Review of "Helios" (赤道)

Just looking at the cast lineup alone already tells you that this is a blockbuster-type of movie. Actors from Hong Kong (Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung, Shawn Yue and Janice Man), Taiwan (Chang Chen), China (Wang Xueqi, Feng Wenjuan and Josephine Koo) and South Korea (Ji Jin-hee, Choi Siwon, Yoon Jin-yi and Lee Tae-ran) come together in this multi-national production which talks about how the Hong Kong police join forces with the Chinese and South Korean authorities to retrieve a portable nuclear explosive device DC8 which was stolen from South Korea and catch Helios, the elusive thief who is planning to sell the device. On paper, it sounds like a pretty tempting and interesting film because you hardly get to see that many A-listers in a single film. Then again, I'm always wary of such movies being over-estimated because the story tends to be a let-up if the cast lineup is the selling point of the movie. Luckily, Helios defied this conception I had and turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

From this point onwards, there will be some spoilers about the movie so if you do not wish to know about them, you may wish to skip this review.

Given that most movies would last 2 hours only, it is difficult to ensure that each and every A-lister in the lineup gets their time to shine. It is inevitable that some of them don't get as much airtime as the others which leads to the flat presentation of their characters e.g. Shawn Yue's detective role. I find that I hardly know anything about him nor remember what he did except for those action scenes in the multi-storey carpark at the beginning of the film. It may be that he will get another chance at showing more of his acting especially if there is a "Helios 2" but just based on this film alone, his performance was somewhat forgettable. At the other end of the spectrum, Jacky Cheung starts off rather mildly as a subject matter expert and professor but as his true identity is revealed, his importance grows and the significance of his actions become apparent. In terms of airtime, he may not have as much as the others but he sure grows on you over time. As for the Korean actors, the fact that they were in another country meant that their actions had to be somewhat restricted thus it is natural that they were not able to do as many things as the Hong Kong police or Chinese authorities so the constraints they faced made them appear somewhat passive and underachieving.

Due to the fact that this film consists of an international cast, it is also a multilingual film with Mandarin, Korean and English spoken by the characters. Too bad the version here doesn't show Cantonese which I thought was a pity because some lines do have a different meaning and punch in that language rather than Mandarin. In order not to disrupt the tempo  of the story by having interpreters to communicate among the characters, this film has a rather ingenious way of solving this problem i.e. a device worn in the ear which translates among languages automatically based on spoken speech. It doesn't seem like interpreters were doing the translation so I assume that device has some program that does the job automatically.

The story actually does a pretty decent job at defying expectations with twists here and there instead of being another anti-terrorism story where the leads save the world easily. It leads you to believe that something might happen then heads for the other direction. For example, when Janice Man and Nick Cheung had fighting scenes in Macau, the assumption is that the guy tends to prevail because of the physical strength he possesses over the woman. However, Janice Man's character was such a strong fighter that Nick Cheung was rendered powerless and almost got killed if not for his colleagues who came in the nick of time. Another example was when Ji Jin Hee and Choi Siwon were cornered by Chang Chen and Janice Man and were left bleeding to death literally. Then, it is discovered that Ji who was thought to have suffered more serious injuries and passed out first was the one who survived while Choi didn't. When Nick Cheung and Jacky Cheung had the final showdown, most stories would probably stick to the mantra of "good prevails over evil" but it turned out the other way round. Last but not least, when Jacky Cheung and Wang Xueqi met in the train at Kurama, Kyoto, it proved to be that the evil had the upperhand this time and hints that there may be a sequel to settle things once and for all. I like the fact that these twists made the story more unpredictable and interesting but I do fear that if the sequel wants to stick to the "good prevails over evil" principle, it might turn out to be a letdown if the baddies go out without a good fight.

