BEST
Wei Bird 2017 Concert
Resorts World Theatre, Oct 28
Given that shows are now planned down to the last note, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Wei Li-an’s 20-minute encore was a lovely surprise. He emerged with a guitar and proceeded to take requests before ending the night with the delicate beauty of Cloudy Sunflower.
The rest of the show was not too shabby either. Live, he was an affable presence whose pipes shone whether he was rocking out on Wolves or soaring in his falsetto range on early track Translation Exercise. He seemed comfortable enough on stage that one would not guess that he is, in his own words, an introvert.

Eason Chan Says C’mon In~ Tour In Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Dec 3
Usually, when an album is released, only a few numbers from it would be plugged and performed in concerts. Hong Kong singer Eason Chan tried something different with the C’Mon In~ tour, which is also the title of his latest Mandarin record. He performed all 10 tracks, giving each its moment to breathe on stage.
It worked, thanks to his reliably fine vocals and the strength of the material, which ranged from the retro dance of Hai Dan (Sigh) to the poignant balladry of Shei Lai Jian Yue Guang (Miss).

MICappella You And I Live In Concert 2017
Capitol Theatre, Nov 4
The a cappella sextet started out doing covers and have since gone on to put out an entire album of original material with last year’s MICappella Reloaded.
They were at their best here in the high-octane original numbers One Of These Days and Never Be Defeated, in which all the elements – from the vocal percussion to the harmonisation – formed a satisfying whole. In their biggest solo show to date on home ground, they conveyed the joy and excitement of coming together to make music.

WORST
Least enjoyable aspect of concerts: queues
Long snaking queues to get into gig venues are now par for the course. But people are stoic about the fact that this is the new normal, with enhanced security checks a necessity in a time of terror threats.
Maybe we should take heed of what Bono from Irish rock band U2 said in Paris. The band were rehearsing in the city during the deadly attacks in November 2015 at a rock concert by Eagles Of Death Metal that took 89 lives inside Paris’ Bataclan venue. Bono said: “Be vigilant, but be unafraid.”
(ST)

BEST ASIAN ALBUMS OF 2017
The Silent Star Stone
Guo Ding
The Hunan-born singer-songwriter deservedly broke out with his third album.
He has a mesmerising voice with a slight drawl that hints at both intimacy and attitude, one that is magnetic at the lower end of the register and equally persuasive on the higher reaches.
From Qi Mei Di (The Fog Space) to Shui Xing Ji (Mercury Records), this is lush and imaginative pop, propelled by a pulsing beat and urgency of feeling.
He might have missed out at the Golden Melody Awards despite six nominations, but the greater exposure he has received as a result makes it a win for him.

The Servile
No Party For Cao Dong
Da Feng Chui (Simon Says), which won Song of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards, is a scathing criticism of society’s obsession with material goods and the need for one-upmanship.
Frontman Wu Tu sings without heat and then tears into the chorus at the end: “Cry, shout, ask your mother to buy a toy/Hurry to school and show off, child, make some friends.”
The Servile is the sound of Taiwan’s disenfranchised youth venting their frustrations and it has struck a chord in their homeland. But its searing honesty and seamless musicality would resonate with anyone.

Artists’ Mood
Leo Wang
The Taiwanese musician’s mission, as laid out on his Facebook page, is “trying to combine jazz, hip-hop, reggae and scat singing with Mandarin Chinese in a groovy way, and making his people dance”.
He achieves that on his fourth so-called mixtape, a fun and irreverent grab bag of genres and influences.
Jam All Night is about the pure pleasure of making music: “I think everything will be all right/As long as we can jam all night/Use your hands to drum, use your feet to drum/Use your mouth to drum, use your body to drum.”
The joy is infectious.

WORST
Appreciation
Alan Tam
Props to Cantopop legend Alan Tam, 67, for continuing to put out new work but, unfortunately, this disc of Mandopop duets is a misfire.
Despite rounding up collaborators such as Kit Chan, Eason Chan and Mayday, the pairings do not work. While it is true that Tam’s diction has improved compared with when he started singing in Mandarin, his Cantonese accent remains discernible.
Simplicity Is Happiness packs a double whammy of accented Mandarin with the addition of Andy Lau, another singer who is better in his native Cantonese.
(ST)

BEST MOVIES OF 2017
Call Me By Your Name
Luca Guadagnino
American writer Andre Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same name is a thing of beauty, an account of a love affair between 17-year-old Elio and visiting 24-year-old scholar Oliver in a small town in Italy in the 1980s.
Against an idyllic backdrop of rural Italian gorgeousness, director Luca Guadagnino conveys the headiness of first love and sexual awakening. Timothee Chalamet slips thoroughly under Elio’s skin and gives a sensitively tuned performance as he swings from heady rapture to being lacerated by doubt. Armie Hammer is also well-cast as the athletic American academic who wants to do right by Elio.
Adaptations are tricky things, more so if the original is beloved, but this movie is its own kind of wonderful. After two sold-out screenings and winning the Audience Choice Award at the Singapore International Film Festival, the drama is slated for a run at The Projector from Jan 4.

Midnight Runners
Jason Kim Joo Hwan
A thoroughly entertaining and satisfying South Korean buddy action flick, thanks to the chemistry between the two charming and likeable lead actors, Park Seo Jun and Kang Ha Neul.
They play a pair of police academy trainees who witness the abduction of a young woman and decide to follow up on their own time, even at the risk of getting expelled.
Writer-director Jason Kim Joo Hwan deftly mixes comedy, action, crime and morality drama. Hopefully, there is a sequel.

Mad World
Wong Chun
Young Hong Kong film-maker Wong Chun’s debut feature is a compassionate look at the often-ignored topic of mental illness. The 28-year-old depicts the maladies of intolerance and fear, but does not pretend there are easy remedies.
The drama is also grounded by fine performances from Shawn Yue, as a bipolar disorder sufferer trying to navigate his way in society, and Eric Tsang, as a father who is faced with difficult questions about how to best care for his mentally ill son.
Kudos to the Singapore Chinese Film Festival for screening it in its original Cantonese.

WORST
Love Contractually
Liu Guonan
Yet another dire and dour movie which purports to be a romantic comedy.
Sammi Cheng’s nitpicking executive-type taskmaster is a cold and cheerless creation that is hard to warm up to and there is no chemistry between the Hong Kong star and Taiwan’s Joseph Chang. He is a paratrooper-turned-courier who ends up as her assistant, only to realise later that he was picked to be her sperm donor.
When a movie shifts its location to scenic Paris for no good reason, that is a sign that the film-makers are clutching at straws.
(ST)

The Mayday 2017 Life Tour takes its name from a track titled Life Co Ltd on the Taiwanese band's last album History Of Tomorrow (2016).
It also serves as an inspiration for the humorous and action-packed videos interspersed throughout the concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday (Dec 15). The concept is that the quintet - frontman Ashin, guitarists Monster and Stone, bassist Masa, drummer Guan You - are out-of-work superheroes recruited to work in a company to fight evil once more.
The slick-looking clips were in keeping with the high production values of the gig, from the programmed light sticks given to every ticket holder to the versatile stage, parts of which could ascend and descend. The band performed The Dark Knight on a raised platform and it looked as though they were atop an apartment building with the rest of the city spread out behind them. It definitely made an impact visually.
There was quite a lot going on but it was not quite enough to distract one from the fact that Ashin was not in top form at first.
Perhaps starting with the fast-paced and high-pitched Party Animal was not the best idea and his vocals felt a bit raw. He sounded strained on the high notes and even waded into dubious keys at points.
But just as I was wondering if this would be the first Mayday concert where I did not get up on my feet, the band found a second wave of energy and Ashin's pipes finally warmed up. Following the high-octane Jump and the Minnan number Motor Rock, he asked the fans to help fulfil their dream of holding an outdoor concert in Singapore by lifting the roof with some noise. They duly obliged.
He quipped: "We'll have to see ear doctors when we get back."
Taiwanese band Mayday mark their 20th anniversary in 2017 and over the years, they have built a large and dedicated fanbase.
The band mark their 20th anniversary in 2017 and over the years, they have built a large and dedicated fanbase.
Some of the fans prepared the mini blue banners ("Mayday is.... Monster Stone Masa Ming Ashin & ME!") that were displayed during People Life, Ocean Wild, the rousing title track of their 2001 album. (Guan You is also known as Ming.)
Others prepped the audience to chant "jia ban (overtime)" instead of "encore" at the end of the set, in keeping with the show's theme.
The band kicked things up a notch during the encore with a line-up that included the fast-paced Sad People Should Not Listen To Slow Songs and the ballad Onion, written by Ashin for Taiwanese singer Aska Yang.
The highlight of the concert was 10,000 people - on the first of three sold-out nights - fervently belting out the classic hit Tenderness as lightsticks shone in unison.
The highlight was 10,000 people - on the first of three sold-out nights - fervently belting out the classic hit Tenderness as lightsticks shone in unison.
By the time Mayday ended their three-hour-long gig with the defiant Stubborn, I was ready for more overtime.
(ST)

En
Li Ronghao
Chinese singer-songwriter Li Ronghao has made his name with finely crafted, and performed, mid-tempo tracks about life and love on Model (2013), 2014’s eponymous album and An Ideal (2016).
He shakes things up here on the opening title track by serving a slice of electronica pop with lyrics that sketch a portrait of millennial youth: “Don’t like tattoos of dragons and phoenixes/To bleed for one you love/Perhaps the upper classes won’t get it.”
The misguided attempt to connect with a younger audience is worrying. Luckily, much of the album is still Li doing what he does best – contemplating the vicissitudes of life and relationships at a slower pace.
The poignant Ballad sees him draw strength from ditties that remind him of home: “Ballads from hometown/ Are a good thing to me/They’re the most tenacious side of me/Whenever I feel low, I’d sing them.”
Wish You Happiness is melodic and moving: “Last night, unknowingly, falling leaves fell, a fairy-tale like autumn/That day a girl faced the phone, do you still love me.”
There is also Teenager, a song about taking life by the horns which features a cappella harmonisation: “While you’re still unafraid/Choose a path and set off/Don’t look back/ While you’re still a young man.” Despite the title, this might resonate more strongly with older listeners looking wistfully back on their youth.
(ST)

