You're Nobody To Me
Ellen Loo

2/2
Yoyo Sham

Both Ellen Loo and Yoyo Sham are singer- songwriters from Hong Kong.
And both are linked to one man – feted singer Eason Chan.
Loo is the guitarist at Chan’s concerts, while Sham is his back-up vocalist.
One wonders if the two chat about their music during rehearsal breaks.
Of the two, Loo is better known, given that she is one-half of Cantopop duo at17 and also a successful solo artist who released her Mandarin debut The Ripples last year.
The electronica ballad You’re Nobody To Me shimmers delicately at first and then builds up to a refrain that has Loo proclaiming: “You never had any tears, it’s a waste being good to you/What kind of human being are you, you make me feel ashamed of loving you”.
Also included here is the demo track Bees, which was recorded by singer Denise Ho as Festival Of Youth. The emotive ballad stands on its own and is no mere filler track.
Good as this is, Sham’s second EP 2/2 is even better.
There are two versions of two songs collected here: the wonderfully atmospheric 1/2 Cup and 2/2 Cup, as well as Moving On Pedals and Moving On.
And she manages to make every single version sound thoroughly valid.
Take Moving On, which is about one’s journey through life: “On the flow of life, we’re not as active as we think/It’s as if we got pushed, then take one step and yet another”.
It works beautifully on its own, with a simple arrangement that allows Sham’s lightly husky voice to shine.
The Pedals version builds upon that, and works in bicycle bells and a rhythmic beat that strengthen the idea of a journey.
It won’t be too long before Sham breaks out and Chan will have to look for a new back-up singer.
(ST)

The Mad Chinaman (1989)
Dick Lee

What is Singaporean pop?
Known for composing pop hits for Hong Kong singers such as Jacky Cheung, Leslie Cheung and Sandy Lam, as well as Home, that gold standard of National Day songs, singer-songwriter Dick Lee has grappled with that question in his albums – beginning with Life Story in 1974.
But it was The Mad Chinaman, released in 1989 on Warner Music, that really made people sit up and take notice of his brand of Singa-pop.
The album’s cover photo teased: Lee, now 56, was almost unrecognisable in full Chinese opera get-up complete with thick stylised make-up. What did Chinese opera have to do with English pop and what did the term Mad Chinaman mean?
Part of the answer was in the liner notes. In them, he wrote that “trying to identify the Asian in my Western make-up is enough to drive me crazy!”.
At its heart, the record was an attempt to map and probe his identity as a man caught between two cultures.
At the same time, it sought to answer the question of whether there was, or could be, such a thing as Singaporean pop.
These were big, possibly serious, issues but Lee’s musical inventiveness and sense of playfulness and adventure made the resulting album a sheer joy to listen to.
Take the giddily gleeful Mustapha. It was Lee’s tribute to Tamil movies and it even included dialogue from a mock chase scene.
The track featured singer Jacintha Abisheganaden, whom he would go on to marry in 1992 and divorce five years later, and delicious lines such as: “Honey, honey, sugar’s not as sweet/Oh, my papadam, you’re good enough to eat”.
This was pop, but done in a fresh way.
The lyrics were filled with familiar references to all things Singaporean; the songs were mainly in English but also had Mandarin, Malay and Tamil thrown into the merry mix; and the instrumentation was augmented by the use of ethnic instruments such as the erhu, the sitar and the tabla.
Many of the songs were built around familiar folk ditties and old favourites.
Rasa Sayang is a rap that built on the folk song of the same name. It is a feel-good homage to Singapore and it was thrilling to have prata, mee pok and chye tow kway name-checked in a song.
Lee also proved to have a knack for jazzing up old standards. An old Chinese number The Ding Dong Song, was given a new lease of life with a remix and the repetition of the spoken line “What is this thing called love?”.
Yet, for such a local record, The Mad Chinaman also turned out to be Lee’s breakthrough in the region, including the hard-to- crack Japanese market where it sold 12,000 copies within two months of its release.
What was originally planned to be his final album paved the way for him to move to Japan in 1990 to further his music career.
He continues to make albums which wrestle with the question of culture and identity for a self-professed banana who is yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
They include Orientalism (1991) and Singapop (1996).
Nothing has caught fire the way The Mad Chinaman did, and the album has become synonymous with Dick Lee.
He even named his 2004 autobiography The Adventures Of The Mad Chinaman.
He may have struggled with the question of what Singaporean pop is, but that poser is a no-brainer to anyone listening to The Mad Chinaman today.
(ST)

Yoga Lin “Fugue” Concert Tour
The Star Theatre, The Star Performing Arts Centre
Last Saturday

