Jazz Channel
Yoga Lin
While most cover albums by Mandopop singers seem like a lazy way of cashing in, this two-disc offering from Taiwan’s Yoga Lin is happily different.
He is a singer of some sensitivity and interpreting the material here – including a wide range of English songs from jazz standards such as As Time Goes By to Bonnie Raitt’s ballad I Can’t Make You Love Me – in a lightly jazzy idiom prevents this from sounding like a karaoke session. But his less-than-perfect English enunciation is a little distracting at times.
The Mandarin covers work better, whether he is taking on the Teresa Teng chestnut I Only Care About You or Sandee Chan’s regret-filled Not In Time. He even reworks two of his own tracks – Gone With The Wind and Fairy Tale from Senses Around (2009) – to good effect.
In particular, Gone is sparer and more haunting as Lin sings: “I play this song for you on a sunny day/I fall deeply asleep on a cloudy day/And you’re gone.” Tune into Jazz Channel when you want to soak up the blues, but not if you want to chase them away.
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Midnight's Children
Deepa Mehta
The story: Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on Aug15, 1947, the moment of India’s Independence. His life and the lives of the other special children born in that first hour are inextricably linked and play out against the birthing pains of a nation. Saleem (Satya Bhabha) has telepathic powers, charismatic Shiva (Siddharth Narayan) is his nemesis and Parvati (Shriya Saran) is the witch who flits between the two men. Based on Salman Rushdie’s 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name.

History, as historian Arnold Toynbee once observed, is just one damn thing after another. And there is plenty of history to get through in Midnight’s Children.
There are the last days of the British empire leading to the partition of India and Pakistan, war between the two countries, and civil war in Pakistan resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. While a novel has the luxury of space to shape events into a narrative thread, a film, even one over two hours long like this, has much less leeway to do so.
After a while, the characters begin to feel like pawns of history, swept up in a tide that they have no control over.
Director Deepa Mehta (Fire, 1996, Earth, 1998, and Water, 2005) could have sharpened the focus of the film much more so that the backdrop of unfolding events does not overwhelm it. As it stands, it is not easy for the viewer to immerse himself in the story of the characters.
It is a pity because there is plenty of drama, melo- and otherwise, in the recounting of Saleem’s family history and the single rebellious act of a nurse that changes his fate as well as Shiva’s forever.
Satya Bhabha (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, 2010) is the somewhat passive Saleem, whose telepathic power is thrust upon him courtesy of a bulbous and snivelly nose, while Siddharth Narayan (Bommarillu, 2006) is the charismatic Shiva, whose ambitions take a dark turn.
Unfortunately, while the rivalry between Saleem and Shiva is established early on, it does not really pay off till late in the movie.
The impact of the relationship triangle with Parvati (Shriya Saran from Sivaji: The Boss, 2007) is also diminished, given the short shrift the character gets.
Still, there is a point to the tangled web of relations and relationships woven here: Who is whose son, who is whose mother, who is whose father?
The film’s resolution suggests that, in the end, you make your own family, just as you make your own country.
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Ip Man - The Final Fight
Herman Yau
And this makes Ip Man number four.
Donnie Yen gave us a stoic and macho action hero in Ip Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010). Tony Leung Chiu Wai gave us arthouse Ip Man in The Grandmaster (2013). Dennis To gave us Ip Man-lite in Ip Man: The Legend Is Born (2010).
Anthony Wong’s portrayal of the wing chun martial arts teacher is also stoic and comes with a tad more gravitas. Too bad it feels unnecessary.
The episodic film has something of a split personality with an odd mix of realist historical drama and chopsocky gongfu action. The setting is Hong Kong at a time of worker unrest in the 1950s and features Ip Man’s students (including Jordan Chan as a conflicted cop and Gillian Chung in a minor role) being involved in the strikes and clashes.
At the same time, setpiece fights have to be worked into the movie, including a final showdown between Ip Man and a triad boss.
The entire exercise just feels like overkill.
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The Host
Andrew Niccol
The story: A parasitic alien race has conquered Earth. Melanie Stryder’s (Saoirse Ronan) body is inhabited by a “soul” named Wanderer, but her consciousness refuses to just fade away. Eventually, they set off in search of her younger brother in a remote human hideout. There, she finds her boyfriend Jared (Max Irons) while another young man, Ian (Jake Abel), is drawn to Wanderer. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s 2008 book of the same name.

