From Alien Shores #4 August 2013 Letters of Comment May Be Sent to [email protected] from Alien Shores Is a Back Numbers Press Production

In This Issue: Danger 5 Lost Girl Yellow zone Nine Tail Fox Django Servant of the Jackal God The Sword Big Sky Modesty Blaise Van Canto Delain Solomon Kane Nacho Vigalondo Pericles David Koresh Superstar And... ØBattlelore Page 62 ØDelain Page 49 ∏The Great Magician David Koresh Ø Page 34 æLost Girl Superstar Page 54 ∏Yellow Zone Page 73 Page 19 ±Modesty Blaise ØVan Canto Page 91 Page 63 æNine Tail Fox ÆPericles Page 68 Page 96 ∑Nacho Vigalondo Page 50 ØThe Sword ∏Django ∏Solomon Kane Page 27 Page 75 Page 103

©Bauhinia Heroine Page 32

About This Issue ß Page 3 Big Sky Page 8

Letters of Comment Note: ®Servant of the Jackal God Page 6 Click on the title Page 87 of an article to be taken to it. Click on the globe coliphon at the end of any article to return to æDanger 5 the contents page Page 10 From Alien Shores #4 August 2013 Letters of Comment may be sent to [email protected] From Alien Shores is a Back Numbers Press production. From Alien Shores is published whenever editor Jack Avery gets around to it. All contents copyright individual creators unless otherwise noted. Welcome to the fourth issue of insensitive discussing an event that left edies about fighting Nazis. There’s a From Alien Shores. This was supposed a lot of people dead. It was probably limit to how much of the 3rd Reich I to be a “leftovers” issue to clear out a fair cop, and so it was something I want in my zine, even if they are be- the inventory before the upcoming wanted to work on before publishing ing mocked. Steam Punk special, but it ended up the review. I’ve also recently rejoined the Pulp being mostly new material thanks to Likewise my Nine Tail Fox review Era Amateur Press Society. My review all the contributions I’ve received. was originally scheduled for issue two of Servant of the Jackal God is reprint- Working on last issue, my first is- but when I ended up rushing that is- ed from my last contribution to their sue in five years, I found that I had a sue out to keep my review of Stardust APA mailing. number of articles that either needed timely, I didn’t have time to finish it. I’m very happy to have articles further work or were from contribu- Over the years, I forgot I had it so I from well-known Bay Area fan writ- tors who couldn’t finish their reviews didn’t think to put it in when I start- ers and international jet-setters Espa- before the deadline. Plus more cool ed working on issue three. It’s so old ña Sheriff, covering Spanish Director stuff that I want to talk about keeps that it still has the “cosplay opportu- Nacho Vigalondo, and Jean Martin, getting released and I keep recruiting nities” ending that I was using for my with a review of Canadian TV series new contributors. reviews on the long defunct Califor- Lost Girl, this issue. My review of David Koresh Super- niaCosplayTimes.com website. I’m also very pleased to have re- star was bumped from the last issue to The review of Danger 5 is also cruited professional magician Ray think over the reaction of my advisory one I was going to run last issue, but I Hoey to review the recent Chinese committee. While I loved this album, bumped it after receiving Chris Gar- film The Great Magician. In addition both for the music and for the subject, cia’s review of Iron Sky. I didn’t want to magic, Hoey is also well-versed in my advisory committee thought I was to have too many reviews of com- Spaghetti Westerns and we have a sec-  ond review from him of the original for myself. It’s the sort of zine that heavy metal, but why settle for just the Django. I’d really like to read, but one that no bands you can find at the local Target We also have a returning contrib- one else is likely to produce. I realize store’s record bin? If I enjoy American utor. Richard Berman, who appeared that I’m talking to myself here. I was science fiction, why wouldn’t I enjoy in issue one, returns this time with his gutted when Asian Cult Cinema shut Chinese or Japanese or Spanish SF? review of Solomon Kane. down. There are lots of web sites that The world’s a big place and there’s I’m very pleased to have so many cover this sort of material, but even lots of great stuff out there. There’s also contributors and not just because it then some of my more arcane inter- some stuff that is less than great, but is means I have to do less writing. I love ests aren’t well served. still fun to encounter. having different points of view, al- I like science fiction, fantasy, mys- It’s not enough for me to just seek ternate voices and coverage of things tery, action, adventure and comedy. I out and consume. I like to discuss and that I wouldn’t have gotten around to like the obscure. I enjoy finding out write about the stuff I’m enthusiastic writing about myself. about clever, fun material that has about. The research I do while writ- When I first started From Alien been overlooked. I enjoy a wide va- ing for the zine broadens my under- Shores, I expected I’d be doing all of riety of media. And I like to find out standing of my subjects and gives me the writing, but as I seem to be build- about stuff from other cultures. I don’t leads on even more cool stuff. I never ing a staff of contributors, I suppose it’s see any reason to restrict my media would have discovered the band Sab- about time I had a word about what diet to just what’s produced and mass baton if I hadn’t been doing research it is that I’m trying to do. It would marketed in the U.S. for aVan Canto review. I wouldn’t have probably help if I could figure out ex- I love HK movies, so why wouldn’t spent an inordinate amount of time actly what that is. I seek them out? And then add Ko- researching the history of the Seventh From Alien Shores was begun just rean and Thai movies as well. I like Day Adventist church and its offshoots  if I wasn’t reviewing The Indelicates the Middle East and Southeast Asia/ tablet. As I never print out copies my- album. (Granted I now know more Pacifica. self, and as I figure that my readers about the Branch Davidians than I re- I plan on the next issue to be all are looking at this on-screen anyway, ally want to.) about Steampunk. I’d like to have as I felt there was no logical reason to So this zine is supposed to be all many contributions as I can about continue to design for standard U.S. about science fiction and fantasy from Steampunk from corners of the world letter size pages. Yup, I’m moving even around the world, with a focus on that aren’t usually thought of as a home further away from traditional printed work that is either not readily available to the genre. fanzine fandom toward the brave new in the U.S. or has been overlooked. I I don’t know exactly when the world of e-publishing. do tend to branch out to other genres, next issue will be out. This issue is un- The new format should be easi- such as martial arts films, crime dramas expectedly more than 100 pages even er to read, but with larger fonts and and whatever else I think is interest- without a number of contributions changes to the shape of the pages, ar- ing. I try to take in as many different I’d hoped to have. I’m