Loud Festival

Singapore Indoor Stadium

Last Friday

It was only when King of Mandopop Jay Chou came on stage that the concert really lived up to its name.

He was the final act after indie Taiwanese band sodagreen, sultry popster Landy Wen, newcomer singer-songwriter Cindy Yen and home-grown band Ang Moh Pais had performed.

Fans who had remained glued to their seats the entire night before Chou appeared shot to their feet the moment his 30-minute set started. No one needed to ask which star the sold-out crowd of 8,000 was there for.

While there was understandably no elaborate set on stage like there would be for Chou’s solo concerts, there was still an attempt to jazz up the production with props such as coffins for the opening number Herbalist’s Manual.

Chou, in a red jacket over T-shirt and jeans, was relaxed and had the crowd eating out of his hand with his every gesture. He played the piano, strummed the guitar, showed off his human beatboxing and worked in mentions of Singapore and his fans into the songs.

The consummate entertainer also presented a reworked version of Nunchucks, danced to Free Tutorial Video and sang The Last Battle, which he seldom performs live.

By the time he launched into the original rap version of Nunchucks for his last number, he had the stadium dancing and chorusing along.

In the fight for second place at the Chinese music festival, so to speak, opening act sodagreen had their share of supporters as well.

Lead singer Wu Ching-feng was in fine form be it hitting the high notes on early favourite Little Love Song or teasing his bandmates during the introductions. Best of all, the band performed two tracks from their upcoming album, What Is Troubling You. The Limits Of Happiness and Like Loneliness both bear sodagreen’s hallmark traits of sensitive lyrics and beautiful melodies, and certainly whetted one’s appetite for the new offering.

Popster Landy Wen performed a set as long as Chou’s without coming close to his success. Her voice sounded rougher and more strained than on recordings. As if to overcompensate, the volume on the sound system went way up.

Surprisingly for Wen, who is arguably more famous for being eye candy, her ballads Wish Me Happy Birthday and Fool received the most positive reaction, over the slinky dance moves she used to seduce the audience.

Newcomers Cindy Yen and Ang Moh Pais filled out the roster with three numbers each. The band rocked out on the crowd-pleasing getai remake One Million while Yen left an impression with her hot pants rather than her vocal prowess.

The lone encore featured Chou and Wen dueting on Rooftops in mismatched outfits. Unfortunately, it was the only collaboration among the acts.

Surely the hot ticket would have been a jam between Chou and sodagreen. Maybe next time?

(ST)

Who Is Hanjin Tan

Hanjin Tan

If you want to know about Hanjin Tan, listen to this album.

The Hong Kong-based Singaporean musician lays out his life in the opening track Both Hands To The Sky: playing the guitar in bars after national service, leaving his economics degree in the cabinet and taking a gamble on pursuing music full-time and then writing songs for Jacky Cheung and producing for Eason Chan.

The road has been tough but Tan is not spinning some sob story: “It’s been hard going against the flow, but it’s harder to bear grudges, too lazy, can’t remember.”

From his beaming face on the CD cover to song titles such as No Time For Regrets and Happiness Is Free, it is not hard to work out his philosophy of life. And there is no denying that it is a compelling one, especially when the sentiment is dressed up with groovy beats and joyous scatting on Why Be Sad.

Admittedly, on first listen, I missed the edge that MC Jin brought to the table in their revelatory collaboration, Buy 1 Get 1 Free (2010). But this is such a personal album that it could not be anything else but a solo project.

Indeed, Tan composed the music, wrote the lyrics, did the production, arrangements, recording and mixing and also played the instruments.

There is no playing it safe here. Just listen to Not Reliable Making Money From Music, in which the sampled sounds of someone coughing and gagging cleverly make up the rhythm. Tan memorably makes the point that turning one’s passion into a means of making a living can be a terrible thing.

And in an album of mostly Mandarin tracks, the easy breezy jazzy pleasures of Simple Things make the sole English number a personal favourite.

It is absolutely worth your while to get to know Hanjin.

Mysterious Hero

Jonathan Leong

Making a somewhat unexpected Mandopop debut is Singapore Idol alumnus Jonathan Leong.

As perhaps is to be expected of someone who made his mark in the singing competition with English pop-rock hits such as Matchbox Twenty’s If You’re Gone and Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars, his Mandarin diction still needs work. It is not so deplorable as to render the songs unlistenable but it is noticeable.

The good news is that the album has a distinctive tuneful emo-rock sound. Better yet, it is a vibe which seems to be in keeping with Leong’s own sensibility rather than one foisted upon him – he composed seven of the nine tracks here.

It even works when he ventures into the synth-laced dance-rock of the Depeche Mode-influenced Addiction. Not to mention that it makes for a refreshing change from the endless emulations of Korean dance-pop out there.

A promising start.

(ST)

Documentaries are often associated with authority figures and experts doling out facts, with the spotlight firmly fixed on the subject in question.

Think Sir David Attenborough in his natural history programmes or Errol Morris’ The Fog Of War: Eleven Lessons From The Life Of Robert S McNamara (2003), which looks at the life of the former United States Secretary of Defense.

More recently, another kind of documentary has emerged, one in which the film-maker is front and centre.

Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock are the two names that spearhead this sub-genre of documentary films.

In his first feature-length work, Roger & Me (1989), Moore took General Motors to task for relocating its factories from Flint, Michigan, to Mexico, causing many Americans to be jobless.

His approach was unconventional and one that was very personal, since he had grown up in Flint.

There was a lot of anger over GM’s actions, both from former employees and from Moore himself.

It set the template for his subsequent films in which he thrust himself into the middle of the action, whether he is trying to get politicians to answer awkward questions in Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) or getting a free gun for opening a bank account in Bowling For Columbine (2002).

Spurlock upped the stakes in Super Size Me (2004), in which he subjected himself to an experiment of eating only McDonald’s meals for 30 days.

This approach has reaped rewards at the box office.

Fahrenheit 9/11, about former president George W. Bush’s war on terrorism, is the highestgrossing documentary of all time with over US$222 million in worldwide grosses.

It also won the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or.

Super Size Me earned over US$20 million worldwide and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary.

The me-me-me movies resonate with audiences, and some critics, as they give viewers someone to identify with in grappling with abstract issues of gun-control, war or even unhealthy diets.

But brickbats have been hurled at Spurlock and Moore along with the bouquets.

Moore, in particular, has been criticised for his showy, biased approach and for distorting the truth to suit his agenda.

Film-maker Michael Wilson even made an entire movie about the objections called Michael Moore Hates America (2004).

For example, he charges that Moore misrepresented the truth in the free-gunwith-bank-account incident by arranging for a gun to be delivered to the bank ahead of time.

That Moore dresses up the truth to dramatise it is troubling and distracting. It is not shocking enough that a bank was giving away guns?

The accusation, however, that a documentary is necessarily tainted the more the film-maker inserts himself into it does not hold water.

When the label of documentary is applied to a film, there is an expectation of absolute objectiveness that is simply unrealistic.