With just four albums, Taiwan’s Yoga Lin has built a rich body of work with both depth of feeling and breadth of genre. And with the 25-year-old in great form vocally, it was simply a delight to listen to the songs live.
There were no dazzling effects or outrageous costumes but none of that mattered when the songs and the singing were of such a calibre.
He was first seen on stage in a cone of light as he strummed the guitar to the strains of I Always Practise Alone. With an immaculate coif and dressed in a blazer over a white and pink shirt with glittery pants, Lin oozed preppy glamour.
From a quiet ballad about urban loneliness, he jumped to the brash and jazzy You Are What You Eat, demonstrating his versatility in one quick leap.
On rock tracks such as Runaway Mama and Wake Up, he turned up the energy level effortlessly. So what if there was no slick choreography? He simply moved as the music moved him.
One thread that runs through some of his faster-paced songs is an optimistic celebration of life.
The Wonderful Life enthuses: “Such a perfect life/How can you bear not to live it well/How can you bear not to be happy.” Si Fan (Captain S.V) takes an unusual point of view of aliens visiting earth and Lin declares: “I must quickly find out the charms of this backward planet.”
At the same time, he is the master of the devastating love song. Heartbreak is about foolish, glorious young love and it is a song that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Other prime examples include Fool, Unrequited and Fairy Tale, all exquisitely delivered in his evocative and emotive voice.
For his rendition of Please Speak, a simple prop of a single swinging light bulb was used to great effect as light bulbs exploded on the screen.
His last concert here was in 2009 and Lin was definitely happy to be back with a large-scale show. He ran off the stage and into the audience several times and even jokingly contemplated scaling the wall to reach those on the upper tiers.
When the fans seated in circle two cheered at one point, it was clear that the venue had pretty good acoustics. The sound mix for the show, though, had a tad too much reverb and the music was also a little too loud at times vis-a-vis the vocals.
But it was nothing that really threatened to mar the enjoyment of the 5,000 fans over the three-hour-long gig; certainly not by the time everyone was loudly chorusing “wo oh oh oh oh oh” for A Souvenir.
For his encore, Lin went back to some of his earliest material. The One I Love, You Are My Eyes and That Very Song were recorded for compilation albums for the singing competition show One Million Star. He was the winner of the inaugural season in 2007.
The final song of the night was Bo Le (Admirer) but first, Lin had a little surprise up his sleeve. In order to create a special memory for the Singapore stop of his tour, he changed into a simple period scholar get-up. It was an adorable look which had Lin bursting into laughter when he saw himself up on the screen.
He remarked at one point that he seldom comes to Singapore and so faced the quandary of whether he had enough friends to invite to the home that was his concert. He added: “I will work hard to be friends with you.”
As long as he continues putting out ambitious and stellar records, there will be no lack of friends, and fans, at a Yoga Lin concert.
(ST)

9th:) Time Falling In Love
A-do

The lead single for the lacklustre last album, Fear No More (2010), was Crying Ox with its headscratching chorus about buying and selling an ox. After that mis-step, homegrown singer A-do is back on more familiar ground on his seventh album.
The opening tracks are romantic ballads which play to the forte of his husky voice. The more relaxed numbers such as R&B-flavoured Valentine’s Day work better, though that song’s “Ay-ah ay-ah” chorus sounds rather dated.
The title track gets too angsty, however, and the concept of falling in love as if for the first time for the ninth time is too overwrought. The cutesy emoticon does not help.
A clutch of maudlin ballads in the middle bogs the album down and raises the unpleasant question of whether this really is the extent of A-do’s range as a singer.
Thank goodness Don’t Mention picks up the pace and shows some spirit: “I won’t mention sadness, I won’t mention, won’t reminisce/I won’t mention fate, those who persevere have super abilities”.
On Valentine’s Day, he sings: “I will appear in front of you in my perfection/I want to become your most beautiful memory”.
If only he were talking about his seventh album here.

(ST)

Dawn
Dawn Wong

Tong's Music
Lin Si Tong

A singer’s first release is a calling card to the world and, happily, both Dawn Wong and Lin Si Tong’s debut efforts show promise.
Wong’s eponymous EP has a clearer identity as she offers hopeful and positive songs that draw on genres from pop to jazz.
The perky whimsy of The Perfect Two (Stuck Like Glue) makes it the perfect wedding song for that retro-cool couple you know. And it kicks off the record on a bright note. Play it a few times and it will soon stick like, well, you know. It has a sweetness tempered by humour and I prefer that to the more conventionally sugary Ring Finger.
She goes on to demonstrate some range in her choice of material which highlights her distinctively clear and high-pitched voice.
Just Because is an upbeat and uplifting track with inspirational lyrics: “Because I have dreams, all my decisions are worth it.”
And final number Revision is a tender ballad about having that special someone in one’s life.
Lin, too, shows some versatility on her EP.
Childhood Memories strikes a note of pleasant nostalgia, though for some reason, it reminds me of Taiwanese singer Claire Kuo’s Singing In The Trees.
With the following number, Contrast, she shows a more rebellious side: “So I’m not as ignorant or quiet as they say/Actually I want to break free of that life and head to some corner.”
Lyrically, Lin needs to take note of her choice of words as, on occasion, her diction and phrasing can feel a little stiff.
On the whole, she has a good grasp of the pop idiom in her compositions such as ballad Uncoordinated Love and mid-tempo number Best Demonstration with their catchy hooks and relatable sentiments.
Most importantly, both Lin and Wong interest one enough to want to hear more.
(ST)

Rise Of The Guardians
Peter Ramsey
The story: North (Alec Baldwin voicing Santa Claus), Tooth (Isla Fisher as the Tooth Fairy), Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny) and Sandy the Sandman (who communicates through visuals of sand which appear over his head) are the Guardians of children all over the world. When Pitch the Boogeyman (Jude Law) attempts to plunge the world into fear and darkness, the Man in the Moon anoints one more Guardian to help in the battle – the carefree Jack Frost (Chris Pine). The fantasy adventure is based on William Joyce’s The Guardians Of Childhood book series (2011-2012).

Think you know Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Think again because one of the pleasures of Rise Of The Guardians is how it takes familiar traditions and folklore and has a little whimsical fun with them.
So Santa Claus is not exactly a jolly grandfather but an imposing figure who speaks with a European accent and has “Nice” tattooed on one forearm and “Naughty” on the other.
And the Easter Bunny is no fluffy ball of cuteness but a 6-foot-tall rabbit with a mean Australian accent and meaner boomerang-throwing skills.
But not to worry, there are still adorable characters around to gush over, from the hummingbird-like baby tooth fairies to the earnestly industrious yetis and elves who populate Santa’s headquarters at the North Pole.
Keep an eye out for the running joke about the yeti who just cannot get the colour right regardless of what he is painting.
There is even wit to the villainy as Pitch unleashes his nightmares to gallop into the dreams of sleeping children and wreak havoc with the work of the Guardians.
If children stop believing in the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny, then the very existence of the Guardians themselves are threatened and the things they seek to protect – wonder, hope, memories and dreams – will be destroyed.
Standing between Pitch and his dark plan is Jack Frost, a fun-loving spirit who brings a touch of winter with him.
The irresponsible prankster seems to be an unlikely choice for a Guardian but gradually, he embraces the role thrust upon him and discovers his true self along the way.
Bringing the characters to life is a roster of voices which includes name actors such as Baldwin, Jackman, Pine and Law.
My initial concern that this was going to be a case of celebrity stunt-casting turned out to be unfounded as they inhabited the roles they played instead of being intrusively recognisable as, say, Jennifer Lopez was in Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (2012).
There is also a vibrancy and liveliness to the animation, particularly in the action sequences. For example, a little boy has the ride of his life as Jack zips in and out of traffic and other obstacles and lays down a path of slippery ice along his way.
This little boy, Jamie (Dakota Goyo from sci-fi sports drama Real Steel, 2011), ends up playing a pivotal role in the battle against Pitch.
There is an empowering moment for children when Pitch mockingly asks who will protect the Guardians and Jamie steps forth and says that he will.
With a positive message for the little ones and wit and humour for the adults, Rise Of The Guardians is an animated treat the whole family can enjoy together.
(ST)

