Music Obsessions – February 2022

Welcome to February 2022’s Music Obsessions. Music hasn’t exactly been a huge focus as I shift away from finding music on Youtube and mostly listening via Spotify. I’m still building up my Spotify with some 90s-2000s Cantopop and Taiwan pop. The list is really some of the newer music from recent Chinese drama binges and then some older songs that I’ve been listening to more frequently on Spotify. Let’s check it out!

遙望 Looking Into The Distance – Adam Fan & Cheng Xiao
(“The World of Fantasy” End Theme)

Kicking of the year, I went back to the beginning of 2021 to find the TV series on iQiYi’s streaming platform that I had missed in an effort to do some catch up while letting the newer releases some time to accumulate some episodes. The first one is The World of Fantasy starring a debut acting effort by Adam Fan paired with Cheng Xiao. I will talk about the series itself again but their little end theme duet together is decent enough. The video does give a good idea of what the series is about and shows some of the production value behind the show. This song pops up quite a bit during the show and really works with the whole vibe of the fantasy world and their romance throughout.

Goodbye – 丁当 Ding Dang
(“Shining For One Thing” Theme)

I guess the above part about TV series was a bit of a lie since after The World of Fantasy, I shifted my plans when I saw this series pop up and all the episodes were released in one shot, which is super rare with Chinese dramas. Shining For One Thing kind of tricked me with their trailer into thinking that it felt like the whole background was inspired by the game “Life is Strange” although, I still think that some angles did feel like it could have been mildly inspired. Regardless, the TV series is pretty fantastic overall…a few issues but I will talk about in an upcoming review. With that said, this TV series had an amazing soundtrack in general and most of the songs are actually in English. With that said, I’m going to spam another 2 songs from the show that I liked a lot.

For Lovers – Shaw Qu

I think that when TV series use their actors if they can sing to do their music and have their own version, it does work really well. In this case, Shaw Qu (which I don’t know much about his background) has a decent voice and executes this song rather decently. His song shows up in the drama and its rather memorable. For those who don’t know, Shaw Qu is probably more known in the Western entertainment for being part of the rather divisive Chinese Netflix film The Wandering Earth (review). Recent days, he seems to be falling into these romantic films and TV series. A lot of people dismiss those things but I think this one does a good job. Still seeking out a film he released last year that I really want to see.

全世界在你身后 The World Is Behind You – 都智文 Baby.J

I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this song but man, this song appears when its the most romantic scenes so hard to really not notice it. Plus, its one of the songs with lyrics that fits the whole plot of the TV series. Not to mention, I like this singer’s voice quite a bit.

不拖不欠 – 鄭秀文 Sammi Cheng

The main theme for 1996’s Hong Kong romantic comedy Feel 100% starring Sammi Cheng and Ekin Cheng in their main leads brings this rather iconic song for Sammi Cheng. Its one of my all-time faves and one that has been playing on repeat in my mind. I might be a bit biased considering Sammi Cheng is one of my top 5 favorite singers ever so its always so nostalgic to listen to her music. Now to hunt down this film again…

默契 – 鄭秀文 Sammi Cheng

I completely forgot that this song from Sammi Cheng is actually from the theme for the sequel of Feel 100%. It explains why these two songs always connect together so well. Either way, also one of my favorite songs. I figured why not stick to this fantastic artist who has such a long discography. Some of the film buffs here who have seen some Hong Kong films might recognize her as a supporting character in Infernal Affairs.

That’s it for this week’s Music Obsessions.
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – September 2019

Another month as passed by. Its been a very odd month since it feels like I haven’t quite found a ton of new music but then there’s been some interesting finds at the same time. Its been quite random or related to whatever I’ve been watching and such.

好好說 – Sammi Cheng 鄭秀文

If we were to talk about a singer that I’ve adored for a long time, it has to go to Sammi Cheng who inspired a lot of my own love for pop music in terms of female singers especially for Cantonese pop music. This song is for her upcoming movie which I hope to get a chance to see as I like a few people in the cast as well but I absolutely love this song. The lyrics and her singing and everything: still love her even after so very long (we’re talking almost two decades).

谁都别吝啬 – R1SE

I was a bit skeptical of R1SE or lets say, Produce Camp but this group has really made its mark as its been associated with a lot of different songs for TV shows and having their own music and such. Its definitely nice to be on the Tencent platform or to have come out of a show on the Tencent platform. Adding into their own singing abilities, its a group that works. As much as I like this song, I do hope that they all get to find their place as a few of the boys in this group are quite good at the overall music production from lyrics to music. Hopefully, they’ll get a chance to flex those skills. For now, their music is always a constant fun and energetic company.

Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

Its taken a few listens but I’ve been into this song lately. The video is a bit weird in my opinion but hey, the song is quite fun. I’m not sure whether its going to be a permanent thing in my playlist but this past month, its been quite entertaining to have on and keeping the energy level high.

The Coming One 3 Highlights
White – Rohar Ye & Tian Yi

漂浮群岛 – 张颜齐 & 洪一诺

The Coming One 3 is done but I can’t get over the collabs show they did. That episode was my favorite and these two performances above are my absolutely faves.  I’m doing it as a unit because they are simply highlights from the show. Both of them didn’t end up winning in the end but these two girls are my faves of the competition. Rohar Ye is my absolute fave right from her first song so I’m hoping she continues tackling the rest of the colors and make them into songs while still making other songs true to her style because I’m totally down for it. She’s different and its very indie and I’m not sure the audience she’s aiming for will easily accept it but I sure hope she still finds a way. On that note, White is a great song. She’s done Blue and Black at this point during the competition.