Every documentary, no matter how fairly approached, has a point of view.

Hiding the film-maker behind voiceovers and keeping him out of sight can, in fact, be a sneaky way of presenting what is seen on screen as the authoritative and undisputed truth.

Ironically, it is probably more transparent to have the film-maker expose his own biases.

The topics they delve into also persuades me of the worth of what Moore and Spurlock are doing.

They are often up against Goliaths, be they multinational corporations, powerful industries or even entire governments.

These self-styled gadflies prick and sting with their persistent and pesky questioning, and if that gives the behemoths any kind of pause in their actions, and everyone else food for thought on how his world is shaped by bigger forces, then I say: Bring those documentaries on.

Roger & Me (1989)

What: General Motors’ decision to close its plants in Flint, Michigan, devastated the city economically and socially. Michael Moore tries to pin down GM’s then chairman Roger B. Smith for an interview and finally confronts the man as he is giving his annual Christmas message to the company.

Bowling For Columbine (2002)

What: In the wake of the Columbine High School shooting tragedy, Moore examines the culture of guns and violence in the US in this Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature. He includes footage of actor Charlton Heston holding a musket and declaring at a National Rifle Association meeting: “I have only five words for you: From my cold dead hands.”

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

What: This highest-grossing documentary of all time by Moore took issue with the media coverage of the War on Terror as well as the mishandling and misrepresentation of the Iraq War by former president George W. Bush’s administration.

Super Size Me (2004)

What: In his 30-day McDonald’s-only experiment, Morgan Spurlock ate the equivalent of what most nutritionists say is an ordinary person’s average intake of fast food in eight years.

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)

What: Spurlock conducts interviews in the Middle East on the subjects of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Islamic fundamentalism.

He even goes around asking people in the street where Osama is at a time when the US had yet to take him out.

The birth of Spurlock’s son Laken is depicted here and the film is dedicated to him.

This is Spurlock’s exploration of the fight against terrorism, juxtaposed against his own fears of the kind of world his son is being born into.

(ST)

The Change-Up

David Dobkin

In the opening scene, projectile poop from a baby’s butt scores a bullseye on Jason Bateman’s face. Crap on the big screen – that just about sums up this film.

Bateman plays Dave Lockwood, a married- with-children lawyer who is overdue for a mid-life crisis, and Ryan Reynolds is his pal Mitch Planko, a sometime actor who is still living it up as a swinging bachelor.

The two switch bodies when they pee into a fountain. Predictably, the uptight guy learns to cut loose while the slacker guy learns about grown-up responsibilities.

However, the way they go about doing so is utterly unbelievable. For example, even though Mitch-in- Dave knows nothing about the law, he is able to play a pivotal part in a major, and majorly complicated, deal.

Indeed, the script, courtesy of The Hangover’s Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, has a very strong and distasteful world view: Women are witless sex objects and movie audiences are blithering idiots.

Stay clear.

(ST)

The Sorcerer And The White Snake

Ching Siu Tung

The story: The White Snake spirit (Eva Huang) takes on human form to be with the man she loves, the herbalist Xu Xian (Raymond Lam). Meanwhile, her soul sister, Green Snake (Charlene Choi), strikes up a friendship with the monk Neng Ren (Wen Zhang). White Snake’s true identity is found out by Neng Ren’s sorcerer teacher Fa Hai (Jet Li), whose mission is to subdue all demons.

While cautionary tales of entanglements between humans and spirits are not uncommon, what is unusual about the White Snake legend is that she is genuinely in love with Xu Xian rather than just out to sink her teeth into him.

Indeed, it is Fa Hai who comes off badly as he is unyielding in his simplistic dogmatic belief that humans and demons can never be together.

Director Ching Siu Tung had explored some of these elements in A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) to great success and it makes sense for him to take on this project. Unfortunately, his idea of updating this story is to bombard the audience with computer-generated imagery.

Worse, the CGI landscape looks decidedly fake. Instead of conjuring up believable other-worldly vistas as in Storm Warriors (2009), Ching creates what looks like epic battles of a video game. Sure, some bits may look cool but the overall effect is alienating.

Then there are the other questionable uses of CGI. In their reptilian form, White Snake and Green Snake are given breasts. The anatomically incorrect sight is ludicrous – and wouldn’t bosoms just get in the way of snakes slithering about?

Even more ridiculous is the decision to include cutesy CGI critters such as a talking mouse, tortoise and rabbit. Every time the creatures appear, this jarringly turns into a film that seems to be targeted at kids.

It would have taken some tremendous acting from the cast to rise above this and this was not the case.

Lam is blandly insipid as Xu Xian, turning what should be a passionate and moving love with Huang’s White Snake into a tepid affair.

Li is mostly stoic as the single-minded Fa Hai and his usually reliable action scenes are swallowed up in a sea of CGI.

The supporting characters gamely shore up the film. In particular, Wen left an impression as the tragicomic Neng Ren and his bittersweet relationship with Choi’s Green Snake was affecting.

Too bad the movie as a whole has no bite.

(ST)

My Love

Hebe Tien

Looking For

Jeanie Zhang

Bad Girl

Amber Ann

Taiwanese singer – and one-third of girl group S.H.E – Hebe Tien (far right) delivers the goods again on My Love, her

follow-up to last year’s well-received solo debut To Hebe. Left to her own devices, she comes across as a chic hippie chick, all grown up and with a mind of her own.

Collaborators such as indie singer- songwriters Sandee Chan, Cheer Chen and sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng burnish Tien’s music cred on the tracks Utopia, Shadow’s Shadow and You.

On the song Flower, Tien explores

unusual line readings that make the breezy track more memorable, as she

sings: “Flowers, learning coloratura/

Flowers, borrowing fragrance/Flowers, flowers are so beautiful/Does the heart want to feel the same.”

Hearteningly, her vocals seem to have improved from her previous effort and the sound is more nuanced and full-

bodied here, hopefully not the result of electronic fiddling. With her hard- earned music credibility of late, one foresees that her membership in the popular S.H.E – put

together by the dictates of a record company and struggling to shake their reputation as disposable popsters – could become a liability to her down the line.

Faring a little less well on her second release is China’s singer-composer Jeanie Zhang. There is no doubt she has a clear voice, but the material this time does not leave as strong an impression as the songs from her 2009 debut, Keep Going.

She writes in the liner notes about “strangely” losing her voice last year and the frustrations and fears she faced. But there is no trace of this struggle to be found here.

Instead, too many songs are in the mid-tempo range and deal with the well-worn topic of love in a not particularly fresh manner. Or, maybe, it is the fact that familiarity breeds higher expectations.

This is not a problem faced by Taiwan’s sexiest woman Amber Ann, who was voted No. 1 in FHM magazine Taiwan’s 2011 poll of top 100 sexiest women. The model and TV host is merely releasing a pictorial book of her in sexy underwear with various degrees of translucency. Wait a second, there is actually a debut CD of songs tacked on here.

If you can get past the baby-doll voice, you are rewarded with cutesy numbers. Hola, for instance, seems to be an attempt to pun the Spanish greeting with the Minnan phrase for okay.

