continues to do research.
(ST)
James Marsh
The story: This biopic of famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) spans from his days as a brilliant student at Cambridge University to the onset of a debilitating motor-neuron disease and his international success as a scientist. Adapted from the memoir Travelling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen (2013), by his ex-wife Jane Wilde, played in the film by Felicity Jones.
Even for those whose knowledge of science remains a yawning black hole, the work A Brief History Of Time (1988) by Stephen Hawking might well elicit a flicker or two of recognition.
It is a publishing phenomenon that has sold more than 10 million copies and helped to explain concepts such as the big bang and black holes to the man in the street.
The picture of Hawking on its cover is probably the mental image most have of him: a man whose body is crippled, but whose mind is brilliantly uncaged as it probes the mysteries of the universe.
What this film shows us, with great warmth and honesty, is not just the wheelchair, but the man in it.
The film begins in 1963 in Cambridge and Hawking is a physics geek with an endearing smile. He is attending mixers, hanging out in pubs and coxing and all these everyday activities seem poignant, given the disease that is lurking and waiting to trip him up.
What might merely be klutziness in another seems like a sinister sign of his body’s impending betrayal.
It is also clear that he is very intelligent as he speaks rapturously about a single unified equation that would explain everything in the universe.
Thanks to the considerable charms of Redmayne (Les Miserables, 2012), equations on a board have not looked this compelling since the John Nash drama, A Beautiful Mind (2001).
At heart, the film is also a moving romance between Hawking and Wilde.
As smart as Hawking is, theirs is very much a relationship between equals; Wilde’s strength of character is remarkable when she eventually learns what she has to deal with.
That relationship is brought to vivid life, thanks to the sensitive characterisation and the wonderful, breakout performances of Redmayne and Jones (Like Crazy, 2011).
Not everything is conveyed with words. When Hawking’s condition deteriorates to the point he needs to sit in a wheelchair, she does not say anything but merely brings it out one breakfast.
Hawking is no saintly figure here. He experiences doubts and frustrations, displays his humorous side and, yes, has sexual desires as well – he subscribes to Penthouse magazine and his nonplussed caregiver (Maxine Peake) has to turn the pages for him.
Despite Wilde’s best attempts to keep their family together, the cost of doing so takes its toll on her. At one point, she ropes in her choir teacher Jonathan Jones (Charlie Cox) to help out. He becomes a family friend, an additional pair of hands and another man about the house.
Things become complicated but unfold with a remarkable lack of melodrama. And being in a wheelchair does not mean that one is immune to falling in, or out, of love.
James Marsh – who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for the fascinating Man On Wire (2008) about Philippe Petit’s illegal high- wire walk between New York’s Twin Towers in 1974 – has taken an extraordinary story and turned it into a gripping and relatable drama. And this is possibly the best use ever of the well-worn device of time rewinding at the end of a movie.
Remarkably, Hawking, now 72, has long outlived the dire prognosis of his disease and continues to do research.
(ST)
Monday, January 05, 2015
The year can only get better for local singer-songwriter JJ Lin. He was punched by a man at an autograph session in Taipei on Jan 1. According to China Times, Lin was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and then the trooper returned to the venue to continue with the autograph session.
Unfortunately, he is not the only Asian star who has been assaulted. Who knew entertainment was such a risky business?
1. Stefanie Sun
The homegrown songbird has been attacked not once, but twice.
While promoting her debut album Yan Zi in Taiwan in 2000, a man tried to take her hostage with an air-gun at an autograph session. He was arrested.
Then there was the controversial incident in Egypt in Feb 2007, where she had gone to film two music videos for the album Against The Light. It might not have been an attack exactly but there were murky claims of guns, guards and extortion attempts.
2. Jam Hsiao
In Oct 2013, Taiwan's Jam Hsiao escaped being hit by a container of faeces flung by two men. Instead, the excrement landed on his driver. For the poo attack, four men were later charged with intimidation and public insult.
3. AKB48
Two members of the mega Japanese girl group AKB48 were hospitalised after being attacked by a man wielding a 50cm saw at a regular meet-the-fans event in Takizawa last May. Rina Kawaei, 19, and Anna Iriyama, 18, received emergency surgery for broken bones in their right hands and they also suffered cuts on their arms and heads.
4. Girls' Generation
Towards the end of a performance by the Korean girl group of Run Devil Run at the Angel Price Music Festival in Seoul in April 2011, a man walked onstage. He headed straight for Taeyeon and then pulled her offstage. He was quickly stopped and no charges were filed. The incident can be seen on YouTube.