Among the cast, I would say that Jacky Cheung, Nick Cheung and Janice Man were probably the ones who made the deepest impressions on me. I've not seen too many of Jacky Cheung's movies and he is not as active in movies now compared to the late 80s and early 90s. However, the fact that he is able to assimilate into his roles and make the audience feel that we are looking at the character, not the singer Jacky Cheung, is probably what makes him successful as an actor. His portrayal of the professor Siu Chi-yan seemed a bit bland in the beginning because he was playing a supporting role to the police i.e. Nick Cheung and Shawn Yue to help in the arrest of Helios and retrieval of DC8. However, when it was revealed that he is the real Helios (instead of Chang Chen), he was able to show the ruthless side of Helios while maintaining a straight face and strike fear in his opponents without having to do anything. Especially in his final showdown scenes with Nick Cheung and Wang Xueqi, these are when his acting really shines through.

On the other hand, Nick Cheung had a heavier role in the sense that he had to be hot on the toes of Helios in order to achieve his mission. However, his character as the police officer Lee Yin-ming was somewhat not a typical police officer. Most police-and-thief stories would make the police officer be brainy or a tough fighter but Lee seemed rather ordinary. He was no good fighter (especially against Janice Man) nor was he the super-brainy type. Nonetheless, Nick Cheung managed to make Lee appear believable as a "normal" police officer who still managed to get to the truth, albeit in the end, he let down his guard too much and ended up losing his life. He was so convincing in that scene when he was struggling before his death and deserves a lot of praise for making it look so real. I thought Nick Cheung was fantastic in making a character appear "ordinary" which was probably more difficult than the other way round.

Last but not least, Janice Man is an eye-catching actress. It's not just her looks which I'm talking about but the fact that she could be such a mean fighter means that she'll likely be a top action actress in Hong Kong since there aren't that many now. Granted that she had very few lines in this movie, it was difficult to see if she could handle emotional scenes well but I liked that her facial expressions were strong enough to give off the icy feeling of the Messenger so it seemed like lines were superfluous this time for a femme fatale like her.

As I mentioned above, I thought Shawn Yue had too little to do in this movie which was a real shame. Likewise, Chang Chen, Ji Jin-hee and Choi Siwon probably had some issues which prevented them from shining in this movie. Ji and Choi had the problem of their characters being somewhat hampered by the fact that they were not on home ground but at least Choi got to do a motorbike chasing scene with Chang Chen through the busy streets of Hong Kong. Since they had to abide by the rules of the HK jurisdiction, that effectively meant that they could not do many action scenes especially if it involved guns. In addition, in those scenes when they were searching for intelligence with another agent played by Yoon Jin-yi, those seemed rather odd too because they seemed to be led around by Yoon who irritated me a lot with her overboard facial reactions in a bid to emphasize the severity of the situation they were in but all these guys could do was to get frustrated at each other during the argument at the da pai dong. It's kinda funny and ironic, considering how they were depicted to be potential heroes who could save their country and complete their mission in the beginning of the film but had a rather undependable colleague in Hong Kong who seemed to be able to do nothing. Last but not least, their endings also made them look a sorry sight as they were heavily defeated by Helios and his sidekicks. Wonder if the Korean audience would take issue with this? One thing about Choi, although I've not seen his dramas in full before (did catch glimpses of him in a Taiwanese drama and "Poseidon" with Lee Si Young), I think he was better at the action scenes compared to those which required emotions as he was practically squeezing the expressions out from his face. He probably just needs to loosen up a bit, blend in a little more with his character and can probably carve out a decent acting career with his looks and ability to do some serious action scenes.

As for Chang Chen, he was depicted as the main villain i.e. Helios from the start and spoke some pretty good English although some words were pronounced in a rather funny way. That aside, I liked the fact that he was able to balance the demands of being a cool villain with his other human side especially through his interaction with his godmother Josephine Koo. However, once it was hinted that Jacky Cheung was the real mastermind i.e. Helios, Chang Chen's importance seemed to dwindle sharply and he was hardly seen towards the end of the film. As such, I thought it was a pity that he was conveniently "chucked aside" after serving his purpose as the decoy for the real Helios.