Earthwalk
Cosmos People
On their second full-length album, kooky Taiwanese band Cosmos People continue to exude fun and humour.
Lead vocalist Xiao Yu sings on the electropop opening track Let’s Go Running Together: “Let’s go running together, don’t say no/Our rhythm is two breaths in, puke it out”.
The trio happily play around with diverse musical genres. Just take Xiang Jian Xiao Lu, Xiang Jian Xiao Lu (Country Roads, Shoulder Peekaboo – a title that puns on how both things sound alike in Mandarin), which melds country music with violins.
Want To Turn You Into A Movie, on the other hand, is more mainstream guitar pop with lyrics that reference film: “You dance a Chaplin, so quietly black-and-white/The city’s lights are extinguished because of you”.
While it is good that they are keenly exploring the musical universe, this trip of an album also means it is hard to get a fix on their identity.
Sticking closer to earth for their next outing might not be a bad idea.
(ST)

Mystery
Lou Ye
The story: Lu Jie (Hao Lei) and Yongzhao (Qin Hao) seem at first to be a version of the China dream made real. They are happily married with a young daughter and live a comfortably middle-class life.
Lu Jie befriends Sang Qi (Qi Xi), the mother of her daughter’s schoolmate who suspects that her husband is having an affair. Slowly, the life Lu Jie thought she had begins to unravel.

In his last few films, China’s auteur-provocateur Lou Ye has pushed buttons with his choice of material.
Love And Bruises (2011) depicted a sexually intense affair, Spring Fever (2009) took on homosexuality and Summer Palace (2006) featured the politically sensitive Tiananmen protests of 1989.
The last landed him with a five-year ban on film-making in China.
Mystery marks his return to “official” film-making and it has been showered with seven Golden Horse Award nominations, including for Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Leading Actress.
His dedication and persistence to his craft is laudable, less so his latest effort.
The noirish mystery-thriller set in a rainy and dreary city harks back to his early breakthrough work, Suzhou River (2000), which featured Zhou Xun in dual roles.
While there was a surreal feel to Suzhou River, Mystery, for the most part, is anchored in the reality of here and now and the performances of Hao Lei, nominated for Best Leading Actress, and Qi Xi, nominated for Best New Performer.
As in Summer Palace, Hao is once again put through the emotional wringer by Lou.
After Lu Jie discovers her husband’s infidelity through a meeting with Sang Qi, her sense of pain and betrayal is acute and it is all played across Hao’s face.
In contrast, Qin Hao’s philandering Yongzhao is largely a cipher beyond the fact that he has trouble keeping his pants on. Later in the film, after a few more devastating revelations, Lu begins to exact her revenge, testing the audience’s sympathy for her.
Just when things seem like they might get interesting and nasty, the film changes tack to go back to the investigation of a car accident which claimed a young woman’s life.
The few twists and turns in the narrative here do not work – events unfold in a manner that is plainly improbable, particularly so towards the end when there seems to be a rush to wrap things up. For example, a key pouch is conveniently dropped, and found, and leads the police right to, well, the right person.
To be fair, some of what seems preposterous makes sense in the light of revelations doled out in the film.
Mystery works neither as a murder mystery nor as a dark domestic drama, stranded somewhere in the murky middle.
(ST)

Cold War
Longman Leung, Sunny Luk
The story: An explosion goes off in a bustling part of Hong Kong. A fully equipped police van disappears. Rattled, the law enforcers launch operation Cold War and rival deputy commissioners Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) and Waise Lee (Tony Leung Ka Fai) fight to take charge. At stake are the lives of the cop hostages, the force’s reputation and the powerful post of police commissioner.

Cold war refers to the operation to recover the hostages and the van as well as to the battle for power between rival deputy police commissioners.
From the get-go, first-time writer-directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk ratchet up the tension with choice pacing and plenty of questions.
Who is behind the disappearance of the van? Why is it timed to coincide with the absence of the police commissioner? Why are Sean Lau (Aaron Kwok) and Waise Lee (Tony Leung Ka Fai) such bitter enemies?
Beyond the deputies’ jockeying for power, there seems to be a long-standing rivalry fuelling their animosity. Actually, rather than a cold war, it is more like an open battle between the two.
At first, Waise seems to gain the upper hand by quickly usurping command. Then Sean makes his move in a showdown that makes the two men look like rival gang leaders rather than fellow cops.
Leung sinks his teeth into the showier role of the brash Waise, keeping one guessing as to whether he is an insufferable good guy or a devious bad cop.
Despite his two Golden Horse trophies for Best Actor, Kwok does not quite have the chops to go against Leung mano-a-mano.
Also, Sean feels like a more passive, put-upon character. The viewer’s sympathy is more clearly steered towards him which also means there is no intriguing question mark hanging over him.
The film-makers also hold your attention with competently staged action sequences including a drawn-out scene of Sean following instructions to hand over the ransom money and a final showdown complete with firepower and fireworks.
Apart from the veterans, including Charlie Young as a feisty public relations officer for the police, a newer generation of actors add to the star power.
Aarif Rahman (Bruce Lee, My Brother, 2010) is Billy Cheung, a dogged investigator looking into operation Cold War after its conclusion. And the busy Eddie Peng (Love, Taichi 0 and Taichi Hero, 2012) has a small but pivotal role as Waise’s son, who is also one of the police officers in the van.
The investigation part feels less satisfying, like a tacked-on extended postscript to the main event, its chief purpose being to pave the way for an ending which screams “To be continued”.
Watch out for the scene in which Waise is interrogated. The wily old fox schools the wet-behind- the-ears Billy in the rules of the game and it is Leung’s masterclass in acting.
It seems that Cold War fancies itself this year’s Infernal Affairs (2002), what with conspiracy theories and talk of there being a police mole. It certainly opens the door to that connection with Infernal Affairs star Andy Lau having a guest turn here as the territory’s Secretary for Security.
Cold War does not quite reach those heights but it does generate quite a bit of heat, thanks to a riveting Tony Leung.
(ST)