feeling a bit ticles seem to be using more pages. forms of media as possible. weary here in the final days of layout — Jack Avery And I seem to make a lot of ex- and production, so it might be a while ceptions. I like variety. before we see issue 5. And now on to our letters of com- If you have something you would You may have noticed that I’ve ment section. It’s a little sparse this like to contribute, please drop me a changed the layout somewhat from time. LOCs may be sent to use here note at [email protected]. previous issues. I’ve recently acquired at: [email protected] I’m particularly interested in submis- an Android tablet and that has led me We start with our only letter re- sions from and about Africa, South to redesign the issue to try to opti- cieved on our last issue, from legend- and Central America, Eastern Europe, mize viewing on a standard 10 inch ary fan writer Lloyd Penney:  1706-24 Eva Rd. and that’s been it? Iron Sky? Probably We’re pretty happy here, and tomorrow Etobicoke, ON wouldn’t have been interested, I think is Boxing Day, when Yvonne’s family CANADA M9C 2B2 it was in the movie houses here, but will gather for a big meal, and then movies streak through here, and even it’s two working days until the next December 26, 2012 a good movie will last in the theatres weekend. Hope you had a fantastic 3-4 weeks at most. Anime? Just not Christmas. Dear Jack: interested in anything Japanese. Wish this letter was better, but I remember seeing some episodes while the design was amazing, the Thank you for From Alien Shores of Red Dwarf in the past…again, content really didn’t attract me. With 3. That’s quite a publication design not really impressed, not enough to some luck, there will be something I you have, quite impressive. My next keep watching. I figure Craig Charles can appreciate and comment on next task is to navigate through it, see if I needed the money, as did most of the time. can read everything in it, and make a actors involved. Charles has spent most few comments to send your way. of the last few years as a DJ on BBC Article writing on my part? Not Radio 2 and 6. Yours, Lloyd Penney these days, I am lucky to get these Christmas was a wonderful time for letters out. I have some ideas, but it us here, some amazing presents for me, Lloyd: will probably be quite some time until like a men’s jewelry box, something I I can take them to some level of reality. really needed for cufflinks, tieclips and Thank you for your letter of Two jobs also make sure time is at a rings and watches, plusYvonne found a comment, it’s always nice to hear premium. place to get a working reproduction of from modern fandom’s most prolific Current movies? The Hobbit, a vintage candlestick/upright phone. correspondent.  I appreciate the kind words on fiction, fantasy, history, action, I must admit, I’m baffled when the design, although I’m always a bit mythology, comedy and drama. We you say that you have no interest in confused that the layout seems to be had articles on cinema, television, fine anything Japanese. I just can’t fathom what folks notice about my zines. art, live theatre, music, animation and dismissing the entire cultural output of The layout is the easy part, compared literature. Geographically, we ranged a whole nation. The films of Kurosawa with writing, corralling contributors from China to Japan, from Great and Miyazaki? The fine art of Hokusai and editing. With modern layout and Britain to Sweden, from the U.S. to and Yoshitoshi? Their unique take on design tools available to just about Finland. music, theater, literature and fashion? everyone, every fanzine should be So I’m kind of at a loss as to what Even as much as I disparage the graphically pleasing. We’re not back I could add to my coverage to make French, I’m willing to put aside my in the days of the mimeograph after the zine more appealing to you. This prejudices and enjoy French heavy all. issue, I’ve added reviews of spaghetti metal like that of Fairyland and Frankly, my design work is pretty Westerns and a science ficiton fanzine Heavenly, enjoy novels by Maurice mediocre. Peter Young’s Big Sky, for and a radio play. We’ve added Spain, Leblanc and ... and ... example, puts my work to shame. Germany, Thailand, Korea, Austrailia Um, I’m sure the French must I’m disappointed that you didn’t and Canada to the mix. I’ve even added have done something else that didn’t find any of the content interesting. some coverage of religious issues with suck. Nothing’s coming to mind at Last issue was the first that I felt I was my look at David Koresh and the the moment. really coming close to a successful issue Branch Davidians. The only area that But as I was saying, Japan has such in terms of the variety of coverage I I think I’ve missed covering is comics as rich and varied cultural heritage, try to have. and I’m working on that one for the that I can’t comprehend not finding Last issue we covered science next issue. something to like.  Big Sky Sky. His layout is clean and modern. It commu- Thailand Review by Jack Avery nicates perfectly that Big Sky is a forward-think- To borrow a phrase from Big Sky’s Thailand- ing zine of futuristic ideas. It’s the sort of layout based editor Peter Young, I am gobsmacked. you’d expect from a professional magazine. In Why? Because his zine is pretty much what From fact, it’s reminiscent of the layout used in Omni Alien Shores would aspire to be if I was more Magazine years ago which was designed to be professional and talented and I knew what I was futuristic. Young uses his layout to provide a uni- doing. fying theme that ties the individual articles into Young’s striking design is the first thing one a whole document while providing an easy-to- notices when looking at the first issue of Big understand break between the individual piec- es. In short: I’m jealous. I’d steal his design if I Original big skY thought I could get away with it and if I thought 1 Language: my efforts wouldn’t look like a shabby imitation. English The few nitpicks I have are minor: I’d put “line tape” around photos and live links to the articles Format: PDf from the contents page, and there’s a stray line through some text on one page. Genre: But enough about the layout, that’s just win- Fanzine dow dressing. Big Sky’s content is even more im- pressive than its design. Young has brought together reprints on the  history of Asian science fiction from solid works of research that illuminate A pictorial that reprints Chinese an impressive list of contributors. Jess previously overlooked areas. New Year cards with science fiction Nevins looks at early science fiction Antony J. Shepard provides nine themes and various editorial matter in Japan, Arvind Mishra & Manish pages of excellent reviews of anime round out the issue. Mohan Gore trace the history of sci- from recent years and Editor Young This is a thick sercon zine focused ence fiction in Hindi and S.P. Som- himself adds page after page of re- on intently on Asian SF. It’s a welcome tow reveals the little known world of views of books, both science fiction addition to the fanzines that can be Thai science fiction. All of these are and otherwise. found at www.efanzines.com.