我還是沒改變 I’ll Never Change – 大壯 DZ

DZ has come out with three singles at this point, I think. And all of them are really good. They remind me a lot of the really nice days of music when songs were filled with well-written lyrics as well as nice ballads/tunes. Its one of the reason why I like DZ and his work so much. Three for three is not easy and I hope that he keeps making music and keeps such a high quality.

忘情森巴舞 -草蜢 Grasshopper

I really wanted to add in this one for this round-up even if this time feels a tad heavy. Hong Kong has been on my mind a lot lately and being a long-time fan of Grasshopper since I was young, I wanted to share something from the 80s that always makes me happy to listen to. Its very dated but hey, its been playing on repeat these days on my playlist. Grasshopper members may all be in their 50s but they really remind us of staying young at heart as they still give great performances full of energy and pull of their dances and stuff well still.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to lately?

Music Obsessions – February 2018

Its February and right in time for the Valentine’s special! So we’re going to do some romantic songs here. Honestly, my past month has been quite reminescent in catching up with Hong Kong pop music from singers that I’ve listened to before. I’ll have some other fun stuff as usual 🙂

Let’s go!

This Girl – Hunter Hayes 

Fun and energetic is what I love about Hunter Hayes’ songs. His love songs are always so positive and its really a nice and happy time to listen to.

真命天子 The One – Sammi Cheng

One of my ultimate favorite singers is Sammi Cheng. To me, she’s quite the queen of 90’s Hong Kong pop music. She is fantastic and within her tons of songs, I remember really love this one because of how happy it is especially when it was the theme of a 20 episode Hong Kong TV series that I really enjoyed a lot. She sings about the feelings of meeting and being with “the one”. I love how she uses heartbeat sounds to start the song.

你的男人 Your Man -Andy Hui

Quite the coincidence that I’ve always recently been listening to Andy Hui and catching up with his music. He also happens to be Sammi Cheng’s husband and their careers started in the 90’s at about the same time and their love story is quite something as they were together for a long time, broke up and then went back together and are married since a few years back. However, this song actually starts at around the 1:30 point as the story here is about a man growing out of his bad habits to be his girlfriend’s man and be able to save up to propose and get married debt-free. Andy Hui sings really  nice love songs and I’ve always been a fan.

最後最後 Last Dance -Fiona Sit

Probably the song that I’ve been listening the most on repeat in this month’s selection and one that is somewhat of a bittersweet story told by this music video about the song Last Dance. I can’t say that Fiona Sit is my favorite singer because she never had this very impressive vocal talents but her music is very catchy especially when one of her breakout songs translated is called Letter to Keanu Reeves and its incredibly cute. I’ve been reminiscing and listening to that one when I saw this song pop up in the recommended and its a newer song but her vocals are really quite good now and the song here is beautiful about the last dance of a couple that broke up over a stupid argument and the guy comes back after a few years for a last dance before he leaves to go back home.

手望 – Hins Cheung & Ivana Wong 

I’ve been a fan of Hins Cheung since the release of his first album. I can’t believe how long its been since he’s been in the business. Time sure does fly by. Before I stopped listening to Cantopop for a while, one of the last songs I listened to a lot was this duet between him and Ivana Wong (who is vouched by Jacky Cheung, who happens to be a king of the industry in 90’s and is one of the best singers ever in my opinion). This song is quite romantic. Unfortunately, there is a pun element to the title so I’m not exactly sure how to translate it. However, their vocals and the tune is just so awesome.

For the additional fun bit:

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir – Free Dance ‘Moulin Rouge’ Canadian Skating Nationals 2018

I used to watch the Figure Skating Nationals and Olympics and everything all the time with my dad. After he passed, I actually stopped for whatever reason. I saw a post on this on Facebook the other day. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are amazing and got a perfect score for this routine. You could feel the beauty in their dance and coordination and it did feel like they were so in sync. It helps that they chose one of my favorite soundtracks, Moulin Rouge, which I listen to all the time.

That’s it for this February special Romantic Music Obsessions!
What have you been listening to?

Genre Grandeur – Infernal Affairs (2002)

Check out my review for Movierob’s May Genre Grandeur for Crime month of Infernal Affairs. Its one of my absolute favorite crime movies and this re-watch was long overdue. I’m going to be watching the next 2 also in the near future. Look forward to my reviews of those.

However, June’s Genre Grandeur is for Superhero/Comic book movies so if you have a favorite you’d like to write about, send it over to Rob. All the details are in the post before the review.

A huge thanks to Rob for putting this together. I had a lot of fun revisiting Infernal Affairs and now I’m all pumped up to rewatch the entire trilogy!

MovieRob

For my next guest post for this month’s Genre Grandeur – Crime, I present you with a review by Kim of Tranquil Dreams of Infernal Affairs (2002).  Her site is filled with movie reviews, photo challenges, travel posts, and of course very interesting recipes.  If you don’t already follow her site, I urge you to do so.

If there are any of you out there who still want to submit a post for this months genre – I am willing to give you a two day extension (until 27th May) to send me your review (crime@movierob.net).  If you are planning on it (ERIC!!) :), please shoot me an email to let me know to look out for it.

Just a quick reminder that next month’s Genre, which was chosen by Zoe is Superhero/Comic book movies, so feel free to start sending those in too (comic@movierob.net)

Now on to…

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