Super Yo
Evan Yo

It has been three years since Taiwanese singer-songwriter Evan Yo’s enjoyable last album, Loneliness (2009), and quite a few things have happened in the interim.
He did his military service, buffed up, and switched to a new label from Sony Music. In general, he seems to have done some growing up.
And it shows on his fourth album.
The easy-on-the-ears love ballads are still here and include tracks such as Can’t Love You Enough and Who Knows. Thinking leaves an impression with its lyrics about being inarticulate in love: “Oh baby, I’m so... love you/The feeling I can’t put into words, can you hear it”.
More unexpected are the dance tracks which mark a change of direction for him. And thankfully, they steer clear of the K-pop template of marrying insanely catchy beats with sometimes nonsensical lyrics.
On the opening title track, he signals this new turn: “We depend, on the right brain, let rationality have a good sleep, Now/Walk with me to the right/Watch me break the flow.”
Kudos to him for not simply going with the flow.

The Scent Of Night
Crowd Lu

Have A Holiday
Soft Lipa, Dadado Huang

Some of my favourite singer-songwriters have come up with EPs, whetting my appetite for their new albums.
Crowd Lu’s The Scent Of Night is an acoustic guitar ballad in the vein of his best folk-pop offerings.
There is a sense of mystery and joy to it that is beguiling as he croons: “I pass through the tree tops, fly over walls, the fables of the city/I’m chasing after, mysteriously able to fly, wanting to find out who is singing in my dream.”
As for hip-hop artist Soft Lipa, his genre-blurring collaborations have seen him venturing into jazz and pop, each time with great success in albums such as Moonlight (2010) and Riding A Bicycle (2011). His tie-up with folkster Dadado Huang is equally rewarding.
The EP cover is already appealing in its visual wit as Dan Bao (Soft Lipa’s Mandarin pinyin name) plus Dadado Huang equals dan huang, or egg yolk.
The breezy Have A Holiday sounds joyful but is emotionally more conflicted. The song seamlessly ties together Soft Lipa’s hypnotic rhymes with Huang’s delicate vocals in this tale of a man who just needs a break. And the gently elegiac The Worries Of A Youngster sensitively sketches out that no man’s land between childhood and adulthood.
This is an egg yolk that nourishes and satisfies.
(ST)

Ah Boys To Men Part 1
Jack Neo
The story: Spoilt rich kid Ken (Joshua Tan) wants to wriggle out of national service enlistment to study overseas with his girlfriend. He is encouraged by his mother (Irene Ang) while his father (Richard Low) wants him to aim for Officer Cadet School. When Ken is eventually sent to Pulau Tekong, he tries ways and means to weasel out of training.

Writer-director Jack Neo starts his latest movie with a bang. Several, in fact. Singapore is under attack by an unknown enemy and planes are bombing iconic structures from the Merlion to Marina Bay Sands to HDB flats.
The visual effects are a step up from those seen in his previous works and the idea of modern-day Singapore at war is an intriguing one.
Yet the opening has the air of a national education message by the Ministry of Defence.
When the long gimmicky opening sequence is finally over, Neo puts on local comedienne Irene Ang in full-on auntie mode as a loud, pushy and unreasonable mother who is determined to get her son out of national service.
It is almost an hour before bratty rich kid Ken (Joshua Tan) gets enlisted anyway and we are introduced to a bunch of stereotypes who are his section mates.
There is clearly camaraderie among the group of fresh young actors, whose onscreen friendships and group dynamics could have been interesting to explore against the backdrop of military training.
But once again, Neo undermines himself.
Few of the recruits – from streetsmart Lobang (a naturalistic Wang Wei Liang) to eager beaver Aloysius Jin (Maxi Lim) – pass for actual characters.
Most problematic of all, the key character of Ken is a sulky boy with a bad temper and a worse attitude. Little wonder that he has problems with his girlfriend, their relationship is a hysterical sideshow that irritates instead of engages.
With the trials and triumphs of national service a familiar ground covered previously in Mandarin TV drama Army Series (1983), stage play Army Daze (1987) and documentary Every Singaporean Son (2010), to name a few examples, compelling characters would have made Ah Boys feel fresher.
What the film gets right is the portrayal of the tough and intimidating sergeants who dominate the lives of recruits.
There are even flashbacks to the old- school training of the past where sergeants had the power to order a stand-by bed in the parade square (yes, recruits would have to physically carry the bed and cupboard there).
As entertaining as they are, these glimpses into the past add to the bloated running time.
Perhaps one could play spot-the- film-sponsor to while away some of the time but then, the game would be too easy to be much of a challenge.
The oddest product placement was for an auditor. Stranded on a highway in the middle of a storm after a dramatic break-up, Ken bumps into a few cyclists wearing raincoats with a prominent company logo. They hand him a raincoat. Thank goodness they were there to save the day – and disrupt the rhythm of the film.
The change in Ken’s attitude is predictable and regrettably melodramatic, with Neo resorting to a last-minute incident as in many of his other films.
From the snippets glimpsed at the end of part 1, it seems that much of the drama among the recruits will be kept for part 2, along with more relationship troubles, though for someone else and not Ken.
Too bad part 1 does not make a convincing argument for splitting the movie into two parts in the first place.
(ST)

Monsieur Lazhar
Philippe Falardeau
The story: A teacher commits suicide in the classroom of an elementary school in Montreal. The replacement Bashir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag), who is from Algeria, tries to help the children cope with this terrible event. His students include the grave and wise Alice (Sophie Nelisse) and the mercurial Simon (Emilien Neron). Eventually, the painful reason for Bashir’s departure from his homeland is revealed.