New Christopher Lee album “metal” he just didn’t know it. al head is also reportedly planning a Metal hero Christopher Lee, yes, So now he makes symphonic stage musical based on his albums. that Christopher Lee, has just released heavy metal albums based on the life So is it good? his second full-length metal album. of Charlemane. I hate to say it, but it’s pretty much The noted British actor first be- Charlemagne: By the Sword and the a novelty act. While Lee has a superb came aware of heavy metal while Cross came out in 2010 and Char- narrative voice, he’s not really a great collaborating with Italian cine-metal lemagne: The Omens of Death was re- singer. The songs aren’t that good and band Rhapsody of Fire when he pro- leased in late May of this year. two whole albums of nothing but vided narration for some of their al- The former is symphonic met- Charlemagne is a bit tiring. bums. al while the later is more traditional I prefer the first album, but then I Working with Rhapsody, he says metal. would as I like symphonic metal. he discovered that he’s always been The 91-year-old actor and met- — Jack Avery  Danger 5 puppets) and beatnik jazz musician Allies, led by The President of the Review by Jack Avery ape men with guns and dynamite. World, Massimiliano Importante. Dario Russo and David Ashby, They operate out of a swinging mid- “Alright. Let’s get straight to the bis- two of the creators of low-budget web century modern pad decorated in the cuits.” series Italian Spiderman, parleyed their coolest vintage swag. Youtube.com success into a deal with This is a swinging 1950s’ sleaze Danger 5 is a series with every- Australian broadcaster SBS One for magazine version of World War II that thing: deliberately bad dubbing, ludi- a short comedy series about a team is heavily influenced by everything crous special effects, Nazi dinosaurs, of swinging Allied adventurers who from Gerry Anderson shows to classic

transforming giant robots, Nazi nuns fight the Axis powers with cocktails Toho giant monster movies to John- with guns, gladiator fights, Nazi plots and bullets. ny Socko and his Giant Robot to James to take over the world, mind con- This is a world where Hitler and Bond to Italian movies like Danger trol, Nazi super science, WWII action, his allies act more like villains in a Diabolik. the lost civilization of Atlantis, secret Dean Martin Matt Helm movie and The best place to start is with the agents, Nazi baboons, a lost land hid- the heroes are parodies out of 1950s’ series trailer which can be seen on den at the south pole, talking Nazi men’s adventure magazines. Youtube.com. It cuts together some German shepherds (played by Nazi The team works on behalf of the of the best lines and jokes and gives a 10 good overview of the series. tempered American Jackson (co-creator David The series itself is now available streaming Ashby) and amorous “European” Pierre (Aldo on Hulu.com and consists of 5 shorts that form Mignone) are forced to accept two women into an introductory episode and six regular epi- their ranks. The trio are joined by smart and sodes. proper British agent Claire (Amanda Simons) and slutty Russian agent Ilsa (Natasa Ristic) to “This little filly’s got a busy mouth, doesn’t she Col- form the Danger 5 Team. onel?” Everything that makes the series work is here: the casual sexism, the blithe disregard for The shorts that make up “The Diamond casualties, the drinking, the smoking, the over- Girls” were released online in the months lead- the-top plots, cheap sets, low-budget special ef- ing up to the broadcast debut of the show. fects and ridiculous action. It’s also the best story. I think that the cre- There’s many cool little details in this ep- ators were used to working in short format, isode that make the show work such as the which works well with this kind of comedy. It’s toothpicks on the olives in the Martinis served hard to keep a joke going when stretched over to Hitler having little Nazi flags on them or the a full-length episode. crucifix guns used by the Nazi nuns or having Each episode of The Diamond Girls is the team get missions from a full-bird colonel tight, funny and short enough not to beat the who actually is a bird. jokes to death. This serves as an origin story of Yes, that’s how silly the show is, the Colonel sorts. After a mission to kill Hitler fails, uptight has a big fake eagle head. He ends each mission Australian Tucker (Sean-James Murphy), hot- briefing by saying: “And of course, as always, 11 Recipies from Pierre’s ill-fated friends: Kill Hitler!” “My God! If we don’t do some- The plot in “The Dia- thing soon, Hitler will be the 2 parts Grenadine, mond Girls” starts out with eighth wonder of the world!” 1 part Chartreuse a straightforward undercov- A pinch of salt and er mission by the three male The first broadcast epi- A fresh mint leads to assassinate Hitler, but sode, “I Danced for Hitler”, The perfect Fruit Madrid they are foiled when it turns centers on Josef Goebbels’ 2 parts dark rum out that Hermann Goring plot to steal the great monu- Crushed Ginger has found a way to use a rare ments of the world to com- Fill with orange soda form of diamond to make bine them into a giant stat- The perfect Heil Hitler women bulletproof. ue of Hitler for his birthday. It turns into a globe- This will demoralize the Al- 1 part dark rum trotting mission to inflitrate lies and win the war! 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream and keep Hitler from us- The French resistance is Fill with creamy soda ing his squad of hot blonde so demoralized at Nazi zep- Finish with raisins Nazi distaff bodyguards take pelins flying off with the The perfect Carlos Sultana a train from the Bahamas to Eiffel Tower that they start One part rice wine the mainland, catch a stealth committing suicide. Only One part lychee juice jet to the World Capitol and the reappearance of Pierre, Pour over crushed ice kidnap Massimino Impor- who is known as legendary Fill with soda tante, the President of the resistance fighter Marcel, The perfect Chinese Whisper World. gives them courage. (Pierre 12 has quite the past, he often finds old friends View-Master. who know him by another name and who The episode has a number of the little had thought him dead. Pierre apparently has odd bits that make the series so fun, such as a habit of faking his death and adopting new Tucker losing a chess game to a telepathic identities.) makaneneko statue and Ilsa being jealous of Even Pierre and the rest of the team can’t Hitler hitting on Claire. delay the Nazi’s plans for Hitler’s birthday. Clair, Ilsa and other women resistance fight- “The All-Mighty Sheeba will decide your fate! ers are captured to be dancers at the party. First Sheeba will mate. Then she will feast!” Don’t worry, Lady Liberty, Jackson isn’t about to let America’s monument join the I thought the second episode “Lizard others the Nazis have