If you are in the cinema for this film, do stay till the ending credits for the theme song sung by Jacky Cheung and Choi which is in Cantonese and Korean. For a brief moment, I doubted that Jacky was singing both languages on its own but the Korean voice was obviously different. Later, I went online to check and confirmed that it was the two of them singing the song together. Then again, it seemed like Choi was doing mostly the chorus while Cheung could be heard almost all the time.

In summary, this film was enjoyable in the sense that it defied my expectations in a good way and had some intense action scenes with great acting and nice scenery especially as the snowy Kurama. I don't deny that there are some flaws here and there but I guess this is inevitable with such a big cast and the fact that it is a multinational production where there were many factors to take care of. I like the fact that it tried to show the irony of the geopolitics situation which the HK police were in because the Helios case was developing in their territory and the other interested party should be South Korea only but the Chinese authorities just had to poke their finger into this to complicate the situation. If this was a purely Chinese-HK production, I doubt that this not-so-subtle hint would be allowed to stay in the movie. It would be fantastic though it there is going to be a Helios 2 since the story is far from finished but with Nick Cheung's character out of the way, would Shawn Yue step into his shoes in the fight against Helios or someone else would join the cast lineup? I also hope that Jacky Cheung continues to reprise his role as Helios because the thought of having anyone else in that character just breaks the continuity of the story and spoils the appeal of the sequel, at least to me.

Meant for royalty? - The Queen & Mangosteen (Vivocity)

Every time I walked past The Queen & Mangosteen, it felt strangely intimidating for some reason. It wasn't easy to see from the outside how the restaurant's decor was (posh or casual?) and the prices on the menu displayed at the entrance didn't quite strike me as being pocket-friendly at first. Actually, if you look hard enough, they aren't that bad especially when you consider that the portions are quite big. As such, even though it seemed like a fun drinking place for the after-five working crowd (I'm not that into drinking though), I just didn't have the inclination to check out this place.

On a weekday evening while in search of a quick dinner before a movie, I chose this place after looking through various options at Vivocity. I guess the prospect of trying something new won me over rather than going back to the places which I've tried and tested. After scrutinising the menu for a while, I decided to head inside. As it was still before 6pm that evening, the restaurant was relatively empty. However, the tables started to fill up soon after which suggested that this is indeed a popular place after all.

For a start, I ordered the Mojito mocktail. The version here is very refreshing because the mint hits your tongue first before the alcohol does and the fragrance of the mint leaves was very noticeable even before taking the first sip. Some versions I've tasted elsewhere had the alcohol overpowering the mint so it was too heavy to my liking. However, one thing I couldn't understand was that I had ordered a mocktail but I felt as if I had a cocktail. After I left the restaurant, I could feel the effects of the alcohol kicking in so I wondered if there was a mistake with my order. If it wasn't, then I would have to be careful about ordering mocktails here because they are actually not much different from a cocktail.


My main course was the duck confit with mashed potato and vegetables. What impressed me was the duck meat being full of flavour but not to the extent of being too salty and that it was soft enough but not overcooked. Although I do not know how to make this dish, it's evident even to a layman like me that it takes a lot of skill to do this dish well. In this regard, the version here has won me over on the duck meat alone. However, the sauce didn't quite leave an impression on me. It wasn't because it was bad but rather there wasn't nothing in it that really stood out. Likewise for the mashed potato, I do not know if it was deliberately left bland so that it would taste good when eaten with the sauce. To me, eating it with or without the sauce didn't make that much of a difference in the end because I didn't feel that the sauce accentuated the flavour of the mashed potato anyway. Perhaps I should have gone for the signature fish & chips after all since this is a British restaurant after all?

