Glenn Tan, Daniel Boey and Xiao Qing join Cindy and Yu Tsai on the panel for Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12
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The Girl Who Sees The Light: Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12 Recap

Tonight, we’re one week away from finding out who will be Asia’s Next Top Model. Clara from Indonesia, Maureen from the Philippines, Shikin from Malaysia, and Tu from Vietnam are the last 4 girls standing. Who will become Asia’s. Next. Top. Model. Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12 airs tonight 9 P.M. on STAR World. Follow Amiciness on Twitter (@amiciness) for live updates as the show airs. You could also check this page for a recap of the episode. 🙌

The official synopsis of Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12, from the official website:

As the Grand Finale fast approaches, the girls are tasked to a daunting Vertical Catwalk challenge; and later, they must pitch their own concept for a “Roadtrip” photo shoot that captures an epic adventure with a sleek car … and for one girl, tells a personal story that weighs heavily on her heart.

The Undercover Judge’s job to raise the game is done and the contestants are finally let in on the ruse! After 3 weeks of living and competing with them, she shares exclusive and invaluable insights about the girls with the judging panel that will help determine the most deserving Top 3 Finalists in the competition. Special appearances by Creative Consultant, Daniel Boey; and Celebrity Photographer, Kevin Ou.

If you haven’t seen the previous episode, check out my Episode 11 recap and my Episode 11 review.

http://amiciness.com/2017/06/21/asias-next-top-model-cycle-5-episode-11-review-amiciness-critique/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA0dzVYiEjo

Let’s continue the poll here: Who do you think will NOT make it to the AsNTM Cycle 5 finale?

The poll will close at around the 40-minute mark (i.e. 9:40 p.m.) to see if you all voted correctly. 😘

All of the girls find it unfair that Xiao Queen kicked out Cindy from the Top 5. The girls confronted Xiao Queen about it. She expected their reaction and respects how much they love their friend.

The Cindy Mail confuses the girls. “What? Do you want to kill me?” says Clara. 😂

Daniel Boey and Glenn Tan meet the girls to tell thm about their vertical catwalk challenge. It’s all about taking life’s challenges head on… just like the new Subaru Impreza. 😂

Challenge: Vertical Runway

Cindy Bishop shows the girls how it’s done. All of the girls are impressed. “I wouldn’t want you girls to do something that I couldn’t do.” Um you probably have life inurance or something.

Xiao Queen is up first. The queen is so confident even Shikin who wanted her to fail was impressed.

Shikin fell and hit her knees as she started walking. She was afraid to hold on for her first few steps. But after her pose she let go of her fear. It ended well for her.

Maureen is determined, but she finds it hard to keep her body horizontal. Not sure if she showed fierce during her pose but at least she powered through her fear.

Clara is super scared to walk down. I don’t know if she’s just crying or if she’s also in pain.

Tu goes up next as Clara calms down.

Glenn gives Clara a bit of a pep talk. She’s still scared and she panicks a lot while walking. But she gets to the end at least.

Challenge Winner: Shikin

And she’ll also be the next Subaru ambassador. So… the last Subaru photoshoot was for naught? Poor Tu.

Photoshoot: Road Trip

The girls get full control over their next shoot. They each get to pitch to the client Glenn Tan what they want their shoot to be like, all around the theme of “road trip.” They’ll be posing with the new Subaru Impreza.

Shikin gives a great sales pitch, even Glenn is impressed. It seems like the episode only had time for Maureen’s pitch. It’s the only one we hear almost in full. It’s a personal and touxhing story about her childhood.

Kevin Ou is the photographer for the shoot. I didn’t make the connection that the shoot also has a 50’s theme, but okay.

Shooting Shikin felt like a breeze. It looks like she nailed every pose.

Clara can’t focus on the shoot. She’s having trouble finding her light. She’s getting a lot of screentime this episode.

Tu focuses on not being sexy.

Xiao Qing feels rusty doing photo shoots as she hasn’t done it in a long time. But she wants to prove herself to the other girls.

