Movie Review: Dance of the Dead

Dance of the Dead

Man its been a long time since Fantasia but I dug up this old review from my hard drive just in time for Halloween. Moreover, its just been released as a direct-to-DVD film which is a shame because the movie was phenomenal and really a suprise hit just at the tail end of the festival. I'm actually really shocked that it didn't come out in theatres as it seemed to do really well on the festival circuit, but I guess its low-budget nature was just too iffy for the executives - which really is a pity because not only is this film great as horror comedy goes (quite possibly my favorite genre), but even in the overarching realm of zombie movies this film stands firmly on its own two feet. Anyway, back to the review which I should have posted months ago.

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Oh Fantasia did you ever screw up. I mean tacking 'Dance of the Dead' at the tail end of the festival? What were you thinking? Not only did you not give it a chance at 'audience pick' (which I think it had a stab) but you the sold out shows at SXSW should have been a pretty good indicator that this would have been a great movie to screen twice or more...if only for the selfish reason of making more money for the fest.

While not without its criticisms, 'Dance of the Dead' (DotD) is a amazing addition to the zombie and horror comedy genre. Falling in the ranks of 'Slither' or even 'Dusk 'Till Dawn', Dance of the Dead makes sure that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Certainly this is a formula we've seen in the past (such as 'Planet Terror') but what makes DotD stand out even more is its blending of genres and adding a John Hughes-esque teen comedy romance to a zombie film. This is 'Sixteen Candles' meets 'Night of the Living Dead' - and boy is it amazing.

The premise of the film is horribly simple. Teenagers are getting ready for prom and zombies attack. Boom, that's it. We spend the first quarter of the movie being introduced to the various characters and cliques and we see the standard teen movie fare - the geeks, the jocks, the punk, and of course, the misunderstood main character who has to go through a series of trials (often involving a girl interest) to emerge into post-high school manhood. Yawn, we've seen this before.

But as easy as the plot is, the pleasure of this movie is not in its plot, but in its storytelling. Of course we know that he's going to get the girl. Of course we know (generally) who is and isn't going to survive. But storyline here is secondary to the entertaining pleasure we see unfold on screen, ranging from basic slapstick humor, to over-the-top violence. In fact, there's a great scene where the heroes take on a group of zombies with wrestling movies a la WWE. Elbow from the sky! Absolutly ridiculous. Absolutely hilarious.

Its the wry tongue-in-cheek attitude that DotD embraces that really makes the film. Yes, like other horror comedy films it plays readily into formula, but its the formula we all know and love. Moreover, it understands where its coming from and simultaneously pays homage and pokes fun to its predecessors. Moreover, it balances well the angst of growing up borrowed from teen comedies like 'American Pie' (but thankfully nowhere near as vulgar), with its horror elements and while we stand up and cheer when they chop up a zombie with a hacksaw, we just as readily stand up and cheer when the hero gets the girl. Ultimately, DotT is a great film not only for its ability to provide constant violent eye-candy, and keep us laughing, but also in its ability to simultaneously be a 'feel good' teen movie.

Finally, as a side note, I think its hard not to compare this film with the popular horror comedy film 'Shaun of the Dead' released a few years earlier as both films as fall into the stupidly-named category of 'rom-zom-com' (romantic zombie comedy). I didn't coin that. The difference between the two is their cultural approach to comedy. While both poke fun at the zombie genre, 'Shaun of the Dead' plays up its very British blend of dry wit while 'Dance of the Dead' plays more to an American comedic sensibility with over-the-top action and slapstick physical comedy.

Concert Review: Famous 08 with Jason Chan

My friend Cedric had a few extra tickets to a Chinese singing competition which guest starred up-and-coming Hong Kong singer Jason Chan, so I figured why not. Not only am I always ready to go see live music, but the Sociologist in me was dying to explore new, uncharted terrain. Either way, Chinese events are few and far between in this city. Anyway, not being familiar with Jason Chan or Cantonese pop music in general this was certainly a treat, if not just for the novelty.