On the final track Where Did She Go, she sings: “I know I’m not noble, but I’m definitely not lowly.” That spunky attitude and note of defiance would probably be more convincing without the lingerie catalogue.

(ST)

1911

Zhang Li, Jackie Chan

The story: The Xinhai Revolution, which is also the more informative Chinese title, is about the overthrow of the imperial Qing Dynasty and the attempt to establish a republic in China. It is bookended by the Wuchang Uprising on Oct 10, 1911, and the abdication of Emperor Puyi on Feb 12, 1912. The key characters in this political and military drama include revolutionary leaders Sun Yat Sen (Winston Chao) and his right-hand man Huang Xing (Jackie Chan), the hemmed-in Empress Dowager Long Yu (Joan Chen) desperately hanging on to power and general Yuan Shikai (Sun Chun), playing both sides for his own vainglorious ends.

Despite the movie poster and the much-hyped fact that it is his 100th work, this is not a Jackie Chan movie. It is not his typical action- adventure vehicle but an ambitious ensemble drama that attempts to convey a crucial period of tumult and upheaval in China in the centenary of the Xinhai Revolution.

It is one of several upcoming historical movies about the revolution, or one of the many uprisings leading to Xinhai, including The Woman Knight Of Mirror Lake, which opens here next month.

Zhang Li, who shares the directing credit on 1911 with Chan, is no stranger to the genre or material: He had helmed the 60-episode TV series Towards The Republic (2003), which spanned 20 years and covered far more ground.

Also, scribes Wang Xingdong and Chen Baoguang had worked on the similarly epic series The Founding Of The Republic (2010), which covered a later time period.

Together, they make a complicated era of history easy to follow and engaging. The big picture and personal stories are handled well and their juxtaposition is effective.

As Dr Sun Yat Sen makes his case for revolution with stirring rhetoric, we are also shown the stark human cost of revolution. Zhang was the cinematographer for blockbusters such as Red Cliff and he is adept at handling the major battle scenes of carnage and destruction.

At the same time, there are vignettes of some martyrs to make viewers emotionally invested as the history unfolds on screen. Popular China actor-singer Hu Ge, for example, leaves an impression as the idealistic Li Juemin, who is ready to leave behind his wife and baby and sacrifice himself for his beliefs.

Key moments are distilled into memorable scenes. Faced with a barrage of bad news, the empress dowager begins to cry and that sets the child emperor Puyi bawling too, as if they were lamenting in unison the dynasty’s fate.

The actors are consistently good across the board. In his fourth outing as Dr Sun, Chao convinces you of the man’s oratorical skills and revolutionary zeal. Chen is imperious as the doomed dowager and Sun Chun is spot-on as the cunning and ambitious Yuan Shikai.

Chan fares well as the loyal Huang Xing, though there is a jarring Jackie Chan moment when he single-handedly thwarts an assassination attempt on Dr Sun. For a moment, the film threatens to veer into Bodyguards And Assassins (2009) territory, where history is just an excuse for popcorn entertainment.

But 1911 is no documentary. Co-director Zhang has said: “The retelling of the events of 1911 is a way of using art to revisit those revolutionary heroes, their patriotism and willingness to risk their lives.”

What the film does, powerfully, is to make history come alive.

(ST)

Slow Soul

Crowd Lu

Life Goes On & On

Manhand

The exuberant youthful optimism of Taiwanese singer-songwriter Crowd Lu seems to have been tempered somewhat on his third studio album.

Apart from the opening track Don’t Call Me When I’m Asleep, the chirpy jingles about breakfast and friendship are gone.

But if 100 Ways Of Living from his 2008 debut folk-pop album of the same name was about feeling conflicted over the vastness of possibilities, Slow Soul can be seen as one way of approaching life.

Tiger Chung’s lyrics in the title track go: “A gentle breeze is blowing, who is crying/I’m like a kite, blown past boundaries, so far away/Forgive my slow soul/I’m worried I won’t be able to find/Oh, my world.”

Musically, Lu is still exploring. On Harbourside Boy, he sings in Minnan to Cheer Chen’s lyrics: “My granddad rises early as well/Catching fish by the sea, passing the days by watching the sky.”

Lu’s child-like innocence remains, though for the first time, it almost crosses over into twee territory on songs such as Rainbow with its clunky English chorus: “I see the rainbow in the sky/So high so beautiful.../I promise/I will take you fly away from here...”

Mosquito is a highlight here but fans would have already heard it on his Four-Fruit Ice EP (2010) and the earlier acoustic guitar version is superior.

On the whole, Slow Soul feels like a transitional album as Lu figures out where he is headed next. Even if he takes it slow, the journey ahead should still be a worthwhile one.

Despite a marked difference in musical styles, Malaysia’s pop-rock outfit Manhand embrace a similar laidback attitude towards life on Slow And Relaxed, a collaboration with Taiwanese hip-hop jazz artist Soft Lipa.

The message is also found on their third album’s opener Life Goes On: “Let us slowly move forward step by step/Even if time doesn’t turn its head once it’s past/Just want to embrace the moment and stride across the earth.”

The band show off their versatility by giving the listener a little of everything from the balladry of Continue Latido to the hip-hop dance of Lalula. The anger that flashes through Pedestrian, though, feels a little jarring.

Life might go on and on, but Manhand prove that it does not have to be monotonous or dreary.

(ST)

Who says we do not get the seasons here in Singapore? We might not get leaves turning shades of red, orange and brown but we still get to experience autumn – in the form of the American fall TV season.

Pay TV operators mio TV and StarHub have been steadily upping their game and Singaporeans have at least 17 new titles heading their way from now till the end of the year, with more to come next year.

Sci-fi has a splashy presence among the offerings with an alien invasion in Falling Skies and terrifying dinosaurs in Terra Nova. Take a look at the executive producer credits for both shows and one name jumps out – Steven Spielberg, one of the most influential and successful American film-makers of all time.

Intriguingly, Spielberg has his hand in yet another series. This is Smash, about a hit Broadway musical for which the curtain goes up next year.

Other name producers with new projects include Lost’s J.J. Abrams with the crime thriller Person Of Interest and 24’s Howard Gordon with the counter-

terrorism drama Homeland.

Also making an impact are fairy tales. They are the inspiration for Once Upon A Time, in which familiar characters are transported to a modern-day setting, and the 2012 offering Grimm, in which the villains turn out to be real and only one homicide detective has the power to stop them.

Given the success of Modern Family, sitcoms about parents and children continue to sprout. This year’s healthier-than-usual crop includes Suburgatory, I Hate My Teenage Daughter and Man Up.

Staples such as the medical drama are being given a new lease of life with a new star as Rachel Bilson headlines Hart Of Dixie.

The one series that really stands out is American Horror Story with its unusual tone and vibe. It could turn out to be this year’s Twin Peaks (1990-1991), an unexpected hit that came from nowhere.

To ease the transition to a new season, Life! gives a rundown on 16 new shows and lets you in on what to expect.