What seems at first to be a story about 11-year-olds dealing with the grief and shock of a teacher’s suicide transmutes into a richer film about society and humanity.
In the aftermath of the death, the adults at school and at home treat the subject with kid gloves. They mean well but they seem to have little idea of the emotional lives of the children.
Bashir Lazhar, on the other hand, is prepared to engage with his students on the taboo subject of death. Chastised by the school for his pains, he slowly gains the trust and liking of his young charges.
Viewers receive little clues that there is more to him than he lets on. He claims to have been a teacher in Algeria but his knowledge of the classroom and teaching methods seem totally outdated. There is no doubt that his concern for the children is genuine but what secret is he keeping?
Writer-director Philippe Falardeau unfolds the film at a leisurely pace, with an assured control of tone so it never drags. Little moments of humour also lift what could have been a grim story.
The performances are excellent. Algerian Mohamed Fellag’s turn as Bashir is subtle and understated and, one imagines, far removed from the stand-up comedy he is apparently known for.
He is matched by the child performers, particularly Sophie Nelisse, whose character Alice is childlike and yet mature beyond her years.
As the story develops, Falardeau uses it to comment on various issues. For example, the relationship between teachers and their students is now so fraught that it is regulated to the point of being ridiculous. A teacher even remarks that working with kids is like working with radioactive waste – if you touch them, you get burnt.
Jibes at Bashir for not being Canadian reflect the uneasy relationship the society has with its immigrants. While Bashir makes a connection with the children, there is no grand “Oh captain, my captain” gesture like in Dead Poets Society (1989). Instead, there is a hug between a teacher and a student at the end that is both moving and bittersweet.
Monsieur Lazhar is not a neat and tidy movie with all its themes tied prettily with a bow. It is a compelling character study and a portrait of life that does not sugarcoat sometimes ugly truths. Along with a clear-eyed dose of honesty, it also offers hope and the healing balm of human connection.
(ST)

The 12th Global Chinese Music Awards is organised by seven radio stations from around the region. Appropriately enough, watching the awards show is like listening to the radio which has a little bit of everything thrown into the mix.
There were performances by artists from Hong Kong’s Eason Chan to local singer Kit Chan, chatter by the deejay-hosts and interview segments with the stars.
The main difference is the addition of the visual element to the ceremony. Apart from the awards show, there was also a Walk of Fame event held before the show at Marina Bay Sands.
And stealing the limelight in the fashion department was Hong Kong’s Joey Yung. She looked like a giant shocking pink shower scrub and when she sat down, her voluminous get-up swallowed up her neighbours.
When her interview segment with the hosts ran on and on about her concert in Singapore next year, she jokingly thanked them for the long advertising segment.
The diva had a sizable contingent of fans but the loudest screams from the 4,000-strong crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium last Friday night were for Taiwan’s Show Lo.
He added fun to the proceedings whether clowning around with Taiwanese singer-actress Rainie Yang or delivering a high-octane dance performance on stage. Picked by one of the deejay-hosts to ask Lo a question, a starstruck Vietnamese fan asked why he was so good-looking, to which he coolly replied: “Because I’m the best of my mom and dad.”
Lo was crowned Most Popular Male Artiste and Yung was Most Popular Female Artiste.
With so many performances of ballads lined up, the faster-paced songs stood out. Hong Kong band Mr. delivered a blast of rock with If I Were Eason Chan while Taiwanese group Da Mouth’s dance track Baboo was a welcome jolt of energetic fun.
Taiwan’s Aska Yang gave a soulful rendition of That Man and then caused a stir when he came off the stage and began serenading the female singers sitting in the front row. China’s Qu Wanting was almost beside herself with excitement.
Local singer Kit Chan sang three songs with her signature flourish and was given the Outstanding Achievement Award.
Of the 29 prizes handed out, the most puzzling one was Most Talented Artiste Award.
It went to Singapore’s JJ Lin and Taiwan’s Rainie Yang, who seemed to be justifying her win when she said: “Besides being a singer, I’m also an actor and have been a host before so I guess I really am quite talented all round.”
The obligatory thank-yous went out to fans, record labels and the media.
JJ Lin’s parents, who were in the audience, unexpectedly reaped a bumper crop of thanks from other stars. Lin thanked them after winning a prize and Lo jokingly did so soon after. And then China songwriter-turned-singer Shane Cao and Joey Yung added to the chorus of thank-yous.
Lin himself did them proud with wins for Top 5 Most Popular Male Artiste, Most Talented Artiste and Best Album for Lost N Found. Its title ballad was among the Top 20 Hits Of The Year.
Apart from the Lin clan, the big winners of the evening included Tanya Chua, who won for Best Female Artiste, Most Popular Composing Artiste and Best Music Composition for Sing It Out Of Love. Her song Don’t Bother Me was on the Top 20 list.
Eason Chan was named Best Male Artiste, Top 5 Most Popular Male Artiste and his album ? clinched the award for Best Album. His ballad Loneliness Sufferers made it to the Top 20 honour roll as well.
This is the second time the ceremony has been held in Singapore and MediaCorp’s Y.E.S. 93.3FM was the hosting station. The awards were last held here in 2006.
(ST)