Maureen is having difficulty with the balloon prop. She’s super stiff. Cindy even had to demonstrate how to pose with it.

Deliberation

Glenn Tan and Daniel Boey joins Cindy and Yu Tsai on the panel tonight. Xiao Queen finally gets introduced as an undercover judge. The girls are surprised.

Maureen: Glenn said it looked more like a fashion campaign rather than a car campaign. Daniel was worried that she chose the most difficult prop.

Shikin: judges all loved her photo. Xiao Queen wants her to be less serious and be 3-dimensional.

Clara: Cindy notes how difficult it was to work with Clara. She needs to focus on the shoot and have a less cocky and disrespectful attitude.

Tu: Yu Tsai bows down to this photo. Glenn is confused by the emotion she wanted to portray not maching her original pitch.

They didn’t show Xiao Queen’s Subaru photo. It would’ve been nice to see her reaction while the other judges critique her photo. Well, it could probably have been an elimination-worthy photo so it’s for the better that we didn’t see it. 😂

FCO: Shikin

Bottom 2: Maureen & Clara

Eliminated: Clara

Call Out Order 👇

  1. Shikin
  2. Tu
  3. Maureen
  4. Clara

Shikin, Tu and Maureen are the Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Final 3. And yeah, thanks Star World Philippines for spoiling it early on! 😒

Next Episode: Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 13 Finale

It’s the finale of Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5! The girls will walk on their final runway with dresses designed by Xiao Queen. Asia’s Next Top Model is… *cue dramatic, suspenseful music*

Watch out for the next post for a more in-depth look at the girls’ photos and our own ranking for Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12. What did you think of the episode? Do you think the right girl went home? What was your favorite part of the episode? Sound off in the comments below.

19 responses

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Lol they just literally spoiled who goes home this episode on the commercial break 😂

    Reply
    1. Lyricalist Avatar
      Lyricalist

      TRUE

      Reply
    2. Amiciness Avatar
      Amiciness

      Hopefully it only happened on the Star World Philippines feed and not on the main Asia feed 😂

      Reply
  2. Hengki Gunawan Avatar
    Hengki Gunawan

    Clara photo much better than Shikin and Maureen for me, she connected with the car, the way Clara look at the car is like she’s really happy with the car and everyone who look at her ekspression feels like want to buy that car (just my opinion)

    Reply
    1. Amiciness Avatar
      Amiciness

      I also loved Clara’s photo. She really rocked her 50’s look. It was so hard to pick a Top 3, all four of them are so strong!

      Reply
  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Wow, I actually can see any of them winning at this point. I love the vintage theme too and way better than their previous subaru photoshoot 3 weeks ago.

    1. Shikin- she looks like a girl with big city dreams. That smile is full of hope as well.

    2. Tu- equally good but Shikin’s fit the car ad better

    3. Maureen- i probably wouldve done her “standing still” pose too(the initial “scary” pose she did). When i look at those outfit and prop, i wouldve thought an Allison Harvard-esque pose in a Melanie Martinez music video(check her mrs. potato head one) would be for best. But its a car ad, so… bummer.

    4. Clara- not a bad photo. She just looks a bit short and the smile is too much for a girl without company. Anw, I’m really glad she didn’t cry this time when she got eliminated.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      I also liked Maureen’s first pose better. Her photo was mehhhhhhhh Good thing Clara had fear of heights. Or else bbbbyyyuhhhh #PrettyFaceWithNoSkills!

      Reply
  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    It’s obvious that the show wants Maureen to win. She’s kinda lame though. She doesn’t deserve it as compared to Jodilly and the other Pinay contestants.

    Reply
    1. Amiciness Avatar
      Amiciness

      Monika is my favorite representative from the Philippines. 🙂

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        Yeah. Monika does not need no drama or background music we only hear in the Olympics to be on top! She is on top!

        Reply
  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    How did sw spoil the elimination?