The last adaptation of a Stephenie Meyer’s work was a little series called Twilight. There are, naturally, some high expectations for The Host, but it is actually a very different creature altogether.
This feels like a more contemplative movie. After the basic premise has been set up, writer-director Andrew Niccol is happy to explore the ramifications in a low-key and understated manner.
Those familiar with his earlier works such as the sci-fi flick Gattaca (1997), starring Ethan Hawke as a genetically inferior man with big ambitions in a dystopian future, would not be too surprised by the approach.
The central idea here is of two personalities forced to share one body.
This has often been played for laughs such as in All Of Me (1984), in which Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin comically fought for control.
In The Host, though, the Melanie/ Wanderer struggle is played for dramatic effect.
The two start off as antagonists, as Melanie is understandably hostile towards the alien invader trying to probe her memories in order to ferret out the human resistance. Eventually, the two begin to, well, start seeing eye to eye.
Saoirse Ronan, nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in Atonement (2007), is quietly compelling to watch as she makes both Melanie’s trapped frustration and Wanderer’s growing awareness believable.
What is also interesting here is the kind-of love triangle that is set up.
Melanie is in love with Jared (Max Irons from 2011’s Red Riding Hood) while Ian (Jake Abel from 2010’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) falls for Wanderer.
The catch, of course, is that Melanie and Wanderer share one body. Some of what transpires treads on giggly teenage romance territory as when Wanderer kisses Jared and Melanie gets jealous.
The film is refreshingly honest. Wanderer tells Ian that he does not love her, but is merely in love with Melanie’s body. After all, her physical form is a tentacled ball of light and she adds that if Ian could hold that in his arms, he would crush her.
Adding excitement to the romantic tension are aliens hot on the trail of the humans, with The Seeker (Diane Kruger) particular hellbent on their destruction.
The various threads are resolved by the end, some more clumsily than others, and the tacked-on coda could have been dropped.
Still, for a good stretch The Host envelops you in its strange world.
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52 Hertz
The Verse

Parallel Universe
The Girl And The Robots

There is plenty of dance music in the Asian pop scene, thanks to the Koreans. But thoughtful explorations of electronica are few and far between.
On 52 Hertz, indie singer- songwriter Cheer Chen teams up with her producer boyfriend Tiger Chung and noted composer Chen Chien-chi for a fruitful expedition.
The Verse prove to be a most flexible outfit as they sing in English and Mandarin over a diverse range of music.
Only Love Can is dreamily romantic with English lyrics to match: “We’re swimming in the moonlight/ We go to another side of world/In the wave moved by the star”.
The title track works in EKG- machine-like beeps, underscoring the fragility of life as Chen croons delicately in Mandarin: “Because I love, because I live, because I’m lonely, I search”.
There is playfulness here as well, as the arrangement for Six sounds like a tinny video-game soundtrack while Rapid Eye Movement edges into dance-rock territory.
The world of electronica is definitely a big one, big enough for Taiwanese trio The Girl And The Robots to venture to a Parallel Universe on their second album.
They sweep you up in the title track as female vocalist Riin sings: “Take me away/Take me away to another universe/A universe with you”.
There is a strong dance vibe here but the group want to engage your head as well as your feet. Fish, for example, explores an unusual point of view: “Fish/Says he wants silence/ Says you don’t understand/Spits out a mouthful of froth.”
And for those who associate Minnan with old-school ballads and getai techno, Waiting comes as a classy surprise. It might change your view of Minnan pop just as these albums might get you to rethink what you know about electronica.
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Gambit
Michael Hoffman
The story: The put-upon British art curator Harry Deane (Colin Firth) has come up with a ploy to take revenge on his bully of a media mogul boss, Lord Lionel Shabandar (Alan Rickman). To pull it off, he needs the help of Texan cowgirl PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz) and the counterfeiting skills of his pal, The Major (Tom Courtenay). A loose remake of the 1966 film of the same name starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.

