Addicted to the Cantopop queen’s two new songs this year.

2019 has certainly been a very dramatic year for Sammi Cheng, the queen of Cantopop. The infamous cheating scandal of her husband, Andy Hui (also a singer) with Jacqueline Wong (TVB actress) back in April that shocked most of Asia put a huge test to her marriage and her life whom was once troubled with serious depression over a decade ago. She forgives her husband and decided to move on; and by moving on, she means big; holding a series of 13 shows at Hong Kong Coliseum in July.

The shows are the start of her Follow Mi World Tour and will soon continues to other Chinese speaking regions across the world (looking forward to watch her show either in Malaysia or in Singapore). This is also her 10th tour in Hong Kong and she recently achieved the milestone of holding over 100 concerts at Hong Kong Coliseum (at 103). The only other two female singers who have achieved that are Paula Tsui and the late Anita Mui.

Her popularity in Hong Kong, or even in Asia is unquestionable. No one doubts her status as the Cantopop queen. Her songs in the past 30 years of her career (yes, she has been in the industry for 3 decades) are mostly very beautiful, soothing and are classic hits. This is why she is my favourite singer and I grew up listening to a lot of her songs (and movies too).

Talking about movies, in the past two years, she had completed filming 4 new movies and one of them will be released this coming Thursday. The movie, produced by famous director Ann Hui, is entitled ‘Fagara’. Early reactions to the movie had been positive with many praising the emotional performance that Sammi had delivered for her role in this movie. I hope this movie will finally win her her first best actress win at Hong Kong Film Awards.

It is very likely that Hong Kong films will not be participating in the upcoming Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards later this year due to the ban imposed by China after last year’s incident when an award recipient at Golden Horse Awards mentioned of the wish for Taiwan to become an independent country in the acceptance speech. Hence, it is very unfortunate for Hong Kong films this year including ‘Fagara’ that may have huge potential to win some trophies at the prestigious Golden Horse Awards (it is the oldest and most prestigious awards for Chinese language films). If the ban didn’t happen, Sammi Cheng may even had a great shot of snatching the best actress award over there too. She truly deserves it after all the previous failed attempts. She is way overdue. For me, she not only excels in singing but also in acting. It is hard to find a Hong Kong artist now capable of doing so well in both areas.

As mentioned in my blog post’s title, I have been listening to her two new songs recently for a huge number of times. I kept repeating them, over and over again. They are ‘We Grew This Way’ (her theme song for her Follow Mi World Tour) and ‘Say Properly’ (theme song for her upcoming movie ‘Fagara’). The former is a Cantonese song (its official MV had already gained over 2 million views on Youtube) while the latter is a Mandarin song. Both are so beautiful to listen too, and very moving too (especially the former..’We Grew This Way’ is easily HK’s song of the year).

Here are the songs for the pleasure of your ears…haha:

 

She had just celebrated her 47th birthday last month. At this age, many would have just slow down on the works but that isn’t the case for her. 5 new songs since 2018, 13 sold-out shows on July 2019 and with more to come at oversea locations, more film projects soon and countless events, the Cantopop queen is still as strong as ever. That determination and passion in work is also what makes me to admire her.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

5 years since Michael Jackson’s demise.

Back on this day exactly five years ago, the whole world was in shock after learning from news of the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. At first, many believed it was only another rumour or hoax, but then it turned out to be real. And that was a shocking and heartbreaking news to hear, particularly for the millions of fans of this legendary singer. Today eventually marks the fifth death anniversary of Michael Jackson, and I’m taking this opportunity to pay a little tribute to this megastar in this blog’s post.

Who would not have heard of the name ‘Michael Jackson’? If you really don’t know, you must be joking or living in a jungle the entire life and fully disconnected to the world. He is so successful in the entertainment industry, to the point that he had became a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. Yes, four decades. His successful career in singing, dancing, song-writing and even in acting began in 1970s (when he was still a teenager) and reached the peak in 1980s and 1990s. I can say nobody (any singers) on these days could match his fame and success.