Gaia
Sandy Lam

Hong Kong diva Sandy Lam has had enough.
In the liner notes to her latest album, she says she does not want to create “safe blandness”. That would be far too harsh an indictment of her previous work but it does prepare the listener for a very different experience from that of her last Mandarin album, Breathe Me (2006).
In line with the album title, Gaia, the primal Greek goddess of the Earth, Lam works the earth-mother vibe in the music videos and the photos of her with tousled locks and flowing gowns.
The opening electro-pop of Speechless Song, for which she composed and co-wrote the lyrics, takes her into spiritual world music territory of China singer Sa Dingding. It is Lam as you have never heard her before as she chants: “Save our nerves, save the sins in our thoughts.”
Cantonese track Impermanence provides a smoother transition to the new Lam, being a moody slice of electronica with an alt-rock attitude.
A show-stopping highlight is Persimmon, whose shot-in-Iceland music video has been available online for the past year.
Her voice swoops and swirls during this Gothic ballad’s chorus, which comprises the word wu ya (Chinese for raven) drawn out and repeated.
This is Lam at her most experimental and compelling.
She has not turned her back on more mainstream ballads altogether though. Ash seems to be written for her 14-year-old daughter as she croons: “You will always be my little precious.”
Even better is the breathtakingly lovely Maybe, which she performs with such delicacy and tenderness. I am not usually a fan of Mandarin remakes of Cantonese tracks – the dialect versions are more richly nuanced. But I will happily make an exception for Maybe.
While these classy and classic ballads pull the album in a different direction from the more experimental works, props to Lam for trying something new instead of merely coasting along.
Gaia may not be perfect but it is a worthy, heartening effort.
(ST)

Simple Love
Yen-j

How To Deal With Loneliness?
Kenji Wu

I Remember
Shin

A trio of male Taiwanese singer- songwriters have new releases but only one has decided not to pull double duty and to focus on his vocals.
The jazz-influenced pop of singer- songwriter Yen-j’s third album harks back to his debut Thanks Your Greatness (2010). The piano and drums-propelled The World’s Not Too Bad opens with this optimistic observation: “The world’s not too bad when someone is willing to do something for you, not to return a favour, nor for money, but because of love.”
There is also a gentle sense of humour and self-deprecation in his songs. Temporary Boyfriend casts him in the role of rebound guy over a breezy tune: “I’m willing to be your rebound ball, be a temporary boyfriend.”
Sneeze brings on a smile with its chorus of hachoos. It strikes me that it could also be a drawled reading of “heart you”.
Simple Love thoughtfully strikes a better balance between pop and jazz than his sophomore effort Not Alone (2011), and that is something to be thankful for.
Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Kenji Wu gets contemplative on his dusk-to- dawn concept album. It kicks off with an instrumental dance number and then charts the course of the lonely night that follows after a night of partying.
He is down in the dumps on Messing: “So I party wildly, so I mess about, because I don’t dare to face, face the dark, face heartbreak.”
The tempo picks up on Chase as he resolves to go after the love he once had. Wu tends to be stronger on faster tracks than ballads, especially when the ballad is a schmaltzy one such as Because You’re A Woman. The gently rousing Morning ends the album on a hopeful note and is a nice contrast to the frenzied opener.
Shin, former frontman of the rock band that bore his name, is showing more restraint on his new disc. Unlike the angsty rock anthems he delivered in the past, he sounds more tender on the ballad Secret Regrets.
Maybe the photo shoot in dreamy Paris helped to get him in the mood: There are plenty of shots of Shin looking pensive and mellow in the lyric booklet.
He has left the songwriting duties here to others, such as indie band sodagreen’s Wu Ching-feng, lyricist Lin Xi and Singaporean singer-songwriter Hanjin Tan.
Old rocker habits die hard, though, and there is a sop to fans of his more intense style on the duet Hugging In The Wild Wind with power belter A-lin.
Still, it is good that Shin is trying something different, vocally, to shake things up. We will be even more intrigued if he ventures into socially conscious rock – something he said he might do in a recent Life! interview. Now, that would be something to remember.
(ST)

A Wild Man’s Dreams (1990)
Wong Hong Mok
With his raw husky pipes, Wong Hong Mok stood out immediately. The singer-songwriter, better known as Huang Hongmo, sounded distinctly different from most of the clear and genteel voices on the xinyao Singapore folk scene in the 1980s and early 1990s.
And the self-penned title track of his debut album, A Wild Man’s Dreams, proved to be the perfect song for him.
Although he sings it with xinyao group Tiao Dong Lv Xiao Zu, it was his unvarnished, low-pitched vocals which immediately evoked the image of the titular wild man.
The song opens with a dramatic howl and then throbs with a sense of yearning: “I once had this dream/I was lying quietly among flowers and grass/Through the wild glade and over the hill/I ran freely through the wide grass plain.”
His lush images were startling, given Singapore’s highly urbanised environment. The picture he painted of this idyll was irresistible. It seemed to tap into a yearning that city folk did not even know they had, for the freedom of vast, open spaces.
The album sold more than 69,000 copies in Singapore and Malaysia.
Wong, 53, was ahead of the curve in going green before being environmentally conscious was hip.
The titles alone – Lakeview At Sunset, Flower Date – contain several references to nature. And his subsequent album, Confessions Of A Stupid Bird (1991), contained tracks such as Mountain Passion and A Tree’s Conviction.
The lyrics for Zui Hou De Dian Ji (The Last Thing I Think About), for example, are also filled with nature imagery. The ballad opens with: “Walked through the melancholia of fallen leaves/Passed by the beauty of red flowers/Who was my earliest spring/And will also be my final season.”
While he has embraced nature all along, he had little desire to embrace the limelight, especially when he first started writing songs. In the mid-1980s, songs written by him under a pen-name were played on the radio and performed by others at the annual Xinyao Festival held in Singapore.
It was not until the 1989 Xinyao Festival that he performed live for the first time and using his own name, Huang Hongmo.
The performance caught the attention of an executive at music label BMG and eventually led to the release of A Wild Man’s Dreams.
Reflecting both the collaborative spirit of xinyao and perhaps his own reticence, Wong sang only four of his 11 compositions on the album.
Apart from the title track and Zui Hou De Dian Ji, he also lent his vocals to nostalgia-laden Wan Zhong Feng Qing (Ten Thousand Sensations) and Na Ban Qing Huai (That Kind Of Feeling).
He had said then: “I knew I had to record at least a few tracks. But I would be happier if I didn’t have to sing at all.”
Happily for us, he did.
(ST)