Eason Says C’mon In~ Tour In Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium/Sunday
No fancy staging, no eye-popping costumes and no sign of his best-known hits.
Instead, Hong Kong singer Eason Chan tried something different with this C’mon In~ gig, which is also the title of his most recent Mandarin album.
He performed all 10 tracks from it and shared anecdotes about them. Usually, only a few numbers from a new record would be plugged and performed, but he gave all of them space to breathe with this format.
It was a conceit that worked, thanks to the fine form of his voice and the strength of the material. It ranged from the beautiful balladry of Shei Lai Jian Yue Guang (Miss) to the lively Hai Dan (Sigh), a retro dance tune that served up sea urchin as a metaphor for how a man lives his life.
And “slow song with a groove” Ling Xia Ji Fen Zhong (Freeze), inspired by the late English singer-songwriter George Michael, painted a picture of wintry New York as smoke swirled on stage.
Dressed in a casual ensemble of jacket, T-shirt and trackpants, Chan was in a relaxed and expansive mood on the final stop of the tour.
With no strict run-down to adhere to, he digressed all over in his chatter (“Let’s talk about gossip. Actually, I’m really out of it.”) and danced when the mood seized him.
Speaking in a mix of Cantonese, Mandarin and English, he recalled the madness that would usually follow when a movable stage descends. Complete with actions and exaggerated expressions, he recreated the rush to change costumes and take a sip of water – sometimes getting a mic poked in his face.
In addition to songs from C’mon In~, he also performed a selection of Cantonese tracks for the sold-out crowd of 5,000.
As he rattled off names of past hits, including King Of Karaoke and Next Year Today, the crowd roared with approval – only to have him declare that these were tracks he would not be singing.
Instead, he dug deep into his back catalogue and came up with numbers such as Superman’s Theme from 1998 as well as a Canto-Mando mash-up of White Rose and Red Rose.
It was not as though he was out to alienate the audience, but this cosy setting – though perhaps, say, the Esplanade Concert Hall would have been more ideal – was a good platform to trot out material that might not have been big hits, but was still important to him.
And what was important to fans was another chance to hear Chan live in concert – regardless of the format.
(ST)

Martial God Cardea
Sandee Chan
Watch out, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Sandee Chan is on the warpath.
But instead of a cacophonous war cry, she has crafted a melancholic, chilled out album which seems to take aim at the impact of technology on our lives in the elliptical lyrics.
In the synth-rock number He’s A Space Debris From The Doomsday Prophecy, Mayday’s Monster and Stone are roped in for guitar duty. Is doomsday linked to the ubiquity of the online realm (“Anime, chasing serials, cheap flights and then search/For a long vacation”)? The repetition of the phrase “keep floating” in English suggests a kind of alienating bubble or cocoon which that world creates.
There is both pessimism and optimism as she vacillates between helplessness in There’s Nothing I Can Do About It and a guarded hopefulness in That’s Not The Only Thing I Can Do.
The title track imagines that Cardea is someone’s online handle, which is appropriate, given that Cardea is the Roman goddess of the door hinge. Chan grapples with the nature of the Internet beast: “When information civilisation is preserving me through text/An ideal life is a sorrow that loses control the more it stays silent.”
Romance is ephemeral in this brave new world. In the track Three Days And Two Nights, she writes: “I just wanted to like you at that time in that way/So I liked you at that time in that way.”
After all, being alone is not necessarily a bad thing, as depicted on the opening track Solitude.
With a line in Japanese, “Densha de iku (Going by train)”, one could imagine her on the Tokyo subway, wrapped up in her own world: “I’m not a prime number, don’t beautify the pain, reading a book, traversing imaginary lands.”
It can be a challenging journey, but one is happy to tag along for the ride.
(ST)

Fireworks, Should We See It From The Side Or The Bottom?
Akiyuki Shinbo

The story: Norimichi (Masaki Suda) and Yusuke (Mamoru Miyano) have a crush on their junior high school classmate Nazuna (Suzu Hirose). On the day of the summer festival, Nazuna asks Yusuke to go with her to watch the fireworks after she wins a swimming race among the three of them and gets to have her way. Norimichi later finds out the reason for her actions and wishes that he had won the race instead. In frustration, he throws a mysterious ball picked up by Nazuna from the sea – and finds himself back at the moment of the swim.

While it is based on the 1993 live-action movie of the same name, the timing of this adaptation might have something to do with the runaway success of the anime Your Name (2016), a youthful romance fantasy which had body-swopping and time-travel.
And unfortunately for Fireworks, that makes its time-travelling conceit feel a little tired. The animation also seemed more lush in Your Name, though director Akiyuki Shinbo, best known for the magical girls fantasy series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), comes up with some beautiful shots of colourful fireworks going off at close range.
There are other things to like about the film as well.
The setting is a seaside town and the depiction of giant wind turbines, rocky promontories and students on bicycles tearing down the steep roads anchors the film with a strong sense of place. Perhaps as a clue, the name of the town is Moshimo, a homonym for “if” in Japanese.
The nuances of teenage male friendships and loyalties are sensitively handled: What do you do when you and your bestie both like the same girl?
The awkward silences and denials of Norimichi and Yusuke about this huge thing between them are entirely believable.
In fact, this feels more interesting than the actual romantic coupling as Nazuna remains somewhat opaque beyond being an unhappy figure of desire.
Meanwhile, the title is linked to a discussion Norimichi’s friends have about fireworks – are they round or are they flat? It is a question upon which everything and nothing hinges.
(ST)

The Golden Monk
Wong Jing, Billy Chung

The story: In a time of demons and exorcists in Hangzhou, Butong (Zheng Kai) is a monk with supernatural powers – and a head of hair so tough that he cannot receive a tonsure. He crosses paths with Jade (Kitty Zhang), an exorcist who retains memories of her past life as a fairy banished from heaven after breaking a rule by falling in love with another fairy, Golden Child (Zheng). However, she is unable to see that Butong is Golden Child’s current incarnation.

After a surprisingly worthy outing with the crime epic Chasing The Dragon (2017), Hong Kong film-maker Wong Jing is back to his sloppy ways.
He co-directs with Billy Chung (The Man From Macau, 2014) The Golden Monk, a nonsensical fantasy that is only briefly, intermittently amusing, and inexplicably turns out to be the origin story of another well-known character of whom numerous television series and movies have been made.
If more jokes hit their mark, one would not have time to wonder why heaven here is a vaguely Greek-looking construct. Neither do the nonsensical moments tickle the funny bone. Instead, Butong jarringly breaks into a rendition of Andy Lau’s Water Of Forgetfulness, and Taiwanese actress Evonne Hsieh, who made her debut in the contemporary drama Tiny Times (2013), cringingly parades about as a mustachioed male buffoon.
The central love story is not persuasive and the mix of comedy and romance is strained.
The film is also saddled with an unsavoury and unfunny episode of a man who pimps out his wife, as well as a lame side plot of a dragon spirit attempting to seize control of the court by poisoning the emperor. The running time is further stretched with the inclusion of unnecessarily long recap scenes.
It culminates in a clash of the computer-animated titans as an army of golden monks battles with a villainous dragon. But the CGI stakes are not enough for one to feel invested in this showdown.
Perhaps The Golden Monk might have greater appeal in China, where Zheng is best known as a cast member in the Chinese version of the South Korean variety show Running Man.
He proves himself to be a game and affable actor but, next time, he should run away from such slipshod material.
(ST)

Coco
Lee Unkrich

The story: Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) is a 12-year-old Mexican boy dreaming of becoming a musician like his late idol Ernesto de la Cruz. But music is banned in his household because his great-great-grandfather had left his family to pursue those dreams. Then, Miguel unexpectedly finds himself crossing over to the Land of the Dead during the Day of the Dead festival, where he meets charming, troubled trickster Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), comes face to face with Ernesto (Benjamin Bratt) and learns the truth about the skeleton in his family’s closet.

There was another animated movie recently made about the Day of the Dead, The Book Of Life (2014). Coming in second for a similarly themed project is usually not ideal given that audiences might not have the appetite for more than one such film. Then again, Pixar does have a strong track record in animation works in general.
And indeed, they deliver once again with Coco, with director Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3, 2010) at the helm.
The film is a visually gorgeous tapestry of Mexican culture and it fills the screen with the colourful vibrancy of Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) as people honour the memory of the departed with visits to cemeteries and gather for music, food and drink while bright orange marigold blooms carpet the ground.
The loving attention to detail impresses. There is the use of paper cut-outs to effectively convey a brief backstory involving Miguel’s great-great-grandfather and the latter’s daughter, Coco, and the wondrously imagined Land of the Dead, complete with fantastical spirit guides and the depiction of skeletal figures in a way that makes them come alive as characters.
The voice work by the all-Latino cast is spot-on as well, never overshadowing the roles, but instead, fleshing them out and disappearing into them. Gonzalez’s Miguel is realistically torn between following his dreams and listening to his family, Bratt brings a smooth swagger to Ernesto and Garcia Bernal is by turns likeable and pitiful.
It would be all too easy to use Dia de Muertos as a somewhat exotic backdrop but – as far as it is possible for me to tell – there is a ring of authenticity to the proceedings as cultural traditions such as the construction of ofrendas, a collection of objects placed on a ritual altar, are faithfully depicted. Indeed, ofrendas are turned into a key detail in the story, thus weaving them seamlessly into the film.
While The Book Of Life was hampered by an unsatisfactory storyline, Coco is full of heart and it glows with a cosy familial warmth.
(ST)

C’mon In~
Eason Chan
Thank goodness Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s mentoring duties on reality show Sing! China have not kept him from putting out new music.
And if he was stressed with juggling a busy schedule, it does not show on C’mon In~, his latest Mandarin album since 2014’s Rice & Shine.
In keeping with the welcoming title, the opening track Fang (Relax) is an invitation to lounge on the sand: “If the world turned into a beach/Just laze if you want to laze, who cares, ya, how nice.”
It is enough to make one forget about the grey skies and thunderstorms outside the window.
The relaxed vibe carries through to the second and third numbers. Hong Kong’s Jerald Chan (no relation to Eason) and Taiwan’s David Ke are behind the music and lyrics respectively for this breezy trio.
The retro dance of Sigh is a winner, but I prefer the Mandarin title, Hai Dan, which means sea urchin.
The word “dan” is also a homonym for “courage” and Ke’s lyrics paint a picture of a man whose prickly exterior is merely a protective shell: “It’s just that this man, whose thoughts are milder than anyone else’s/Won’t admit, but sigh, living like a sea urchin.”
Just when it seems like C’mon In~ is going to be the Mandarin counterpart of sorts to the all-dance Cantonese disc Listen To Eason Chan (2007), the pace slows down for Shei Lai Jian Yue Guang (Miss), which literally translates to the evocative Who Is Going To Cut The Moonlight.
Chan’s rich pipes have always shone on ballads and Miss is tailor-made for him to do precisely that. He sings tenderly, reminiscing: “Too many memories, how am I supposed to pack them into the luggage.”
Adding to the variety here are dance number You Shang Jiao (Notice), which takes a swipe at social media obsession, and dramatic electro-pop track Fu Ke Bai (Leap), which uses the Foucault pendulum as a metaphor for the inexorable forces of life.
He sings on Miss: “The world is a mess, but what can we do/Lift our heads up occasionally and good thing there’s a moon to admire.”
Good thing there is an Eason Chan album to indulge in every once in a while.
(ST)