Happy fall season everyone!

Terra Nova

When: From Wednesday (mio), Oct 29 (StarHub)

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 727; Fox Channel, StarHub Channel 505; Fox Channel HD, StarHub Channel 558

What: Dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg. I am sold. Given executive producer Spielberg’s success with the Jurassic Park movie series, everyone is hoping for a monster hit with Terra Nova.

In the year 2149, Earth is severely overpopulated and all life is on the brink of extinction. The Shannon family are among the lucky few who get to be part of a new colony, Terra Nova, which has been established 85 million years in the past. The catch – it is a time when ravenous carnivorous dinosaurs tore across the land.

The best-known actor here is probably Stephen Lang (far right, foreground). He was the tough-guy Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and here, he plays the tough-guy Commander Taylor who heads the colony.

No expense has been spared in bringing this vision to life and Terra Nova is reportedly the most expensive TV series ever. The Independent newspaper estimated that it cost £200,000 (S$398,000) to make one minute of the sci-fi drama.

There is no doubt that the series looks good but given its cost, the big question here is whether it can break new ground in attracting audiences to the small screen.

Man Up

When: From Oct 20

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 732

What: What does it mean to be a man in today’s world? Will Keen (Mather Zickel, centre) is married with children and he wants to be a role model for his teenage son. He also wants gaming time with his buds, the loud and excitable Kenny Hayden (Dan Fogler, right) and the dweeby Craig Griffith (series creator Christopher Moynihan, left).

Good on Fogler for parlaying his Tony Award-winning performance in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee into a viable career, but he has to watch out being typecast.

Think of this as a younger version of Men Of A Certain Age (2009 to 2011).

Homeland

When: From Oct 4

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 731

What: A top-notch cast headlines this topical drama about terrorism in America.

Say “welcome back” to Claire Danes, best known for her work on the critically acclaimed but short-lived teen drama My So-Called Life (1994 to 1995). And “hello again” to TV veteran Mandy Patinkin, last seen on Criminal Minds.

A prisoner-of-war (Damian Lewis, far right, as sergeant Nicholas Brody) believed to be dead is rescued in Iraq and returns home to a hero’s welcome. But CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Danes) has her doubts and tries to convince her mentor Saul Berenson (Patinkin) that he has switched loyalties.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Brody’s wife (Morena Baccarin, right) and children have to adjust to the return of a husband and father.

The series opener sets up several promising narrative threads. A seemingly more realistic version of the counter-terrorism drama 24, though a CIA officer is already breaking federal laws in the first episode.

Hart Of Dixie

When: From Wednesday

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 725

What: Another Everwood-influenced medical drama. Dr Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson, right) packs her bags and moves to Alabama where she will learn that caring for patients is not the same as merely treating them.

The series marks the second collaboration between executive producer Jason Schwartz and star Bilson. He created the teen soap The O.C., which provided her with the breakout role of party-girl Summer. Bilson turned what could have been a one-note sidekick into a spirited character whom audiences could root for.

Her likeable charm is still intact even if her potential love interests – The Good Wife’s Scott Porter and The Young And The Restless’ Wilson Bethel – are already all sketched out in the first episode.

2 Broke Girls

When: Currently available

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 704

What: Poor girl Max (Kat Dennings, right) and down-and-out rich girl Caroline (Beth Behrs, far right) are twenty-something waitresses at a Brooklyn diner. Despite their chalk-and-cheese personalities, they become friends. They dream of making US$250,000 (S$317,000) so that they can open their own cupcake shop.

At the end of the first episode, the amount they have raised thus far is shown. Expect a snakes-

and-ladders situation as they trudge towards their goal.

The series was co-created by Sex And The City’s Michael Patrick King. Dennings’ sassy and sensible Max is likeable.

American Horror Story

When: From Oct 7

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 706

What: Ben (Dylan McDermott, above centre) and Vivien (Connie Britton, left) are trying to salvage their marriage and they decide a fresh start is the answer. They move into an old mansion in Los Angeles with their daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga, right), unaware that there are ghosts lurking and skeletons rattling about.

The new series from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, who are behind high-school musical Glee (2009-present) and plastic surgery soap drama Nip/Tuck (2003-2010), is intriguing, all right. The ensemble cast is a strong one with actress Jessica Lange signing on for her first regular TV role as the next-door neighbour who knows more than she lets on, Frances Conroy (the matriarch in Six Feet Under) as the housekeeper and McDermott playing angsty once more after The Practice.

American Horror Story keeps the viewer off-kilter and though the first episode has almost too much weirdness, its creepy vibe is a welcome addition to the TV landscape.

Falling Skies

When: From Oct 3 at 8.20pm

Where: AXN Beyond, StarHub Channel 525

What: Aliens have invaded Earth and decimated most of the human race. Survivors form a resistance group, Second Massachusetts. They are led by former military officer Weaver (Will Patton) and history professor Tom Mason (Noah Wyle, third from left), who is searching for his son. For some nefarious reason, the aliens have been rounding up children and attaching a metallic device to each of them.

Fans of Wyle will be glad to see him back on the small screen after his low-key big screen outings. He is best known for his turn as Dr John Carter (1994 to 2005) in the long-running medical drama ER (1994 to 2009) and was named by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in 2001.

Producer Steven Spielberg is attached to the project and given his sci-fi flicks such as Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) and War Of The Worlds (2005), expectations were high. The series has garnered some positive reviews and will be back for a second season of another 10 episodes next year.

Prime Suspect

When: From Nov 3 Where: Diva Universal, StarHub Channel 522

What: The ground-breaking British police procedural of the 1990s and 2000s starred Helen Mirren as a no-nonsense detective.

Maria Bello (left) gamely steps into the role for the American remake after hanging up her scrubs on the medical drama ER (1994-2006). Joining her is actor Aidan Quinn, once a leading man in films such as the thriller Blink (1993).

Crossovers between the Atlantic are not uncommon but success is by no means assured.

For every The Office, there are misguided efforts such as Coupling and Life On Mars.

Person Of Interest

When: From tomorrow

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 719

What: John Reese (Jim Caviezel, above) is a former CIA agent hired by the mysterious Mr Finch (Michael Emerson) to stop crimes before they occur.

What sounds like a crime procedural with a twist comes with an impressive pedigree. The show is created by Jonathan Nolan, author of the short story Memento Mori, which his brother Christopher adapted into the acclaimed film Memento (2000).

Person Of Interest marks Caviezel’s return to the small screen. He had appeared on shows such as Murder, She Wrote early on in his career before taking to film in works such as Terrence Malick’s war drama The Thin Red Line (1998) and Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ (2004).

The Secret Circle

When: Currently available

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 702

What: Given the success of The Vampire Diaries, it is no surprise that another work by author L.J. Smith has been brought to the small screen.

As with Diaries, there is once again a young woman dealing with a world of fantasy and magic, one that holds both promise and danger. Here, Cassie discovers that she comes from a family of witches after losing her mother. She also finds out that she completes a ritual circle of six and, like it or not, she has powers that others have already made plans for.