snatched! Soldiers of the Third Reich” was the weakest Oh, that actually didn’t go so well. of the series, although it does have its mo- Fortunately, the Tucker and Pierre infil- ments. trate the Nazi stronghold as entertainment One of the highlights of the series is the directors for Hitler’s birthday party. They are bad stop-motion animation and silly-look- planning a surprise for the finale; a finale of ing model sets. This episode has some of the bullets. Unfortunately, Hitler leaves the party best of the worst (and therefore some of the early to attempt some nookie with the Cap- best) of these with Nazi-controlled dinosaurs tured Claire. threatening the Allied forces. As an example of just how deliberately The Danger 5 team, after taking on a low-budget the series is, Ilsa’s spy camera is a triceratops with machine guns strapped to its horns, a T-rex and a rapist gladiator battles against di- Last words drink receipies continued pterodactyl, trace the source nosaur mutants and a secret of the dinosaurs to a hidden base inside a volcano. But I 1 part gin land in Antarctica where they thought the Amazon women 1 part pomegranate syrup team up with a tribe of prim- were an unnecessary distrac- Fill with pineapple juice Serve over crushed ice itive women and some beat- tion. There just wasn’t enough The perfect Fruitankhamun nik ape men to thwart Josef time in the episode to devel- Mengele’s mad plans. op that plot thread. While I 2 part creme de cacao Once again, it’s Claire liked the jazz-musician apes 1 part Vodka who is smart enough to move I didn’t see where they fit in Pour over crushed ice the plot along and figure out a “lost land of the dinosaurs” Add milk what’s going on. And once episode. Finish with chocolate flakes again she’s demeaned as just The perfect Swiss Kiss a silly woman. “You are very brave my Ori- Mengele is using crystals ental lover, but it’s a foolish game 9 parts Vodka implanted in dinosaurs and in to dance the waltz of love with 4 parts grape flavored fruit drink Freeze overnight his mutant creations to con- the enemy.” Serve in plastic trol them. Ilsa ends up getting The perfect Beyond Chunderdome implanted as well, leading to “KillMen of the Rising a gladiator battle between her Sun” moves the action to the and Jackson. Orient where we not only The good points include encounter Hitler, but also 14 Hirohito and Mussolini. The Italian leader, in a in the Japanese spa/brainwashing facility. brilliant bit of casting, is played by a lecherous young boy in a bald wig. “I’ve been married to scarier things than Nazis, The Japanese are capturing and brainwash- my friend!” ing Allied airmen into becoming Zero pilots. While Ilsa and Tucker face the horrors of the In the excellent episode, “Hitler’s Golden Japanese spa/brainwashing facility, the rest of Murder Palace,” Erwin Rommel is using gold the team encounter an old friend of Pierre’s, from a casino in Morocco to fund the devel- one who is running heroin to Hirohito. Luck- opment of golden super weapons, made out of ily this means he knows the whereabouts of gold. It turns out that Ilsa was once married to Japan, which has been moved out of its usual Rommel and faked her death to get out of it. position by an outboard motor. It’s a good, solid episode with Bond-style Again it’s Claire who saves the day when action at the gaming tables and plenty of in- she reveals that she can read the Japanese code trigue. The plot is complex enough to allow book because she took a first in Oriental lan- for lots of action and jokes, but focused enough guages. that the elements don’t clash. The episode does a better job of balanc- As usual it is Claire who is the competent one, ing the threads of the plot than the previous despite the disrespect she gets. Actress Amanda episode. The scenes where Pierre, Jackson and Simmons gets some good scenes while taking Claire are hanging out with a Southeast Asian over an Italian submarine filled with espresso- drug lord and chasing the dragon are great, but happy sailors. we still get adequate time with Tucker and Ilsa Clair seems to be the only character who 15 Australia almost understands that the entire premise of the out of a Dennis Wheatley novel. world doesn’t really make any sense and uses that The episode also has some great interaction knowledge to bend the plots in her favor. between Jackson and Ilsa that really establishes their dysfunctional love-hate relationship. “Swiss blood. It’s made of money. It counteracts the Nazi virus.” “Russians don’t have emotions, so the test is no good on her.” Original Another strong episode is “Fresh Meat For Language: Hitler’s Sex Kitchen” which has the team investi- In the last episode “Final Victory”, the team English, gate why Allied soldiers are turning German after has somehow acquired a talking stoner cartoon German, visiting a Swiss brothel. Turning German includes dog named Killroy. There is absolutely no expla- French, Italian, suddenly having blond hair, speaking German and nation for the new sixth member of the Danger Russian, having a Nazi arm band. 5 team. Japanese, It turns out that the Nazis have taken over and The Nazi are winning the war, thanks to gi- Chinese are using black magic to create a sexually trans- ant robots that the Allies can’t defeat. However, a mitted disease in order to infect the troops. secret race of Atlanteans offers to help if the Allies Format: TV The episode also contains lots of the series can supply them with uranium. trademark characters with animal heads motif. The team takes the Danger Sub into the depths Total Episodes: 5 Not only do we have the Colonel, but we also get where Claire and Jackson are lost while fighting a plus webisodes shark-headed Nazis and tiger-headed Swiss gang- guy in a shark outfit. Or are they? sters. This episode is worth it just for the scenes Then it’s on to the underwater city of Atlan- Genre: with Adolf Hitler leading a black mass straight tis where Tucker is overcome by grief from los- Action/Comedy 16 ing Claire and the remaining mem- But then Hitler transforms Knight and then the credits roll as all of the bers of the team discover Atlantis is a Demon into Victory Demon. (And characters from that episode hang out trap. The Nazis needed the radioactive yes, Hitler was killed in the previous at a swinging cocktail party at Danger material to power an even more dev- scene.) 