Din Tao: Leader Of The Parade
Fung Kai
The story: A-tai (Alan Kuo) is estranged from his father (Chen Po-cheng), the head of the Chiu-tien din tao troupe in Taichung. Returning home after a stint in Taipei studying rock music, A-tai throws down the gauntlet to a rival outfit. He has to prove that he can rally the troupe members together while fending off intimidating gestures from his competitor, the arrogant A-hsien (Alien Huang).
The film is inspired by the true story of Taichung’s Chio-Tian Folk Drums And Arts Troupe, which engages in din tao, the traditional Taiwanese practice of performing at religious festivals.
Chio-Tian is known for its exhilarating drumming performances as well as for its unusual way of seeking blessings for Taiwan – by circumnavigating the island on foot with their big drums and the full- body costumes of deities such as Prince Nezha.
The strongly localised story is probably the reason the film has struck such a chord at home. Din Tao’s box-office takings have exceeded NT$317 million (S$13.7 million), making it Taiwan’s top-grossing film of the year so far.
Unfortunately, the movie might have a harder time parlaying that success overseas.
It is a pity because the material definitely has potential. The religious rites and rituals are bursting with colour and sound and movement and writerdirector Fung Kai captures some of that excitement.
However, the first-time film-maker is unable to weave together an engaging drama from the many standard narrative elements here: the feud between father and son, the clash between tradition and innovation, the rivalry between different troupes and the inevitable triumph of the underdogs.
The Chiu-tien troupe also comprises a ragtag bunch of familiar types from the tomboyish girl to the outsider guy who turns out to be something of a drumming freak.
Despite his genuine affection for the characters and the subject, Fung’s handling of the story is often clunky, as if he has no idea how to propel it forward.
Take, for instance, the relationship between A-tai and A-hsien. The laughably exaggerated rivalry between the two is marked by bravado and posturing: A-hsien would turn up and hassle A-tai and his troupe in the midst of their training. And for some reason, Fung feels the need to make this point more than once, making the movie longer than it needs to be.
As a documentary, the film could have been fascinating. As filmed entertainment, unlike recent crowd-pleasing box-office hits from Taiwan such as Cape No. 7 (2008) and You Are The Apple Of My Eye (2011), Din Tao fails to drum up much excitement.
(ST)

Absolute Boyfriend Original TV Soundtrack
Various artists

Those Years
Roger Yang Pei-an

The Taiwanese idol drama adaptation of the manga Absolute Boyfriend (2003-2005) feels like a live-action cartoon with its exaggerated tone and slapstick humour.
Thankfully, the soundtrack is more grown-up.
Fahrenheit’s Jiro Wang gets to flaunt his buff bod on the show and also gets to strut his stuff here.
He performs the synth-pop opener Mr Perfect with his fellow boyband members, and goes solo on the rock ballad Make-believe and the mid-tempo number Perfect Heart Beat.
The lyrics on Make-believe smartly play on his role as the perfect robot boyfriend in the show: “Take me apart, discard me, throw me away to the ends of the earth/Continue to love me, and there’s no result, only torment.”
Selections from Anthony Neely, Olivia Ong and One Million Star season 5 champ Dennis Sun round up this palatable offering.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Roger Yang’s ill-conceived album of covers.
The Taiwanese singer has taken a bunch of classic English rock tunes such as Bryan Adams’ Summer Of ’69 and Metallica’s Enter Sandman and covered them in the most unimaginative way possible.
Not to mention that trying to out-Bono Bono on U2’s With Or Without You is an exercise in futility.
It is a pity because Yang is not a bad singer as he demonstrates on the tacked- on tribute to the late singer-songwriter Chang Yu-sheng.
His soaring vocals on Never Look Back and the unreleased composition Dream Of suggest that a covers album of Chang songs would have been a far more compelling proposition.
As for English covers, indulge your inner rock god by all means, but do it at the karaoke or on Guitar Hero like everyone else.
(ST)