Eason Chan Singapore Concert 2012
Event Plaza at Marina Bay Sands
Last Saturday

When an event is labelled as rain or shine, you better be prepared for the eventuality that it does rain.
And rain it did on Saturday evening, starting with a torrential downpour which eased into a steady drizzle for much of the night.
Ponchos were provided but they were placed at the seats. Fans had to stand in the rain for over an hour just to get into the open-air venue.
The messy situation was not helped by the lack of signage for the different entrances in the mall area next to the event plaza and announcements were so muffled, one could barely make out what was being said.
Most unforgivable of all, the show started at 9.05pm with 200 people still waiting to get in. The fans deserved better. And so did top Hong Kong singer Eason Chan.
As it was, people were still streaming in and trying to get to their seats for quite a few songs.
The rain also seemed to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm and Chan wondered at one point if people were feeling hemmed in by the yellow ponchos.
Still, the professional singer gave it a good go over the two-hour show.
It is not for nothing that he is dubbed God of Songs. With his rich and resonant voice, Chan can pretty much sing about anything convincingly, be it ruminating on the essence of time on Tourbillon to professing lust and desire on Servant Under The Dress.
The gig was part two to his 2010 Duo concert series and the costumes reflected the theme of duality. He first appeared in a white-in-front yellow- behind outfit with his hair sculpted to look like game character Sonic the Hedgehog’s (left). For the most part though, this felt like a scaled-down version of his previous show and some dancers’ costumes were definitely recycled.
At least there were differences in the song line-up. With 36 studio albums under his belt, there was plenty of material to choose from and Chan dug deep into his catalogue.
There was Love Is Suspicion, Why Not This Way and The Whole World Can’t Sleep from his breakthrough Mandarin album It’s Me (2001) all the way to dance numbers Heavy Flavour and Swipe Card from his latest Cantonese album ...3mm (2012).
When fans clamoured for Ten Years, he said that he disagreed with the view that his old songs were better. He added that his newer songs needed time to mature before launching into the wisely observant See Through, a highlight from his last Mandarin album ? (2011). He did eventually get round to Ten Years though.
Quite a few of his songs appear in two versions and, unfortunately, he tended to go for the less satisfying Mandarin take over the Cantonese one on Saturday. Hence, concertgoers got the merely moving Long Time No See instead of the devastating Might As Well Not Meet. At least we got both versions when he alternated between the thrillingly gorgeous Cantonese ballad Under Mount Fuji and the Mandarin knock-off Love Shifts.
The set ended with Chan bending his knees and pretending he was being lowered below the stage. Then he stood up, announced “Let’s not waste time” and launched into the encore of Heavy Flavour and a reworked version of his hit ballad Backpack.
It was not the most ideal circumstances to watch Chan perform. But it was still worthwhile just to hear him sing live.
(ST)

sodagreen “Walk Together” Tour – Singapore
Max Pavilion @ Singapore Expo
Last Friday

The albums of Taiwanese indie band sodagreen are always a treat to listen to. But there is nothing quite like experiencing them live to get the full impact of their peerless musicality.
It has been three years since the six members performed together as guitarist Ho Jing-yang and keyboardist-violinist Kung Yu-chi were serving out their military service stints. It sounds like they were never away from the way the music flowed.
Frontman Wu Ching-feng shone with his crystal-clear high-pitched voice and he was tireless over the almost 31/2- hour-long concert. He is such an evocative singer that he can take on a familiar hit such as Stefanie Sun’s Cloudy Sky and make you feel like you are hearing it for the first time.
On the delicate Stopping At Each Station, he flits between his higher and lower registers like the butterfly of the song.
It was also impressive the way the band could pull off almost any song request, though Wu would also blithely ignore cries for a number he did not feel like singing.
In the case of early hit Little Universe, he finally relented – by singing the lalala chorus.
The theme for this concert was Walk Together, the title of a song found on their latest album What Is Troubling You (2011). More specifically, it was about heading home to the warmth of family.
There was a video clip of the band members talking about their parents and Wu shared a moving song he had written for his late father, When I Was Young.
And when he sang Come Home Soon from Daylight Of Spring (2009), he asked if the audience wanted to go home soon and the response was a resounding “No!” from the 4,500-strong crowd.
There was a segment when sodagreen performed songs Wu had written for other singers. He quipped that it was like having children put up for adoption brought back home for a short while.
Indeed, Eason Chan’s A Trouble Like This and Rainie Yang’s Youthful Troubles sounded perfectly at home at a sodagreen show.
There were other surprises as well. Wu flirted with a stanza of Coldplay’s Yellow before segueing into A-mei’s My Dearest. There was also an uproarious mash-up of The Lonely Goatherd from the musical The Sound Of Music (1959) and Harlem Yu’s Minnan number Black Dog Man On The Mountaintop. It was a strange-sounding pairing that worked and it was worth it just to hear Wu yodelling away.
While the band might be better known for their ballads, they could also step it up and get the crowd pumping with rockers such as Fever.
They even devised some simple dance moves on Control Freak for the crowd to dance along to and then amped up the genteel Daylight to end the set on a rousing note.
Adding to the entertainment value was Wu’s welcome sense of theatricality. He sported a dramatic smear of red and blue eyeshadow over his left brow and could always be counted on to say something funny, cutting or outrageous.
When the band members came off the stage and did their walkabouts, Wu kept order with both the stick and carrot. He jokingly threatened to cancel the concert if people did not return to their seats and then announced he would head to whichever section was the most orderly.
He even made the usually dry thank-you segment fun by keeping up a patter of commentary as photographs of the behind-the-scenes personnel in wigs flashed onto the screen.
More of the Wu Ching-feng variety show was seen during the encore when he challenged guitarist Liu Jia-kai to shoot for the ending high notes in the duet I Wrote Of You In My Song – and then moving up the register as Liu nailed each attempt.
The encore ended with the gospel- tinged What Is Troubling You as some fans, mostly togged out in sodagreen T-shirts, streamed onstage and everyone sang along. It was a moment that felt as cosy and comfortable as home.
(ST)