A new crop of actors with flawless skin and perfect hair such as Thomas Dekker and Brittany Robertson (both above) will hope that their circle of fans can be as large as Diaries’.

Friends With Benefits

When: Currently available

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 549

What: Beyond sharing a title with the Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis romantic comedy, there does not seem to be anything linking the series to the film.

Unfortunately, the attractiveness quotient of the friends enjoying mutual benefits seems to be decidedly lower here. The cast includes Ryan Hansen (left), Danneel Ackles (far left), Jessica Lucas, Zach Cregger and Andre Holland. Who, you ask? Exactly. The show about friends in Chicago was canned in the US after 12 episodes, so don’t get too attached.

A Gifted Man

When: 2011

Where: AXN Beyond, StarHub Channel 525

What: Touched By An Angel meets Everwood as a self-absorbed and brilliant neurosurgeon Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) learns to be gentler and kinder through visits from his dead ex-wife (Jennifer Ehle). Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs, 1991) directed the pilot and is executive producer.

After belting out songs in Broadway musicals, Wilson left an impression in films as different as sex predator thriller Hard Candy (2005) and the dark drama Little Children (2006). Can he can make his surgeon role more complicated, and interesting?

Also worth noting is Julie Benz. She has made her supporting work count in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Dexter, and plays Wilson’s onscreen supernatural-believing sibling.

I Hate My Teenage Daughter

When: From Dec 2

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 736

What: The set-up of two divorced mothers raising their teenage daughters sounds like the makings of a generic sitcom.

But Jaime Pressly, so good at being nasty on My Name Is Earl (2005 to 2009), has comic verve as the mum with the ultra- conservative upbringing, Annie Watson. And she has an easy chemistry with fellow mum/best friend Nikki Miller, who is still haunted by her past as an unpopular girl. Nikki is played by Katie Finneran, who was in the brilliant and all-too-brief Wonderfalls (2004).

So far, the mothers are proving to be far more interesting than the bland and manipulative daughters played by Kristi Lauren and Aisha Dee. Keep the focus on Annie and Nikki and the show will be fine.

New Girl

When: From Oct 1

Where: Star World, StarHub Channel 501; Star World HD, StarHub Channel 555

What: A newly single Jess (Zooey Deschanel, far right) moves into an apartment with three single guys: (from left) Coach the former athlete (Damon Wayans Jr), Nick the bartender (Jake Johnson) and Schmidt the Casanova (Max Greenfield).

Deschanel’s kooky charm has served her well in films such as (500) Days Of Summer (2009) and she is also one-half

of the acclaimed music act She & Him.

She muscles in on her sister’s territory – Emily Deschanel in crime drama Bones. But since Zooey has guest-starred on Bones, bet on Emily to return the favour at some point, if New Girl is around long enough.

Once Upon A Time

When: From Oct 25 (mio), December (StarHub)

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 734; and Star World, StarHub Channel 501; Star World HD, StarHub Channel 555

What: The world of fairy tales has lost its happily-ever-after. Characters such as Snow White (Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin, left) are now trapped in a town called Storybrooke where they have different identities and not an inkling of their storied past.

It is up to sceptical Emma Swan (House’s Jennifer Morrison) to break the curse of the evil queen and things are set in motion when a son (Jared Gilmore) she gave up for adoption turns up on her doorstep 10 years after the fact.

The set-up is long and laborious and seems quite dully serious when a lighter touch would have been nice.

Revenge

When: From today

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 715

What: It is billed as an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count Of Monte Cristo. The key word missing here is “loose”.

Emily VanCamp (right) is Emily Thorne, a young woman vowing vengeance on the people who killed her father and destroyed her life. In the playground of the rich and powerful that is the Hamptons, Thorne schemes and plots to bring down Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe, looking great at 53) and those close to her.

In Everwood (2002-2006) and Brothers & Sisters (2007-2010), VanCamp played a sensitive high-school student and a young woman dealing with family secrets. She now morphs into a cold-blooded instrument wreaking havoc and devastation. They sure do grow up quickly.

Suburgatory

When: From Sept 30

Where: mio TV Season Pass, Channel 729

What: Despite the terrible tongue-twisting clunker of a title, Suburgatory turned out to be a most promising series. Not since Wonderfalls (2004) and Dead Like Me (2003-2004) has there been such a mordantly funny young woman on television.

Sixteen-year-old Tessa (Jane Levy) has been forcibly transplanted to suburbia by her father George (Jeremy Sisto, left). Stuck in her own private purgatory, she copes by employing her cynical wit and an acid tongue.

Newcomer Levy is one to watch while Sisto gets to hang loose after his three-year stint on the sombre Law & Order.

I Don't Know How She Does It

Douglas McGrath

The story: Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker) juggles marriage to architect Richard (Greg Kinnear), their two young children and a demanding job as an investment banker. When her pitch for a new product is picked up by higher-up Jack (Pierce Brosnan), the tricky act becomes even more frenetic. Based on the 2002 best-selling novel of the same name by Allison Pearson.

Ignoring the ghastly movies, this could be the alternate-universe sequel to the hit TV series Sex And The City (1998 to 2004).

In the HBO series, Sarah Jessica Parker plays Carrie, a single woman in her 30s living and loving in New York and writing about her experiences for a newspaper.

It is a role that she is immediately associated with, to the point where it can become difficult to separate the actress from the character.

And deliberate or not, some of the mannerisms Parker imbued Carrie with are present in Kate in this movie, most notably a tendency to be klutzy when she is nervous.

As a single in New York, Carrie remarks that one is always looking for a job, a boyfriend or an apartment.

Well, Kate is married to a nice-guy architect (Kinnear), has a job that she loves and is presumably not looking for a new house. Instead, her challenge is to keep it all together.

The idea of women taking on multiple roles has been around for a while. Author Shirley Conran promised to tell women how to be a working wife and mother in Superwoman (1975), while feminist Betty Friedan addressed the multiple demands placed on women in The Second Stage (1981).

I Don’t Know How She Does It does not really add anything meaningful to the conversation.

Basically, Kate gets lots of breaks. She has a mostly supportive husband, a charming work partner (Brosnan) and a not-very-scary boss – after all, he is played by Kelsey Grammer from TV’s Frasier (1993 to 2004). All this makes her work-home balance problem seem like not much of a dilemma when it gets resolved.

Neither does the film rate highly as a light-hearted comedy and only Olivia Munn as Kate’s robotic assistant with a heart of gold grows on you.

Douglas McGrath’s direction is mostly workman-like and the flourishes, such as the documentary-style interviews with the characters, feel gimmicky as they are not particularly interesting.

What is curious about the movie is how it obviously seeks to rehabilitate the rock-bottom reputations of bankers in the wake of the financial tsunami.

Kate’s proposed product is all about helping people to retire because, hey, that is what really matters to investment firms rather than the bottom line.

And at a friendly bowling game, Jack is told that he would be forgiven for being a banker if he wins the competition for the group. No prizes for guessing whether he does.

