The Impressoul 01
Wu Jiahui, Cheryl Lee
Wu Jiahui is a sensitive singer- songwriter; Cheryl Lee is an all-round entertainer who dabbles in radio, theatre, film and television.
Together, the two Malaysians make beautiful music. All of the music is composed by Wu while Lee is responsible for the lyrics, save for bonus track How To Love. The instrumentation is simple and unfussy, keeping the focus on the emotive voices and engaging songs.
Lee sings lightly of denial on Don’t Wish To Listen: “Just don’t wish to listen, close my eyes tightly/Throttle this secret with my own hands/Just won’t admit, I’m as fragile as glass.”
On Tangled, Wu trods on emotional ground: “Each and every move of my heart, memory is looking/The wind blows, the grass rustles, take the chance to pounce on me, knowing I’m weak.”
They duet on ballad Don’t Say You Don’t Know and the more upbeat Breaking Up Is Reasonable. Lee croons on the latter: “I want you to find someone who loves you more/To look after the soul of tomorrow’s tomorrow’s tomorrow’s you.”
A soothingly soulful collaboration.
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Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon
The story: In this prequel to Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (2010), Mark Chao takes over from Andy Lau in the role of Tang Dynasty investigator Dee Renjie. Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) tasks the Supreme Court’s Yuchi (Feng Shaofeng) to find out the truth behind the decimation of the naval fleet, supposedly by the Sea Dragon. And what exactly is courtesan Yin’s (Angelababy) connection to yet another sea creature and how is that related to the attack at sea? Dee, newly arrived in the capital, gets involved in the complicated case with some help from young doctor Shatuo (Lin Gengxin).