5 headquarters. Even Hitler and char- astating giant robot! Not only are the “Oh, no! We killed Hitler’s clone!” acters who have died are there party- Atlantians with the Axis, they are also Recurring jokes are common in ing. going to clone the Danger 5 team! the series. For example, in every epi- Because of the nature of the show, They’ve already started with the cap- sode at least one old comrade dies in the characters are not fully-fleshed tured Claire, Jackson and Ilsa. Pierre’s arms and with his or her dying out, but they have enough personality How can we tell the clones from breath gives him a recipe for a “per- quirks to make up for it. the real thing? In one of those old- fect” version of a cocktail. Except for Claire is the most intelligent char- school Star Trek moments, the team the Diamond Girls and the final epi- acter in the whole series, but of course learns that clones don’t have emo- sode, Hitler always escapes by diving no one pays attention to her common tions, that’s how. out of the same window. Even when sense ideas since she’s just a woman After killing Hitler and escaping escaping from an exploding volcano. Atlantis, the Danger 5 transform the Sometimes the shot is reversed so that Atlantian giant robot into Danger he jumps out to the left instead of the Warrior and do battle with the Nazi right, but it’s the same stock footage. robots Tank Demon, Knight Demon Each episode ends with a fake and Sleepy Demon with their Danger sponsor’s commercial hosted by ac- Hammer attack that uses nunchuks tor Michael Crisci (who often shows made out of hammers. up in supporting roles in the episodes) 17 after all. Claire is often the only one in their roles, I have to call out Natasa example, comprehends Japanese and who questions any of the nonsequit- Ristic for special mention. The other Italian just fine. The only time a char- ers when they show up. However, they actors seem to be comedy actors who acter doesn’t understand something is don’t overplay it, Claire is just quiet- are playing a role in a sketch, but Ris- when it is part of a plot point such ly the most competent one. There’s a tic seem to inhabit her role as Ilsa. I as when Ilsa can’t understand Japa- budding romance between her and could see the others in different roles, nese, even though she’s understood it Tucker. Claire’s primness matches well but she is so convincing as Ilsa that I throughout the rest of the episode. with Tucker’s repressed nature. can’t see her playing anyone else. The series is now available stream- Similarly there’s a one-sided ro- Pierre seems to know someone ing on Hulu.com. A second season mance between Jackson and Ilsa. Jack- local everywhere the team goes. But has just been green-lit. According to son is a male chauvinist pig, but he they know him by some name other news coming from the creators, the genuinely has feelings for Ilsa. Ilsa has than Pierre. A skirt-chaser, he serves as new series promises that it’s the 80s a love/hate thing going with Jackson, the unofficial bartender of the group and Hitler’s back. It should be on Aus- but while she likes him, she also likes and the best at socializing. tralian TV around Christmas or the just about every other guy she meets. One of the things I like is how first of the year. They’re a good combo with his hot- they handle languages. The characters Cosplay opportunities: The he- headedness matched by her fiery na- understand each other, no matter what roes all wear Danger 5 uniforms that ture. Even though the actor who plays language they speak. Ilsa mostly speaks could be easily made. Those cosplay- Jackson is the series co-creator, he isn’t in Russian yet everybody understands ing the Colonel or the dinosaur mu- any more of a hero or main character her. Subtitles are used for any dialog not tants would have to be careful not to than the other four. in English, but the characters them- look too good as the originals are de- While all of the actors are funny selves don’t need any help. Hitler, for liberately cheesy. 18 I Found a New Obsession in Lost and most shows on that channel have bus show sucked me right in from the Girl not been very good, in my opinion. very beginning. I watched the both (A Mostly Spoiler-Free Essay on Why Second, it is about a succubus and so seasons in a row within a couple of I Love This TV Show) I was expecting either something too weeks. Then I was glad to find that By Jean Martin scary and dark for me or something the third season was currently being that’s too cheap and corny. shown and that I could get the epi- I’d previously heard of Lost Girl I decided to give it a chance when sodes as they aired on iTunes. somehow through commercials or someone I know said he and his wife I haven’t been this obsessed about the Internet but I wasn’t really initial- were hooked on it, and I discovered a TV show since Xena. I’ve loved a lot ly interested in seeing it. First of all, that the first two seasons were on Net- of shows since then but not fan-girl it was on Syfy and I don’t have cable, flix Watch Instantly. Well, this succu- obsessed like I am with Lost Girl. It all 19 comes down to the characters. The main charac- alpha female who uses her physical strength to Canada ters feel so real even though they’re in a fiction- subdue opponents and her physical attractiveness al, fantasy world. Lost Girl’s two main characters to win both males and females to her side. Well, actually share similarities with the two protago- that’s kind of like Captain Jack Harkness from nists in Xena. Xena (Lucy Lawless) is a strong Doctor Who and Torchwood too. Bo (Anna Silk) is the same except as a succubus, her attractiveness is amped up by her innate, supernatu- ral powers. Another slight Original difference is that Language: Bo didn’t like kill- English ing and hated her- self for her lack of Format: TV control. Xena rel- Seeries ished vanquishing foes until Hercu- Genre: les showed her a Action/Fantasy better way and she vowed to make 20 amends after that. ity and humor lift the show from a find out who and what she is (like Another main similarity between regular fantasy drama into something Buffy the Vampire Slayer), how to live Xena and Lost Girl is the relationship more special. a somewhat normal life (just like the between Xena and Gabrielle (Re- The humor, characters and plot of characters in the show Being Human) nee O’Connor) almost exactly mir- the show, while reminiscent of other and how to make a difference and help roring the relationship between Bo shows, is really what sets it apart and people. and Kenzi (Ksenia Solo). Gabrielle make it addicting. Maybe because it’s In Season One, Bo and Kenzi de- and Kenzi are both extremely loyal to from Canada and it’s not on a main- cide to set up a fae detective agency Xena and Bo and they serve as moral stream channel, everything feels fresh to help people with baffling cases. She support and sounding board as well as and origi- providing friendship and companion- nal. The ship. Gabrielle and Kenzi both have creators are big hearts and even if they are not as not afraid to physically strong, they have a lot of go outside courage and are always in the thick of the box. of battle helping everyone out. One And yes, you thing that Kenzi is that Gabrielle isn’t can really is that Kenzi is a street-wise girl with a care about penchant for witty one-liners and pop the charac- culture references. Kenzi really makes ters espe- the show tick, I think. Not only