A Dancing Van Gogh
Stefanie Sun
When the first single, A Dancing Van Gogh, dropped, I was not quite sure what to make of it. One friend remarked that it was “super offbeat” and that not many Mandopop singers could pull it off. Another thought it was terrible.
It was certainly an unlikely choice to herald the release of a new album by home-grown Mandopop queen Stefanie Sun following 2014’s Kepler and last year’s EP Rainbow Bot.
Neither a conventional ballad nor an out-and-out dance number, A Dancing Van Gogh references the famous Dutch artist and his paintings to a mysterious end. There is a breathy edge to Sun’s familiar pipes in the languorous opening couplet: “Sunflowers, golden like fire/Doing away with being wrapped by sunlight.”
This could be a fever dream as suggested by the enigmatic music video of shifting identities and the bridge in the song: “The Starry Night spins me around/Sorrow and merriment roam all over/I can’t bear to, don’t want to wake up”. It builds to a dramatic chorus, with even a choir chiming in eventually.
What it undoubtedly was was attention-grabbing. The track topped the iTunes chart in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore and the music video has chalked up more than 1.1 million views on YouTube.
It still has not quite grown on me, but it suggests that Sun is open to taking risks in her choice of material, which is something to cheer about for an established star.
The question was whether this signalled a completely new direction for the record as a whole, say, the way Tanya Chua went electronica on Aphasia (2015). Perhaps to the relief of her fans, the answer is no.
After all, she works with several familiar names here. Taiwanese singer-songwriter Hush, who penned the track Kepler, writes the lyrics for The Brighter The Day, The Darker The Night and Everyday Happiness.
Also contributing to the album are her regular collaborators, local songwriting-producing twins Lee Shih Shiong – who composed some of her best-known hits such as Cloudy Day, Green Light and Magical – and Wai Shiong, who, not to be outdone, has composed My Desired Happiness, Kite and Angel’s Fingerprints, among others.
Between them, they wrote the music for half the album, tailored to her distinctive, versatile voice. Their songs include the standout poignant number Wind Jacket (“Flying pages of a calendar/Cut and assembled into a wind jacket”).
Elsewhere, Sun displays an aching vulnerability on the ballad A State Of Bliss, while she gets to rock out in the exploratory Floating Islands and the rollicking Oxygenation Period.
Several of the songs are about the passage of time and of people who come and go. But in the midst of change and upheaval, there is also constancy.
Sun sings in the spare closing ballad Extremely Beautiful, for which she penned the lyrics: “Because no matter how cold the wind blows, the umbrella is by my side/Even if the jacket is old, it’ll still keep the chill at bay”.
While A Dancing Van Gogh is not quite as immediate as some of her previous releases, a new album from a well-loved singer can still be a source of comfort.
(ST)

Unlearn
Ling Kai
Cross Ratio Entertainment

The Greatest Journey
Ruth Kueo
Cros Music

Local female singer-songwriters Ling Kai and Ruth Kueo offer different listening experiences on their latest releases.
Ling Kai’s Unlearn EP is more intriguing. It kicks off with the pop-rock numbers Dumbfounded and Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat, which are propelled by her distinctive power pipes. She takes aim at the obsession with social media in Dumbfounded: “Face the camera, don’t be too frank in your emotions/What’s beneath, just guess.”
The singer turns the dial down on the title track and Eighteen, but keeps things compelling. She croons poignantly about growing pains on the latter ballad: “18/That year I thought the world/Was as old as me/ Growing up/Stabs of pain”.
Kueo’s seven-track album is a breezier affair primarily concerned with matters of the heart.
From the bop-along pop of Let It Go to the ballad Without You, the songs are a good foil for her sweet voice. On the track Fake, she shows a bit of welcome sass: “Can we not be fake/Be a little honest/Laugh if you like/If you don’t/Say out loud what you think.”
Simple Happiness is a melodic guitar-accompanied track which is unfortunately marred by lyrics which seem derivative of the well-loved home-grown number If There’re Seasons (“Come home when it’s cold, don’t linger in the wind/There’s understanding in mother’s eyes/And a glint of helplessness”).
Kueo sings on her ballad: “No matter how strong the wind and rain, remember to come home/Thinking of what mother used to say.”
Unlearning what you know might be a good idea when it comes to penning lyrics.
(ST)

MICappella You And I Live In Concert 2017
Capitol Theatre/Last Saturday

Since their second-place finish in the televised competition The Sing-Off China in 2012, local vocal group MICappella have been honing their craft and growing as a band.
They released their debut album Here We Go in 2013 and followed that up with an ambitious album of original material, MICappella Reloaded, last year.
They have toured as far afield as Europe and Australia and, finally, performed again in Singapore after four years – in their biggest solo show.
Over 21/2 hours, they showed the sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 fans just how far they have come since they formed in 2009.
The sextet were at their strongest on the high-energy original numbers, One Of These Days and Never Be Defeated. They showcased the tightness of MICappella as a music-making unity where everything fit together perfectly, from the vocal percussion to the harmonisation.
The band comprise leader and vocal percussionist Peter Huang, soprano Tay Kexin, alto Calin Wong, tenor Juni Goh, baritone Eugene Yip and bass Goh Mingwei.
It was all too easy to forget sometimes that every note and sound is generated solely by the six of them.
And if there seemed to be quite a reliance on video clips during the evening, it is worth bearing in mind that there were no other musicians or dancers to take over even for a little while to give them a breather.
Huang’s beatboxing solo was a potent, not to mention entertaining, reminder of the musicality of the group’s members as he gave the concertgoers drums, thumping bass and even turntable scratching in the course of his showcase.
Each member had his or her moment to shine and they also took turns at the microphone to share anecdotes, including how they came to cover legendary English band Iron Maiden’s The Trooper.
It was in response to a gauntlet thrown down by some musician friends who asked: “A cappella cannot do heavy metal right?”
The stomper of a cover with an impressive wall of sound certainly proved the doubters wrong.
Even as MICappella stretch themselves by composing their own material, they did not neglect the fans who first got to know them through their covers.
They took on Pharrell Williams’ Happy, Bobby Chen’s One Night In Beijing and, of course, Hu Xia’s Those Bygone Years and Hebe Tien’s A Little Happiness. The music clip for their Hu-Tien mash-up has garnered more than 1.6 million views on YouTube.
The evening had also started with two mega medleys that went through 22 songs in Mandarin, English and even Korean.
However, that felt like packing in too much as it did not give the audience a chance to settle down as the band were constantly switching gears. It was a good thing the pacing became less frenetic once the show got underway.
The final number was a rendition of Mayday’s Minnan dialect ballad Peter & Mary – the first song that MICappella did, back when they had no idea where they were headed.
What came across loud and clear, in that track and throughout the evening, was their joy and excitement in coming together to make music – and that is the heart and soul of a cappella.
(ST)

illi
Will Pan
After a head injury sustained while rehearsing for his Kingdom Of Eve tour in 2014, Taiwanese-American singer-actor Will Pan dreamt about giving birth to a baby alien – which he believed was his reincarnation. As far as backstories for mainstream albums go, this is pretty left-field.
Not to worry, though, as illi is a solid offering of hip-hop – head for party-hearty track Go Hard and the old-school jam of Coming Home – and ballads with some extra-terrestrial imagery worked in.
On the propulsive number Close Encounter – the title references the 1977 Steven Spielberg sci-fi flick Close Encounters Of The Third Kind – he sings: “Don’t tag this biological aesthetic as a dangerous monstrosity that belongs to Area 51, that’s right I belong in this world.” Area 51 is a classified place in the United States which some believe harbours evidence of alien life.
It is not just an attention-grabbing gimmick here – an alien is also a metaphor for being different and Pan makes a case that he is one.
He is not the strongest singer, but one can see that he puts in the effort from debut album Gecko Stroll (2002), in which he likens himself to a gecko waiting for mosquitoes on the title track, to his latest, 11th record.
It helps that he can also pen radio-friendly hook-filled tracks such as Numb with its stinging chorus: “Break it, forget it, let it go/Don’t test your own cunning/Quiet, don’t speak/Learn to be a mute.”
Sometimes, the material feels a little generic, such as the lightweight love song Fight For You.
The antidote is Dear Memories, in which the bitterness and vitriol aimed at an ex is leavened by the breezy melody: “Didn’t think you were such a beast/Hope you’ll never forget me/Suffer every day.”
Despite the unusual premise, illi is far from alienating.
(ST)

Wei Bird 2017 Concert
Resorts World Theatre/Last Saturday
The best encore is an unplanned one.
Nowadays, concerts are planned in detail, down to the last note an artist sings. But every once in a while, something surprising and magical happens – as it did at Taiwanese singer-songwriter Wei Li-an’s gig.
The two-hour-long set ended with a planned-for encore of the rousing track Girl and the hit ballad Still that had his fans on their feet and making a beeline for the stage. It left everyone on such a high that the cries of “encore” grew with renewed urgency.
Happily, Wei emerged with a guitar and proceeded to take requests for songs such as Still Loving You and Think Of You First before ending the evening with the delicate beauty of Cloudy Sunflower.
He ended up performing for another 20 minutes.
The singer, who is also known as Weibird or William, said: “I hope you’ve found your moment to take home with you. I’ve found mine.”
On disc, he comes across as a thoughtful young man sensitively probing matters of the heart in melodic songs that linger in the mind, including Have Or Have Not, Slowly Wait and Someone Is Waiting For Me.
Live, he is an affable presence whose pipes shine whether he is rocking out on a number such as Wolves or soaring in his falsetto range on early track Translation Exercise.
He seemed comfortable enough on stage that one would not guess that he was, in his own words, an introvert.
He mused: “If I weren’t a singer, I wouldn’t get to travel to so many places and meet so many people.”
In his more recent albums, Journey Into The Night (2014) and It All Started From An Intro (2016), he has begun to move away from ballads and R&B influences to more adventurous territory, such as venturing into electronica and experimenting with song structure.
But the focus of his Free That Girl tour, which started in 2015, is on his earlier material and mid-tempo hits. Perhaps his next show could show more facets of the talented songwriter.
Still, the concert was an enjoyable one. If anything, he deserved a bigger audience than the crowd of about 1,300.
In one segment, a visual of his room showing a guitar and a work table with a screen and speakers served as the backdrop to an unplugged selection of songs, such as The Fleeing Of A Two-Legged Bookcase and What You Think Of Me.
Judging from his fans’ reactions, there is no question that Weibird flies high in their eyes.
(ST)

Ajin: Demi-Human
Katsuyuki Motohiro

The story: After a traffic accident, hospital intern Kei Nagai (Takeru Satoh) realises that he belongs to an immortal race called Ajin. He is then whisked away by the government and subjected to all manner of experiments. Coming to his rescue is another Ajin, Sato (Go Ayano), who is prepared to destroy humanity to win rights for their kind. But Kei recoils from his violent means. Based on the manga (2012 to present) of the same name by Gamon Sakurai.