5. Eric Tsang
The popular Hong Kong entertainer was attacked by three men wielding torchlights, ash-trays and glass bottles at a private club in Kowloon in July 2001. He suffered serious head injuries and received at least 20 stitches. The attack was said to be triad-linked and at one point, singer Joey Yung was arrested in connection with the case.
(ST)
Unfortunately, he is not the only Asian star who has been assaulted. Who knew entertainment was such a risky business?
1. Stefanie Sun
The homegrown songbird has been attacked not once, but twice.
While promoting her debut album Yan Zi in Taiwan in 2000, a man tried to take her hostage with an air-gun at an autograph session. He was arrested.
Then there was the controversial incident in Egypt in Feb 2007, where she had gone to film two music videos for the album Against The Light. It might not have been an attack exactly but there were murky claims of guns, guards and extortion attempts.
2. Jam Hsiao
In Oct 2013, Taiwan's Jam Hsiao escaped being hit by a container of faeces flung by two men. Instead, the excrement landed on his driver. For the poo attack, four men were later charged with intimidation and public insult.
3. AKB48
Two members of the mega Japanese girl group AKB48 were hospitalised after being attacked by a man wielding a 50cm saw at a regular meet-the-fans event in Takizawa last May. Rina Kawaei, 19, and Anna Iriyama, 18, received emergency surgery for broken bones in their right hands and they also suffered cuts on their arms and heads.
4. Girls' Generation
Towards the end of a performance by the Korean girl group of Run Devil Run at the Angel Price Music Festival in Seoul in April 2011, a man walked onstage. He headed straight for Taeyeon and then pulled her offstage. He was quickly stopped and no charges were filed. The incident can be seen on YouTube.
5. Eric Tsang
The popular Hong Kong entertainer was attacked by three men wielding torchlights, ash-trays and glass bottles at a private club in Kowloon in July 2001. He suffered serious head injuries and received at least 20 stitches. The attack was said to be triad-linked and at one point, singer Joey Yung was arrested in connection with the case.
(ST)
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Serena
Susanne Bier
The story: George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) is a lumber baron with an operation located in the North Carolina mountains in 1929. He marries the unconventional Serena (Jennifer Lawrence) and soon, she begins to clash with his right-hand man Buchanan
(David Dencik). When Serena learns of George’s past indiscretion, she turns to the skulking Galloway (Rhys Ifans) to help her wreak terrible vengeance. Based on the novel of the same name by American author Ron Rash.
Moviegoers know Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper can generate chemistry together.
Despite the age gap – she is 24, he is 39 – they sizzled in the romantic drama Silver Linings Playbook (2012). They were both nominated for Oscars and Lawrence won for Best Actress. The two also worked together in the acclaimed comedy-drama American Hustle (2013), though they did not play a couple there.
And because they enjoyed working together so much, Lawrence persuaded Cooper to come on board for Serena. They forgot, though, that you cannot generate sparks in a vacuum.
The script by Christopher Kyle is full of risible dialogue and acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier flounders in the follow-up to her first American film, the drama Things We Lost In The Fire (2007).
The courtship between George and Serena is perfunctory and he essentially wins her over with: “I think we should be married.”
And more than once, they profess their feelings for each other with lazy lines such as “I really love you”.
Hidden in this dour, dreary film is a potentially interesting one with feminist leanings. What happens when a strong woman is introduced into a fraternity where men run the world and women serve, cook and raise babies? What does she have to do to prove herself?
While moviegoers get a scene of Lawrence manfully wielding an axe, she is eventually reduced to a hysterical state in an over-the-top resolution.
Instead, Bier adds other elements such as the clash between the timber-for-profit and woodland- for-preservation factions, mostly to wooden effect. Meanwhile, George is hunting down an elusive panther and it feels like the film is straining for metaphor, but ends up falling flat.
This is a rare misstep for Lawrence, who has ably balanced crowd-pleasers such as young-adult franchise The Hunger Games with acclaimed arthouse work in films such as Winter’s Bone (2010).
Working with friends is well and good, but next time, she might want to read the script more carefully.
(ST)
Susanne Bier
The story: George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) is a lumber baron with an operation located in the North Carolina mountains in 1929. He marries the unconventional Serena (Jennifer Lawrence) and soon, she begins to clash with his right-hand man Buchanan
(David Dencik). When Serena learns of George’s past indiscretion, she turns to the skulking Galloway (Rhys Ifans) to help her wreak terrible vengeance. Based on the novel of the same name by American author Ron Rash.