The event itself was organized by R-Vision Productions who have put on similar shows in the past, the basic format of which is to have 9 local Montreal Chinese singers come onstage and sing a tune one after another. After each song a pair of hosts would come onstage and interview the singer, crack some jokes and interact with the crowd. I have to say, the MCs were hilarious and singers, good or bad, really took second fiddle to the two hosts. That being said, the local talent varied pretty drastically in terms of skill, some leaning heavily on good looks and others were extremely competent entertainers. In the end however, the selection process seemed a bit bogus. After all 9 had sung they were given balloons to blow up and pop, inside of which was a piece of paper with either a check mark or an X. The X's got to go home, the check marks got to sing a second round. While this unfairly eliminated some of the better singers, the good-looking boy was also kicked out in this fashion much to the crowd's disappointment (mostly made up of swooning teenage girls) and to my sadistic pleasure. What can I say, I'm a small, petty man. Moreover, at this point the MCs gave away 5 toques to the crowd and the audience went ballistic. Considering these toques cost the organizes all of $5 (or free considering they had Rogers plastered all over them) this either shows that (a) Chinese people are crazy cheap, (b) the MCs really knew how to hype up the crowd, or (c) free shit makes everyone go bat shit insane, no matter how banal.

Anyway, after a short break the second round started, and the final 4 singers got a chance to sing another song - but since the elimination process was so random the quality was just as up and down as the first half. Man, thank god I had someone to talk to at the show. After the four singers performed, Jason Chan came onstage and the crowd became a wall of teenage shrieks. While as a singer he easily stood miles ahead of the local-born talent, as a performer it was pretty easy to tell he wasn't having fun. First off, he was stiff as a board and made very little effort to get into the show, unlike the talent show performers who really gave their hearts and souls into their act. I don't really blame him though, as coming from HK he's probably used to a few thousand people attending his show...a few hundred in Montreal didn't really seem to cut it for him. Secondly, he sang all of three songs, to a pre-recording no less. Man, this whole thing reminded me of karaoke.

Finally as the show came to an end, the final four were brought out and judged by a panel. Interestingly, the guy who I thought would win came in third and the guy who I thought sucked came in first. I guess I have no taste in Cantonese pop. Damn. Even funnier though was the girl who came in 4th place. Once they announced the winner she stormed off stage. Sweetie, you might be pretty and all, but you gotta learn to hold a note...sorry. Again, I'm a very bad man.

Overall though, reflecting back on the experience the whole thing seemed so surreal. Here I was in a fully Cantonese/Mandarin-speaking concert not being able to speak either language well. Looking to the bartender, coat-check, or ticket vendor for comfort I realize I'm in Montreal, a French-speaking city...again a language I can't speak. In a strange ironic way, I felt simultaneously wholly Chinese and wholly non-Chinese at the exact same time.

Asian Canadian research comes to Concordia

So this last weekend at Concordia was amazing for Asian Canadian research. On Thursday, Sean Metzger from Duke University presented the first lecture for The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture entitled: "Unsuitable Bodies or What Happens When Jackie Chan Performs James Brown." While I still sometimes scratch my head at Film Studies (ironic considering I love doing movie reviews) and Cultural Studies his analysis of 'The Tuxedo' and what it reveals in regards to identity politics in America was certainly interesting.

The next day (and completely unrelated) the Concordia Faculty of Fine Arts presented two concurrent exhibitions. The first was a tribute to Norman Bethune (part of a city-wide homage to the good pinko doctor) which not only reinstated the now pigeon-free Bethune statue back on Guy and deMaisonneuve, but also showcased several busts from China (hero worship is something we do quite well), a series of photographs of him from the 1930s, and a few cultural revolution propaganda posters. Wow. Interestingly, I've got a half-finished Norman Bethune graphic novel script from six months ago (I started as they took down the old statue) and if you've got a drawing hand and don't mind drawing a Montreal-born white boy with bunch of dirty commies, we can talk.