with cially Bo’s her fashion sense but her personal- struggle to 21 helps and is helped by two cops Dyson times, but there was always this ray of Season Two had 22 episodes com- (Kris Holden-Ried) and Hale (K.C. hope and genuine friendship and car- pared to 13 for the first season, and it Collins) who are really a werewolf and ing among the characters. shows. I really do prefer shorter seasons a siren, respectively. However, this show Season One resolves or at least for TV shows as the stories are tighter is more than just a police procedural gives more information about Bo’s and there’s no need for filler episodes. show. Lost Girl has been compared to mother. Season One was also about So yes, Season Two had typical mon- Grimm but I didn’t like Grimm, which Bo’s romantic relationship with Dys- ster-of-the-week episodes, but they do was, well, grim. Lost Girl seems to have on, which is just so sweet and exciting explore different mythologies from all a lightness and wholesomeness to it at the same time. This sea- that you wouldn’t expect from a show son out of the three prob- about a succubus. There’s a generally ably has the most sex scenes positive vibe to the show even though in it. But still, it’s done quite the lines between good and evil and well and is not overly gra- who’s a hero and who’s a villain can tuitous like shows you’d get blurred. I think it’s about the hope see on HBO. These scenes that the main characters have that they may even pass mainstream will overcome obstacles and that they TV standards. One interest- will stick with each other and fight to ing lesson that Bo learned the end no matter what the outcome. in this season is accepting That’s what I loved about my all-time desire as natural so that she favorite book, The Lord of the Rings, can control it and not do which was quite dark and dreary at harm to others. 22 over the world (e.g., Indian, African, Norse, Celtic and even Filipino). This is what makes the show clever and in- teresting. Some people have not liked that the show does not hew closely to traditional descriptions of mythologi- cal creatures, including and foremost the succubus, but this is an urban fan- tasy, and re-imaging characters is just fine with me as long as it makes sense within the context of the show. Once Upon a Time is another show I love and it makes good use of fairy tale characters in different but recogniz- able ways. Season Two explores the relation- ship between the human doctor Lau- from the beginning of Season One but but she’s also very intelligent, and that’s ren (Zoie Palmer) and Bo. Lauren has they only really get together in this what draws Bo to her. There are com- a similar job to Dr. Helen Magnus season. Their relationship is very dif- plications to Bo-Lauren relationship (Amanda Tapping) in the show Sanc- ferent from the physical heat between that are different from the complica- tuary. The attraction between Bo and Dyson and Bo who are both alphas. tions of the Bo-Dyson one. And it’s Lauren (yes, two women) was evident Lauren is more of a quiet, beta female just so sad that someone like Bo who 23 can attract anyone can’t seem to get passionate about why Bo should be titillation about the fact that Lauren into a good and lasting relationship. with one or the other and analyze ev- and Bo are both female. But then there wouldn’t be any drama, ery episode to see where the creators The other thing that is just a part would there? These conflicts and ro- are heading with Bo’s love life. of the show and is just a given is that mantic heartaches are what make this However, this is not like a Twilight Trick (Richard Howland), who is a show addicting. They’ve also spawned Team Edward or Team Jacob rivalry. mentor to Bo and rounds out her team, a heated battle between the Doccu- For one thing, Dyson and Lauren are is a dwarf. He’s sort of a good version bus camp (the Bo and Lauren fans) not really rivals and actually care about of Tyrion Lannister from Game of and the Bo and Dyson camp. They are each other. They also both care about Thrones. But people look up to Trick Bo no mat- because he is wise and a good leader. ter who He also helps Bo manage the political she’s with. entanglements she has with both the Also, their Light and Dark Fae. Bo has chosen to ro m a n t i c remain unaligned, because she wants re l a t i o n - to retain her freedom, and it’s inter- ships with esting to see how she interacts with Bo seem both Light and Dark Fae. The basic very real, difference between Light and Dark is mature and that the Light doesn’t want to harm adult. There humans while the Dark doesn’t care. is no grand- But both sides do what they need to standing or do to serve their own purposes. The 24 to form an unknown father. uneasy truce. Season Three, which just recently Bo and her ended, was reduced to 13 episodes. So friends have this season had the opposite problem to convince of Season Two, which was dragged the Light out. Season Three had to have several and Dark El- characters’ storylines cut out, and so ders about the final episodes of the season seemed the threat and a bit rushed and we didn’t see Hale as then do battle much when he was supposed to have with the Ga- a more important role. ruda. This re- Taking Hale’s place as Dyson’s minded me of partner is Tamsin (Rachel Skarsten), Harry Potter a Valkyrie. Tamsin initially has a con- and Dumb- frontational relationship with Bo, but show also depicts the rules, traditions ledore’s Army. Also, Bo going into she is slowly won over by Bo’s good- and hierarchy of both sides. an altered state and becoming even ness, or is she? Other story arcs in this The story arc for the second season more powerful looked like the “Ava- season are Bo’s psychological evolu- involves an outside threat called the tar state” in Avatar: The Last Airbender. tion and her dealing with inner con- Garuda (not the Indonesian airline), We still don’t know what this is about flicts and her bad side. She also realizes which both the Light and Dark need but it may have something to do with that power comes at a price and that to deal with together. So they have powers she inherited from her still- actions have consequences. Quite the 25 opposite of Season Two’s conflict with acters are in most shows nowadays. I Bio: an outside enemy, although there is an don’t like snarky people and shows. Jean Martin is the editor-in-chief, unexpected villain in Season Three as The story arcs continuously move writer and photographer for Science well. The season also gives us tantaliz- along with every episode in a realistic Fiction/San Francisco (www.efan- ing glimpses of Bo’s father but it re- manner that does not feel contrived. zines.com/SFSF/), which covers all mains a mystery until the end. The sea- And most of all, Lost Girl is fun, edgy areas of fandom in the Bay Area and son concludes with a huge cliffhanger and refreshingly original while using beyond. She