Moviegoers know Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper can generate chemistry together.
Despite the age gap – she is 24, he is 39 – they sizzled in the romantic drama Silver Linings Playbook (2012). They were both nominated for Oscars and Lawrence won for Best Actress. The two also worked together in the acclaimed comedy-drama American Hustle (2013), though they did not play a couple there.
And because they enjoyed working together so much, Lawrence persuaded Cooper to come on board for Serena. They forgot, though, that you cannot generate sparks in a vacuum.
The script by Christopher Kyle is full of risible dialogue and acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier flounders in the follow-up to her first American film, the drama Things We Lost In The Fire (2007).
The courtship between George and Serena is perfunctory and he essentially wins her over with: “I think we should be married.”
And more than once, they profess their feelings for each other with lazy lines such as “I really love you”.
Hidden in this dour, dreary film is a potentially interesting one with feminist leanings. What happens when a strong woman is introduced into a fraternity where men run the world and women serve, cook and raise babies? What does she have to do to prove herself?
While moviegoers get a scene of Lawrence manfully wielding an axe, she is eventually reduced to a hysterical state in an over-the-top resolution.
Instead, Bier adds other elements such as the clash between the timber-for-profit and woodland- for-preservation factions, mostly to wooden effect. Meanwhile, George is hunting down an elusive panther and it feels like the film is straining for metaphor, but ends up falling flat.
This is a rare misstep for Lawrence, who has ably balanced crowd-pleasers such as young-adult franchise The Hunger Games with acclaimed arthouse work in films such as Winter’s Bone (2010).
Working with friends is well and good, but next time, she might want to read the script more carefully.
(ST)
Monday, December 29, 2014
Opus 2 Jay 2014 World Tour
National Stadium
Last Saturday
Can a concert suffer from sequelitis?
A year and a half after the Opus world tour made its way to the Indoor Stadium, Mandopop king Jay Chou was back with Opus 2 at the National Stadium.
The first two numbers certainly made a case for it. The volume was pumped up to deafening levels as he descended onto the stage like some celestial being garbed in glittery silver. And then a riot of colours and movement exploded on stage as Exclamation Point was punctuated with bolts of blue, while Dragon Fists swirled about in red.
These were the two opening songs for the first Opus as well, and the idea here seemed to be to pummel the memory of that into submission.
And since we are comparing editions, it has to be said that he kept his abs hidden from view this time, though he did show us his slick-with-sweat biceps in a sleeveless top.
Thankfully, the assault on the senses let up by the third song, The Final Battle.
Unfortunately, the messy, murky sound never really cleared up. He mostly sounded echoey and, at times, was barely audible. The acoustics were particularly bad during Mr Magic, when other singers came on board, as some voices were swallowed up completely.
While Chou did not have a new movie out, there was still a short segment of role-playing that felt like a redux of the mini-musical that plugged The Rooftop (2012) previously. It did not work last time, and it did not work this time.
Ultimately, what the more than 30,000 fans were here for were the songs. And whenever he launched into a familiar favourite during the almost three-hour-long gig, the reception was thunderous.
Even those who criticise him for essentially putting out the same album over and over again have to admit he has a knack for coming up with diverse hits, from R&B ballads to fast-paced tonguetwisters.
Chou remarked that he saw many children and some parents in the audience and added: “It shows that my music speaks to fans across a wide age range.”
They bellowed along with gusto and cheered when he dedicated Adorable Woman from his debut album, Jay (2000), to “the adorable women of Singapore”.
At one or two junctures though, it hardly seemed to matter what he was singing.
Nunchucks was propelled by an insanely catchy beat and some wicked rhymes and not by his vocals, which one could barely make out.
And during the giddily entertaining track Dizzy Eunuch, he could just as well have been spouting gibberish since you had no idea what he was rapping if not for the karaoke-style lyrics displayed on the screens flanking the stage.
Inevitably, the new songs from his just-launched album, Hey, Not Bad, did not pack as much of a punch given that they were not as familiar.
None of this seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of his adoring fans. There was almost a stampede when he made his way into the audience to shake some hands.
The affection was mutual and he cherished his fans as well. He showed his sweet and playful side when he picked three fans and sang duets with them. When an Indonesian fan professed that she could not sing well, he said encouragingly that neither could he.