Luckily, the dessert was the saving grace for the evening. I ordered the chocolate lava cake which had a scoop of vanilla ice cream and various berries on top i.e. strawberry, raspberry and blueberries. The cake was baked in such a way that the crust was crispy and the interior was moist and luscious. When the spoon came into contact with the cake, the liquid chocolate within flowed freely outwards like a beautiful stream. Eating the liquid chocolate with the cake was such a heavenly and tantalising experience that this has got to be one of the better versions I've tasted so far. When eaten with the ice-cream, it adds a creamy dimension to the taste and the coolness from it helps to make the hot lava cake a bit more palatable for people who might prefer to have their cake at room temperature. The berries' sour taste also presents a different taste of the chocolate cake by neutralising the sweetness of the chocolate and might be favoured by those who don't have a sweet tooth.

To sum up the dining experience at The Queen & Mangosteen, I have to say that on the whole, I was satisfied with what I ordered although there were some flaws here and there. Perhaps it was just me who had these issues or I didn't order what they specialised in. One non-food-related thing I noticed was, the restaurant was really dark and relied on using fake candles on its tables rather than use real ones which I guess was due to fire safety and cost concerns. I usually won't have issues with this kind of thing but the flickering fake candles were making my eyes so tired that I would rather they not be put on the tables.

Frankly speaking, I still don't know why the restaurant's name is named as such but I guess the reference to the Queen probably has something to do with its British-influenced food. As for the mangosteen, I am guessing that it's because the fruit is the Queen of Fruits thus being synonymous with the Queen. As for whether the food is meant for royalty, I would say that the prices are, to a certain extent as they can be a bit steep depending on what you order. With regard to quality, I think it's a bit premature to judge them based on just two dishes so I'll probably have to try it again to see how things go.

Her World Plus Photography Day Out @ Beanstro Suntec City Mall

For people like me who love to take photos of the food they and their meal companions eat, we all go by this mantra: the camera has to eat first before we do. At least to me, it's not so much about flaunting or sharing what you eat but rather, I just wish to document what I've tried before especially on overseas trips because there is a high chance that I won't be able to go back to the same place and eat the same thing. As such, I don't post everything to social media or on this blog and most of these photos actually become my personal collection or shared with close friends.

Despite this urge to document what we eat, the act of taking photos at the dining table has to be done on the mutual understanding that you do not take so long to grab a shot until it makes the food turn cold or keeps your companions waiting while they are famished. Usually, I take pictures of my own food only unless my companions offer to let me take a picture because they know about my habit. That way, I won't have to worry about offending people or causing any unnecessary inconveniences to them.

I don't bring my Sony camera around for the purpose of taking food photos only because it's just too big and heavy to carry around As such, I have to rely on my Sony phone's camera most of the time where I'm generally quite pleased with the results. However, the biggest problem when doing indoor shooting of food is the lighting. In a dark place, the food can barely be seen but with a flash, the food's colours are distorted. In an overly lit place or if your table is just beneath the lights, the food looks washed out. Due to the light source's direction, trying to avoid casting a shadow from your arms and the handphone onto the dish is another issue. Much as I would like to learn how to overcome such issues and there are indeed many tips online, I thought it would be better to go for seminars or classes to learn to take better photos (not just the food ones) where I can consult the experts. However, such classes tend to be a bit expensive and are restricted to people who own certain brands of cameras because each manufacturer's functions tend to differ. As such, as a Sony user, it doesn't really make sense for me to go to a Canon class.

Her World Plus Photography Day Out came at the right time. It was specifically targeted at teaching people how to improve on taking food shots and the event wasn't too expensive nor lasted for a long time (just 1.5 hours) so I jumped at the chance to take part in this. Moreover, there were cakes provided by Beanstro (another dining concept by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf) for the purpose of hands-on training and participants could have their cake and eat it too.

This event held on 9 May was largely divided into three sections. First of all, Nugene Chiang, a photography expert and trainer from Canon shared tips on taking food photos and offered a sneak look into the differences between casual and professional food photography. It was intriguing to know how certain foods were not really what they seemed to be in photos and how they were made to achieve that effect. I'm glad that this didn't turn out to be a sales pitch despite the fact that the event was partly sponsored by Canon and there was mention of some of the functions in Canon cameras. In fact, there was enough information given without feeling over burdensome and the time allocated for the sharing session was apt. In short, it was quite fun to learn from Nugene on some things to take note of in order to improve the food shots.