Secondly, was the opening of Crossing Cultures and Rearranging Desires an art exhibit done by four Asian Canadian artists followed by a symposium the next day on thinking about and challenging culturally-specific work. The art was great considering my non-art-savvy perspective (I obviously don't know much as I consider throwing yourself into a crowd of people while screaming into a microphone good fun. I do however have a membership to the musee de beuxs-arts so I can at least feign coolness) ranging from tofu in jello, to a fashion show cleverly named "Yellow Apparel." Love it.

The symposium too was really good, and very relevant to my research. Sadly, I missed a fat chunk of the session entitled "Questioning Cultural Authenticity" which could very well have been my M.A. thesis title. In all fairness though, I had to run off to the Festival Nouveau Cinema to catch the Korean film "The Good, The Bad, The Weird." Review coming soon (but in a nutshell, it was great).

Scurrying back I was able to catch the final session, an artist round table. Following that I was able to chat with Karen Tam, an interesting and very cool Chinese Canadian Quebecois artist (now doing her PhD in London) about her work and ideas. As a funny little side note, Heather from New Voices actually clued me in onto Karen's work as when she was in Vancouver doing a guest lecture at UBC, she was able to check out tour exhibit at Gallery Gachet (sadly, I was in Montreal when this show was happening and wasn't able to see before it was taken down - heck I wasn't even able to make it to my own book launch!).

All of these events really helped convince me that, while not as big as it is in Vancouver, the Montreal Asian Canadian community is alive and kicking. As I've argued, the Quebec context of the Asian Canadian experience is unique and while the debates about the cultural difference between Asian Canadian and Asian American - the Quebec immigrant experience stands radically different than either of the two. Man, I'm so glad I moved out here.

Record Lows in Canadian Election

My friend Amanda sent me this link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/10/15/voter-turnout.html?ref=rss.

Turns out we've hit record lows for voter turnout for the Canadian election, and while volunteering at Elections Canada I literally experienced this on the ground. I actually did the math and a whopping 24.9% of my poll (Poll 22 in Westmount-Ville-Marie) actually made it out which is painfully embarassing. Moreover, after finding out that Harper got himself even more seats all the NDP and Liberal scrutineers at the voting station went out for drinks and got ripped. Hey we might not see eye-to-eye in terms of party politics, but we're certainly brothers-in-arms against a common foe. As one NDPer said, "I haven't been this depressed since Hamas won."

Personally I'm not terribly choked that Harper won. I mean I'm upset, but back in high school I was crazy conservative and I guess some of that leaked out (which is good because otherwise I'd be drunk in a ditch with the others). Now don't get me wrong, I feel the man is the wrong person for the job but he isn't an idiot and we ought to thank god for small mercies. Moreover, he has a minority government and the NDP did grow a little bit (although my candidate lost). Finally, as my dad said, "hey if its inevitable then we ought to look on the bright side," and to be fair, Harper would be good financially for my family considering the role capital gains taxes has played in our family in the last few years. So yes, from a financial perspective I think its not a terrible thing - and generally I'm a centerist on economic issues.

But that said, I think Harper in a majority had the potential to be disasterous for the social sphere - and even now in a minority may still very well be. But I'm no fortune teller. So as it stands all we can do is hold our breath and keep fighting to good fight. Perhaps though, our biggest enemy (moreso than right wingnuts) is voter indifference and a good portion of the population not even bothing to vote I now have the right to tell 41% of the population to "shut the fuck up" when they start complaining.

I was talking to my buddy Mike the day before elections and even he said he wasn't going to vote. Now while I don't agree with his politics, I still wanted him to vote, and when he said there wasn't anyone who he really agreed with, I told him, thats fine, vote for yourself. Or don't mark any of the names. Or go into the booth amd chew on your ballot. Any of these is still legitimate in my mind, and the fact that people can't even give 5-10 minutes ever 4 years for our democratic process (no matter where you stand) is even more embarassing, sad and pathetic than voting for a Conservative.

This made me laugh...