Gambit wants to be a light-footed caper but ends up flailing and stumbling.
The script is by Joel and Ethan Coen, though the acclaimed team behind gems such as Fargo (1996) seem to be dialling it in here. Their trademark sharpness of wit and humour is hardly in evidence.
Maybe they knew it was not quite up to snuff because instead of them directing it, Michael Hoffman (The Last Station, 2009) took it on instead.
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, 2010) tries his best in the role of the mousy fumbling Englishman. Too bad the lacklustre script does not give him much to work with.
A scene filled with naughty double entendres as Harry Deane talks about The Major feels tired and might only raise a weak smile or two at the most.
The bigger problem is the big fat zero in chemistry between Firth and Cameron Diaz (What Happens In Vegas, 2008), which means that the bantering and bickering between the two fall flat.
And she lays it on so thick for the role of a smarter-than-she-looks hick that PJ comes across as fake as opposed to spunky and likeable.
At least Alan Rickman (from the Harry Potter fantasy series) has some fun as the imperious boss who does not bother to disguise his contempt for Harry.
The caper flick also flirts with farce. In a mildly amusing sequence, Harry scampers about the classy Savoy Hotel without his pants on.
It could have been pushed even more, though, for bigger laughs.
The ending is not too satisfactory either, hinging as it does on an unlikely security system and even more improbable rodeo roping skills.
This Gambit could have done with more time on the drawing board.
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Tennis
Esplanade Theatre Studio/Last Friday
Tennis serve up images of sun, sea and surf with the laidback vibe of their retro pop.
It is not quite what one would expect given that the husband-and-wife duo of guitarist Patrick Riley and singer/key- boardist Alaina Moore are from Middle America Denver.
But they had taken a seven-month- long sailing expedition together and that trip has seeped thoroughly into their music.
You can practically smell the brine from the titles on their debut album Cape Dory (2011). From Seafarer to Waterbirds, the shore is never far away.
The chill and easy feel of their songs translated well to a live setting in which Moore and Riley were backed by a drummer and another guitarist.
Her voice tended to get overwhelmed by the music when she went for the low notes. But otherwise, her sweet-but- not-twee pipes, his Hawaiian shirt, the breezy melodies and the bouncy beats all helped to evoke a cosily specific time and space during the hour-long gig.
Tennis ventured further afield thematically on their second album Young & Old (2012) though they continued to play with a nostalgic pop sound.
There is more to them than nautical adventures even as the band remained on the move. Moore sang on It All Feels The Same: “Took a train to/Took a train to get to you”.
In between numbers, she did the talking. Referring to her mane of frizzy curls, she quipped at one point: “I hope you guys can appreciate what your weather does to my hair.
She had prepared some dance choreography for My Better Self but confessed that she “discovered the hard way” that she could not sing and groove at the same time. No matter, her fans were happy to see her self-described “high school dance talent show” moves.
There is a charming sunniness to their material that shines through even when the inspiration might have been something darker in the first place.
Moore explained that Marathon was one of the first songs they wrote and it came out of the scary experience of sailing at night. But the cascade of “ooh-ooh-oohs” that follows the line “Will we make it out alive” feels more comforting than distressing.
And Baltimore is actually about them facing the bleak prospect of being unemployed after college. The lyrics are stark as Moore croons: “Can we get a job, can we get a job/We need off this dock, is that asking a lot”.
She tells the audience cheerily though: “You should try starting a band cos somehow that worked for us.”
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Contradiction
Hanjin Tan

Disturb Love
Steve Chou

Hanjin Tan is a talented and inventive songwriter. But you would not know it from his latest Mandarin album, Contradiction.
Musically, the Hong Kong-based Singaporean has opted to go for a stripped-down approach here. But minimal does not have to mean single-minded and the mid-tempo guitar strumming on track after track gets repetitive.
I Love You leaves an impression, in part because it sounds more upbeat. Tan sings: “Happiness is loving you/I have no hesitation/The biggest decision in my life turned out to be so simple.”
There is no mistaking the honesty of his lyrics and his clear tenor pipes, but he could have made the going a little easier on the musical front. Check out Who Is Hanjin Tan? (2011) instead for a more compelling portrait of the man.
Still, a less-than-stellar record from Tan feels more vital than Taiwanese singer-songwriter Steve Chou’s new album, Disturb Love. There is greater diversity here in the music, which ranges from synth-pop to radio-friendly ballads, but it only runs the gamut from mildly pleasant to forgettably bland.
Rejection pairs a light-hearted melody with heavy-hearted lyrics and is one of the stronger numbers here: “The sky is dark, can the lights remain off/Let my defeated heart, possess total darkness.”
Album closer Not The Same repeatedly asserts the title sentiment – a point that should have been made by the material instead.
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Warm Bodies
Jonathan Levine
The story: R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie shuffling about aimlessly until he meets the lovely, and human, Julie (Teresa Palmer). When he decides to protect Julie instead of feasting on her as a second course after her boyfriend, it sets off a chain of events with momentous consequences for the zombie horde. Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Isaac Marion.