The creative team of the earlier hit, director Tsui Hark and writer Chen Kuo-fu, reunite for this second film. And clearly, they believe in the mantra that bigger is better.
As you might surmise from the summary earlier, there is a lot going on here. Subsequently, the movie almost gets crushed under the weight of the story.
From the half-man, half-sea creature fixated with Yin, Dee gets a clue that points to a teahouse. The trail leads to a specific tea supplied to the royal court and a nefarious plot to topple the Tang Dynasty.
There are more plot twists and turns to navigate before the moviegoer gets to a tense face-off.
Hanging precariously onto ropes on a cliff-face over a yawning chasm, Dee and company have to fend off a highly skilled masked assailant – and yet this is not quite the finale.
With so many loose ends to tie up though, the movie begins to suggest to the audience that it simply will not end.
To be sure, the X-Files-meets-Sherlock Holmes vibe in a period China setting remains entertaining, and China actor Chen Kun is a hammy hoot playing a mad scientist-physician who has an ape’s limb for one of his hands.
But there seem to be more cracks in the prequel. The patently fake-looking CGI takes one out of the story while Dee’s ability to not just read lips but also do so from a distance, seems a tad too convenient.
While Andy Lau turned in a relaxed performance in his outing as the observant detective in the first movie, rising Taiwanese star Mark Chao’s performance is a bit too smug in parts. You even start to sympathise with Yuchi for getting frustrated for being thwarted and outsmarted all the time.
Compared to the first movie, the women get short shrift here. Carina Lau, although reliably imposing as the empress, sees her role become smaller this time around. Angelababy is largely required to look good while flailing about in flowy robes.
There is still life in the Detective Dee franchise but the next instalment will have to do a better job in order to rise to the high expectations created by the first film.
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A sex scene between a private detective and a neglected wife opens HBO Asia’s first original drama series, Serangoon Road.
For those hoping for another serving of the abundant sex and nude scenes featured in many HBO series, including Sex And The City (1998-2004), True Blood (2008-present) and Game Of Thrones (2011-present), there is good news and bad news. It is clear that the raunchy quotient has been toned down for this HBO Asia production. On the other hand, the sultry Singapore climate means that the hunky male lead – Australian actor Don Hany – is often shirtless when he is at home.
The sex factor aside, HBO is also the marquee name for quality, ground-breaking dramas. So naturally, expectations are high for HBO Asia’s first foray into an original series. And it is one set in Singapore, no less.
Early signs are good.
The 10-parter is set in 1960s Singapore and follows the investigations of a private detective agency owned by Patricia Cheng (Joan Chen), who is searching for answers to her husband’s murder.
She ropes in as investigator former Australian soldier Sam Callaghan (Hany), who is having an affair with a lonely expatriate wife, Mrs Claire Simpson (Maeve Dermody).
The multiracial cast also includes home-grown actors, from Los Angeles-based Chin Han as Kay Song, an ambitious secret society figure, to Alaric Tay as Callaghan’s sidekick to Pamelyn Chee as a forward-thinking young woman who works at the agency.
Among the things a pilot episode has to do is give viewers an idea of who’s who, what’s where and, at the same time, tell a gripping, self-contained story that will make viewers want to follow the series.
In trying to juggle too many balls, Serangoon Road’s opening salvo comes up a little short. It manages to introduce a good number of characters and also establishes a sense of time and place, but the initial story itself is not very strong.
An American soldier is killed and Callaghan is roped in to investigate. Things fall into place and people open up to him a little too easily. There is not much momentum or suspense.
At least the crime is cleverly set in Bugis, a colourful and rough-edged area where transvestites, sailors and crooks mingled back in the day. It is a good way of showcasing the handsome, expansive set on Batam and the top-notch production values for this period drama, whose budget HBO Asia declined to reveal.
Also, the makers of the series – directors Peter Andrikidis (for episodes one to five) and Tony Tilse (episodes six to 10) and head scriptwriter Michaelay O’Brien – cannot be accused of gratuitously exoticising an Asian setting, given the real-life Bugis’ seedy reputation then.
In the same vein, the choice of a white protagonist for a series set in 1960s Singapore could set off alarm bells in some viewers at first. Is this going to be some exoticised version of the East seen through Western eyes?
While Callaghan does seem to be the hero about town, particularly in episode one, his character is also one that makes sense in a historical context. Poised between a recent colonial past and an imminent, unsought-for independence, there were different worlds jostling alongside one another in Singapore in 1964. A white man at that time could conceivably have access to many of these worlds, from high-society soirees to smoky gambling dens.
And kudos to Hany for speaking reasonably intelligible Mandarin, as opposed to, say, the offensive gibberish that Bradley Cooper spouted in the final scene of the sci-fi flick Limitless (2011).
Indeed, in this polygot melting pot, only Chee’s accent juts out for being too posh and polished. Maybe there is some reason for it, but at the moment, it is mostly distracting.
As for the rest of the cast, Chen is sympathetic as a widow searching for the truth. (I am curious, though: What is it exactly that she does as head of the agency?) Chin Han gets to exude some menace and you can certainly count on Kay Song to feature more prominently as the series progresses.
Episode two – featuring veterans of the local small screen and stage Xiang Yun and Tan Kheng Hua – picks up with a stronger story about the case of a missing husband.
It is great to see home-grown talent flexing their acting chops on this platform and the thought of more of them gracing the show is encouraging.
Meanwhile, the central mystery of Cheng’s dead husband beckons and the hope is that it does not unspool too predictably.
For now, Serangoon Road is a promising ride which hints tantalisingly at the twists and turns ahead.
(ST)

Silly Tango
Hu Xia
Boyish-looking, bespectacled China singer Hu Xia is best known for the touching theme song, Those Bygone Years, from the Taiwanese hit youth drama You Are The Apple Of My Eye (2011). On this disc, he must be hoping that lightning will strike twice with Change It Over, which, at some points, threatens to segue into that earlier hit.
At least the opening track, Static Electricity, and the title number, Silly Tango, head off in less expected directions. Castanets and accordion give Silly Tango an unusual musical flavour as Hu tangos with his emotions.
The album is generally heavy on ballads, which suits his clear and expressive voice.
Among them, Could We Make It leaves a deeper impression with Lin Xi’s wry lyrics: “We might not get caught in the rain in the future/Because we need to take care of our health.”
My Smiles Belong To You is another standout. Singer-songwriter Sandee Chan penned the lyrics and co-wrote the music: “You left a space for me to secretly listen to your heart/You’ve kept watch over a silence, waiting for him to say he loves you.”
Rather than following in past footsteps, original poignant ballads are the way to go if Hu wants to waltz with success.
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We're A Nice Normal Family
Luc Besson
Director Luc Besson’s stab at black comedy is neither dark enough nor funny enough. Maybe it is a case of a different cultural sensibility of humour that does not quite translate from French to English for the director of The Fifth Element (1997).
Giovanni Maznoni (Robert De Niro) is a mobster who snitched and is now living in France under the witness protection programme with his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron of TV’s Glee) and son Warren (John D’Leo). Their minder is exasperated FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).
It turns out that dad is not the only one with violent tendencies: There is some fun in watching how each member of the family unleashes an explosive side when cornered, angered or just mildly provoked.
But instead of stretching this out for more laughs, the movie gets distracted with, among other things, a cute mathematics tutor for Belle, while Giovanni goes in search of the culprit behind the town’s brown tap water.
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American Dreams In China
Peter Chan
The story: Cheng Dongqing (Huang Xiaoming), Meng Xiaojun (Deng Chao) and Wang Yang (Tong Dawei) meet at university and become firm friends. Years later, Cheng and Wang set up an English language school and Meng joins them after a stint abroad in the United States. But running a business together eventually threatens to tear their friendship apart. It takes a legal suit from an American testing service to reunite the trio.