The second part was a sharing session by local instagrammer Eileen Ong. This is just my personal opinion though but Eileen probably wasn't used to public speaking and was understandably nervous so it was a bit difficult trying to understand what she was saying at times. However, I appreciated her effort in preparing various shots to show the audience what she meant instead of trying to put things in theory only. It was interesting to see how she composed her shots using props or existing things like your clothes, the wall or even your hands. I do have to admit that perhaps not of all of her advice was feasible in practice especially moving your food around to another part of the restaurant or cafe just to take a photo. In that sense, it was slightly disappointing not to hear things such as how she overcomes issues such as lighting if you can't change your seat in the restaurant or cafe. Nonetheless, I thought that it was better to have a balanced view on this topic of food photos by letting us hear the views from a casual photographer like most, if not all of the participants were.

Last but not least, the participants were given time to practice taking shots of the cakes and snacks dished out by Beanstro. At the end of the session, they could get one printout of their photo using the Selphy printing machine and submit any of their photos for a voting contest organised by Her World. As far as I saw, nobody really bothered to ask the staff why there was no cutlery on the tables in the first place because we all knew that we had to "feed" our cameras first.

For those who didn't bring their own cameras, they could borrow one from Canon which had to be returned at the end of the session. I brought mine and felt a bit out of place because it was not a Canon. By the time I finished taking my shots, I noticed that my companion and I were the ones to start eating our cakes while others were still going around to take pictures. Not that we were fast or anything but I guess we took enough pictures by then. As for the quality of the photos printed by Selphy, the colours turned out OK but I was puzzled why it cropped off the top of the photo (the last one in this post) and thus it did not look as good as it is in digital form. I guess the printer had to resize to fit the printing paper but if so, this wouldn't be something I would consider getting to print my photos because they should appear as they were taken.

To sum things up, it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend my Saturday afternoon and I look forward to attending more of such events in future. I don't know if my contest entry (not posted here though) will qualify to be one of the Top 10 for the voting round which starts from 15 May but if it does, I will be praying hard that I win the first price because the Canon G7X camera looks really cool and can be brought around more easily for my local food outings. Will you vote for me if I really get selected? ^__^

A mesmerising night out with Pink Martini

My first encounter with Pink Martini was when I heard their French song "Sympathique" over the radio. Frankly speaking, I didn't know what the lyrics were all about at that time but that song really hit the right note with me and since then, I've been quite keen in their music. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan though but I've been following their activities via their Facebook fan page. As such, when I first saw the news about them heading to Singapore for their Asia tour, it was a huge and pleasant surprise for me because their tours tend to be within the US and Europe.

Just a day after hearing about the news, I tried to book tickets online but the system kept giving me undesirable seats so I had to head down to a Sistic counter to get a better deal. I wasn't sure if it was because the first few rows were indeed snapped up by fans or the system had blocked these seats for whatever reason but for anyone who's buying any concert tickets through Sistic, you might just wish to try your luck at the counters instead of online to see if you can get better seats. I managed to get seats which were supposedly taken up as shown on their website.

Pink Martini hails from Portland, Oregon, and is a musical group formed by Thomas Lauderale in 1994 which produces a wide variety of music such as jazz, latin, classical and classic pop. As its members come from different backgrounds and know various languages, these factors have resulted in the wide range of their music. The lead vocalists are China Forbes and Storm Large but I've never heard Large in action thus far. For the Singapore edition of their concert, it was Forbes who was the vocalist.