Faced with immortals amid society, the Japanese government reacts with fear and suspicion and subjects those it captures to a brutal battery of ordeals.
As a living test subject, Kei has a hellish existence – he is wrapped from head to toe like a mummy, his limbs get hacked off and he gets killed again and again. It is as though he were less than human.
Immortality becomes a curse for Kei.
There are questions here about humanity and mor(t)ality, but in the hands of director Katsuyuki Motohiro (Bayside Shakedown: The Movie, 1998), the movie also works as an exciting thriller in which Ajin is pitted against Ajin.
Satoh, as he did in period actioner Rurouni Kenshin (2012), plays a man reluctant to turn to violence, but is forced to; and Ayano (Lupin The 3rd, 2014) revels in Sato’s villainy.
The immortals are each able to project an entity outside of themselves – Kei calls his a “ghost” – which seems to have a mind of its own.
The special effects team does a good job of depicting these shadowy, not-quite-solid ghosts who are capable of inflicting very real damage.
Given that the Ajin can regenerate after death, how is one supposed to take another down? Kei comes up with a plan to trap Sato, but is blindsided by a detail he did not consider.
There are enough twists and turns to keep one engaged and the good news is that they feel organic to the fantasy world conjured up here.
(ST)

On paper, animated series Neo Yokio sounds intriguing.
It was created by Ezra Koenig, frontman of indie rock band Vampire Weekend, with anime veteran Kazuhiro Furuhashi – director of the acclaimed period action series Rurouni Kenshin (1996 to 1998) – as storyboard artist. It boasts the voice talents of Jaden Smith, Jude Law, Susan Sarandon and Jason Schwartzman.
The show is set in an alternate New York where Magicians who once saved the city from demons are now firmly entrenched as elite Magistocrats and, score one for cultural diversity, the central character Kaz Kaan (voiced by Smith) is African-American.
So far, so promising.
And yet, I could not make it through the first episode.
This American-Japanese co-production blithely invites comparisons with Japanese works given the anime influences, which range from the demon-battling fantasy story to the use of mecha elements such as the robot butler (voiced by Law).
But it comes up far too short of its potential, not to mention its influences.
The first flaw one notices is the lacklustre animation, which makes the show look dated. It works for the opening sequence which is an old tourist promotion clip of the city, but inexplicably, the style does not change noticeably when the story shifts to the present.
Compared with the richly detailed animation of many Japanese series today, Neo Yokio’s artwork feels embarrassingly threadbare, like it was made in the 1990s. If it is meant to be an homage, it does not quite work.
Perhaps the biggest sin here is that the creators did not meld the Japanese and Western elements well.
A successful example would be the animated superhero film Big Hero 6 (2014), which is notably set in the imaginary, futuristic city of San Fransokyo (a conflation of San Francisco and Tokyo).
Its directors Chris Williams and Don Hall turned to the films of acclaimed auteur Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, 2001) for inspiration and even made two research trips to Japan. Yet the movie never feels clunky or showy with unnecessary detail.
Getting inspired and influenced by another culture is perfectly fine, but it is key to not force the issue. And if one can fashion a cohesive and compelling work out of myriad influences, it is surely a sign of brilliance.
Miyazaki himself absorbed Western ideas from European fantasy literature to modernist artist Marc Chagall. He reportedly once travelled to Portugal to look at a work by mediaeval painter Hieronymous Bosch, known for his macabre depictions of hell.
Yet there is no mistaking his vision as a film-maker for anyone else’s and he has, in turn, influenced Western animation. John Lasseter, chief creative officer of acclaimed Pixar Animation Studios, is a big fan of his and has even said: “Whenever we get stuck at Pixar or Disney, I put on a Miyazaki film sequence or two, just to get us inspired again.”
On the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator website, Neo Yokio has a “rotten” rating of 33 per cent from nine reviews. Hollywood Reporter asks reasonably: “(Why) resort to a so-so anime take-off when there’s ample real anime that’s cooler and funnier on its own?”
For instance, Rurouni Kenshin – about a battle-scarred assassin-turned-wandering-swordsman – juggles slapstick humour with deep philosophical questions about sin, guilt and forgiveness.
It is also true that there are several American animation series with distinctive voices such as Rick And Morty (2013 to present), a darkly funny and withering takedown of the wide range of human foibles as brilliant but self-absorbed scientist-inventor Rick and his grandson Morty go on outlandish adventures in the multiverse.
Presumably, Neo Yokio is good, even excellent, in some of these other universes. But in this world,
it is merely an awkward amalgamation of New York and Tokyo whose name does not even roll off the tongue smoothly.
(ST)

Chasing The Dragon
Wong Jing, Jason Kwan
The story: An illegal immigrant (Donnie Yen) who sneaks into Hong Kong in 1963 finds that he gets paid more to fight than to work. He soon rises through the ranks of the underworld because of his fighting skills to become the feared drug lord Crippled Ho. Detective sergeant Lui Lok (Andy Lau) enjoys a parallel ascent in these tumultuous times and the two men forge a partnership.

The selling point of this movie is the first-time collaboration between Hong Kong superstars Donnie Yen and Andy Lau. The bigger surprise is that king of B-grade movies Wong Jing has pulled off an entertaining epic crime flick.
Chasing The Dragon is a new take on the acclaimed crime drama To Be Number One (1991), in which Ray Lui played the real-life gangster Ng Sik Ho, or Crippled Ho. But instead of a slavish remake, the film-makers have smartly conflated it with the story of corrupt cop Lui Lok and used it as an opportunity to increase the star wattage.
Yen is credible as he goes from Teochew-speaking penniless immigrant to ruthless criminal despite being hampered by a limp. His character wants to keep his conscience clean, even as he sinks deeper and deeper into a life of crime. This means Yen gets to exercise both his acting chops and his chopsocky moves.
Lau, having previously played the same role in Lee Rock and Lee Rock II (both in 1991), is comfortable here as the slick cop looking out for himself.
But when put together, the two A-listers come up short in portraying the relationship of two men bound together by brotherhood, blood and money.
Good thing the story itself is engaging. It casts an eye on crime and justice in Hong Kong over a span of several decades, during which the Independent Commission Against Corruption, formed in 1974, turned out to be an agency with real bite, instead of a paper tiger.
The scenes here of the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City are fascinating. The infamously lawless slum has not been sanitised and as the camera winds its way through a maze of drug dens, gambling houses and street hawkers, planes fly absurdly low overhead, rubbish is strewn everywhere and danger lurks around every corner.
Perhaps credit for the film’s gritty authenticity is due to Wong’s co-director Jason Kwan, who makes his directorial debut here after winning praise for his work as a cinematographer on films such as crime thriller Cold War (2012) and romance comedy Love In A Puff (2010).
(ST)

Artists' Mood
Leo Wang

On his official Facebook page, Taiwan’s Leo Wang lays out his mission of “trying to combine jazz, hip-hop, reggae and scat singing with Mandarin Chinese in a groovy way, and making his people dance”.
He lives up to that pursuit of eclecticism on his fourth so-called mixtape, an apt description for this album of diverse genres and influences with music that is fun, irreverent and cheeky.
On the opener Thoughts Of Lee Kuo Hsiu, which is addressed to the late Taiwanese theatre pioneer, he raps smoothly: “You’ll slowly get used to my style/And gripe that you get testy on nights without me.”
He switches gears, grooving to a laid-back reggae beat, on Soul Truck and Jam All Night, which is about the pure pleasure of making music: “I think everything will be all right/As long as we can jam all night/Use your hands to drum, use your feet to drum/Use your mouth to drum, use your body to drum.”
Turning Eighteen is about Wang doggedly pursuing his music dreams and it seems to be his own experience cloaked in the guise of advice: “Child, congrats on turning 18/Want to make a living doing music, you might have to move to Taipei/Child, congrats on turning 18/The excuse for moving, just say you’re heading to uni.”
At the same time, it is also a no-holds-barred portrayal of slacker, hormonal youth. J***ing Off, Got Caught sets up the scenario of the title and then gets progressively kinkier.
The mixtape also features collaborations with a few artists.
Weekends With You dissects a mismatched relationship with honesty from his point of view and that of female singer 9m88’s. He confesses: “I just wanna head home I don’t feel so well/I don’t like people.”
He might have to get used to people liking his music, though.
(ST)

Home III
Lo Ta-yu

Home Coming
Bobby Chen

Two grizzled veterans of the Taiwanese music scene ruminate on the meaning of home in their new albums.
The question is particularly pertinent for troubadour Lo Ta-yu, 63, as he was born in Taiwan, but has lived in the United States and Hong Kong and has a music studio in Beijing.
It is a theme that he has dealt with before. The songs Home I and Home II are on the 1984 album Home, a very different animal from his earlier, more politically charged works, which led to him being pegged as a “protest singer”.
Then, he yearned for the warmth of the past and wondered on Home II: “What place can appease an exhausted spirit which has been wandering the ends of the world.”
Now the father of a five-year-old daughter, he is the one who is providing a safe haven and it is as if he is singing on her behalf in Home III: “Give me feelings of warmth, understanding, strength and mutual protection/Hope that as I grow up in days to come of cold, heat and storms, my heart will never change.”
Even with an eye on the future, Lo reminisces fondly about the past. On the breezy and folksy Reunion, he recalls his schooldays: “That period in my life with no regrets and no complaints.”
The mood is more elegiac on singer-songwriter Bobby Chen’s record. Its title track begins with a chorus of la-la-las over a simple guitar accompaniment and it is suffused with nostalgia and a gentle melancholy.
It ends with a moving line about his late mother: “My mother, she wasn’t beautiful, how do I describe her.”
On the album closer Yesterday Today Tomorrow, Chen, 58, reflects: “Time is inscrutable/Maybe no one should live today, but dream of returning to yesterday.”
Like Lo, Chen has had a peripatetic existence. But while he has recorded his music in various countries and published books about his overseas travels, he seems to have neglected his own country.
This was the genesis for Home Coming and he even went back to his birthplace, Changhua County, to shoot the music video for the title track.
There is no mistaking the honesty and depth of emotion in these albums and the rough-hewn, weathered voices of the two musicians are part of the homespun charm.
(ST)