As far as portraits of the China Dream go, director Peter Chan’s take is far more realistic and engaging than the recent flight of fancy that was Tiny Times.
Interestingly, both were hits in China. Dreams took in 535 million yuan (S$110 million) at the box office while Times chalked up 483 million yuan.
As the title here makes clear, the China Dream is very much about America.
The film opens with the different experiences of the three friends in their attempts to get a visa to the United States, providing quick sketches of the three main characters. Meng Xiaojun is confident and smooth; Wang Yang is impulsive; and Cheng Dongqing is something of a straight arrow.
The suave-looking and hunky Huang Xiaoming (The Last Tycoon, 2012) plays against type as the country bumpkin loser, Cheng. He is hidden under a dorky haircut and ugly spectacles and manages to come across as a bumbling young man with a lack of self-confidence.
For his persuasive transformation, Huang was nominated for a Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor at China’s equivalent of the Oscars. Dreams’ five other nominations include nods for Best Film and Best Director.
Huang is well-matched by Deng Chao (Mural, 2011), whose arrogant and proud Meng ends up eating humble pie in America, and by Tong Dawei (Lost In Beijing, 2007), the ladies’ man who ends up as the mediator of the group.
The chemistry the three leads have with one another make you care for their characters.
In a pivotal scene at Wang’s wedding, the tipsy groom advises everyone to never start a business with one’s best friends. Resentments and slights, real or imagined, accumulated over the years, spill out in an emotional confrontation.
As in Comrades, Almost A Love Story (1996), Chan here grounds the film in reality with a few well-placed period details and choice use of music. They range from the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opening in China to a choice soundtrack mixing Mandopop hits such as Su Rei’s The Same Moonlight with American classics such as Peter, Paul & Mary’s Leaving On A Jet Plane.
He also works in the larger themes of the souring of the American Dream and the current rise of China, though some of that play out with a jingoistic edge that seems calculated for a mainland audience. Hence, its appeal in Singapore may be limited.
Where the movie is more moving is in its story of a friendship tested by the realities of commerce and how youthful idealism is eventually tempered.
As one character remarks poignantly: “We wanted to change the world, but ended up being changed by it.”
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Prisoners
Denis Villeneuve
The story: Six-year-old Anna and seven-year-old Joy are abducted on Thanksgiving. Suspicion falls on Alex Jones (Paul Dano). Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) races against time as he tries to track down the girls. And Anna’s father Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) will do anything to get her back.

