Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

OK if you are going to see Anchorman 2 you will need to leave all your political correctness at home to enjoy it. Similar to the first movie, Anchorman 2 used its creative licence to it fullest and exploited every opportunity on political incorrectness to score a laugh. Whether the original movie was a legend to warrant a subtitle of “The Legend Continues” for the sequel, in my opinion, is open to questioning. But surely this sequel has inherited all the things the original was about, and pushed the boundaries even further.

The story continued from the first one just loose enough to establish itself as an independent story. The main cast is still great. In fact the movie has some of the funniest moments you have seen this year. Steve Carell demonstrated why he is the latest comedy king with this electrifying performance as Brick. Compared to other members of the cast, he seemed effortless and just morphed into Brick effortlessly. His versatility as a comedy actor is once again on parade. I personally have never been a big fan of Will Ferrell. Not that he is not a good comedian or comedy actor, but how he tries so hard to tell people “this is funny, so please laugh”. His over the top performance Ron Burgundy made meI sometimes feel like there is a big light box in front of the screen flashing out “Laugh” to force something out of me. Since it is a movie about him, without a doubt there are lots of such moments in this film. I personally did not enjoy it that much but then I know a lot of people who are Will Farrell’s fans would utterly love it.  Paul Rudd and David Koechner delivered reasonably but still Steve Carell is the person who stole the show. James Marsden as Jack Lime was also very funny and interesting to watch. He demonstrated that he is more than just Cyclops (whom I utterly loved) and is totally transformable.

As mentioned earlier, Anchorman 2 banks in on political incorrectness to buy some cheap laugh. Cheap they might be but they are in context. I think that is what makes Anchorman 2 still stands out as a watchable comedy of the year. It is American, so it is about physicality over text, and Anchorman 2 did very well with this. The environment was in a period where women and other ethnic groups were unseen as important players in most industries, and there were a lot of such moments. Deep down you know that it is wrong, but then because of the background of the movie, you did not feel that “inappropriate” at all. Or you would simply “forgive” them. Having said that I do wonder whether this time round I am not as offended as the first movie is because I have grown older and have a higher tolerant threshold; or I have become more insensitive about these issues. I know it is a comedy so I should not be over thinking about these issues. But then I just can’t help.

Having said that, Anchorman 2 is still a very watchable and enjoyable movie. It has an insanely great cast with some of the best comedic timings in comedies. It exploits the genre with not just physicality but also framing, environment and references. Of course one should never underestimate the ridiculous cast of cameos in the movie. You really do wonder how did they manage to round up a whole bunch of who’s who in the current film industry in one go. Not only that, they were wiling to make fun of themselves, look silly and put together some of the most hilarious scenes for the movie. Just watching those scenes is worth your money.

Anchorman 2 might not be the most meaningful movie in human history. It might not be even an Oscar nominating movie. But for its purpose, it does very well indeed. If you are just looking for a good laugh without getting too serious Anchorman 2 certainly delivers. That aside, I still need to find out why I enjoyed the same political incorrectness more this time round…

Change My Race

There are many movies and TV shows about people longing to change their identities to live a different life. This kind of desire stems from the unhappiness these people have about themselves thus the idea of “what if I were somebody else?” Just having those thoughts brings along hope and escapism that real life does not offer.

Nowadays these kinds of thoughts are somewhat no longer unreachable. With advancement of plastic surgery changing life through changing face is no longer a distant dream. Girls, now even guys are flocking to the plastic surgeons for a dream self. Looks are now like items on the supermarket shelves available for pick, choose and buy.

As normal as this has become, in a recent SBS documentary by Anna Choy, something more disturbing is lurking around and coming out of the shadows. The documentary titled “Change My Race”. It is about Asian girls longing to look like westerners and ridding of their “Asian features”. In the documentary, it demonstrated how South Korean girls race for the western look and eventually all look alike. The program demonstrated how a recent Miss Korea pageant has finalists who all look exactly the same. When flipping from one headshot to another, nothing has changed except for the hairstyle and the outfit. The standard of beauty set by the west had driven these girls to throw their genetic look out of the window to become Barbie clones.

However, what is more disturbing is when the program brought us back to Australia. It followed three Asian Australian girls who went under the knife so they could look more “Australian”. As they all said, they sound Australian but they were neither fully recognised as Asian nor Australian. Some of them experienced bullying simply because they look different. They believe by looking more Australian, aka Anglo-Saxon, they would be more accepted and they would feel better about themselves. One of them did not want to alter her look but her parents forced her to do so because they want her to look pretty and by pretty Anglo Saxon. They were able to pay for her operation and want this to show how much their daughter loves them.