Some of his songs that I like are ‘You Are Not Alone’, ‘Thriller’, ‘Billie Jeans’, ‘Beat It’, ‘We Are The World’, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’, ‘Heal The World’, etc. I love both his slow romantic to fast rock-and-roll songs. There are many other interesting and meaningful songs from him too, but I forgot the titles. Once the melody is up, then we would recall. And also his popularity soared to an unbelievable level due to his amazing dancing skill. Who wouldn’t remember his iconic ‘moonwalk’ dance, ‘anti-gravity lean’ stunt, his quick robotic moves, and much more.

Just two weeks ago, I came across ‘Michael Jackson: This Is It’ film and I watched it. It is available for free viewing at YouTube. It is a documentary-concert film directed by Kenny Ortega that documents Michael Jackson’s rehearsals and preparation for his last comeback tour concert series which are scheduled to start on 13 July 2009, but cancelled due to his death 18 days prior on 25 June. A very wonderful (at least we got to see his great attitudes and perfectionism on his preparation for the concert tours) documentary about him. The sad thing is that we would be kept reminded that the scenes we saw in the film are the real footage of him only few days or weeks before his death. Nevertheless, I’m glad that this film was released, so that we can at least catch the last glimpse of this superstar, as his ‘This Is It’ concert series couldn’t be materialized.

Five years have gone since the demise of this global icon. Michael Jackson, you will be forever missed. Eventhough I’m not his fans or anything, but his immense contribution and influence to the world’s music is unquestionably legendary and will be forever appreciated, remembered and honored. Legend never dies.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Movie review: One Direction – This Is Us (2013)

What is a concert film? It’s a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician. Basically, it’s a movie showing usually the best parts of a concert, superimposed with several other scenes related to the background and success of the particular star(s). This kind of movie would certainly please the fans, and usually not the movie critics. The first concert film I watched was back in 2011, and that is Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Now, it’s time for One Direction: This Is Us, released in 2013.

The former is a movie solely on a single celebrity, while the latter centred on a band by five young British boys. One person to five. Which one do you think could manage to pull off for a movie of about one and a half hour? Of course One Direction: This Is Us. Sorry to Bieber’s fans. More people is an advantage to this type of movie that requires no ‘real’ plot. Hope you understand what I mean. You see, even in IMDB score, Bieber’s film only managed to get 1-2 points out of 10 while 1D got 3-4. But both had very low ratings there. I won’t give that low.

Okay, I will stop comparing. Let’s get back to ‘1D: This Is Us’. I’m glad that the movie shows a bit from the X-Factor competition where it all began for the five boys. If you didn’t know, they participated individually in the competition back in 2010, but then formed a group together under guidance by Simon Cowell. Despite only finished in third place, they continued to perform in the group and eventually achieved worldwide success and fame. The movie also offers several short talks with parents of each boys as expected. These parts should be heartfelt and emotional, but the movie only manages to achieve that minimally. But I think the movie did well and balanced on showing things from the five boys, mostly in group and also individually.

It is pretty engaging throughout the whole movie. It offered live singing of most of the popular songs by the band like ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, ‘One Thing’, ‘Live While We’re Young’, etc. They performed very well and gives the movie a very energetic push, hence the movie successfully brought up the mood and joy of watching it.  I enjoyed their show seen from this film and it must have satisfied their fans too. We do see also the playful and fun side from One Direction, particularly when they were off-stage (in the bus, backstage, in camp, etc). I especially like the part when they put on make-ups to pull off pranks to their unknowing fans. The scene during the end credits is very hilarious too. The movie also highlighted their tireless lives going from one place to another to complete huge number of shows with passion and effort.