Abstract
Shio Quek
A crop of up-and-comers is injecting the Malaysian music scene with much-needed new blood.
Duo FS (Fuying & Sam) have been scaling the charts with radio-friendly tracks such as It Should Be Better For Us To Break Up, sounding like an updated version of Wu Yin Liang Pin. Meanwhile, Shio Quek is a singer-songwriter in the vein of, say, Penny Tai, and is in fact signed to the latter’s agency.
Sporting a head of pink hair on the album cover, Quek is clearly no shrinking violet.
Opening track Extrication is an atmospheric slice of minimalist electronica with a softly hypnotic thump and haunting synth line about breaking out of a bad relationship. She declares determinedly in English on the chorus: “I need an extrication/I need to extricate myself away from the pain.”
The track also features a guest turn by Taiwanese rapper Miss Ko and it all comes together nicely.
Quek switches effortlessly between English and Mandarin, though the wholly English ballads End To Ribbons and Your Name are not her most compelling work here.
Head instead for the pleasures of ballad Solo Bliss, which touches on the fleetingness of happiness: “This solo bliss, can only understand by listening with eyes shut/Even if everything’s not mine, I won’t beg anymore.”
The album feels too ballad-heavy though, and more could have been done with the music arrangements, such as for Chimera, which features an ear-catching electronica intro.
What keeps one from quickly extricating oneself from the album is her consistently compelling singing.
(ST)

Let Me Eat Your Pancreas
Sho Tsukikawa
The story: Popular high-school student Sakura Yamauchi (Minami Hamabe) is dying as her pancreas is failing. Her unnamed geeky librarian classmate (Takumi Kitamura) stumbles upon her diary and learns her secret. As she draws him out of his shell, he helps her to fulfil her bucket-list wishes. Based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Yoru Sumino.

Never mind its fantasy horror title, Let Me Eat Your Pancreas is actually an old-fashioned tearjerker.
There is a burgeoning romance and a girl with a terminal disease who is outwardly cheerful and optimistic. One would not know that she is seriously ill just by looking at her.
Hamabe brings a sunny chirpiness and a touching vulnerability to the role of a young girl confronting her mortality. Her character, Sakura, is not made out to be a saint as she is curious about sex. However, her attempts at seduction are valiantly resisted, sometimes to almost comic effect, by Kitamura’s character, who remains unnamed throughout the film.
The growing friendship with her classmate seems unlikely, given that they are on opposite ends of the popularity spectrum, but as she says to him: “You’re the only one who can keep my life normal.”
Kitamura, a member of Japanese pop-rock band Dish, gives a sensitive performance as his restrained character slowly opens up. It also makes his breakdown late in the movie that much more moving.
Director Sho Tsukikawa (The 100th Love With You, 2017) is deft with the emotional scenes, letting them land with an impact that stings.
He overdoes it a bit with the soft focus and light-filled scenes, although the shots featuring cherry blossoms in full bloom are admittedly gorgeous.
The movie also jumps forward 12 years, a period that is not covered in the book. It shows the impact Sakura has had on the male protagonist (now played by Shun Oguri), as he was nudged to become a teacher at their school because of something she said; and on her best friend, Kyoko (adult version played by Keiko Kitagawa), who was puzzled by and jealous of their closeness.
The memory of her still burns bright for them.
(ST)

“Why does the Singapore Government restrict the broadcasting of Chinese dialects in the mass media?”
Mass media content comes under the purview of the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Broadcasters have to ensure that their programmes are in line with the authority’s content guidelines, which are stricter for free-to-air media because they are easily accessible by almost everyone.
Under the Free-To-Air Television Programme Code and Free-To-Air Radio Programme Code, it is stated that all Chinese programmes, except operas or other programmes specifically approved, must be in Mandarin.
Dialects in dialogues and songs may be allowed, provided the context justifies usage and is “sparingly used”.
Other exceptions include news, current affairs and info-educational programmes where interviews are given by older people or foreigners who are conversant only in dialect. Some dialect terms such as those used for food, for example, char kway teow, may be used in local dramas.
Under the Board of Film Censors’ Classification Guidelines, the reason for this is spelt out.
“Films with dialect content are allowed on a case-by-case basis. Chinese films meant for theatrical release should generally be in Mandarin, in line with the Speak Mandarin Campaign.”
This was launched in 1979 with the objective of replacing dialects with Mandarin among Chinese Singaporeans. The use of dialects is seen as fundamentally undermining the spread of Mandarin.
In recent years though, there appears to be a loosening of restrictions on the use of dialect on free-to-air television.
The 10-episode Hokkien drama Jiak Ba Buay (Eat Already?) last year was reportedly the first dialect series aired in Singapore since 1979. It was a collaboration between Mediacorp and the Ministry of Communications and Information that was aimed at conveying government policies, such as MediShield Life, to senior citizens who may not be as comfortable in Mandarin. The third season of the show is currently airing on Channel 8 until Oct 27.
Also last year, variety series Happy Can Already! took on topics from SkillsFuture to retirement in songs and skits in a mix of Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew. The second season ended its run in July.
IMDA says, though, that there is no change to the Government’s dialect policy for mass media. “Dialect broadcasts are not new; we have always had them for older Chinese Singaporeans.”
The authority notes that dialect content remains available on various platforms.
On radio, Mediacorp’s Capital 95.8FM offers daily morning news bulletins in dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, Foochow and Hakka.
On free-to-air TV, Channel 8 broadcasts dialect operas on Friday mornings as well as MediShield and Pioneer Generation Package interstitials in dialect.
There is also flexibility for okto channel to screen art-house films with dialect content.
In addition, pay-TV operators offer channels with dialect content such as StarHub’s TVBJ (Cantonese) and Singtel’s Jia Le Channel (Hokkien), and also carry dialect titles on its video-on-demand services.
There are no restrictions on the sale and distribution of dialect videos and music albums, as well as on outdoor and theatrical performances and events.
(ST)

Colour Of The Game
Kam Ka Wai
The story: Old-hand gang member Wallace (Simon Yam) is tasked to kill Robert, the son of a mob boss. In addition to his protege Sky (Philip Ng), he also rounds up his usual gang, which includes his daughter, Lily (Sabrina Qiu), Tyson (Jordan Chan) and BBQ (Cheung Siu Fai). The mission goes horribly wrong and Wallace later finds out that it was all a set-up to flush out the mole in his team.

As Wallace and gang prepare to head out to take down Robert, they are all dressed in the same hue, as though they are part of a pop group. And pristine white is the colour of choice, never mind that their clothes are likely to be stained with grime and blood.
Meanwhile, the army of baddies who surprise them are dressed head to toe in black, like ninjas.
How else will the audience be able to tell them apart? What better way to illustrate how utterly literal the film is in the interpretation of its title?
Prolific B-grade film-maker Wong Jing previously directed Colour Of The Truth (2003) and Colour Of The Loyalty (2005). Colour Of The Game is supposedly the third film in the trilogy, but it is a standalone title. He writes and produces, but hands over directing duties to Kam Ka Wai (iGirl, 2016).
What this means is that visually, there are some nicely lensed scenes with unusual angles.
But Kam is ultimately hemmed in by the lacklustre story.
The revelation of the mole comes as an anticlimax and the themes of brotherhood and torn loyalties have been more fruitfully explored elsewhere. Meanwhile, busty actresses fill out the one-dimensional female characters.
It is hard to pinpoint why this was even made in the first place. Or how they managed to assemble a cast that includes the likes of Yam, Cheung and Chan. But even these workhorses of the Hong Kong movie industry need something, anything, to work with.
(ST)

Midnight Runners
Kim Joo Hwan
The story: Jockish Gi Jun (Park Seo Jun) and geekish Hee Yeol (Kang Ha Neul) are fellow students and best friends at the police academy. They witness a young woman getting abducted and, having learnt that time is of the essence in such cases, decide to follow up on their own time – even when they run up against red tape and find they could be expelled.

The infectious chemistry between the lead actors makes Midnight Runners a fun and satisfying movie to watch
It has been a while since such an entertaining buddy action flick came along.
What makes it so watchable is the chemistry between the two charming and likeable lead actors, Park (She Was Pretty, 2015) and Kang (Misaeng, 2014). They radiate an energy that is sunny and infectious and they definitely have a blast when they are together.
Asked how long they have been dating while promoting the movie on a variety show, Park gamely answers: “It’s been about five months.”
In Midnight Runners, they play opposites. Hee Yeol is a germophobic book-smart student; Gi Jun is a jock who tends to be more impulsive.
In response to an exam question on how to investigate a crime, Hee Yeol effortlessly jots down the model answer, while Gi Jun simply lists down qualities such as being passionate.
What unites them is a youthful passion for doing the right thing, even if that means going against the rules. They may joke around and insult each other, but they also have each other’s backs when it matters.
The case here gives one pause as well. It unveils the horrific business of the forced harvesting of eggs from vulnerable young women to meet the demands of desperate couples who turn to fertility clinics.
Writer-director Jason Kim Joo Hwan manages to balance the dark crime with a generally lighter tone, as scrappy underdogs Gi Jun and Hee Yeol doggedly chase after the evil-doers and end up scolded, beaten and even strung up like two slabs of meat.
While Kim takes a jab or two at red tape and the blind following of orders, he is not totally dismissive of the police force. There is a nicely executed scene where Hee Yeol discovers that the self-defence moves he learnt in class are not useless after all.
Kudos to the director for deftly mixing comedy, action, crime and even morality drama in a satisfying movie that makes you want to stand up and cheer at the end.
Perhaps the best sign that the film works is that one would love to see Park and Kang crack more cases, and villainous skulls, together.
(ST)

Cars 3
Brian Fee
The story: Champion racing car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and others of his generation are starting to lag behind technologically souped-up upstarts such as Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer). McQueen is assigned a coach, Cruz Ramirez (voiced by Cristela Alonzo), by his new owner and he has to win an upcoming major race – or be reduced to being a product endorsement figurehead.