This could easily have been a run-of-the-mill, crime-of-the-week telemovie-type affair. But in the hands of French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners is a gripping thriller that does not let up until the final frame.
He is best known for the searing French-Arabic Incendies, in which a pair of siblings travel to the Middle East and end up uncovering shocking family secrets. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2011.
Prisoners shows that his knack for compelling storytelling has survived the transition to his English-language debut.
Working with a screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband, 2012), the director keeps you hooked in various ways.
A desperate Keller captures Alex in the belief that he knows where the girls are and proceeds to tighten the screws on him. But with an IQ of a 10-year-old, can Alex really be the culprit? Is he capable of being that diabolical? Surely what Keller is doing is wrong but what if it actually leads to information that can save the two girls?
Villeneuve keeps you guessing whom the movie is going to vindicate or vilify.
All this while, the clock is ticking because with each passing hour and each nerve-racking day, the chances of the girls being found alive diminish.
Villeneuve’s assured direction can be seen in his careful pacing over the 21/2 hours as well as his confidence in going for the quiet moments, culminating in an ending which provides a resolution without spelling everything out over a blasting soundtrack.
The cast is top-notch as well.
Hugh Jackman’s intense grief and explosive anger make Keller a man you absolutely do not want to cross, while Jake Gyllenhaal humanises the dogged Loki with his habit of blinking furiously when he gets frustrated.
Clashing over the case, the two have a tense showdown in a car in a scene that threatens to boil over at any second.
The rest of the cast include feted actors Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, 2005) and Viola Davis (The Help, 2011) as Joy’s parents and Melissa Leo (Frozen River, 2008) as Alex’s aunt. Mario Bello (A History Of Violence, 2005) is Keller’s devastated wife.
Clearly, all these actors signed up, even for supporting roles, because they knew a good thing when they saw one.
No doubt about it, Prisoners will hold you captive as well.
(ST)

Renovate
Soft Lipa
The album cover promises that this contains Taiwanese rapper Soft Lipa’s naked confessions. It is about the best and worst of him and it holds nothing back. It is a bold claim, but then again, there has never been anything timid about his music. In previous outings, he had bridged hip-hop with jazz (Moonlight, 2010) as well as hip-hop with folk (Have A Holiday, 2012) with various collaborators.
This time, it is Soft Lipa front and centre over a sprawling two-disc set. On the first disc alone, the subjects tackled run the gamut from the fecal to the carnal. The provocatively titled King Of S*** goes: “Longest bout of diarrhoea, best way of wiping the a**/Finally reached this stage, all hail the king”.
And on Ahhh Yeah, he delves into desire and seduction: “With you, I want to/Ahh Yeah Ahh Yeah/ Emanating, and grasping, just the right amount of humour/For just the right reward”.
On the album closer Shi Poem, he raps: “You should be 38, if I could change anything, you would be rich/Are you still on meds? Returned to the middle path or sneered at for being crazy?/What about your parents? Have they signed the divorce papers?/Have you remembered the stories of them and them?”
It feels deeply personal and confessional at the same time. As promised, no holds barred.
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The Bling Ring
Sofia Coppola
The story: The Bling Ring was the catchy name coined for a group of seven teenagers and young adults who burgled the homes of celebrities such as Paris Hilton. In the film, it starts with new student Marc Hall (Israel Broussard) falling under the spell of Rebecca Ahn (Katie Chang). From unlocked cars to his friend’s unoccupied house, they move on to target celebrities’ pads. Their friends Chloe (Claire Julien), Nicki (Emma Watson) and her adopted sister Sam (Taissa Farmiga) get drawn in as well. Based on the Vanity Fair magazine article The Suspects Wore Louboutins by Nancy Jo Sales.

In one scene, singer M.I.A.’s Bad Girls is blasting over the car stereo and the characters are belting out along: “Live fast, die young/Bad girls do it well”. It might as well as be their personal motto.
Maybe not the “die young” part, but certainly with the living fast. Rebecca and her ilk are creations of the celebrity-obsessed culture. They pore over magazines and gossip websites and draw sustenance on the neverending stream of images of the rich and the fabulous.
Add to that a sense of self-entitlement and the result is a combustible mix. They want to live like the rich and fabulous without actually doing any of the work to get there. Hey, if Paris Hilton can do it, why not them?
And so they treat the homes of the stars as their personal shopping malls, rifling through walk-in closets and raiding jewellery boxes with abandon.
Hilton, who was a real-life victim of the gang, lent her home to writer-director Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation, 2003) to film in for that extra touch of authenticity.
Coppola also draws compelling performances from newcomers Katie Chang and Israel Broussard. You can understand why Marc falls under her spell and her strength of will. She has him completely under her thumb and she gets him to suss out where the stars live, a handy Google search away.
There is hardly any sense of wrongdoing on their part and Marc’s half-hearted protests are brusquely brushed aside by Rebecca. Besides, their friends are envious of their exploits and eventually tag along.
You also get an intimate sense of their world in the film.
The dialogue is as vacuous as the characters and peppered with “cool” and “sick” and other slick adjectives that reduce everything, and everyone, to snap judgments.
Adult supervision is largely missing or it is ineffectual, as in the case of Nicki’s mother (Leslie Mann) with her New Age-y beliefs.
For all its throbbing energy, the film sags a little in the middle. The break-ins get a little repetitive as the gang go after the lodgings of stars such as Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan.
Eventually, they get their comeuppance.
Rebecca tries to play innocent, Marc is remorseful and Nicki parlays her notoriety into five minutes of fame. Emma Watson was more effective in the teen drama The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012) than here, where her performance almost borders on parody.
The shift in focus from Rebecca and Marc to Nicki feels a little jarring. But it also makes sense since things come full circle with her story arc. Even if her claim to fame is dubious, Nicki is now a bona fide celebrity in her own right.
(ST)

