Last week’s double elimination was something we definitely didn’t see coming. We bade goodbye to Dorothy and Valerie, leaving a few of our final 6 more shaken than ever before. Not Shikin, though – she took home the Zalora challenge win, and it’s about damn time she won something, if you ask us. The girl’s got her smize down and she brings her A-game to every single photoshoot. Veronika, on the other hand, is all alone at this point. Having witnessed Valerie’s exit, the emotionally-challenged twin will have to stand on her own, because if she doesn’t, she could end up on the chopping block this week.
The week begins with a shocking shift in alliance, causing even more strained relationships in the Model House. Tu announces that she’s moving to the Bad Girls’ room to join Shikin and Clara because she can’t afford to be Cindy’s crutch any longer, saying, “Six girls in the house now. It’s not the time to help anybody anymore.” With this new adjustment, the Bad Girls decide to start afresh, renaming themselves the Strong Girls. Tu and Shikin are obviously entitled to rebrand themselves as Strong Girls, but Clara? Yeah, she’s anything but strong – crying and complaining at the most trivial things. ALL. THE. TIME. Unworthy, yes, but we gotta admit, she’s our main source of entertainment on the show at the moment.
The Strong Girls then come up with a pretty ruthless strategy to take the Good Girls down.“We have to get rid of all the weaklings so that it feels like a competition worth fighting for,” Shikin says. To the Strong Girls, Maureen is the weakest link, so they’ve decided to conjure up a plan to shatter her confidence. (Spoiler: their plan will ultimately backfire, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) At their communal dining area, Clara decides to plant herself next to Maureen, and starts demeaning her, saying she doesn’t deserve to be in the competition and that she’s only got her pretty face to rely on. Jesus, when the hell will this unnecessary drama come to an end? Maureen handles this rubbish with exceptional grace, though. Their hatred and jealousy only drives her to do better in future challenges. Now that’s the spirit!
Aaand in comes the next Cindy Mail. The time has finally come for our contestants to prove their worth with this week’s highly-anticipated challenge: Go-sees. The girls are paired up to travel across the city to visit fashion creative director Daniel Boey and master tailor Kevin Seah for two very different go-sees. Shikin and Tu make their first stop at Daniel Boey’s studio to try on his designs and strut their stuff. Daniel’s looking for someone with who knows how to work his clothes with charisma and presence, and Tu seems to check all the boxes on this go-see. She may have been given a bulky ensemble to work with, but she sure knows how to make it look glamorous.
When Clara and Veronika arrive for their casting session with Kevin Seah, Clara gets frustrated when she’s being put in a suit, annoyed that she has to dress like a man. This girl definitely needs a little education in the history of fashion. I mean, ever heard of YSL’s Le Smoking? Classy and iconic AF, which is something Clara will never be. And it seems like Kevin agrees, saying he’s not going to book her for sure. Instead, Veronika’s caught his eye. She displayed a good amount of confidence, and she’s even got the height and bone structure to boot. For their final test, the girls head to a studio where they have to audition in front of the camera for director Pavan Singh, and boy did all of them struggle to impress him. Even Cindy’s emotional performance failed to move him. Is this dude made of stone or something?
After six rounds of gruelling auditions, the girls were finally let in on a little surprise. Yu Tsai revealed that Pavan is actually just an actor, and they’ve staged a mock-up situation for the girls to up the ante a tad bit. He then announced that the winner of the go-see challenge is Tu, who will be walking in Daniel Boey’s upcoming fashion show. After an exhausting day of go-sees, our models were desperately in need of a break. “It’s a long day right girls? Time to get some rest? Not Likely.” Yu Tsai drops a bomb on them, announcing an impromptu overnight photoshoot titled ‘Bound by Love’. With a raunchy bondage theme in full swing, they’ve brought in yet another male model to work with, and this time, the girls must dominate their shoot with minimal direction from Yu Tsai. And of course, no challenge would be complete without Clara’s whining. Ugh. Cue the eye-rolls.
We were a little worried for Cindy, initially. Bondage isn’t exactly a theme we could see her pulling off; and while she did have a bout with her confidence, she gave it her all. When it was Maureen’s turn, Yu Tsai seemed frustrated at her, so he tells her to close her eyes and envision herself in a magazine spread, asking her to give him what she wants to see. At this point, Maureen seems to be blanking out entirely. Nevertheless, she pushed through as Yu Tsai remained silent, filling the set with the sound of camera shutters. Uh-oh. That silence could mean something other than pleased. Could he have given up on Maureen?
At this point, we’ve had enough of Clara’s terrible attitude, but this photoshoot really tested Yu Tsai’s patience. As soon as he calls a cut on her shoot, she exclaims, “SO FAST?” Seriously, what is this girl even thinking? Worried about her level of confidence after Valerie’s departure, the next disappointing performance came from Veronika, as Yu Tsai pointed out that her poses are falling flat with each take. Just like that, we’ve arrived at the next round of elimination, where Cindy Bishop, Cara G McIlroy, and Yu Tsai are joined by guest judge, TV presenter Dominic Lau.
As we predicted, Cindy’s lack of confidence showed in her photos, and Yu Tsai even said he was falling asleep during the shoot. What we didn’t expect was how well Maureen did, seeing as how Yu Tsai fell absolutely silent during the latter half of her shoot. “That right there screams passion and domination. I’m taken by it. Job well done,” Dominic praises. Cindy Bishop says, “So there’s two kinds of ‘shut up’ for Yu Tsai. The first one, you don’t want him to shut up because that’s when he’s given up on you. The second kind […] is when he’s just clicking away and that means you’re delivering.” Now we know what was actually going on at the photoshoot earlier.
When Clara walked up for her judging, things got tense real fast. Yu Tsai questions, “Clara, do you take this competition seriously? What did you say after the shoot?” He was referring to the moment Clara claimed that she wasn’t given enough time on set, and even after Yu Tsai confronts her about it, she’s still adamant about not getting more time on her shoot. She just doesn’t know when to quit, does she? Yu Tsai sounds off, “Never disrespect the person holding the camera.” In tears, Clara walks back to her spot as Yu Tsai waves goodbye – a pretty ominous indication about her fate this week.
The results are in, and Maureen came out tops with her second win. Before we knew it, it was down to Clara and Veronika. Based on everything that transpired, we were so sure Clara would be booted off this week, but ultimately, Veronika’s displaced sense of self sent her packing. With 5 girls remaining, the competition just got a whole lot more heated. Which of these girls will manage to tighten their grip on the coveted Asia’s Next Top Model title? We’ll just have to find out next week.
Have a look at the final photos for this week’s challenge:
Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 airs every Wednesday at 9pm, only on Star World (Starhub TV Ch 501/Singtel TV Ch 301). asntm.com
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