The Killer Wolf Yoo Ha The story: A man mysteriously bursts into flames and dies in his car. Sang Gil (Song Kang Ho) is assigned to the case and he reluctantly takes on rookie female detective Eun Young (Lee Na Young). Another unusual killing occurs and they soon discover that the deaths are linked. There are bite marks on both bodies and they speculate that a wolfdog – a cross between a wolf and a dog – is responsible for the killings. Lassie, the celebrated home-coming dog, has nothing on the lupine-canine star of this film. If you think that a dog finding its way home is impressive, wait till you see what the wolfdog Jilpoong does for its owner here. Like Jilpoong, the movie is something of a crossbreed as well. On one hand, there is the crime thriller aspect as detectives chase after clues and hunt down suspects. On the other hand, the film is also clearly aimed at animal lovers as Eun Young strikes up a bond with Jilpoong and there are long and adoring shots of the wolfdog bounding along on the road. Writer-director Yoo Ha had previously helmed the neo-noir mob drama A Dirty Carnival (2006) as well as the racy period drama A Frozen Flower (2008). With his latest, he continues to elude easy categorisation. He has also added a few other interesting elements to the story though not all of them lead to a satisfactory pay-off. Lee Na Young (Maundy Thursday, 2006) gets to act tough here as the rookie cop battling blatant sexism while trying to crack a puzzling case. Not only does Eun Young have to endure barbs and insults from her chauvinistic colleagues, she also has to endure kicks and punches in the line of duty. Given that the behaviour of the cops borders on villainy, the actual bad guys are painted an unambiguous shade of black as they are guilty of the most heinous crime of child prostitution. Added to the mix is Song Kang Ho (The Host, 2006), often hailed as one of Korea’s best actors. He once again plays a detective nine years after 2003’s excellent Memories Of Murder (2003). The comparison to the understated and gripping Murder only shows up how gimmicky The Killer Wolf is. But the twist of a serial-killer animal is unusual enough to pique one’s interest and keep one watching to find out how and why the murders were committed and who the mastermind behind them all is. Given the premise, you would be barking up the wrong tree if you were expecting subtlety here. (ST)

What To Expect When You Are Expecting Kirk Jones The story: Five couples in Atlanta deal with the joys and heartaches of getting a baby. Fitness guru Jules (Cameron Diaz) is pregnant with her dancer boyfriend Evan’s (Matthew Morrison) child. The Breast Choice boutique owner Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) is expecting one with her husband Gary (Ben Falcone). Gary’s father Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) is about to be a dad all over again with his much younger trophy wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). Food-truck entrepreneur Rosie (Anna Kendrick) unexpectedly gets knocked up by her business competitor Marco (Chace Crawford). Photographer Holly (Jennifer Lopez) and her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) are looking to adopt a baby. The film is said to be inspired by the classic antenatal advice tome, What To Expect When You’re Expecting (1984). The best-selling What To Expect When You’re Expecting has been called the bible of American pregnancy – many mothers-to-be refer to it religiously. You might think that there is no way a guidebook can be adapted into a narrative film, and you would be right. But that has not stopped Hollywood from blatantly attempting to cash in on a well-known title. And it does so in the laziest of ways – serving up an assortment of pregnancy woes in a buffet-style movie. The five couples’ stories are an attempt to capture the spectrum of experiences that people have in getting a child from easy-breezy pregnancy to drastic hormonal mood swings; from those who get a bun in the oven by accident to those who just cannot deliver the goods; and even from the joy of carrying twins to the pain of suffering a miscarriage. The bloated film is further stuffed with sideplots such as Alex joining a group of dads to work through his mixed feelings about adopting a baby. With so much going on in the film, there is barely time for the individual stories to make an impact. Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine, 1998) does not help matters with his glossy direction, which only adds to the sense of glibness. After a while, the stories begin to feel like case studies. Remember the smart comedy Juno (2007) or the sweetly raucous Knocked Up (2007)? Actually, all you need is one pregnancy for a movie to get that glow. (ST)

Love In The Buff
Pang Ho Cheung
The story: At the end of Love In A Puff (2010), adman Jimmy (Shawn Yue) won over cosmetics salesgirl Cherie (Miriam Yeung). But happily ever after proves elusive as they begin to fight and Jimmy leaves Hong Kong to work in China. Cherie eventually finds herself working on the mainland too. They remain attracted to each other even though Jimmy is dating a stewardess (Yang Mi) and Cherie is pursued by an older businessman (Xu Zheng).

 The criminally overlooked Love In A Puff was one of the best films of 2010, so it is with delight and trepidation that one approaches its sequel. The good news is that Love In The Buff is a worthy successor even if it does not quite reach the same heights as Puff. Right off the bat, Buff echoes the earlier film’s sly opening gambit in which the narrative thread that is unfolding turns out to be a story that a character in the movie is relating. In this case, it is Cherie telling Jimmy a yarn. Listening to his characters talk is one of the greatest pleasures of watching a film by Pang Ho Cheung, a leading light of Hong Kong cinema in recent years. The writer-director has a keen ear for dialogue, both in the way characters engage in conversation and the way they tell one another tales. He reminds one of American film-maker Kevin Smith (Clerks, 1994), who also crafts movies full of sharp repartee with a good- natured sweetness at a script’s core. Because the dialogue is so realistic, Jimmy and Cherie come across as flesh-and-blood characters. Yue and Yeung are also perfectly cast: He as the impish boy-man and she as the older, more mature woman. And of course, the two share a cosy chemistry that makes you root for them even as obstacles threaten to trip them up. There is a pivotal scene in which Cherie admits to Jimmy that being with him has changed her and yet it ends on a funny note with a comment from him. It beautifully illustrates how different the two of them are and yet also compellingly demonstrates why they would be attracted to each other. Buff meanders more than Puff did, though there are a few amusing cameos thrown in here, including from popular 1990s singer Linda Wong and China actor Huang Xiaoming. Best of all is singer-actor Ekin Cheng appearing as himself as Jimmy tries to ferret out whether he was, as Cherie claims, her first boyfriend. Do not be in a hurry to leave after the film ends as there is a bonus music video clip that is a hoot to watch. In a way, the movie itself reflects the progression of Jimmy and Cherie’s relationship. What was fresh, fun and exciting at first has become familiar. To Pang’s credit, he manages to pull out some surprises and he shows that familiar characters can still create sparks together. (ST)