There is life yet in the undead genre.
Shaun Of The Dead (2004) had previously mashed up genres and billed itself as a rom-zom-com, a romantic zombie comedy. On the other hand, the ongoing television series The Walking Dead has been pushing the boundaries when it comes to depicting gore and violence.
With Warm Bodies, writer-director Jonathan Levine, who last helmed the cancer comedy 50/50 (2011), still manages to give us something fresh.
The book’s zombie point of view has been preserved, the unusual perspective generating some welcome humour.
We first hear R voicing the thoughts in his head as he wonders why he is unable to connect with anyone. “Oh right, it’s cos I’m dead,” he concludes.
He might be a sensitive young man on the inside, but from the outside, R is like any other zombie – a growling shuffler who looks like death and smells of rot.
His initial encounter with Julie is less than promising. He is part of a pack of zombies attacking her and her friends and he ends up snacking on her boyfriend’s brain. That means that R also consumes his memories of Julie.
Hoult, the About A Boy star (2002) recently seen in Jack The Giant Slayer (2013), is charmingly gauche as he goes about trying to woo Julie. He is frustrated by his own inarticulation and, instead, plays retro music on vinyls to signal that there is more to him than the average zombie.
And, yes, the film has a perfectly judged soundtrack from the nostalgic rock of John Waite’s Missing You to indie darlings The National’s broodily atmospheric Runaway.
Palmer (Take Me Home Tonight, 2011), meanwhile, does a credible job with the role of the spunky Julie, who begins to question what she knows about zombies.
There is more to Warm Bodies, though, than just some fluffy piece of entertainment with a canny mix of young romance and the popular undead genre.
It can also be read as a take on emotional alienation and its cure. Ultimately, this zombie flick makes the same famous exhortation as English writer E.M. Forster: Only connect.
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Mosaic Music Festival
Grimes
Esplanade Theatre Studio/Last Saturday

She looked like a runaway Las Vegas child bride with a pink wedding veil over a black-and-gold T-shirt and black-and- pink short skirt. And the music of Grimes is likewise a mix of delicate innocence and knowing attitude.
Over 55 minutes, the 24-year-old Canadian artist served up a seamless serving of eight tracks as one flowed into the next. Most of them were taken off her breakthrough third album, Visions (2012), on which her sweet girlish voice floated over hypnotic synth lines and a pulsating bass.
Grimes was a captivating presence on stage. She danced to the music, sang, twiddled knobs and fiddled with dials. She teased and threatened on Vanessa: “Hey hey you wanna play/But baby I can go go”.
There was a youthful playful energy that held the sold-out crowd in thrall as they danced along. It seemed entirely appropriate when bubbles streamed into the air late in the set.
She also kept the transitions between numbers interesting. At one point, she seemed to be reciting an incantation. Whatever spell she was casting worked as the energy level in the room went up a notch when the distinctive intro for Oblivion kicked in.
The segue into Nightmusic had a totally different vibe. She worked herself up into a scream and the interlude that followed was like the soundtrack to a nightmare you wanted to dance to.
Sharing the stage with Grimes were one back-up vocalist and two dancers. One of them looked as though she had come straight from the now-defunct Mandopop club Dragonfly and her thrusting proved to be rather distracting at times.
Because of the way the set was structured, it felt like an abrupt break in the flow of the music when Grimes spoke.
The first time she said: “Oh, by the way, thank you for having me. I’m having the best time in Singapore.”
She then added: “I will now continue. As soon as I start talking, it starts going downhill.”
Later, she proclaimed that her second show of the night was better because “I’m more into it”.
Actually, her speedy bursts of speech were rather charming.
The encore number was her collaboration with dance act Blood Diamonds, Phone Sex. It was the most conventional sounding track of the night but everyone was having too much fun to care.
She made you think that running away with her would be a most exciting adventure.
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Ming Day
Ming Bridges
This is a calculated effort to break local singer-songwriter Ming Bridges into the Taiwan market.
Essentially, her bilingual debut record released here, Who Knows (2012), has been repackaged with more Mandarin numbers. The English tracks, with lyrics by Bridges, are collected on a second disc.
Chirpy, teeny-boppy numbers such as Under The Stars and Have To Love You commingle with radio-friendly ballads including Tears Fall Like Rain on the main disc. But they are all polished to a sheen that feels generic.
Instead, it is the bonus disc that gives one a better sense of Bridges as a person, whether she is bemoaning her bad luck in love on Sweet Misfortune or overanalysing things on Miss Thinkalot.
It is a pity this does not come through more on the Mandarin material. Balancing her unique personality with a commercial sound is something she will have to grapple with in the days ahead.
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Stand Up Guys
Fisher Stevens
In The Expendables (2010), a bunch of ageing action stars were assembled together for a pleasantly B-grade outing. Stand Up Guys brings together a couple of ageing wise guys, but to lesser effect.
Val (Al Pacino) is released from jail after 28 years and is picked up by his former partner Doc (Christopher Walken). Val wants to live it up by partying with booze and women and Doc obliges him.
They later spring their old getaway driver Richard (Alan Arkin) from a nursing home and proceed to raise a ruckus. Meanwhile, the clock ticks away as Doc has a mission to accomplish by 10am.
There is some humour milked from the fact that they are all getting on in years. When two of them break into a pharmacy to get some “boner pills” for Val, Doc casually picks up refills for his meds for various ills.
However, there is not enough tension to propel the movie forward and the dialogue is not deadpan enough for a black comedy.
Having assembled veteran actors Pacino, Walken and Arkin, director Fisher Stevens cannot decide whether this is The Bucket List (2007) for tough guys or a more conventional gangster flick. A missed opportunity.
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21 & Over
Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
The story: It is Jeff Chang’s (Justin Chon) 21st birthday and his high-school buddies Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin) surprise him by turning up at his college to celebrate the occasion. The festivities start with plenty of booze, take in a detour to a Latina sorority and end with Miller and Casey walking through campus with nothing on but strategically placed tube socks.
Turning 21 is a majorly big deal in America because that is the age at which one can drink alcohol legally.
No more mucking around with fake identification and trying to scam the bouncers, which means one thing – the way to liver-destroying levels of binge-drinking is now free and clear.
With similarities of heavy boozing and wild shenanigans, you could think of this as The Hangover (2009) for the recently legal set.
This is no mere coincidence as Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote the earlier hit comedy. They write and make their directorial debut here.
So yes, 21 & Over is a dumb and crass comedy but it also has a little heart and some smarts.
The dumb and crass part is quickly established when Miller and Casey meet before heading over to Jeff’s place. The two argue about having sex with Casey’s sister and that sets the tone for the level of humour found here.
And when Jeff gets on a mechanical bull and makes like a merlion, the projectile vomiting is lovingly captured in slow motion.
Not surprisingly, he is too drunk to be coherent. With an important interview the next morning on the line, his friends try to get him back home.
This is where the heart and smarts come in.
The central theme in 21 & Over is really about growing up and what happens to once-cherished friendships when everyone embarks on different paths after high school.
What start off as one-note roles – obnoxious and pushy Miller, sensible and stuffy Casey, over-achieving pre-med Asian guy Jeff – begin to feel like plausible characters struggling with the transition to adulthood.
The film also works because Justin Chon (The Twilight Saga film series, 2008-2012), Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole, 2010) and Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect, 2012) are game actors who have no trouble making utter fools of themselves.
This is a spirited comedy in more ways than one.
(ST)