Having worked as an actor in Australia in the past 10 years I can certainly understand where these girl came from. Having the “Asian look” has been both a blessing and a hindrance for me. I got called in every time they wanted an Asian man but then at the same time I got called in mostly because they wanted an Asian man. My agent had worked very hard to get me out of that Asian man box and slowly we see that effort is working. However, this does not stop those Asian man calls. I do believe that after all these years I am very comfortable with how I look. I am Asian and look Asian that would never change. But at the same time I do understand where these girls came from because when I was a kid I was one of them. I have a pair of eyes that only show up with double eye-lids when I am tired. Noticing that I tried to look tired so I look like the celebrities I saw on TV and in movies. I also tried to put a peg on my nose when I went to bed so that my nose could be higher before my kiddy nose ridge sets for life. I did admire, adore and envy the good looks these people in films and TV have. My parents spent a lot of time trying to make me understand that I am who I am and if I do not appreciate myself nobody will.

I will be totally hypocritical if I criticise these girls for longing to look like “Australian” so they could fit in and feel better as an Australian. I do not blame her, or in one case her parents. I blame the stubbornness of our Australian media that after all these years we are still unable to see a real Australia on stage and on screen. In the past it was “no trained Asian or ethnic actors” but we all know in the past 10 years or so a lot of Asian and ethnic actors were trained by various drama and theatre school including NIDA. That “myth” for me was broken but the stubbornness not so much. It is still comforting that the younger generation of media practitioner are less “configured” to the idea that our society should be all Anglo-Saxon, although we probably need to wait till a major change up above before a further big step could be made.

As for these girls, I completely feel for them. I must admit changing your face to change your race is an extreme move but then who can throw the first stone when nobody in the society is qualified to do so? All I wish is that the faces of our society will continue to change so our race does not matter anymore.

Click picture to watch "Change My Race" on SBS

Threads of Silence

Have been re-visiting the tracks of one of my favourite Australian musicians lately. There aren’t a lot of Australian musicians that I know. In the past when I was in Hong Kong I only knew of Air Supply and Kylie Minoque. Then because of the Olympics I got to know Savage Garden, Christine Anu and more Kylie Minoque. After moving to Australian, I found out Kylie Minoque is just everywhere and a number of Australians worship her like a goddess. I tried to tap myself into the whole Australian music scene, as I love music but never really got quite into it. I didn’t even know that Olivia Newton-John was Australian until quite late. There are some odd balls ones like Kid Mac that I got quite into but for the mainstream industry it remains alternative to me.

Then came along Karise Eden, a 19 year old girl whose big voice shocked the audience last year and got all four judges in The Voice turned around their chairs the moment she finished her first bar. It was a story in the making – a girl stranded in life trying to make it through something she was passionate about. She told her story with her heart through other people’s song and Australia was moved. Her first original track “I was Your Girl” still gives me chills even now. She was “a star in the making”.

Then The Voice finished and as with the glamour of its contestants no matter what position you took in the competition. It was a reality show after all. People and audiences moved on from one reality to another, and that’s the reality of it.

Karise Eden released her debut My Journey album as with all other “talent show” winners and hoped for the best. The album is basically a compilation of covers. Most of them were released previously on iTune as part of the competition process. The other original track was “You Won’t Let Me”. Another heart felt song that I still string my heart along whenever I listen to it.

Then there was silence. A long period of silence. You wonder whether the media had finished churning her inside their publicity machines and had now spit her out. I wonder would this unique musical voice be drowned by a pop culture that focuses on artificial bodily constructs and bashing eyelashes.

Then she returned to The Voice for another performance with a new original track “Threads of Silence”. To be honest I didn’t watch The Voice this year, as I did not feel the need to do so. Also I do not have that $100 iTune voucher that I got from friends last year to spending on “voting”. But then I ran into her YouTube performance when I was wondering what happened to her.

I was stunned. Completely stunned. Karise, after a year of real life photoshop has become less real in her image. In fact she was kind of distance. It did not really fit with her usual heart warming down to earth image. Her hair is now polished like silk dropping down a silver waterfall. Her face looks more brushed up with features clearly spelt by the drawing pen. But when the first note came out after a hallowing keyboard introduction, she is still that captivating singer that caught everyone’s attention last year.

The lyrics:

He said you could do anything but anything is nothing when you need a bit of helping out
You could go anywhere but anywhere is nowhere when emptiness is where you stand

Completely drew out the conflicts and dilemmas of a person who wants to strike it out by itself. We all went through this stage in our lives and some might be even going through this now, but Karise has bared her emotions on stage while we strolled along the busy streets trying to pretend that we are living a life we want. Those two lines brought out our yearning to be strong while compromising ourselves to the reality. Then she sang:

Holding the Threads of Silence that lead me to your dawn.

The issue is – is this our dawn or yours?

The song for me is haunting because I most of the time I refuse to comprise my principals but when I do need to step back for the greater good, that is exactly how I felt.

I don’t know whether that is what Karise is feeling being in the media industry. A 19 year old trying to make her way and stand tall to do something she is proud of. But how many occasions did she need to give in, that is something nobody can see beyond her glamorous visage.

I hope “Threads of Silence” does not reflect Karise current feelings but she did as Seal said in the competition, “tell stories that nobody dared to tell through her music”. I might not like her rendition of “Hallelujah” but “Threads of Silence” once again proved that Karise Eden is a gem in the Australian music industry. Hopefully one day these “Threads of Silence” could weave a successful career that she rightfully deserves.

To listen to Threads of Silence click here