Being Flynn Paul Weitz The film is based on American playwright and poet Nick Flynn’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night In Suck City (2004). Clearly, this was never going to be a barrel of laughs given that it tackles estrangement, suicide and living on the streets. Robert De Niro is the deluded and stubborn father Jonathan Flynn, Julianne Moore (both below) is the single mother struggling to keep it all together, and Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, 2006) is the emotionally distant son, Nick. After being largely absent from his son’s life, Jonathan gets in touch out of the blue when he is evicted from his apartment. They later cross paths again at the homeless shelter where Nick works. Awkwardness ensues. Scriptwriter and director Paul Weitz (About A Boy, 2002) tries to go for a quirky offbeat tone in handling the material, except that the attempt does not quite stick and Being Flynn remains largely unaffecting. (ST)

Fairy Tale Killer Danny Pang The story: Jun (Wang Baoqiang), a stutterer with his face painted white, confesses to five murders in a police station but is released as his statement does not add up. But the next day, the brutal murders he confessed to begin. Each time, the word “wolf” is left at the scene of the crime. Detective Han (Lau Ching Wan) has to hunt down Jun while covering up his team’s slip-up in the first place. The latest offering from Hong Kong director Danny Pang is like Frankenstein’s monster assembled from disparate movie cast-offs, with all the rough joints showing. Fairy-tale fever has been sweeping Hollywood with movies such as Mirror Mirror and the upcoming Snow White And The Huntsman, so Pang has decided to cash in by clumsily adding a fairy-tale motif to the killings. He then pilfers a central conceit from the South Korean thriller The Chaser (2008), in which the killer confesses to his crimes but is then set free for lack of evidence. Indeed, the Mandarin title of this film is Zhui Xiong, or Chasing The Murderer. Pang then proceeds to pile on the crazy. Jun appears to be mentally unstable and he is seen with a long-haired woman (Elanne Kwong). She could be a Chinese Rapunzel or, more likely, Sadako from the Japanese horror flick Ring (1998) – after all, she paints creepy drawings which are full of violence and gore. Coincidentally, Han has an autistic son also given to scribbling all over their apartment. Guess who later conveniently puts together clues for Han? There is also the side plot of Han’s team falling apart as the members suspect him of betraying one of them. The more pressing question here is: Why must all five of them in the team go on an investigation together? So that we can have a multitude of reaction shots when some discovery is made? Everything is treated with a heavy hand and underlined with a loud and intrusive score. Even the usually solid Lau cannot save this hysterical mess as the film ends on a wildly over-the-top note in an abandoned concrete “castle”. By this point, Fairy Tale Killer has slaughtered all plausibility and murdered in the audience any remaining interest in the story. (ST)

The Original Karen Mok Show @ Taipei (3DVD + CD) Karen Mok The bad news is that Singapore was not a pit stop on Hong Kong singer-actress Karen Mok’s last concert tour. The good news is that fans can now catch her being crazy, sexy and cool up close on DVD. The recording was made at her gig in Taipei Arena last August and we get to see an unusually emotional Mok on stage as it was her final live performance before her wedding last October. But first, the crazy. That would have to be the headpiece she wore which looked like giant feelers. The sexy was par for the course for the singer who had posed nude for the cover of her 1996 Cantonese album, Karen Mok In Totality. For the gig, she shimmied about in hot pants and flesh-toned stockings and even lounged about on a bed on stage. Cool were the songs themselves, particularly those off her covers album, Aftertaste (2009), such as her distinctively husky reinvigoration of classics such as Zhou Xuan’s Blooming Flowers And The Full Moon. Disappointingly, the Xinjiang folk song Playing Hand Drum Singing Song from that album was not part of the show. The set list here also includes her signature songs such as Cloudy Day, Love and He Doesn’t Love Me, an early hit from her first Mandarin album To Be (1997). The final track is the Wakin Chau-penned I’m Going To Marry You Tomorrow, a fitting send-off for Mok as she walked down the aisle. Hopefully, marriage won’t mean the end of the crazy, sexy, cool Mok her fans know and love. (ST)