is also the SF Costume and so I can’t wait until Season Four! genre tropes and similar plot devices Design Examiner for Examiner.com While the show’s production val- from other shows. I’m so glad I found (www.examiner.com/costume-de- ues are good, and the music is excel- this wonderful TV show! sign-1-in-san-francisco/jean-martin). lent, this is certainly not a big budget Jean is a frequent moderator and pan- show. What make the show great are elist at pop culture, science fiction/fan- the characters. There are several strong, tasy and Steampunk conventions. She sexy and intelligent women and men. is involved in costuming/cosplaying, The women are tough but still fem- dancing, singing and acting, and has inine and approachable. The men won awards for costuming/cosplaying have softer sides too. There’s a lot of and as part of masquerade teams. She is chemistry, not just romantic relation- one of the Bay Area English Regency ships but also friendships, between the Society (www.baers.org) and Period characters that are complex and in- Events and Entertainments Re-cre- teresting. They care about each other ation Society (www.peersdance.org) and they’re not snarky like most char- organizers. 26 Apocryphon met mainstream success with 1970s era reprints) U.S.A. The Sword and Jack Vance that makes them interesting. Ev- By Jack Avery ery one of their albums has also been an amaz- ing expression of the core of roots metal. Everything is all the time. There has been some criticism that their That lyric sums up Texas heavy metal band sound is derivative, and I can certainly see that The Sword’s approach, includ- argument. However, I think it’s ing their latest album Apocry- more a case of their stripping phon, as the band explores an- away decades of metal evolu- cient themes, science fantasy, tion to get right back down mystic religion and all of space to where it all began. Original and time with an updated take And that’s Black Sab- Language: on classic heavy metal. bath. English Drawing heavily from But the band isn’t just an both1970s era science fiction imitation Sabbath. They take Format: and fantasy as well as 1970s the first few albums by Sab- Album era heavy metal and psyche- bath as a starting point, adding delic rock, The Sword fuses in a heavy dose of psychedelic Genre: their influences into a modern rock and lots of fantasy and Heavy Metal sludge metal sound. shamanic imagery to come up with a stripped It’s not just that they take themes and stories down, sludge-heavy, pure metal sound. 2012 by fantasy greats like Robert E. Howard (who The Sword’s early work on albums like Age 27 of Winters and Gods of the Earth recalls triple goddess, Jack Vance psychedelic the band’s lyrical theme has also Paranoia-era Sabbath, while their more heavy metal. evolved. Early albums featured songs recent work on Warp Riders and the Just as Apocyrphon has moved mu- based on the standard Celtic or Norse recent release Apocyrphon has retained sically into a more psychedelic mode, mythology or other common fantasy that influence while themes. adding a bit of fel- Some of their low Texas rocker best early efforts, Roky Erickson to in fact, were di- the mix. rect adaptation Although their of classic fantasy signature sound is works, such as the quite different, The Howardian epic Sword also has some “The Black Riv- parallels to Monster er” based on the Magnet. While the story “Beyond the later band is West Black River”. In Coast, surf rock, it, the group uses a heroin, crop circle, driving war drum Jack Kirby psyche- rhythm to estab- delic heavy metal, lish the threat of the former is Tex- the tribal Picts as, blues rock, LSD, before unleashing 28 pure metal power. The band adapted While not as tightly connected as one song to the next. The Sword ap- another Conan story in “The Frost- the rock opera that was Warp Riders, proached the album as a unified whole Giant’s Daughter”, even keeping the Apocyrphon’s songs are definitely re- and not just a collection of unrelated hyphen in the name from the origi- lated with plot threads running from songs. The search for hidden knowl- nal work. Both songs appeared on the band’s second album “Gods of the Earth”. Jack Vance’s influence can be seen best on their third album, Warp Rid- ers. The concept album tells of the epic quest of The Archer on a tidally- locked world where science and wiz- ardry combine. But with Apocyrphon, The Sword’s themes are less overtly fantasy and more metaphysical, although they re- tain the use of fantasy imagery to con- vey their message. It’s not that much of a reach as their previous albums have also been filled with pagan and other religious imagery and musings. 29 the album, that beyond the veil that loose their secrets. This song showcas- obscures the truth, there is a true but es one of The Sword’s strengths; their dangerous reality that can be known. economy of words. Despite not hav- We also learn of the fate of seven sail- ing much “plot”, when heard the song ors whose death will become impor- seems to be very deep and evocative. tant in a later song. The way the lyrics and music com- The second song, “Cloak of Feath- bine results in a whole that is greater ers” tells of the sorceress who wears than the parts. the cloak, seductive, but possessed of I’m not as fond of the next song edge and the power that it brings dangerous secrets. on the album, “The Hidden Masters”, and the cost it exacts is the common not because it’s a bad song, but be- theme. Beneath her cloak of feathers cause it seems to not quite fit with The band has always been very Lies a body soft and fine the other songs around it. The lyrics strong lyrically, coming up with po- Eyes of hazel green are a little too explicit and musical- etic phrases that evoke a strong emo- Flowing hair as dark as wine ly it moves away from the ethereal to tional response and that work well A thing of beauty to remember a more violent sensibility. This is the set to music. Their lyrics are good at But a sorrow to forget point in the album where the music communicating the essence of story She took all that I gave her takes a darker and harsher tone. without being too explicit. ‘Till there was nothing left The next song is also a bit hard- The album begins with a wall of edged, but the title “The Dying Earth” fuzzy guitars on the song “The Veil of Next is “Arcane Montane,” an in- should tell you all you need to know. Isis” which establishes the theme of vocation to the powers of nature to let If you are familiar with Jack Vance’s 30 work, the lyrics will be familiar terri- back on track with a complex song “Freya” and “Horned Goddess” from tory. about religion, longing, and the search their first album Age of Winters, and for esoteric knowledge. If the song has this song is no exception. As aeons pass unheeded a weakness is that it seems to be go- The album ends with the most subtle Sorcerers parlay ing in two directions