The English Teacher
Craig Fisk
The story: Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore) is a high school English teacher in a small town. When a former student Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano) comes back with an unproduced play, she decides to rope in frustrated drama teacher Carl Kapinas (Nathan Lane) to put it on. And this puts her on a collision course with Jason’s father (Greg Kinnear).

At its core, The English Teacher is a character study.
Linda Sinclair is someone who has come to accept her place in life. She might never meet the right man – her dates constantly fail to make the grade - but at least she is shaping lives with her classes.
And when the opportunity comes to help a former student whom she believes is talented, she charges to the fore. She even tangles with the father, who seems more keen to have his son pursue law studies.
She has good intentions but things start to snowball and spin out of control, both with the play and her own personal life.
It is a role that can go quite dark but Craig Fisk, making his film directorial debut here, goes for more of a comic tone.
And accordingly, Julianne Moore, who has played characters in emotional pain in such films as The Hours (2002) and Far From Heaven (2002), turns in a performance here that is sunnier than usual.
But the film might have been more interesting if Zisk had pushed it more. As it is, it feels rather lightweight and the ending too neat and tidy.
Remember that one student in class who always raised his or her hands and wanted to impress the teacher? The English Teacher is, in some respects, that eager beaver who tries a little too hard.
Take the voiceover, which gives the film something of a literary air. Fair enough, given the protagonist is an English teacher and the fact that it revolves around a play. But then the voiceover becomes a strained gimmick at the film’s end as the narrator finds the story getting away from her.
There is also a little inside joke about Carl Kapinas’ failed audition for musical titan Stephen Sondheim.
It might raise a smile if you know that Nathan Lane has, in fact, worked with the man in shows such as A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Otherwise, it is merely an anecdote that is not particularly funny.
A teacher might comment of this film: Needs more work.
(ST)