Partisans, Politics and Poker Games: My Thoughts After my CBC Interview

I’m going to just come out and say it. I’m a fan of partisan media. Even if taken to its logical extreme (Fox News) I’m still a fan of it. As a matter of fact I’m a fan of Fox News. I mean seriously have you ever watched it? Its insane! And in all honesty, its much, much funnier than the Comedy Network. As well, I have no problem with people watching junk like Fox if that’s where they want to go to get their news. Really, it’s a free country. If that’s what they want then who am I to stop them.

Moreover on the flip side of right-wing pundits shows like the O’Reilly Factor, we get liberal-tinged comedy shows like the Daily Show or the Colbert Report or to a much lesser extent CNN or MSNBC (so the right wingnuts say…I happen to think they’re pretty balanced but then again I’m a looney lefty). Nonetheless, all of these shows are American and I recently stopped to scratch my head and wonder why I follow what’s going on in the US more than in what’s going on in Canada. Its pretty sad that I can name more American politicians than Canadian ones (probably close to a scale of 5-to-1).

So what is it about American politics that’s so interesting? It can’t be that their politicians are any more interesting than our own, I mean rather than two parties, we’ve actually got at least 5 parties competing in our upcoming election, and if anything it should be much more gripping. So what’s the problem? My answer is media in Canada is boooooorrrriiinnggg. Fox News, CNN, the Daily Show are all glitz and glam and news is a spectacle down in the states, and man I eat it up readily and willingly. And I have no problems with that and as a matter of fact, if anything else, turning news into a circus show could only attract more people to watch it. Imagine, more people watching the news. It’s the stuff of dreams man.

Moreover, could you imagine if we had a Canadian version of Jon Stewart (and don’t say Rick Mercer, because for this idea to work we need someone funny)? I’m convinced that with a charismatic, funny and most importantly, entertaining news outlet that’s biting and satirical more Canadian youth would actually want to follow Canadian politics. And in my mind that’s the ultimate goal, to get more Canadians interest in their own politics regardless of where they stand politically. And my (albeit simple) answer to this is partisan media.

This idea really hit home for me when I was sitting in the CBC building a few days ago on a panel about undecided voters. The problem with Canadian media is that it’s not okay to take sides or to expose your bias. While we all know that the various Canadian media outlets do lean in one direction or another, its kept much more hush-hush than down South. And this illusion of neutrality tricks people who are unaware about the politics of their media and believe that what they read may indeed be unbiased.

Moreover this illusion of neutrality has convinced many people to remain very reserved about issues of the utmost importance. I’ll give you an example from my experience on the CBC. When talking to the first two people on the panel, each spoke about ‘the parties I’m considering’ or ‘my potential candidate.’ When it came to me I came out and blatantly said ‘I’m thinking about the NDP or the Liberals depending on who I think can fight back a Conservative majority.’ And man, the look on their faces was hilarious. They were shocked and amazed that I had actually said who I was thinking about voting for instead of a vague obscure reference to ‘the parties I’m considering.’ It was like I had exposed my hand after the first round of betting at a poker table. And even after I did dropped the bomb, the two still spoke in veiled jargon because it seemed ‘improper’ to speak frankly about the issues. While yes, I understand some people like to keep that kind of information to themselves (totally fine, it’s a free country), this is a radio show panel and if I come onto a show to do a bit about undecided voters, then it’s important to look at what’s going on in the head of undecided voters. And if we’re looking at what undecided voters are thinking about, then we need to look at their options concretely.

Coming back to my poker analogy, I actually think the news media have the whole thing backwards. Politics and political coverage should not be a hidden poker hand, it should be fully exposed so everyone can see who holds what cards so we, as voters, can make an informed decision. If we cling our cards to our chest then we run the risk of tossing our chips in on a bluff. And while that might be suitable at a poker table, it is NOT the way we should be selecting our political leaders.

Gandhi's a 'Minor Threat'

Moreover, from all the videos I've watched on YouTube of 'Minor Threat' performing, Ian McKaye hardly ever sang...as seen in this video below. Check out 0:20. He's just standing there staring at the crowd. Oh and check out that mosh pit man. Ri-donk-ulous.