It does make you wonder whether Wall Street fat cats bankrolled the film.

(ST)

Fright Night

Craig Gillespie

The story: Charley (Anton Yelchin) discovers that his next-door neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a murderous vampire. He turns to Las Vegas showman Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a self-styled vampire expert, for help. Jerry later goes on a rampage to take down Charley, his mother (Toni Collette) and his girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots). Look out for a cameo from Chris Sarandon who played Jerry in the original Fright Night from 1985.

The 1985 original was a funny, sexy and thrilling vampire flick. Is there a need for a remake?

By now, vampires have overrun the pop culture landscape. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) mixed the same elements to great success on the small screen, the Twilight series is a phenomenon in both print and on celluloid while the likes of Alexander Skarsgard are oozing menace and sex from every undead pore on TV’s True Blood.

To the credit of scribe Marti Noxon, who wrote and produced for Buffy, and director Craig Gillespie, who helmed the sensitively quirky Lars And The Real Girl (2007), the remake is justified.

For one thing, the script has been thoughtfully updated. Most notably, the new setting is Las Vegas, where people are always coming and going and disappearing, and the character of Peter Vincent is now a flamboyant magician instead of a two-bit TV host who used to play vampire killers.

Noxon has also fleshed out the role of Charley by delving into the cruel world of high school. He is an ex-nerd dating a hot girl, which means he has to cut off ties with his old mates and hang out with the cool gang now. Poignantly, it is his former buddy Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who discovers the truth about Jerry and pays a price for it.

There are also some sharply written lines scattered throughout the dialogue. When Charley asks Amy why she went out with him, she tells him it is because he is different and also, “your skin cleared up”.

Gillespie handles the material with an assured hand as he ratchets up the tension and then releases it again and again. He displays equal skill switching between the various moods and tones in the movie.

Central to the film’s success is Farrell’s take on the creature of the night. Instead of reprising Chris Sarandon’s more sardonic Jerry, the Irish actor brings out the brutal, animal nature of the beast. And yes, he brings the sexy, too.

Maybe True Blood could do with some new blood for season five next year.

(ST)

Weibird Concert Live

Weibird Wei

Releasing a live album after just one full-length record could be either an act of hubris or a blatant attempt to milk the cash cow. The good news is that Taiwanese singer-songwriter Weibird Wei’s offering is neither.

There are three strands here: live renditions from his 2010 self-titled debut which won him Best Newcomer at the Golden Melody Awards, covers of Mandarin and English songs and, best of all, new material.

The 24-year-old proves he can hold his own in a live setting and that the intimate experience of listening to his justly lauded record translates well to the stage.

As Wei shares in speech interludes about how his life has changed since his CD took off and about his ambivalent relationship with fans, you feel like you are at the gig at the Taipei International Convention Centre in September last year.

His covers are no fillers. He is equally at home covering everything from A-mei’s Hostage and Khalil Fong’s Love Love Love to James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful and Damien Rice’s Blower’s Daughter. For those who first saw him in the now-defunct TV talent show Happy Sunday in 2007, his emotive English renditions would come as no surprise.

There are three new songs included here: the humorous Me, A Pig, And His Girlfriend, the English ballad She’ll Be An Angel, and the standout Why Life.

The last track was a response to what he saw in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot’s destruction in August 2009.

Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, its pointed lyrics go: “Why oh why, no answer/Life oh life, can’t live it over... The corrupt don’t have to run, good people help out and die.”

It is one young man’s attempt to make sense of the world and even if he provides no answers, his questions and observations are worth listening to.

Super Kelly

Kelly Poon

Local singer Kelly Poon puts on a brave front on her EP with her new record label. In the opening track, she declares: “Cos I’m an inde-inde-independent girl/And I don’t need don’t need don’t need you to rock my world.”

It sounds like a defiant riposte to critics who say she has been struggling to make a breakthrough in the industry since emerging as the female champion in the Project Superstar singing competition in 2005. chk

Part of the problem is that she never had a distinctive enough image and Independent Girl is at least a step in the right direction with its spunky spirit.

While the girl-power message gets muddied with the conventional ballad My Love and the cutesy photographs, props must go to Poon for continuing to plug away and for having a hand in writing all five songs here.

Here’s hoping she gets more love this time around.

(ST)

Not Playing By The Rules

Magic Power

Erotic is not something that Mandopop, dominated by chaste, cutesy young things, does very often. No wonder six-member band Magic Power have taken it upon themselves to, well, bring sexy back.

The title track has them going “You really wanna do do do it all night” over a thumping beat and a bouncy synth line.

And on the duet Hush with Della Ding Dang, they heat things up further: “I wanna see you naked... on my bed/Now sexy lady let me hear you sing”.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out during the upcoming [B’3] concert here tomorrow at The Max Pavilion @ Singapore Expo.

Apart from the dance tracks, the band also cover their bases with tuneful ballads such as Tomorrow Comes The Armageddon and I’ll Always Be With You, both chosen to be the theme songs for the Taiwanese broadcast of the Korean television drama Stormy Lovers.

While their self-titled debut last year seemed to be more joyous and less slick, Magic Power remain an entertaining proposition.

(ST)

Longing For

Rainie Yang

With a chic new bob, Taiwanese singer, actress and host Rainie Yang has given up on cutesy behaviour and is ready to act her age – that is, 27 – on her sixth studio album.

The title track is sophisticated pop that bodes well for the album. Over a breezily engaging melody by Malaysian singer-songwriter Vchuan Chen, Yang sings of yearning: “Longing for dreams to give me strength, won’t let love run away, won’t let my heart hide, let me be strong.”

In a smart move, she ropes in singer-songwriter Lala Hsu and lyricist Ko Ta-wei for some indie cred on Fast Forward. Yang deserves credit for trying, but her voice is still on the thin side. One cannot help but think that Hsu would have done greater justice to the track she had written if she had sung it instead.

It is two steps forward and one step back as the first plug Love Fool is too stolidly commercial. It has been doing well on the charts, though, as it has been used on her new idol drama While We Were Drunk. Lovelution, meanwhile, seems to hark back to cutesy Rainie.

The album closes with the fast-paced Happy Ending, and it has certainly been one for Yang.

Vindicating her new direction, the record has topped the album charts in Taiwan for several weeks. Hopefully, this means the more mature Yang is here to stay.

(ST)

It is a holiday trip in which you call the shots. You decide what time to get up and set off, how long to linger at each attraction or even whether to wander off the set path.

While Singaporeans are familiar with the pleasures of driving trips in countries such as New Zealand and the United States, the idea can seem rather daunting in a place where you do not understand the language.

But on recent trips to Okinawa and Chubu in Japan, Life! found the driving experience to be breezy and fuss-free.

The trip was organised by local tour agency Follow Me Japan, which has been organising fly-and-drive Japanese holidays since 2005.

All cars come equipped with a GPS navigation system, which means that getting from point A to point B is as simple as keying in a numerical map code and then following the English voice instructions. It also helps that the Japanese are patient and polite drivers and you never feel hassled on the roads.