The finale song, Common Jasmine Orange, harked back to the previous tour’s closing number. But it seemed particularly apt for the stormy evening as he sang: “It rained all night/My love overflows like rain.”
It was answered by a flood of love from his fans as well.
(ST)
National Stadium
Last Saturday
Can a concert suffer from sequelitis?
A year and a half after the Opus world tour made its way to the Indoor Stadium, Mandopop king Jay Chou was back with Opus 2 at the National Stadium.
The first two numbers certainly made a case for it. The volume was pumped up to deafening levels as he descended onto the stage like some celestial being garbed in glittery silver. And then a riot of colours and movement exploded on stage as Exclamation Point was punctuated with bolts of blue, while Dragon Fists swirled about in red.
These were the two opening songs for the first Opus as well, and the idea here seemed to be to pummel the memory of that into submission.
And since we are comparing editions, it has to be said that he kept his abs hidden from view this time, though he did show us his slick-with-sweat biceps in a sleeveless top.
Thankfully, the assault on the senses let up by the third song, The Final Battle.
Unfortunately, the messy, murky sound never really cleared up. He mostly sounded echoey and, at times, was barely audible. The acoustics were particularly bad during Mr Magic, when other singers came on board, as some voices were swallowed up completely.
While Chou did not have a new movie out, there was still a short segment of role-playing that felt like a redux of the mini-musical that plugged The Rooftop (2012) previously. It did not work last time, and it did not work this time.
Ultimately, what the more than 30,000 fans were here for were the songs. And whenever he launched into a familiar favourite during the almost three-hour-long gig, the reception was thunderous.
Even those who criticise him for essentially putting out the same album over and over again have to admit he has a knack for coming up with diverse hits, from R&B ballads to fast-paced tonguetwisters.
Chou remarked that he saw many children and some parents in the audience and added: “It shows that my music speaks to fans across a wide age range.”
They bellowed along with gusto and cheered when he dedicated Adorable Woman from his debut album, Jay (2000), to “the adorable women of Singapore”.
At one or two junctures though, it hardly seemed to matter what he was singing.
Nunchucks was propelled by an insanely catchy beat and some wicked rhymes and not by his vocals, which one could barely make out.
And during the giddily entertaining track Dizzy Eunuch, he could just as well have been spouting gibberish since you had no idea what he was rapping if not for the karaoke-style lyrics displayed on the screens flanking the stage.
Inevitably, the new songs from his just-launched album, Hey, Not Bad, did not pack as much of a punch given that they were not as familiar.
None of this seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of his adoring fans. There was almost a stampede when he made his way into the audience to shake some hands.
The affection was mutual and he cherished his fans as well. He showed his sweet and playful side when he picked three fans and sang duets with them. When an Indonesian fan professed that she could not sing well, he said encouragingly that neither could he.
The finale song, Common Jasmine Orange, harked back to the previous tour’s closing number. But it seemed particularly apt for the stormy evening as he sang: “It rained all night/My love overflows like rain.”
It was answered by a flood of love from his fans as well.
(ST)
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Best & Worst of 2014 gigs
Best
DICK LEE: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS IN MUSIC
Drama Centre, Aug 31
Home-grown music man Dick Lee marked four prolific decades with a cosy gig with, and for, family and friends. His body of work is a richly diverse one and spans the beloved national song Home to pop hit Paradise In My Heart to musicals such as Snow.Wolf.Lake.
He crooned Canto hits, duetted with his ex-wife Jacintha Abisheganaden and performed with his three brothers. In between, he reminisced on how he got his start on Talentime and his encounters with stars such as the late Leslie Cheung.
The thunderous standing ovation at the end was a tribute to both the man and his music.
(ST)
Best
DICK LEE: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS IN MUSIC
Drama Centre, Aug 31
Home-grown music man Dick Lee marked four prolific decades with a cosy gig with, and for, family and friends. His body of work is a richly diverse one and spans the beloved national song Home to pop hit Paradise In My Heart to musicals such as Snow.Wolf.Lake.
He crooned Canto hits, duetted with his ex-wife Jacintha Abisheganaden and performed with his three brothers. In between, he reminisced on how he got his start on Talentime and his encounters with stars such as the late Leslie Cheung.
The thunderous standing ovation at the end was a tribute to both the man and his music.
(ST)
Best & Worst of 2014 Asian gigs
Best
EASON’S LIFE IN SINGAPORE
Singapore Indoor Stadium, March 1
The best reason to catch Hong Kong singer Eason Chan live is his voice. Wonderfully rich and beautifully emotive, this is a brew to get drunk on when he performs hits such as Under Mount Fuji and Tourbillon. His exuberance on stage suggests that even he himself gets intoxicated as well.