The previous film, Cars 2 (2011), was a globetrotting affair that imagined cars as spies. Um, right.
The third instalment does away with that far-fetched conceit to focus on the more plausible storyline of talking, self-racing cars.
That right there is the problem.
Pixar has given us talking toys (Toy Story, 1995), talking animals (Finding Nemo, 2003) and even talking emotions (Inside Out, 2015). But talking cars remain the least persuasive creation in its oeuvre.
Cars 3 wants to be a stirring comeback tale of a champion who is not quite done yet, but it is hard to get revved up enough to care deeply for McQueen and the other vehicles.
It does not help that Wilson sounds too placid and laidback to voice a character who is a lightning- fast racer.
Also, McQueen might get upset that he is being overtaken by more powerful models, but that is exactly what you would expect with cars in the real world.
This is particularly so in Singapore, where embracing new and improved vehicles is the norm, given the certificate of entitlement system, where cars are often scrapped after 10 years or less.
There are a few fun moments, though, which prevent Cars 3 from being a movie for the scrap heap, such as when McQueen and his coach, Ramirez, inadvertently get roped into a demolition derby featuring a school bus on steroids.
It takes a while for McQueen to finally come to terms with his, er, mortality and realise that he can still play an important role.
The acceptance arrives in a too-tidy conclusion, which gives him his cake and lets him eat it too. That is, if cars could eat.
(ST)

Death Note
Adam Wingard
The story: Seattle high-school student Light Turner (Nat Wolff) happens upon a copy of Death Note. Writing a person’s name in the supernatural notebook while picturing his face will result in his death. Light uses his newfound power by killing criminals around the world using the moniker Kira. He eventually attracts the attention of L (Lakeith Stanfield), an eccentric but brilliant detective who is determined to unmask Kira and bring him to justice.

As far as Hollywood remakes go, this version of Death Note will not leave you itching to scribble director Adam Wingard’s (Blair Witch, 2016) name into any tome.
It starts off hewing quite closely to the premise of the Japanese manga and 2006 live-action film of the same name, but with several tweaks along the way.
Light is in high school and at the mercy of bullies, making the idea of Death Note even more appealing.
The notebook is also a way for him to impress the cheerleader Mia (Margaret Qualley). “Please tell me this isn’t your poetry journal,” she quips, but soon becomes his eager accomplice.
The gore quotient has also been upped here. While most of the deaths in the earlier movie are by fuss-free heart attacks, Light comes up with bloody and gruesome ends for his victims here, including decapitation.
Veteran actor Willem Dafoe is well cast and proves to be both seductive and menacing as god of death Ryuk, by turns nudging his charge along and threatening him.
And in a nice bit of colour-blind casting, black actor Stanfield (Get Out, 2017) plays the role of L.
Where the remake really starts to come into its own is when the story takes a major deviation from its source material.
The battle of wits between Light and L becomes personal when Light manipulates someone close to L, making the stakes higher and more deeply felt.
The Japanese movie ended with a diabolical twist.
By throwing enough digressions into the remake, even those who watched the earlier version get to be surprised by the conclusion here.
(ST)

The Adventurers
Stephen Fung
The story: Master thief Zhang (Andy Lau) is released from a French prison, where he landed after his last botched job of stealing the Eye Of The Forest, one-third of the priceless jewellery ensemble known as Gaia. With his long-time partner, Chen (Tony Yang), and a new recruit, Ye (Shu Qi), he goes after the person who betrayed him, even as detective Bissette (Jean Reno) is hot on his trail.

It is a pity the movie that Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau has returned to promote, after a horse-riding accident, is not a stronger offering.
His performance here as the thief Zhang is rather stilted, maybe because he is speaking in English and Mandarin, rather than his native Cantonese.
Neither is there much chemistry between him and Zhang Jingchu, who plays his wife, Amber, an art expert. At least Shu and Yang are mildly entertaining as they flirt and bicker as stock-character types – she the attractive femme fatale and he the earnest sidekick.
Director and co-writer Stephen Fung clearly had ambitions for a slick and stylish heist movie, but making something as buoyant as, say, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven (2001) or even John Woo’s Once A Thief (1991) is harder than it looks.
Simply setting the action in Cannes and Prague is not enough when the dialogue gets pretty laughable. Bissette says to Zhang ominously at the beginning: “Just because you’re out of prison doesn’t mean you’re really free.”
And inexplicably, Bissette speaks to fellow French cops in English at one point, which just suggests lazy film-making.
Neither is there much of a surprise when the identity of Zhang’s betrayer is finally unveiled. The plot could definitely have been more adventurous.
(ST)

Evidence
Frande
Taiwanese band Frande’s third album offers more laidback, beguiling indie pop under the arch Chinese title of Why Does It Resemble A Love Story, I Was Clearly Reading A Detective Novel.
On their Facebook page, they describe their genre of music as “soft things but not that soft; crazy things but not that much”.
Over the unhurried beats on electro-pop opener All You Need To Do Is Love Me, female lead singer Fran’s voice glimmers as she protests lightly: “I haven’t even had time to love you/Why would I harm you”.
The band line-up also includes guitarist Chiang Chen-yu and drummer Wu Meng-yen.
Love is a tussle on I Hate You, I Love You as Fran and Taiwanese singer-rapper DJ Didilong circle each other: “Soon, I won’t be able to tell right from wrong/We’ve fought over this so many times.” But there is a solution to melting their cold war: “We just need an embrace.”
Love, in its different forms, is put under the magnifying glass here.
It can be sweetness and light, and on Until Death Do..., it is a powerful force as well: “Like to hear you say ‘I love you’/Drive away all grievances/ Together, with you together.”
Love is most tender on the lullaby-like My Darling Lamb, which is inspired by the ploy of counting sheep to battle insomnia (“Can’t sleep, I can’t sleep/Waiting for a ‘goodnight’ from you/Won’t tie, won’t tie you down/Want you to be free”). Instead of romantic love, it is about the love for a child as Fran sings: “Want to kiss your face at every age.”
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Tokyo Ghoul
Kentaro Hagiwara
The story: Ghouls, indistinguishable from normal folk, roam Tokyo and feed on human flesh. Kaneki (Masataka Kubota) undergoes surgery after an attack and finds himself turning into a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid whose loyalties are torn between the two worlds. Based on the manga of the same name (2011-2014) by Sui Ishida .

Ghouls are monsters who feed on human flesh and must be exterminated at all costs. Or are they?
Like in Giddens Ko’s recent Mon Mon Mon Monsters, the humans here are capable of monstrous behaviour as well. But Kentaro Hagiwara’s dark and violent Tokyo Ghoul is more nuanced and layered in its indictment.
The viewers’ guide to the world of ghouls is the luckless Kaneki, a socially awkward young man who is inadvertently turned into a halfhuman, half-ghoul hybrid.
Kubota (Death Note television series, 2015) gives an intense performance as, at first, Kaneki desperately tries to satiate his hunger, but throws up everything he ingests, and then realises with horror that the whites of his left eye have turned a sinister red.
As he gets initiated into the mysteries of a hitherto unknown world, we tag along for the ride. His struggle to retain his humanity keeps us invested in the story.
One of the cool things about the manga, and the film, is the character design of the ghouls.
In their natural form, their power resides in all manner of fantastical appendages, such as tails and claws, called kagune, which differ from ghoul to ghoul. The face masks, which range from an innocuous rabbit to a ghoulish black leather veneer with a zipper over the mouth, feel like fan service detail.
Diving deeper into this community, Kaneki meets a shy girl ghoul, Hinami (Hiyori Sakurada), that he is protective of. This sets him on a collision course with the humans bent on wiping out the ghouls, Amon (Nobuyuki Suzuki) and Mado (Yo Oizumi).
It is a measure of how balanced the story-telling is that you do not know whom to root for when the humans battle the ghouls.
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Pluto
Enno Cheng
The dreamy and spacey Recycling In The Universe is the perfect introduction to Taiwanese singer-songwriter Enno Cheng’s new album Pluto, the follow-up to her previous record Neptune (2011).
It is a slice of electro-pop that is vast and intimate as she croons in her lightly husky voice: “Float, float gently, let go of space, time and language/Close my eyes, I’ve come to you without any defences.”
Somehow, even a blackhole sounds innocuous: “Can’t see inside this black-coloured hole, it will swallow up everything, everything/La la la la la la la la.”
The other songs are easily approachable with their breezily melodic tunes, but the lyrics sometimes carry a sting.
She sings in English on the chorus for Golden Old Days: “Hey bastard, you know this is how we work/No matter how, no matter how, you’ll always be my love.”
Our Pop Song, a collaboration with Hong Kong’s Ellen Loo, appears to be a response to Recyling In The Universe at one point: “I’ve put down my edges and strengths, will you destroy me,” Cheng sings.
At the same time, she is not afraid of being seen as vulnerable. She is earnest and hopeful on Pride (“Trust me, although I’m as frightened as you, we can search for answers together”).
Cheng charts an idiosyncratic and imaginative musical journey, one that honestly embraces the contradictions and fragility of life.
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The Battleship Island
Ryoo Seung Wan
The story: During World War II, the Japanese island of Hashima (also called Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island) was the site of a brutal mining operation that used forced labour, including boys from South Korea. South Korean women on the island faced the fate of being used as sex slaves. Bandmaster Lee Kang Ok (Hwang Jung Min) and his young daughter So Hee (Kim Su An), as well as notorious gangster Choi Chil Sung (So Ji Sub), are among those shipped off to it. Park Moo Young (Song Joong Ki), an American-trained operative, infiltrates the island to rescue a fellow independence fighter, but eventually tries to help about 400 Koreans escape.