Attending a concert at the Esplanade was a first for me. Although there were people who dressed finely as if this was a classical concert, most of the audience were dressed in smart casual wear which was in line with the relaxed mood of the concert. Compared to the Singapore Indoor Stadium, I think the sound effects were indeed much better due to the design of the concert hall. Being near to the stage also helped in elevating the audio experience. To be able to see Pink Martini live in action was simply fantastic as the audience sang along and danced with the band. Seeing is believing, you would have to see the band in action to understand why their music is so contagious and attractive. To top it off, hearing some of the background stories about how their compositions came about was a good way of letting the audience relate to the theme of the songs and appreciate them better. This was something which wasn't evident or conveyed fully in the albums or music videos because you had to hear it first hand from Pink Martini themselves.

One of the highlights of the evening was hearing Forbes and Timothy Nishimoto sing a Chinese New Year song. No doubt it was already way past Chinese New Year by the time the concert was held, the audience was still very receptive of their valiant efforts to sing in Chinese especially since their pronunciation was near perfect. It must have taken them a fair bit of time to achieve it and I applaud their efforts in that.

Besides the fact that the band can juggle songs in various languages e.g. English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese, I think the energy they exude on stage is what makes them so engaging to watch and listen to. Although Forbes is the main vocalist for the band, other members take turns to sing with her and this creates an endless mix of unique combinations for different numbers. The synergy as a result of these collaborations between members and the camaraderie they display bring out the essence of the songs so well that I think it would not have been the same if it was just Forbes singing everything on her own. For example, when Nishimoto and Forbes were singing ¿Dónde Estás, Yolanda? together, I was really mesmerised at how good they sing together and interact on stage.

Coincidentally, I was sitting beside Forbes' sister's family that night and it happened to be her nephew's birthday as well. They were obviously full of pride of their family member's performance and rightfully so, I would say. In fact, Forbes' sister was one of the first to stand up to dance which sort of led the audience to do the same towards the end. Someone's got to take the lead before other Singaporeans would follow suit, I guess. ^__^

Despite the brilliant performance put up by the band, there were a few things which did not really go down well with me, albeit they were largely unrelated to do with the band.

First of all, I was very "lucky" to encounter a man who was such a big fan of the band that he had to go on and on to his friends about what he knows about Pink Martini and expressed his views about almost every song sung during the concert, be it in the midst of a song or in between numbers. What made it worse was that he was making all these loud wolf whistles right into my ears many times during the whole performance and I really thought that I might go deaf that evening with the shrill sounds piercing my ear drums at such close proximity. I can understand if people are excited and want to express their joy at seeing their favourite singers but wolf whistles at inappropriate junctures or the smart-aleck boasting are so annoying especially if you happen to be near "the centre of the action".

Secondly, having an intermission for a concert which lasts about 90 minutes seems rather odd. Perhaps it is just me especially since I don't claim to be an active concert or theatre patron but for most concerts or plays I've been to so far, only those lasting 2 hours or more tend to have intermissions. For a concert this short, the intermission seems to have broken the momentum built up during the first half but luckily, the audience heated up pretty quickly in the second half. Nonetheless, I would have still preferred no intermission for this concert especially when I had to keep standing up from my seat to allow those people sitting in the same row as me to move in and out.

Last but not least, I thought that this would have been a great opportunity to expand their reach and increase the awareness of their music through this concert. Unlike the concerts I've been to before, there wasn't any booth to sell the band's CDs and nor was there any promotional materials e.g. concert phamphlets or booklets or panel boards to tell the concert-goers about the band. I would have loved to buy the CDs which are currently missing in my collection especially not all CD stores in Singapore stock them. In fact, it's not so easy to find a CD store these days except for the major ones in town. It was a pity that there were no CDs to buy. The only so-called promotional item on display was the huge poster panel for people to take photos with Forbes and Lauderale. Perhaps it would be better to have a board showing the band's history and/or discography. I know that in this time and age, we can find anything on the Internet but I thought this was a golden opportunity for the band to boost its profile which sadly was not capitalised on .

In all, I must say that I did enjoy the concert despite some of the hiccups or flaws I highlighted. Like I said, they have nothing to do with the band but if they are to come to Singapore again, I would love to see some improvements to make it even better. I just hope that they won't make us wait another 5 years though.