The Key
Eason Chan

½ Century Tour
Jacky Cheung

You never quite know what you are going to get with Hong Kong singer Eason Chan and that is part of the fun.
On his last Cantonese release ...3mm (2012), he went for electro-pop and took swipes at consumerist culture.
The material on his new album is more varied, starting with the musical drama of The Main Theme. It starts out almost like a gothic ballad and then takes unexpected turns along the way, morphing into an electric rock number: “Now, you have your pace, I have mine/We meet again, pity the time isn’t right.”
On the lovely ballad The Wanderer, he sings about going your own way: “The urchin grows up, don’t ask any more, just let me go/Why does one end up following the crowd/Men are like sheep.”
When it comes to music, or outrageous fashion choices, or chastising inconsiderate fans, you can always count on Chan to be himself and not hold anything back.
The album comes with a bonus CD single which holds the duet of two gods of song – Chan and Jacky Cheung.
The single is far sunnier than the songs on the album, as the two sing a motivational ballad about the people of Hong Kong being in the same boat: “There’s still a road for us ahead/There’s still life shimmering, soaring over the city and ports.”
Their voices blend together nicely and soar in the chorus.
The single is also bundled together with Cheung’s live concert album. To mark his 50th birthday, he embarked on an ambitious world tour which comprised 146 concerts in 77 cities from 2010 to last year.
This recording is of the final leg held in Hong Kong last May and it feels like the complete audio track of the gig. Musical interludes and banter are all included; the only thing missing is the visual component.
In this case, the DVD or Blu-ray would serve up the total package.
The meat though is the songs themselves. Fans will have a feast as he covers plenty of ground. From Cantonese classics such as Only Want To Be With You to a rock version of Mandarin monster hit Farewell Kiss to dipping into his jazz album Private Corner (2010), there is something for everyone.
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Cold Eyes
Cho Ui Seok and Kim Byung Seo
The story: Ha Yoon Ju (Han Hyo Joo) has a phenomenal memory and that comes in useful in her job. The rookie member of a police surveillance unit works under the gruff but brilliant chief detective Hwang (Seol Kyung Gu) and alongside fellow cop Squirrel (Lee Jun Ho). Their target is the elusive and ruthlessly efficient ringleader James (Jung Woo Sung). A remake of the thriller Eye In The Sky (2007), which won Best New Director and Best New Artist at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cold Eyes is a remake and not just a warm-over of Eye In The Sky.
Writer-director Cho Ui Seok and co-director Kim Byung Seo leave their stamp on the award- winning Hong Kong film’s basic premise of a surveillance team on the trail of a master criminal.
The shift in location from Hong Kong to the bustling metropolis of Seoul already gives the film a different tone and character.
The directors here have a good grip on pacing and the opening sequence has Ha apparently tailing Hwang while James crosses paths with them. Except at this point, the audience is not quite sure who is whom and the ambiguity adds to the tension. Credit where credit is due and it should be noted that this hews quite closely to the original directed by Yau Nai Hoi.
As if tipping the hat to Eye In The Sky, Simon Yam, one of the Hong Kong film’s stars, pops up in a cameo at the end.
Notably, the Korean cast does not merely recreate the key roles of, for example, the experienced cop played by Yam and the villain played by Tony Leung Ka Fai. Yam had packed on the pounds for his turn while Seol (Public Enemy, 2002) skips the physical transformation and still manages to make the role distinctly his.
Jung Woo Sung brings a certain cool factor to his turn as the meticulous and vicious James and Han gets you to root for her as the tenacious rookie facing her first big case. She has to learn the code of conduct with regard to surveillance and, naturally, she is put in situations which test her ability to strictly follow orders and keep to the mission’s goal.
The interplay between the characters is also deftly sketched out from the teacher-student dynamic between Hwang and Ha to a nail-biting encounter between James and Ha late in the film.
Cold Eyes has been a deserved hit in South Korea with more than 5.5 million admissions. And that means that one can keep an eye out for a follow-up.
(ST)

We're The Millers
Rawson Marshall Thurber
A drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis), a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway homeless girl (Emma Roberts) and a dorky guy Kenny (Will Poulter) pretend to be a family in order to smuggle some drugs from Mexico into the United States.
The premise is a strained one and so the movie has to spend quite a bit of time justifying why these four come together as the Millers.
The idea is that a family would invite less scrutiny, but not when they are so clearly playing at being a whiter-than-white-bread Brady Bunch.
Director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, 2004) wants it both ways.
He throws in aren’t-we-daring naughtiness when the virginal Kenny gets kissing lessons from his “sister” and “mother”.
Aniston also does a bump-and-grind routine in bra and panties, which actually had me feeling a twinge of pity for the star of the sitcom Friends (1994–2004).
At the same time, Thurber lays it on thick with lessons about family that are meant to give you that warm and fuzzy feeling.
Instead, the resulting mix might have you feeling slightly queasy.
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There has been a resurgence of interest in the home-grown music movement that is xinyao with the recent release of the film, That Girl In Pinafore.
And on Saturday night, a full-house crowd of 5,000 fans settled in for a 41/2-hour Xinyao Reunion Concert at The Star Theatre.
More than 20 acts took to the stage, from well- known names such as Mavis Hee and Roy Loi to long-defunct groups such as Control Tower.
Taiwanese singer Chyi Yu was a special guest and the commanding singer delivered evergreens including Olive Tree and the English track, Whoever Finds This, I Love You.
Xinyao’s leading light Liang Wern Fook was the final act. He gave a winning update of Too Much, Too Much, with lyrics reflecting current concerns over issues such as overcrowding and the haze.
And there was also a poignant reunion with the other two original singers, Liu Ruizheng and Wang Bangji, for the classic track Friendship Forever.
The concert ended past midnight as all the performers came on stage for We Are The Best Friends and Under Starry Skies.
(ST)