If you need more reasons, how about the playful outfits and the thoughtful staging? The most indelible image of the night was a man defying gravity by walking on the underside of a cloud while Chan was dressed like a beekeeper on his way to a funeral.
STEFANIE SUN 2014 KEPLER WORLD TOUR
Taipei Arena, Feb 15, and National Stadium, July 5
Singapore’s favourite home-grown pop star wife and mother staged a triumphant comeback at the new National Stadium in July. And Stefanie Sun goes down in the history books as the first pop act to perform at the venue. Unfortunately, it was not quite the perfect gig as she lost her voice as a result of the flu. Still, her fans rallied around her and kept spirits high.
Her Taipei concert in February showed what she was capable of when she was in top form. She was relaxed and happy on stage and even pulled off some slinky dance moves. And best of all, her powerful and distinctive pipes rang out strong and clear.
Worst
2014 SPRING WAVE MUSIC AND ART FESTIVAL
The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay, June 7
The festival made news overseas when Taiwanese diva A-mei was prohibited from singing her ballad Rainbow as authorities deemed that it was used to promote an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) agenda when she performed it here previously.
Reports said she was perplexed as the lyrics and mood of the track are very gentle.
Crowd control was also messy as the event tried to be both a sit-down concert as well as a do-as-you-please festival. Security personnel could be heard shouting at fans to return to their seats and disgruntled people yelling at others to not block their view.
(ST)
Best
EASON’S LIFE IN SINGAPORE
Singapore Indoor Stadium, March 1
The best reason to catch Hong Kong singer Eason Chan live is his voice. Wonderfully rich and beautifully emotive, this is a brew to get drunk on when he performs hits such as Under Mount Fuji and Tourbillon. His exuberance on stage suggests that even he himself gets intoxicated as well.
If you need more reasons, how about the playful outfits and the thoughtful staging? The most indelible image of the night was a man defying gravity by walking on the underside of a cloud while Chan was dressed like a beekeeper on his way to a funeral.
STEFANIE SUN 2014 KEPLER WORLD TOUR
Taipei Arena, Feb 15, and National Stadium, July 5
Singapore’s favourite home-grown pop star wife and mother staged a triumphant comeback at the new National Stadium in July. And Stefanie Sun goes down in the history books as the first pop act to perform at the venue. Unfortunately, it was not quite the perfect gig as she lost her voice as a result of the flu. Still, her fans rallied around her and kept spirits high.
Her Taipei concert in February showed what she was capable of when she was in top form. She was relaxed and happy on stage and even pulled off some slinky dance moves. And best of all, her powerful and distinctive pipes rang out strong and clear.
Worst
2014 SPRING WAVE MUSIC AND ART FESTIVAL
The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay, June 7
The festival made news overseas when Taiwanese diva A-mei was prohibited from singing her ballad Rainbow as authorities deemed that it was used to promote an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) agenda when she performed it here previously.
Reports said she was perplexed as the lyrics and mood of the track are very gentle.
Crowd control was also messy as the event tried to be both a sit-down concert as well as a do-as-you-please festival. Security personnel could be heard shouting at fans to return to their seats and disgruntled people yelling at others to not block their view.
(ST)
Best & Worst of 2014 movies
Best
THE LUNCHBOX
Inspired by the feat of logistical wonder that is the daily lunch delivery in Mumbai, writer-director Ritesh Batra cooks up a moving tale of urban loneliness and human connection.
It is liberally sauced with delicious curries and spiced with lovely performances from Irrfan Khan as a curmudgeonly widower and Nimrat Kaur as a housewife slowly discovering her own voice.
There are moments of drama, comedy and tragedy and the first-time feature director balances all the flavours as deftly as a dabbawalla wending through Mumbai traffic.
BEYOND BEAUTY: TAIWAN FROM ABOVE
From above looking down, one sees beauty as well as a landscape ravaged by rampant, thoughtless development in the name of progress and economic growth.
The Golden Horse Award winner for Best Documentary shows cinemagoers both stunning natural vistas as well as scarred earth and polluted waterways, all set to a stirring score by Singapore composer Ricky Ho.
What comes through is film-maker Chi Po-lin’s love of the land and while he does not harangue, it is also clear that something has to change before more mountains come tumbling down.