J Moment
Jay Chou

Mandopop king Jay Chou’s (right) last two albums were not among his strongest. And this is a fact that a collection of music videos for Exclamation Mark (2011) and The Era (2010) will not change.
They work best when they have a sense of fun about them, such as on Free Tutorial Video, a country- and-western tinged number staged with group choreography in a school setting that rolls along with rollicking energy.
For catchy dance track Enchanting Melody, Chou turns to an unlikely source for inspiration – cerebral Hollywood thriller Inception (2010).
While the animated video for Exclamation Mark unfolds like a violent video game and reminds one of how the record seems to aim at younger listeners, the live-action-cartoon vibe of Hydrophobic Sailor was more successful.
Some songs are let down by the videos. The mid-tempo Long Time No See flits easily between Mandarin and Minnan and is a highlight on The Era but is given an overly cutesy treatment complete with a dancing robot.
The making-of bonus snippets feature Chou acting directorial on set or speaking directly to the viewer. Check out the making of Free Tutorial Video for a glimpse of his mother.

The Story Of Billy
Wilber Pan

Free Now
Equator 2

It is always a sign of desperation when soap operas turn to multiple personality disorder as a plot device.
But even though the title track of Wilber Pan’s new album is inspired by The Minds Of Billy Milligan (1981), a book about a real-life criminal with the disorder, there is nothing desperate about the resulting electronic stomper.
The 32-year-old singer-songwriter has even designated different personalities for different parts of the song.
He warns at one point: “Ignorant you, please be careful, because I might not be able to endure/Too much, too much.”
The lively fast-paced tracks are the stronger ones here, so pay attention to Live Broadcast and Get It.
Given his thin voice, Pan should stay away from ballads as they tend to show up his limitations.
And the tune for English ballad Baby Tonight is not so great that we need to hear it again with Mandarin lyrics on Don’t Wanna Wake Up. The album may not always work but at least no one can accuse Pan of playing it safe.
Neither are the guys of the collective called Equator 2 afraid of taking risks.
Out of the 10 tracks, only two are credited to the quartet. They include the opening title track which has a laidback summery vibe to it: “La la la la oh oh oh, shorts, singlet and slippers/La la la la oh oh oh, talked the night away without realising it.”
The others are credited to the individual members – Jeff Wu, Sega Lu, Strong and Johney – and it is quite a mixed bag of material from folksy love ballad (Actually She Knows) to rap-rock (Li Bai’s Voice) to slice-of-life number (Watching Movies) to pop oddity (John’s Magic Medicine).
This is a record with multiple personalities no doubt.
(ST)

David The Best 2.0 Kucing Kuraps FTW
Drama Box, The Joyden Hall @ Bugis+/Thursday
Overheard near the three-hour mark at this production: “Oh my God, it’s not over yet.” A wildly ambitious piece of community theatre, David The Best tries to explore identity and how its different layers – national, racial and personal – overlap.
Sadly, its execution falls short. What we get is a sprawling, scattered talk show that is crying out to be edited. It is as unwieldy as its title, which references the underdog (David vs Goliath), Internet slang (FTW) and throws in the Malay phrase for “small fry” for good measure. This is the second edition of a well-received play radio DJ Huang Wenhong did in 2008 called David The Best!.
David 2.0 has a loose talk-show format. Guests, from MediaCorp actor Chew Chor Meng to regular folks who responded to an audition call on Huang’s radio show, share their stories on stage. Huang serves as host and also slips in and out of different voices and characters in observational pieces which pad out the show. He co-created the show with Drama Box’s Kok Heng Leun, who directed and wrote the script.
One theme that crops up in the show is this: We all have our stories, and by sharing our stories, we become a stronger and more tolerant community. Alfian Sa’at’s 2011 play, Cooling Off Day, about how people voted in the General Election, had conveyed the same message in far more compelling fashion – and without spelling it out.
The idea is a worthy one, but while I admire the courage of the regular folks who came forward to share their tales, it is theatre’s job to give some shape and form to the stories rather than letting them run on. For example, a mother’s convoluted story about a disciplinary incident involving her son at school did not have enough of a pay-off.
In addition to Chew, the production also featured guest appearances by Taiwanese getai performer Hao Hao and theatre actress Aidli Mosbit. A slightly different roster of guests will appear at each performance. The show’s run is till Oct 20.
On opening night on Thursday, Chew talked about his abusive father and his journey as an actor and his struggle with spinal muscular atrophy, while Hao Hao shared the hurdles he has faced as a cross-dressing performer. Some of it was amusing. Some, touching and moving. But one wonders if this was the right venue for these confessionals.
Sure, Hao Hao makes a point about multiple identities and how they shift, depending on context. But it takes him some time to get to it. Meanwhile, he hijacked the evening to flaunt his flirty, sassy getai persona (above).
Huang bantered quite a bit with Aidli, asking the audience to freely ask her about Malays and Muslims. Mostly, he offered up broad stereotypesfor her to swat away easily. The exchange was done in the spirit of fostering greater understanding and it helped that Aidli had some zinging comebacks.
When Huang riffs on about aspects of Singapore life, the delivery is genial, but the writing is not tight or sharp enough. It is a charge that could be levelled against the production as a whole. Adding FTW – Net lingo for “for the win” – to a title does not automatically make a show awesome.
(ST)