And also as expected, we do see also a lot of crazy excited fans screaming throughout the movie. A bit annoying, but you have to bear with it when you are watching this kind of idol-on-the-spot movie. Well, it’s something cannot be denied that they have a very strong and huge fanbase all over the world. And I was like ‘wow’, by the extremely massive turnouts of their fans shown in the movie anywhere in the world. The movie also presents the strong friendship within them and it’s somewhat quite interesting to watch. Overall, this movie delivered to its objective, and is somehow enjoyable, cheerful and fun to watch despite I’m not a fans of the group. However, I do like some of their very hit songs and I don’t mind going for their concert in future (only if there is no excessive screaming by the die-hard female fans). Wait? Maybe they will come to perform in KL soon in the planned Where We Are Tour this year. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘One Direction: This Is Us’ a total of 7.4. A very good rating indeed.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Movie review: This Means War (2012)

Ignore the majority of negative reviews given to this film. ‘This Means War’ is indeed a good film to watch. I don’t really understand why it would receives such a poor rating. For me, this movie is generally entertaining and interesting to watch. ‘This Means War’ is a romantic comedy film with a bit of thriller involving two CIA agents whom discovered that both of them are dating the same woman that leads to ‘war’ between them. 

That plot or idea of having two top CIA agents using necessary equipments and technology to prevent each other from successfully creating a romantic moment with the same woman they fall in love is incredibly fun and interesting to watch. There is of course some elements of humour added, as both of them plotting against each other so their opponent would fail to impress the woman. While on the other hand, the woman follows the advice of her friend to get the best of that, which allows for many romantic yet funnily- halted situations. 

I am glad that major portion of the film is dedicated to that, which follows the title of the film itself, because in the beginning, I do worry that the theme of having the two agents in war between themselves is limited. Luckily, it’s not, and that leads to a great film with the presence of an international criminal handled by the two main characters as a supporting framework to the story which leads to a dramatic ending. Many elements are delivered in the right amount in this film, and the flow of story is considered quite fast and well-organized, especially in the number of changing scenes between one of the agent (Tuck or Foster) with the girl they are dating, Lauren. 

Well, this isn’t about action scenes from the two CIA agents (but there are still some). It’s about the way they spy on each other, and all those ‘war’ between them as mentioned earlier for the girl. The performance by the main casts are generally good, and I find a good chemistry between the pairs too (between Tuck and Foster as the two agents who are best friends, between Tuck and Lauren, and especially between Foster and Lauren that ends up together in this film). The script is well-written too. Well, there isn’t anything seriously poor in this film, and it’s truly worth watching while providing some form of entertainment with use of such an awesome theme. Out of 10 points, I rate this film a total of 7.7.

‘Waka Waka’

Had been listening to this songs hundred of times from radio (fm), online videos, etc. This song gets so famous recently because it is the main theme song for the on-going FIFA World Cup 2010. The title of the song is Waka Waka (This time for Africa) which is by Shakira.

          

The lyric is simple, all the words used are easy to be understood, since this should be an international song, easily known by all people around the world. With the same objective like the previous ‘You and Me’ (theme song for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games), this simple song really catches the attention of many people. It really does live up the atmosphere of the game, but it still receives negative review from many parties.

It would be good for this kind of song to be sang by international artist. It is unnecessary for the singer to be an African as well, because the song is for all, not only for the host nation. This is a good way to promote the song internationally too. Furthermore, Shakira has a unique voice and suitable to sing this.

Some African words are added. ‘Waka waka’ means ‘do the job’, ‘tsaminamina zangalewa’ means ‘where do you come from’, ‘waka’ means ‘it is mine’, ‘zambo’ means ‘wait’, ‘tsaminamina’ means ‘wait’, ‘anawa aa’ means ‘I did’.  These African words are added to bring the song closer to Africa, the host nation.

The lyric of the song can be found from this link:

http://www.directlyrics.com/shakira-waka-waka-lyrics.html

There are many other websites offering the song, music video and the lyric too, it is just so popular, it plays, plays and plays…until I like it now….