GRAND PIANO and BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES
Two of the most purely entertaining flicks of the year could not be more different.
Spanish director Eugenio Mira goes for high drama and taut suspense in his virtuoso performance of Grand Piano.
Elijah Wood is a concert pianist who has to get a devilishly difficult piece right under threat of death and there are plenty of intriguing questions raised along the way. The score by Victor Reyes works in tandem with what is unfolding as it teases and thrills.
Brotherhood Of Blades is the Mandarin wuxia version of A Simple Plan (1998) – what seems like a good idea turns into a nightmare that will not end.
An easy windfall ends up exacting a terribly high price on Ming dynasty palace assassin Shen Lian (Chang Chen) and his sworn brothers.
Director Lu Yang keeps cinemagoers on tenterhooks over their fates and Lin Sang dazzles with the sizzling swordfights.
Worst
OUTCAST
In bizarro land, wracked with guilt Crusader Jacob (Hayden Christensen) has to chaperone a China princess and her heir-to-the-throne younger brother to safety.
Christensen’s fauxhawk always looks sharp even though they are on the run and Nicolas Cage shows up – blind in one eye, brandishing a snake in one fist and lurching about drunk and angry. It seems like an apt response to getting cast in this turkey.
(ST)
Best
THE LUNCHBOX
Inspired by the feat of logistical wonder that is the daily lunch delivery in Mumbai, writer-director Ritesh Batra cooks up a moving tale of urban loneliness and human connection.
It is liberally sauced with delicious curries and spiced with lovely performances from Irrfan Khan as a curmudgeonly widower and Nimrat Kaur as a housewife slowly discovering her own voice.
There are moments of drama, comedy and tragedy and the first-time feature director balances all the flavours as deftly as a dabbawalla wending through Mumbai traffic.
BEYOND BEAUTY: TAIWAN FROM ABOVE
From above looking down, one sees beauty as well as a landscape ravaged by rampant, thoughtless development in the name of progress and economic growth.
The Golden Horse Award winner for Best Documentary shows cinemagoers both stunning natural vistas as well as scarred earth and polluted waterways, all set to a stirring score by Singapore composer Ricky Ho.
What comes through is film-maker Chi Po-lin’s love of the land and while he does not harangue, it is also clear that something has to change before more mountains come tumbling down.
GRAND PIANO and BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES
Two of the most purely entertaining flicks of the year could not be more different.
Spanish director Eugenio Mira goes for high drama and taut suspense in his virtuoso performance of Grand Piano.
Elijah Wood is a concert pianist who has to get a devilishly difficult piece right under threat of death and there are plenty of intriguing questions raised along the way. The score by Victor Reyes works in tandem with what is unfolding as it teases and thrills.
Brotherhood Of Blades is the Mandarin wuxia version of A Simple Plan (1998) – what seems like a good idea turns into a nightmare that will not end.
An easy windfall ends up exacting a terribly high price on Ming dynasty palace assassin Shen Lian (Chang Chen) and his sworn brothers.
Director Lu Yang keeps cinemagoers on tenterhooks over their fates and Lin Sang dazzles with the sizzling swordfights.
Worst
OUTCAST
In bizarro land, wracked with guilt Crusader Jacob (Hayden Christensen) has to chaperone a China princess and her heir-to-the-throne younger brother to safety.
Christensen’s fauxhawk always looks sharp even though they are on the run and Nicolas Cage shows up – blind in one eye, brandishing a snake in one fist and lurching about drunk and angry. It seems like an apt response to getting cast in this turkey.
(ST)
Best & Worst of 2014 Mandopop albums
Best
BREAKTHROUGH
Luantan-Ascent, B’in Music International
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. This is revelatory rock, propelled by everything from buzzing guitars to Luantan-Ascent’s magnetic, raspy voice. He ruminates on the essential nature of this earth and even takes on animal forms like a music shaman.
FACES OF PARANOIA – ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE
A-mei, Mei Entertainment
Much ink has been spilled on the Taiwanese diva’s ballooning weight, but the spotlight should really be on how good A-mei’s new album is. It sounds like a best-of compilation distilled from the three years that went into it – every track sounds like it could be a hit. Highlights include the slinky Dog, examining a relationship on the brink from the perspective of a shared pet.
MODEL
Li Ronghao, Linfair Records
Thanks to five nominations at the prestigious Golden Melody Awards, China’s Li Ronghao found himself catapulted into the limelight. He eventually nabbed the trophy for Best New Artist.