If You LuVVVVV Me
Eve Ai

Yellow Jacket
Rachel Liang

It seems British singer- songwriter Adele has become a favourite point of reference for Taiwanese female newcomers. First there was Jia Jia, who made her solo debut with Unforgettable (2013), and now there is Eve Ai.
Ai, the fifth champion of the singing competition Super Idol (2010-2011), certainly has a set of alluring pipes. She is also versatile enough to handle a variety of material from the sassy swing of Dark Angel (“I’m a dark angel, dark angel/ Observing which girl is too accommodating towards love”) to the lovely ballad Critical Juncture (“The critical juncture when love comes/See a sunny day I haven’t seen in a while”).
There is even an English track, Metal Girl, which she co-wrote. It is a jazzy number about toughening up in the face of heartbreak: “Like I said, when you’ve been through it, then you’re a metal girl/Lift your pride, girl wipe your eyes, girl let it shine.” Ai is definitely one to watch, Adele comparison or no.
Taiwan’s Rachel Liang, another star from the singing competition reality show circuit, is onto her fourth album.
I could not recognise who it was on Yellow Jacket’s cover when I first saw it – and that is a good thing. She was in danger of becoming too predictable with sweet vacant poses paired with records dominated by love ballads. The new disc sees her taking on upbeat numbers and she has had a styling makeover as well.
The title track is a cheery song about a cherished piece of clothing: “If god lets me bring just one item to a desert island/And I have 15 seconds to decide/I think I only have this quality product I can’t bear to leave behind.”
There are still ballads here, of course, and the standout is songwriter-producer Adia’s What Is Love with its slow-burn chorus: “I miss you, I miss you/Unable to break away/I love you, I love you/Unable to hold back.”
Yellow Jacket’s direction is a good fit for her.
(ST)