You get a detailed booklet with a suggested itinerary, complete with maps, colour photographs and descriptive passages. Much care goes into putting all this together and there are also recommendations on popular local eateries and specialities one should not miss.

Also, since most cellphones in Singapore do not work in Japan because of the different technologies adopted, the agency issues its customers with a local mobile phone for ease of communication within the group.

Follow Me Japan started off with driving tours to Hokkaido and has since added other destinations such as the regions of Tohoku and Chubu, and recently, the southern-most prefecture of Okinawa.

The main island of Okinawa is blessed with a rugged coastline and clear, shallow waters teeming with an abundance of marine life and colourful corals. Divers can plunge right in and swim alongside more than 1,000 species of fish, marine mammals and sea turtles and more than 200 reef-building corals.

For non-divers, the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (oki-churaumi.jp, tel: +81-980-48-3748) is a good place to start getting acquainted with beauteous and bountiful nature. After all, Churaumi means beautiful sea in the local dialect.

It recreates, in air-conditioned comfort, the experience of venturing from the shallow shores to the deep sea as you saunter from the fourth floor to the first, passing by garden eels, an array of darting fish and the carcass of a giant squid.

The world-class aquarium boasts a central tank which houses 70 species, including regal manta rays and circling whale sharks, the largest fish in the world which grow to an average length of 7.6m.

When you venture outdoors, it pays to be well prepared with sunscreen, headgear and shades as the summer heat is intense and the light piercingly bright.

The Busena Marine Park (www.busena-marinepark.com is in Japanese only or www.okinawastory.jp, tel: +81-980-52- 3379) offers rides in a glass-bottom boat and fabulous views at 3 to 4m deep from the underwater observatory tower. This is as close as you can get to the tropical fish and delicate corals without getting your feet wet.

There are clownfish clowning about among the poisonous tentacles of sea anemone, while the flamboyant Banana Wrasse steals the show every time its vivid rainbow colours come into view.

Since this is a free-and-easy driving trip, feel free to stop at any of the scenic lookout points and take in the dramatic coastline. At Cape Manzamo, an “elephant” carved out of the rock by the relentless waves looks like it is about to dip its trunk into the irresistible waters for a refreshing drink.

Climb the 30m-tall lighthouse at Cape Zanpa for panoramic views of sea and land as the wind rushes about.

For the most part, driving in Okinawa is easy as the traffic is fairly light except during rush hour in the evenings.

While it is not as scenic as, say, Hokkaido, you do get rewarded with flashes of brilliantly blue water every so often.

After all that activity and driving around, reward yourself by tucking into the delicious harvest served up by the sea.

Try the local speciality, umibudo (seagrapes), at the popular Ganso Umi Budo Honten restaurant (tel: +81-98-966- 2588). The seagrape-don has a generous helping of the seaweed along with ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin) and yamakake (grated Japanese mountain yam). The reason for the name is apparent when you see it as it looks like little bunches of green grapes. The seaweed bursts in your mouth and tastes of the sea. Think of seagrapes as a firmer and less salty version of salmon roe.

The nearby Yakaji Island produces kuruma ebi (literally, car prawns) and you can have them tempura-style at Kuruma Ebi Shokudo (tel: +81-980-47-7888). The fresh and juicy prawns are coated in a light batter and then deep-fried to perfection. Wash them down with an ice- cold mug of the local Orion beer.

A good way to beat the heat is to tuck into zenzai. It is a Zen version of ice kacang with no bells and whistles or artificial colouring, yet it is amazing how satisfying the simple combination of shaved ice and red beans can be.

At Makishi Public Market in bustling Kokusai Street, pick up the catch of the day and have it served to you at the eateries conveniently located on the second floor of the market.

There is a lot more to explore when it comes to Okinawan cuisine. A distinguishing feature is the prominence of ingredients such as pork and goya (bitter gourd). Dig into the cooling stir-fry of goya champuru as well as the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness of rafute – a dish of braised pork belly that was fit for the royal family of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which is present-day Okinawa.

The splendours of the kingdom can be glimpsed from a visit to Shurijo Castle (www.oki-park.jp, tel: +81-98-886- 2020), which was first built between the 13th and 14th centuries. As befitting a major trading port which absorbed influences from abroad, the castle has elements of mainland Japanese, Chinese and Korean architecture.

If you are keen to learn more about Okinawa’s storied past, drop by sights such as the Zakimi Castle ruins (www.okinawastory.jp, tel: +81-98-958- 3141) and Shikinaen Royal Garden (www.okinawastory.jp, tel: +81-98-855- 5936), as well as the Okinawa Prefectural Museum (www.museums.pref.okinawa. jp, tel: +81-98-941-8200) with its detailed dioramas and extensive write- ups in English.

At some point though, do head for the beach. Feel the sun on your skin, get your feet wet and just lose yourself in a sea of dazzling blues.

(ST)

C’est La “V”

Van Ness Wu

Best known for being a quarter of Taiwanese boyband F4 (now renamed JVKV), Van Ness Wu has always been eclipsed by the uber-popularity of bandmates Jerry Yan and Vic Chou.

But with a new album, a hit idol drama Autumn’s Concerto in 2009 and another, Material Queen, currently airing, Wu’s solo star may be shining the brightest at the moment.

Material Queen’s theme song Is This All has been getting attention and airplay as it features Ryan Tedder from the American rock band OneRepublic.

Its lyrics – “What am I chasing after/So it’s all just air/So is this all I’ve been waiting for?” – seem to reflect his spiritual state after the one-time playboy famously embraced Christianity.

The K-pop-cloning Love, Faith, Live and the dance-pop of Do It keep things promising with their thumping grooves.

They may be a tad predictable, but there is no denying that things move along like well-oiled machinery.

The album starts to lose momentum with When You’re Near.

This is supposed to be the show-stopping, heartfelt ballad of the disc, but his so-so voice doesn’t quite tug at the heartstrings.

Instead, the track wanders off into filler territory.

Things end with another high-profile collaboration. The English track Knockin’, written and produced by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, is a catchy slice of rhythmic pop with lyrics about being overlooked.

Well, Wu need not worry about that, the way his career is going right now.

(ST)

Treasure Hunt

Wong Jing

The story: Peggy (Cecilia Cheung) decides to travel to a remote island to direct an advertisement with the perpetually sozzled star Mr Big (Ronald Cheng). Angered by this, her husband takes off with their son (Lucas Tse). On the island, Peggy and gang encounter an environmentalist, Star (Shao Bing), his son Starlet (Peng Gen) and a group of baddies who are after a long-lost treasure.

If you are watching this for the cute moppet Lucas Tse’s big-screen debut, don’t bother.

The elder son of estranged celebrity couple Cecilia Cheung and Nicholas Tse appears only at the beginning and end of the movie. It is as if the four-year-old is already a big-enough star to do a cameo even though this is his first role.

While no one is expecting him to pull off a Victoire Thivisol (who controversially won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1996 at the age of five for playing a child dealing with grief in the drama Ponette), he really does not do much here.