There is more than one way to approach wartime movies, as the recent box-office successes of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Ryoo Seung Wan’s The Battleship Island prove.
In South Korea, the latter has been setting records and had surpassed six million admissions by the 12th day of its run.
Nolan keeps ratcheting up the tension in his portrayal of the Sisyphean task of staying alive, but does not really flesh out those caught in the cross hairs of battle.
In contrast, writer-director Ryoo gives us a vivid cast of characters to root for in a thrilling tale of escape: Song plays the marquee role here like an extension of the super soldier-hero he played in the blockbuster series Descendants Of The Sun (2016); and the other K-drama star, So (Master’s Sun, 2013), swaggers with menacing aplomb as the macho gangster who plays a pivotal part in the escape attempt.
But it is the father-daughter pair, played by award-winning actor Hwang (Ode To My Father, 2014) and child star Kim (Train To Busan, 2016), who anchor Battleship.
Lee will do anything to keep himself and his daughter alive; this survival instinct drives him on, even if it means he has to clown around for the amusement of the Japanese.
The grimness of the war situation is leavened by some sweet little moments shared between the two characters. Both Hwang and Kim turn in vivid portrayals.
Story-wise, Ryoo packs some surprises along the way, which prevents the proceedings from getting too predictable. There is a poignant scene where a woman reveals that she was betrayed by her countryman – a Korean pimp who condemned her to her fate as a “comfort woman”.
The director also deftly handles the complex scenes depicting the hellishness of the underground mining and the intensity of the gripping finale.
While the escape is fictional, the island exists and was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2015. At the end of the film, a coda notes that Japan has yet to acknowledge the events that took place there, a sombre reminder that the shadows and scars of war linger on today.
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G.E.M. “Queen Of Hearts” World Tour 2017 – Singapore
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday

When Hong Kong-based singer- songwriter G.E.M. performed in Singapore in early 2015, she sold out three nights at the 5,000-seater Max Pavilion.
Naturally, a larger venue beckoned her for her return here and she proved that she could hold court at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Some 8,000 tickets were sold last Saturday, the first of two nights of her “Queen Of Hearts” World Tour.
The girl with the giant lungs filled the arena with her powerful singing as she belted out the high notes and held them with ease. It was what her fans expected and what shot her to fame on the China reality show competition I Am A Singer in 2014, where she emerged runner-up.
But as if showing that she is more than a one-trick pony, she also played the piano, strapped on a guitar for Goodbye and took to the drums in another segment.
Thankfully, the Queen Of Hearts show was not a mere retread of her previous X.X.X. tour as she released Heartbeat in late 2015, an album which spawned several hits, including the upbeat title track and the ballads One Way Road and Long Distance.
One of Saturday night’s highlights was the song Bubble from her third album Xposed (2012), which she actually performed on I Am A Singer. Dressed in a midnight-blue gown, she held onto a long piece of cloth which billowed up dramatically in the air. It was both beautiful and evanescent, echoing the imagery of the song.
Despite having released three studio albums of Cantonese and Mandarin pop tunes when she was on I Am A Singer, she became better known for singing other artists’ songs as that was the format of the contest. So it was no surprise that some of the most enthusiastic response at the Indoor Stadium was for the covers she performed on the TV show.
These included Mayday’s Behind The Mask, Wang Feng’s Survive, Jay Chou’s Tornado, David Huang’s Intoxicated and Beyond’s Loving You. After all, these were well- loved tracks even before she left her stamp on them.
As she will be turning 26 on Wednesday, some of her fans brought out a cake during the encore to celebrate the occasion on stage with their idol. One of them stole the show for a while as she dictated the proceedings by instructing the singer to make a wish.
Perhaps it was the audience who received the best present as G.E.M. performed the track Stranger In The North for the first time in public.
It seemed a bit strange as the song of choice for her final number of the night because it was not written by her and was originally performed by Taiwan-based Wang Leehom and Malaysian rapper Namewee. But as she rapped and sang and tickled the ivories, one could see her really getting into it and just enjoying the moment.
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A Day
Cho Sun Ho
The story: Returning to Seoul after an overseas trip, doctor Kim Joon Young (Kim Myung Min) arranges to meet his headstrong young daughter Eun Jung (Jo Eun Hyung). On the way to the rendezvous, he witnesses a car accident and realises his daughter was killed in it. And then the day starts all over again for him.

The premise of a time loop has been used in films as diverse as romance comedy Groundhog Day (1993) and sci-fi military thriller Edge Of Tomorrow (2014).
South Korean director and co- writer Cho Sun Ho manages to put a fresh spin on it to deliver a tight and taut thriller elevated by philosophical shadings.
The key questions, as always, are: Why is the time loop happening? What needs to be changed in order for time to move on?
Actor Kim (Behind The White Tower, 2007) conveys the wrenching anguish of a father forced to relive his daughter’s death again and again and his increasing desperation as he tries to alter the course of events.
With each repetition, you keep your eyes peeled, wondering which detail will prove to be the key that unlocks the puzzle.
And then Cho drops a bombshell. Emergency services first responder Lee Min Chul (a completely unrecognisable Byun Yo Han from his role as an irritating intern in Misaeng, 2014) approaches the doctor to reveal that he is reliving the same day as well. This is in the trailer so it is not exactly a spoiler for audiences.
Gradually, the characters discover how they are linked to one another.
At one point, someone remarks that this is a version of hell, reliving a day of tragedy over and over again.
So how does one break the cycle of suffering and vengeance?
A Day is a satisfying thriller that turns out to be a rumination on Buddhist concepts of karma, rebirth and deliverance.
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Gintama
Yuichi Fukuda

The story: The film is set in an alternate reality in which late Edo-era Japan has been conquered by aliens called Amanto (literally, sky people), who have outlawed the carrying of swords. The devil-may-care samurai Gintoki Sakata (Shun Oguri), nerdy Shinpachi Shimura (Masaki Suda) and teenage alien girl Kagura (Kanna Hashimoto) are drawn into hunting down a serial killer with a powerful sword – one which can possess the person who wields it. Based on the ongoing manga series of the same name by Hideaki Sorachi.

Gintama is a mash-up of both genre and tone, gleefully mixing elements of a period drama with science fiction and stirring in self-referential comedy along with more serious (melo)drama about resisting the enemy, the greed of man and even the tenuous bonds of childhood friendship.
One suspects the resulting concoction is more palatable in manga and anime form than as a live-action movie. Indeed, the manga that started in 2003 is still going strong, with two animated big-screen outings and several anime television series in its franchise.
This film adaptation does not take itself seriously, which is a good thing, but, on the other hand, it can come across as scattershot.
The randomness of a sidekick character inexplicably named Elizabeth, which looks like a simply sketched penguin, is better suited for the page and in animation. (But at least the movie openly acknowledges the fact that Elizabeth has to be a guy in a costume.)
Oguri as the uncouth man-child samurai who is constantly digging his nose and ear is mildly engaging, even if he sometimes comes across as being part of an elaborate cosplay session.
Maybe it is because the film is constantly winking at itself and indulging in meta shenanigans. There are multiple references to other manga/anime programmes, including the pirate-themed One Piece and the sci-fi fantasy Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind.
In the cheesy introductory sequence, the characters actually voice their concern about the need to draw in new viewers. It is a valid concern since this live-action adaptation of Gintama probably works best for those who are already fans.
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I Am Me
Joi Chua
Local singer Joi Chua has moved on from her long-time sweet, demure image since 2012’s electronica-tinged Gains from her EP, Perspectives – and she is not looking back.
“I won’t be silent, silent, silent/I don’t want to go along, go along, go along/I don’t care about right or wrong/I just want to be me,” she sings in the mid-tempo title track of her new release, I Am Me, where she had a hand in composing all its eight tracks.
Even as she sports a trendy asymmetric crop on the cover, she still embraces the melodic and lightly melancholic ballads that she made her name with, such as Watching The Sunrise With Me and Waiting For A Sunny Day.
Bystander in the new work is a lovely ballad that plays nicely to her strength. She is smart enough to know that there is no need to chuck out what has been proven to work in the name of a makeover, which includes slightly more uptempo tracks that strike a more unusual note for Chua (the breezy See-saw and the dance-tinged Happiness That’s Late In Coming).
Over an accompaniment of hand claps, she glides into her higher range in the chorus of Happiness: “I believe love is just late a step, it hasn’t lost its way/Don’t be too quick to admit defeat, even if the whole world has started to take note of you.”
She is doggedly keeping the faith even when others have stopped believing.

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Mon Mon Mon Monsters
Giddens Ko
The story: Lin Shu-wei (Deng Yu-kai) gets bullied by his classmates, including a notorious trio led by Tuan Jen-hao (Kent Tsai). In an unexpected turn of events, he joins the gang. When they capture a cannibalistic human-like monster (Eugenie Liu), Tuan delights in torturing the creature. The question is how far Lin will go along with the rest of them. Meanwhile, another monster wreaks mayhem as she searches for her missing companion.