His lightly husky baritone lights up the understated, mid-tempo material here. Highlights such as the breezy opener Li Bai, Too Frank, a light-footed number about getting hurt, are why the album is compelling enough to make a mannequin move.
Worst
LION ROAR
Show Lo, Sony Music Entertainment Taiwan
One expects more from a milestone 10th album, but dance king Show Lo merely serves up warmed-over rehashed K-pop. His boast on the title song – “I’m not afraid to take on challenges, keep breaking through to something new” – rings hollow.
(ST)
Best
BREAKTHROUGH
Luantan-Ascent, B’in Music International
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. This is revelatory rock, propelled by everything from buzzing guitars to Luantan-Ascent’s magnetic, raspy voice. He ruminates on the essential nature of this earth and even takes on animal forms like a music shaman.
FACES OF PARANOIA – ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE
A-mei, Mei Entertainment
Much ink has been spilled on the Taiwanese diva’s ballooning weight, but the spotlight should really be on how good A-mei’s new album is. It sounds like a best-of compilation distilled from the three years that went into it – every track sounds like it could be a hit. Highlights include the slinky Dog, examining a relationship on the brink from the perspective of a shared pet.
MODEL
Li Ronghao, Linfair Records
Thanks to five nominations at the prestigious Golden Melody Awards, China’s Li Ronghao found himself catapulted into the limelight. He eventually nabbed the trophy for Best New Artist.
His lightly husky baritone lights up the understated, mid-tempo material here. Highlights such as the breezy opener Li Bai, Too Frank, a light-footed number about getting hurt, are why the album is compelling enough to make a mannequin move.
Worst
LION ROAR
Show Lo, Sony Music Entertainment Taiwan
One expects more from a milestone 10th album, but dance king Show Lo merely serves up warmed-over rehashed K-pop. His boast on the title song – “I’m not afraid to take on challenges, keep breaking through to something new” – rings hollow.
(ST)
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Departures
Karen Mok
Arriving in time to bid farewell to the year is Karen Mok’s new album, Departures. The two-time Golden Melody Award winner for Best Female Mandarin Artist is in a reflective mood as she ruminates on farewells and reunions.
On standout ballad Outside The Borders, emotional baggage fails to weigh her down: “Feel like leaving, leave/Walk beyond memories, there’s nothing to worship/Feel like returning, return/Realise after touring, I’ve left the past outside the borders.”
Saying goodbye need not always be a morose affair. Opener Farewell To Myself finds Mok in celebratory jazz-rock mode as she philosophises: “Regardless of how busy life gets, at least once/You’ll leave yourself, meet yourself.”
Meanwhile, Regardez, penned by sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, seems to offer a snapshot of her life after marrying German finance executive Johannes Natterer in 2011.
She sings with fervour: “Let you look at my heart/Let you look at my heart/Every tomorrow, every deep night, every season, won’t change anymore/Let me look at your heart/Let me look at your heart/Every process, every circumstance, want you to dote on them.”
It seems that marriage will not be tying down the Hong Kong singer as she declares on the last track, With Just One Piece Of Baggage. Adventures in life and music beckon.
(ST)
Karen Mok
Arriving in time to bid farewell to the year is Karen Mok’s new album, Departures. The two-time Golden Melody Award winner for Best Female Mandarin Artist is in a reflective mood as she ruminates on farewells and reunions.
On standout ballad Outside The Borders, emotional baggage fails to weigh her down: “Feel like leaving, leave/Walk beyond memories, there’s nothing to worship/Feel like returning, return/Realise after touring, I’ve left the past outside the borders.”
Saying goodbye need not always be a morose affair. Opener Farewell To Myself finds Mok in celebratory jazz-rock mode as she philosophises: “Regardless of how busy life gets, at least once/You’ll leave yourself, meet yourself.”
Meanwhile, Regardez, penned by sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, seems to offer a snapshot of her life after marrying German finance executive Johannes Natterer in 2011.
She sings with fervour: “Let you look at my heart/Let you look at my heart/Every tomorrow, every deep night, every season, won’t change anymore/Let me look at your heart/Let me look at your heart/Every process, every circumstance, want you to dote on them.”
It seems that marriage will not be tying down the Hong Kong singer as she declares on the last track, With Just One Piece Of Baggage. Adventures in life and music beckon.