We know that Lucas is capable of a more spirited showing given that he had previously upstaged Hong Kong actor-

director Stephen Chow at a press conference. He had said to the adoring media: “Hello, I love you. I love everyone. Don’t say my mummy is fat.”

It also irked to have him dubbed over in Mandarin. For all you know, some jaded six-year-old was passing himself off as four-year-old Lucas.

Even without him, though, this cheap and tacky looking film features an unusually large number of children. Mr Big has a daughter, his agent Wayne has a son and the environmentalist who comes from out of nowhere also has a son.

Bizarrely, the children tag along on the work trip to a remote island and Wayne’s son even joins the advertisement’s cast and crew when they head out for drinks. Was this Bring Your Child To Work day?

At least the child actors up the cute quotient and make the movie less excruciating to watch. In particular, Peng Gen steals the limelight in Lucas’ absence.

Otherwise, the film is mostly ludicrously irritating rather than entertainingly over the top, lazily tacking on a treasure hunt story on top of a family drama.

The baddies are from the cartoon school of villainy and the treasure map is a bad joke. There are Easter egg hunts more exciting than this treasure hunt.

(ST)

Romance

Olivia Ong

Feel About You

Bevlyn Khoo

Her work has been released in Japan, she has sung a theme song for the hit MediaCorp series, The Little Nyonya, and she is now releasing on home ground a new album of English and Mandarin numbers about love.

I am talking about Olivia Ong. And Bevlyn Khoo. In the Channel 8 drama, Ong crooned Like A Swallow and Khoo sang Keep Warm. Their approach here is similar in another key respect. Ong flexes her song-writing chops on an album of largely original material, while Khoo also composes several tracks on her record.

Compared to the ho-hum selection of cover material on Olivia (2010), Romance offers a dreamy and breezy range of material that is tailor-made for Ong’s sweetly charming vocals.

Let It Rain is, well, a sunny song that waltzes along prettily: “Let it rain, rain/It’s the perfect weather for contemplating/Let it rain, rain/For after such weather /Sunshine will come.”

When The Seas Run Dry And The Stones Go Soft, meanwhile, is gently epic in its ebb and swell: “With you in my heart, life is anchored/Even the wind won’t drift/Watch the seas run dry and stones go soft together, wait for the end of time/Love slowly, no need to rush.”

The constant switching between Mandarin and English takes a little getting used to but it certainly helps that the material is engaging. Ong even cuts loose on The Silly Song. The closing hymn, Amazing Grace, feels out of place though.

There are also cover tracks on Khoo’s offering: Saint Etienne’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart is heartfelt at a slowed-down tempo, but Duran Duran’s Ordinary World is merely pedestrian.

In her own songs, the sentiment is too bald at times. On the title track, she confesses: “Because I love you/Because I need you/Because I want you/And I absolutely hate to let you go.”

At least Call It A Day does something more interesting with the premise of a long-distance relationship: “I love you in the springtime/But you can’t warm my hands/I love to see your flowers/But not the delivery man.”

The three Mandarin tracks here are tacked on as a bonus but there is nothing throwaway about them. They include Keep Warm and Please Don’t Say, a bittersweet love song.

Bitter or sweet, love is in the air for both these songbirds.

(ST)

Incendies

Denis Villeneuve

The story: Acting on instructions in their mother Nawal’s will, siblings Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette) try to deliver letters to a father they thought was dead and to an elder brother they did not know they had. They travel to the Middle East to retrace the journey Nawal (Lubna Azabal) took from the land of her birth to Canada and end up uncovering devastating family secrets.

Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies opens with a slap to the face and ends with a punch to the gut.

When siblings Simon and Jeanne find out the contents of their mother’s will, they react with anger and disbelief: Why were they never told about their brother? How can their father be alive? Who is this woman whom they called mother and yet know so little about?

These intensely personal questions anchor the moviegoer’s interest in the story even as a family mystery seems to shift into a political drama.

The tangled politics of Christians versus Muslims and powerful warlords is the incendiary, and sometimes confusing, back story that gradually unfolds. Zeroing in on Nawal’s journey, Villeneuve gives the film a sense of direction and focus.

It is all too easy to be numb to reports of internecine war and the senseless carnage it wreaks.

Here, the devastation is played out in one woman’s fate and in the eyes of the magnetic Azabal, perhaps best known for playing an anti-war activist in the Palestinian film about two friends-turned-suicide bombers in Paradise Now (2005).

She holds court as she ages from a young woman who pays a heavy price for falling in love over her family’s objections to a determined mother tracking down her child as war erupts around her and, finally, to a shell of a woman who is shocked into catatonic silence in her final days.

As the daughter searching for answers and the son who slowly comes to terms with his mother’s past, Desormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette are believable as well.

The ending might seem melodramatic to some but it is entirely plausible within the film and there is an implacable logic to it.

To reveal more would be to rob you of the intense experience of watching the film. Suffice to say the emotional wallop it packs at the end will leave you reeling.

(ST)

Overheard 2

Alan Mak, Felix Chong

The story: Manson (Lau Ching Wan) is the frontman broker for a group of Hong Kong tycoons known as the Landlord Club. Their less-than-legal manipulation of the stock market is being monitored by the tech-savvy Joe (Daniel Wu), who has a score to settle with the head of the club, Tony Wong (Kenneth Tsang). Inspector Jack Ho (Louis Koo) has to find out who the bad guys are even as he is forced to do Joe’s bidding.

Despite the title and the return of key cast and crew members, Overheard 2 has nothing to do with the original 2009 film: the stories are not at all linked and the characters are totally different.

What they have in common is a thriller plot where modern surveillance technology is used and abused.

Previously, Lau Ching Wan, Daniel Wu and Louis Koo were on the same team. The situation in the current film is more complicated: Lau, the flawed moral centre of the first film, is more enigmatic here and you are never quite sure where his loyalties lie.

Koo is fairly sympathetic as a cop whose sense of justice is so strong, he even turns in his own wife. Unfortunately, the character is not developed enough.

Overheard 2 can be said to be Wu’s show as Joe employs cool technology in order to exact vengeance for past wrongs.

We are clearly meant to be rooting for him as he is the filial son trying to fulfil his mother’s wish before she topples over into the oblivion of Alzheimer’s disease. Wu also gets to show his stuff as an action leading man as he is involved in the car and foot chase that opens the film.

Writer-directors Alan Mak and Felix Chong are in their element in the tight action scenes – keep an eye out for how Wu wields his motorcycle as a weapon in yet another high-speed pursuit.

There is definitely an attempt to ramp up the thrill level in this chapter but the film still sags in the middle. And for all the high-octane goings-on, Overheard 2 feels less tightly knit and engaging compared to its predecessor.

At least Mak and Chong manage to bring things to an exciting end as Joe tries to outwit Tony Wong (a smug and scowling Kenneth Tsang) and his cronies at their own stock-market game.

With a credible follow-up in the bag, the Overheard series probably is not over and done with just yet.

(ST)