    Reply
  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I am sorry if the contestants ever read this, but I feel like Maureen does not deserve to be on her spot. There were a lot of better models who were eliminated just because the judges are biased. You can see it on the grades and comments they give. They try to focus on past successes if Maureen does bad on the photoshoot, but are harsher for the other girls. With the grades as well, they give really low grades to a model who performs well, but just had a bad week; Maureen, on the other hand, gets exaggerately high scores for a so so performance and 7s for a really bad performance.

    P.S. I am not a Maureen hater. I’m just keeping it real here.

    By the way, I find the catwalk rappel challenge really stupid. The host can’t even walk properly on it as well. Why even do it?

    Reply
    1. qhm23252 Avatar
      qhm23252

      Actually, some of the judges also have been quite shady to Maureen as well. Did you know Daniel once gave her a 2?

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        Maureen also got a 3 once. Those were the lowest scores ever given this cycle. The only other model who received a 2 is Cindy.

        If Maureen wins, this means the judges went by what most employers go by these days in the modelling industry: potential. She is not the most instinctive model, but she has the most blank canvas appeal out of all the 3 left. Funny that they would always rag on her being just a pretty dace because she is not a classic beauty. She doesn’t fit into any model stereotype unlike Shikin (fierce, edgy) or Tu (sexy bombshell) who both have trouble disassociating themselves from such descriptions. This makes Maureen more versatile, giving her future employers more space to work with. Another plus for her is the fact that she’s young, because the modelling world is clearly obsessed with (even biased towards) youth.

        If Tu or Shikin win, then the judges went for experience – who is ready to work right now. While that does make sense for the show, they didn’t always go that way in the past (cycle 1 and 3 being the exceptions, as Jessica and Gani were clearly the ones to beat towards the end of their cycles). They are great models who are at their prime, but you also can’t help feeling that they should also be doing much better than they have in the competition, making their successes a tad underwhelming.

        On the other hand, I could fault the judges for been too considerate of Maureen’s inexperience. That being said, those three first callouts of hers were very well-deserved. I could say the same for Shikin’s and Tu’s best performances.

        This isn’t the strongest top 3 in AsNTM history, but these 3 were truly the best of their batch, a group which collectively wasn’t really all that promising to begin with. Whoever wins is deserving.

        Reply
        1. Avatar
          Anonymous

          Well, in fairness to Daniel, he does give fair scores. I’ve noted that as well.

          I’m happy for Maureen, that like the judges, you guys see potential on her modelling skills as well. I’m sorry though, ’cause I don’t.

          Reply
        2. Avatar
          Anonymous

          Your comment makes soo much sense 💜💜 Thank you for stating it in such a well-mannered way.

          I feel the same for Maureen, she’s just 18 and inexperienced but can also kick ass if she wanted too. I see her as the “growth” character with a great deal of potential and wherever place she ends up, i will be very proud of her

          As for Jessica, she killed her season! That girl cant even produce a bad photo, one of the best in asntm if not THE best ❤

          Reply
  7. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I just realized, who is the title referring to? It totally sounds like someone is about to enter the gates of heaven

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Anonymous

      It may be clara with her issue with the light in the photo shoot, or like any one of the final three because the finale is the light

      Reply
  8. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Personally speaking..I love Clara’s picture more since the composition is a spot on (my personal top 2 for the challenge after Shikin). I think both Maureen and Clara failed to execute the concept they had in mind, Maureen clearly looked uncomfortable and was struggling.

    So far, the season was good?? surprisingly despite the forced drama and all. Cycle 4 was a lackluster for me ^^” This cycle also had a diverse set of ladies too and I honestly can’t choose just one favorite. To say, I am rooting for Tu or Shikin to win

    Maureen seems kinda overrated to me, I mean yes, she has the potential (she slays that photoshoot in episode 8 c’mon) but she’s more of a hit or miss and that’s a con when working with the big agencies. There are better contestants that could’ve stayed longer in the competition, in my opinion– though they sadly didn’t made it because of the judge’s bias when it comes to the youngest competitors (see Amanda from Asntm 3). This isn’t a hate comment btw, I’m just giving my two cents–

    Reply

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Glenn Tan, Daniel Boey and Xiao Qing join Cindy and Yu Tsai on the panel for Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 5 Episode 12