(ST)
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Saint Laurent
Bertrand Bonello
The story: From 1967 to 1976, French designer Yves Saint Laurent (Gaspard Ulliel) was at the peak of his career. He and his business and personal partner, Pierre Berge (Jeremie Renier), were building a fashion empire that expanded worldwide. Creatively, Saint Laurent was being inspired by muses such as model Betty Catroux (Aymeline Valade) and the bohemian Loulou de la Falaise (Lea Seydoux). But his life threatens to careen out of control when he fell for Jacques de Bascher (Louis Garrel), who was also designer Karl Lagerfeld’s lover.
Saint Laurent is no conventional, chronological biopic. And that is both its strength and weakness.
On the one hand, it avoids the expected template of its subject overcoming challenges and difficulties to emerge at the top of his game. On the other, it can be a frustrating exercise trying to make sense of Yves Saint Laurent’s importance as a designer without much of a context.
Mostly, the movie feels like an impressionistic and languorous take on his downward spiral into a booze and drugs-fuelled bender of sexual hedonism.
The movie flits forwards and backwards in time and there are surrealistic touches that suggest his state of mind, such as when he imagines snakes slithering in his bed.
There is also a humorous sequence which pokes fun at fashion’s ludicrousness as we hear models at a photo shoot – one completely nude – voice their inner thoughts. Then there is the pointed juxtaposition of luxe clothing with images of unrest, poverty and agitation.
But it is mostly touch-and-go for director and co-writer Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer, 2001).
At one point, he casually references the controversial naming of the Opium perfume for the American market and then never returns to it.
The context for Saint Laurent’s place in the pantheon of fashion greats only comes at the end, when a newspaper editorial team is trying to put together an obituary for him in 1977. He died in 2008 at the age of 71.
What keeps the movie from falling apart are some canny casting choices.
With his long, delicate face, Ulliel (Hannibal Rising, 2007) conveys the fragility and ego of the tortured artist.
At one point, he mock mourns the fact that he has no competition.
Garrel (The Dreamers, 2003) mixes sexiness and danger as the decadently louche de Bascher.
While Saint Laurent is something of a mixed bag, the competing biopic Yves Saint Laurent by Jalil Lespert has also gotten mixed reviews.
Perhaps, like the perfect sleeve or silhouette, the larger-than-life designer is not an easy subject to pin down.
(ST)
Bertrand Bonello
The story: From 1967 to 1976, French designer Yves Saint Laurent (Gaspard Ulliel) was at the peak of his career. He and his business and personal partner, Pierre Berge (Jeremie Renier), were building a fashion empire that expanded worldwide. Creatively, Saint Laurent was being inspired by muses such as model Betty Catroux (Aymeline Valade) and the bohemian Loulou de la Falaise (Lea Seydoux). But his life threatens to careen out of control when he fell for Jacques de Bascher (Louis Garrel), who was also designer Karl Lagerfeld’s lover.
Saint Laurent is no conventional, chronological biopic. And that is both its strength and weakness.
On the one hand, it avoids the expected template of its subject overcoming challenges and difficulties to emerge at the top of his game. On the other, it can be a frustrating exercise trying to make sense of Yves Saint Laurent’s importance as a designer without much of a context.
Mostly, the movie feels like an impressionistic and languorous take on his downward spiral into a booze and drugs-fuelled bender of sexual hedonism.
The movie flits forwards and backwards in time and there are surrealistic touches that suggest his state of mind, such as when he imagines snakes slithering in his bed.
There is also a humorous sequence which pokes fun at fashion’s ludicrousness as we hear models at a photo shoot – one completely nude – voice their inner thoughts. Then there is the pointed juxtaposition of luxe clothing with images of unrest, poverty and agitation.
But it is mostly touch-and-go for director and co-writer Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer, 2001).
At one point, he casually references the controversial naming of the Opium perfume for the American market and then never returns to it.
The context for Saint Laurent’s place in the pantheon of fashion greats only comes at the end, when a newspaper editorial team is trying to put together an obituary for him in 1977. He died in 2008 at the age of 71.
What keeps the movie from falling apart are some canny casting choices.
With his long, delicate face, Ulliel (Hannibal Rising, 2007) conveys the fragility and ego of the tortured artist.
At one point, he mock mourns the fact that he has no competition.
Garrel (The Dreamers, 2003) mixes sexiness and danger as the decadently louche de Bascher.
While Saint Laurent is something of a mixed bag, the competing biopic Yves Saint Laurent by Jalil Lespert has also gotten mixed reviews.
Perhaps, like the perfect sleeve or silhouette, the larger-than-life designer is not an easy subject to pin down.
(ST)
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