In the follow-up to his debut directorial feature You Are The Apple Of My Eye (2011), Taiwan’s Giddens Ko returns to the high school setting. That is pretty much the only similarity between the two films. Whereas Apple is light-hearted and endearing, Monsters is unrelentingly dark – which is not all that surprising, since Ko is known for his range as a writer.
He has penned stories in diverse genres ranging from romance and sci-fi to horror and wuxia. It would seem he does not want to be pigeonholed as a director who can do only a certain type of film.
But here it feels as though he was given free rein to indulge his excesses. So much so that the film feels unnecessarily drawn out with too many gee-how-can-we-top-this scenes of torture.
What keeps one watching is the fact that the fate of Lin hangs in the balance. Will he succumb to his worst impulses or will he heed his conscience? Deng conveys some of that conflict but he is not quite a breakout star the way Kai Ko was in You Are The Apple Of My Eye.
Incidentally, Ko shows up here in a fun cameo alongside Vivian Sung, star of the hit high school romance Our Times (2015).
Too bad the central question of who the real monsters are here is definitively answered early on.
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It can be tough being a fan of the hit fantasy series Game Of Thrones. The already long wait between seasons has grown only longer as schedules have been pushed back to accommodate winter shooting in European locales such as Northern Ireland and Iceland.
Well, if the show will not come to you soon enough, one option is to go to the show.
It is partly why my friends and I decided to visit Dubrovnik in Croatia. The old city is famed for its spectacular stone walls, which were built between the 7th and 17th centuries. They are 4 to 6m thick and loom impressively up to 25m high. In 1979, the old city was inscribed into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) list of World Heritage Sites.
More importantly, Dubrovnik stands in for King’s Landing, the royal capital of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms in Game Of Thrones. Many scenes from the show have been shot in the area and the best way to take it all in is to have a guide take one around.
Enter Ms Tonka Matana, 35, a PhD student in archaeology whose subject of research is none other than Dubrovnik.
Her more crucial credentials are that she is a huge fan of the show, has encyclopaedic knowledge of it and has even appeared in it as an extra in Season 4. Alas, she was cast as a peasant woman and only the noble folk extras got to take part in the death scene of evil King Joffrey at his wedding.
Also, her Tour The Game Of Thrones is ranked No. 2 on TripAdvisor under Tours in Dubrovnik.
She would set out a scene at length, detailing the season it was featured in, its context, the characters involved and even verbatim dialogue. Then she would flash a laminated screen capture to invite us to confirm that, yes indeed, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) came through this archway and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) shared a moment here on this ledge in Trsteno Arboretum. Caught up in the moment and encouraged by our guide, we posed for photos in merry imitation of the screengrabs. But it turns out that we were amateurs at this game.
A highlight of the tour was the Jesuit Stairs that connect Gundulic Square to the Church of St Ignatius in the old city. These grand stone steps were where Cersei Lannister started her infamous naked walk of shame (a body double stood in for actress Lena Headey).
As we gathered to take a group picture, Ms Matana said: “Oh, you’re getting photobombed. Wait, he’s taking his shirt off.”
And then we heard the lusty cries of “Shame! Shame!” as a topless man re-enacted the ritual of public humiliation.
In the show, Septa Unella does the trumpeting as she rings a bell while escorting Cersei. But instead of rotten fruit and spittle in the show, the man in real life is greeted with knowing smiles and indulgent laughter.
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Credit cookies, or extra scenes in movies that are gags or teasers for upcoming films, are often not worth watching
Spider-Man: Homecoming has two extra scenes. Airplane! (1980) has one. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) has five.
Appearing during the end credits, these are called tags, stingers and credit cookies – but not all are worth biting into.
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, which opens in cinemas tomorrow, one of them is related to the movie plot and features a key character. The other is more of a throwaway gag and it could either tickle your funny bone or test your patience.
There has been a noticeable proliferation of these scenes in recent years. Superhero flicks such as Spider-Man are the main culprit,
I mean, main reason, for the spike.
With a Marvel Cinematic Universe of inter-related superhero films, the extra scenes are often teasers for movies to come. In Iron Man (2008), Samuel L. Jackson made a surprise cameo as Nick Fury from the agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and he brought up The Avengers initiative.
After the credits for Captain America: Civil War (2016), we saw Peter Parker (Tom Holland) lying in bed as his aunt, May (Marisa Tomei), asked about his injuries, pointing the way to Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Other times, though, things get a little too complicated.
The extra scene in Avengers:
Age Of Ultron (2015) showed supervillain Thanos (Josh Brolin) vowing to retrieve the all-powerful Infinity Stones himself. It looked towards the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, slated to hit cinemas in the next two years. Unless one was already a fan of the comic books, it was hard to figure out what was going on.
Maybe it is time for a moratorium on these bonus scenes. If they were that integral to the film, they would have made it to the part before the credits.
The extra scenes have spawned
a cottage industry online.
There are websites, such as What’s After The Credits? (aftercredits.com) and MediaStinger (mediastinger.com), that detail credit cookies and what they contain and even explanatory videos on YouTube.
MediaStinger also has a ratings chart to indicate whether the extras are worth staying on for – because, the truth is, few of them are actually that memorable.
How many can you recall? Can you say which was the best one without first heading to the sites mentioned earlier?
What works for me are the playful extras. They are not even necessarily scenes, but a bit of welcome comic relief.
Pixar is particularly good at this. A Bug’s Life (1998), for example, featured bloopers by the cast of insects. But, of course, there is no such thing as a bloopers reel for an animated film and each “outtake” has to be scripted and computer-animated from scratch.
Another animation company, Illumination Entertainment, also did well with Despicable Me (2010), in which a trio of the mischievous minions hammed it up during the credits as they competed to see who could stretch out farthest into the audience – a cute gag that also showcased the 3D effects.
Best of all are the outtakes in action superstar Jackie Chan’s movies. They are nothing less than an institution – where you witness the blood, sweat and tears, sometimes literally, that go into the insane stunts that he attempts for the sake of entertaining audiences.
In Armour Of God (1986), we see the accident that almost took his life when a tree branch he leapt onto broke and he plummeted 5m to the ground. He is carried off on a stretcher, amazingly enough still conscious, while holding up a piece of cloth to the right side of his head to staunch the bleeding.
Now, that definitely stings.
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The Servile
No Party For Cao Dong
The Servile is the sound of Taiwan’s disenfranchised youth venting their frustrations and it has struck a chord in their homeland.
At the recent prestigious Golden Melody Awards, the indie rock band No Party For Cao Dong took home three awards from six nominations, including Best New Artist and Best Musical Group.
Singer-songwriter Kay Huang, head of the Golden Melody judging panel, hailed their work: “They’re the explosion of a smothered generation.”
Their track Da Feng Chui (Simon Says), which won Song of the Year, is a scathing criticism of society’s obsession with material goods and the need for one-upmanship.
Using a simple everyday example, frontman Wu Tu sings without heat: “Cry, shout, ask your mother to buy a toy/Hurry to school and show off, child, make some friends/Aiyaya, look at what you’re holding/We’ve long disdained that, hahaha.”
That equanimity is shattered at the end when he tears into the chorus with a lacerating howl.
A sense of helplessness pervades The Reluctant (Yong Gan De Ren) as the singer rails: “Those cheap tears, don’t hang them by your mouth/Nothing has changed, nothing will change.”
The mood is bleak down to the final track Qing Ge (literally Love Song, but officially titled as Mottos, Bygones in English).
“I’ve sold my home town, lied to my lover/But the setbacks and terrors remain,” sings Wu Tu.
The album, which is seamless, stops short of feeling oppressive as the songs are powered by electric guitars and searing honesty, with disco beats and grunge influences thrown into the mix.
The band took their name from Cao Dong Street in Taipei’s Yangmingshan – a favourite hangout of their members, who include Chu Chu (guitar), Shih Hsuan (bass) and Fan Fan (drums).
They began selling out gigs in 2015 on the strength of their live performances and singles such as Lan Ni (Wimpish) before the release of their debut album in March last year.
Yet on Lan Ni, the band wrestle with self-doubt: “What I want to say, others have said before me/ What I want to do, people with money have already done.”
That sentiment is unwarranted – there is no question that No Party For Cao Dong have a voice that is distinctly their own.
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In This Corner Of The World
Sunao Katabuchi
The story: Suzu (Non) grows up in the seaside town of Eba in Hiroshima and later moves to Kure after marrying Shusaku (Yoshimasa Hosoya). A dreamer who loves to draw, she does her best to keep the household running in the midst of everyday challenges in a Japan at war. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945.

Aside from the blockbuster bodyswopping fantasy Your Name, In This Corner Of The World was another anime that did well in Japan last year.
It has grossed more than 2.5 billion yen (S$30.6 million) and has also been showered with awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.
In terms of style, Your Name is highly detailed and vividly coloured, while In This Corner Of The World, based on the award-winning manga of the same name (2007-2009), features charming hand-drawn animation, as though harking back to the earlier era of the film.
But even with simpler drawings, writer-director Sunao Katabuchi – who helmed feminist fairy tale anime Princess Arete (2001) – convincingly conveys what life was like in wartime Japan for ordinary folk.
Suzu has to learn to stretch the limited rations she can get hold of into a meal that can feed a household. And when she accidentally runs out of sugar, she learns of the existence of a black market that caters to every need and want – at exorbitant prices.
Even in adverse times, life goes on. The cicadas continue to cry and good-hearted Suzu – voiced with a provincial homeliness by Japanese actress-model Non – finds little pockets of happiness, such as the affection she shares with her husband.
The war that Japan is waging in the region appears to have little to do with her personally, even though her life and everyone else’s are intimately bound up in it.
She is so distanced from it that when she gets chastised by the secret police for sketching warships, it comes as a bit of a jolt.
But the spectre of combat and destruction keeps inching closer to her life. Her husband is eventually drafted and then the air raids begin. Homes are levelled and lives lost.
In a poignant and masterful stroke, Suzu imagines the explosions in the sky as a colourful abstract painting, the only way she can process what is unfolding.
Looming over everything is the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the horrors that will be unleashed.
Like the wrenching anime Grave Of The Fireflies (1988), In This Corner Of The World is ultimately an anti-war protest.
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Spider-Man: Homecoming
Jon Watts
The story: Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a geeky 15-year-old student who is eager to prove his worth as Spider-Man to his superhero mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr).
He sets out to take down Vulture (Michael Keaton), a working-class guy who turns to peddling alien material-enhanced weapons.
On top of that, Peter has to work up the courage to tell his crush Liz (Laura Harrier) how he feels.

When news of the latest Spider-Man reboot broke, many were sceptical, including myself.
Tobey Maguire had played the web-slinger in three films from 2002 to 2007 and Andrew Garfield had donned the suit for two outings in 2012 and 2014. In the space of merely 15 years, a third actor, Holland, was stepping into the role of Spidey.
It is a shrewd move to prevent the studio from being held ransom to any one actor’s salary demands, but it also means there is a danger of fans not feeling committed to the movie franchise.
To Holland’s credit, he makes the role his own. The English actor has already shown that he can act in tsunami drama The Impossible (2012), as a boy overwhelmed by grief and fear at first, and then blossoming as he finds he can help others in the aftermath of the disaster.
His Spider-Man is very much a teenager – impatient, impulsive and jonesing for his next big mission after joining the rest of the Avengers in battle in Captain America: Civil War (2016). We even get a shot-onPeter’s-mobile phone point of view of events that smartly recaps what happened previously while conveying his sense of awe and excitement.
Peter is also innately decent. For instance, he is repulsed by the idea of an “instant kill” mode in his souped-up-by-Stark suit.
Filipino-American actor Jacob Batalon is a great foil for him as his best friend Ned. When he learns of Peter’s secret identity, he lets loose with an endless volley of questions, including: “Do you lay eggs?”
Thankfully, there is no retread of the origin story of how Peter came to be Spider-Man, beyond a snappy exchange between the two friends.
The sense of humour, which is welcome, is also evident in a series of public education videos featuring Captain America. These are clips Peter encounters in the course of school life, highlighting the gulf between his identities as a regular student and a masked vigilante.
By making Spider-Man younger than before, Homecoming smartly sidesteps direct comparisons with previous incarnations of the superhero. The idea of an underaged superhero is not groundbreaking – Chloe Grace Moretz was just 13 when she played Hit-Girl on superhero comedy Kick-Ass (2010) – but director and co-writer Jon Watts (Cop Car, 2015) has a good grasp of Peter’s teenager world.
The villain here is not some madman or egomaniac, but a man who turns to crime as a result of the destruction wreaked by the Avengers in Civil War. The fact that actions have consequences is something most blockbusters blithely ignore. Bonus points for the cheeky casting as Keaton goes from Batman (1989) to baddie.
There are some nice twists as well and they keep Homecoming from turning into a mere retread of past successes.
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