with one set of psychedelic song yet, “Apocrophon” Among the haunted hills stanzas relating to a pursuit of the un- itself. strange creatures stalk unwary prey knowable and another harking back This is also the song chosen for There may come no tomorrow to the lyrics of the first song with a the first single and first music video to so all live for today group of women waiting in vain for be released for the album. It’s a great And the crimson twilight the men in the first song to return to song that explodes with mind-ex- turns to grey them. panding lyrics and a solid psychedelic “Hawks and Serpents” has a clas- metal sound. “Execrator” is my least favor- sic metal sound that also reflects some ite song on the album. The lyrics are of the band’s earlier albums with lyr- Living information standard death metal, it doesn’t have ics about battle and conflict. The song Transversing space-time the poetic effect that the other songs has an awesome retro-metal guitar Flowing down from the overworld on the album possess. It doesn’t ad- solo and the overall song really harks Into the mind of mankind vance the overall plot of the album. I back to old-school metal. suppose it’s a good head-banging an- This leads into “Eyes of the Storm- Darkness and light entwine them, but I just expect more from this witch”, another great metal song. The Everything is all the time band. Sword has always had great songs All around you points align “Seven Sisters” brings the album about dark goddesses, dating back to Everything is all the time 31 Bauhinia Heroine sisters who dress up as the notorious The idea of dressing up as a super hero Real Life Superhero Black Rose to pull a Robin Hood to go to a con seems perfectly normal News by Jack Avery act has long been unavailable, as has to me, although I can’t imagine doing I love that weird moment when a its sequel, The Spy With My Face. But it myself. The idea of dressing up as a bit of research turns up a sudden ex- despite never having been released on super hero and actually going out to plosion of connections to previously DVD, the film has spawned a number fight crime seems insane. Yet there are unconnected interests. My discovery of imitations, including 99 La Rose a substantial number of people doing of Bauhinia Heroine resulted in one Noire and the Twins movie Protege de just that, often with mixed results. of those moments. la Rose Noire. I’ve been trying to track And of course I keep up on the The Black Rose has long been an down a copy of the original ever since latest movies coming out of Hong interest of mine. The legendary “lost” I saw Protege at Fanime years ago. Kong and China. I was checking up 1965 thriller about a pair of socialite In addition, I’m a big fan of direc- on upcoming releases that I might tor Chor Yuen, author of some of my want to review when all the afore- favorite Shaw Brothers Kung Fu ep- mentioned bits came together with ics. I loved his theatrical take on the the announcement that starlet Chris- Kung Fu genre and was surprised to sie Chau had been studying martial find out that, years before he made arts to prepare for a new movie. such classics as Clans of Intrigue, he was It seems that I’m not the only one the director for the original two Black who is a fan of The Black Rose. A so- Rose movies. cialite in Hong Kong, inspired by the I’ve also been reading up on the 1965 movie, has taken to dressing up “Real Life Super Hero” movement. as a super hero, running around the 32 city handing out food and cash to the Kong movie machine sprang into ac- have to check it out. homeless. Yes, it’s Bauhinia Heroine to tion with a 3-D film based on “true Teleport City has an excellent re- the rescue! Named after the official events” that is supposed to come out view of the elusive original Black Rose flower of Hong Kong, she’s been so later this year. I have no hope that the movie: http://merryfrolics.wordpress. successful that she’s even spawned an movie will be any good, but I’ll still com/2013/04/28/the-black-rose/ imitator, Beijing Bauhinia. Previous page: The 1965 film version And then the ever-original Hong of the Black Rose. From left to right on this page, the original Bauhinia Heroine, Beijing Bauhinia and Chrisie Chau as the new movie version.

33 The Great Magician - The Film gap. Amongst them is Bully Lei (Lau Review by Ray Hoey Ching Wan), a warlord who wants to return to the old dynastic ways. Ever since I saw Derek Yee’s Shin- Along for the ride with him are juku Incident (2009) featuring Jackie his six wives, and a newly acquired Chan, (one of Jackie’s new films in seventh wife, a concubine named his recent turn of more dramatic roles, Zhou Xun (Liu Yin) whose father sans the requisite goofiness that has (Paul Chun) Lei is holding hostage. inhabited his films for most of his ca- The reason the father is imprisoned is reer), I felt that Yee had a certain cin- because he may know the location of ematic style that worked. an ancient scroll that details the “Sev- Much like Ridley Scott, his sense en Wonders”, supposedly forbidden of composition and production values secrets of mind control...a potentially are top notch. In that respect, The Great effective tool for taking over an entire Magician was another fine example. As nation. a story, however, it fell disappointingly Revolutionary plots and conspir- short. acies abound. Among them is a plot The story takes place during a fas- by Japanese industrialists (with the cinating period in Chinese history help of Chinese back-door dealmak- (the transition from the last empire to Last Emperor of China, an immense ers) to introduce film technology to the modern age, shortly after the 1911 power vacuum exists, with no short- the Chinese masses, in a bid to bring Revolution). After the downfall of the age of individuals willing to fill in the them under socio-political control. 34 China (Sidebar: You ler Liu (Wu Gang), would think that after who seek to obtain Bruce Lee’s rampage the Seven Wonders in Fist of Fury (AKA scroll for themselves! The Chinese Connec- Finally, there is tion in the U.S. - 1972) the main character: the cinematic Japanese Zhang Xian (Tony would have learned Leung), a performing Original not to try to take over magician, who has re- Language: the cinematic Chi- turned to China after Chinese nese...but, evidence to touring Europe for the contrary manifest- several years. He’s re- Format: ed itself, in the form cruited by a band of Movie of such classics as The revolutionaries to use Chinese Connection his magic in a plot to Genre: Part 2 featuring Bruce kidnap Lei in order to Adventure Li!!!) force him to abdicate Another conspir- his power base. US release by acy is afoot between Confused yet? It Well Go USA the head wife of Lei’s gets worse: coven (Yan Ni) and Complication 2011 Lei’s majordomo, But- #1: Xian and Xun 35 were once engaged before he topher Nolan, the subplots will left to tour Europe. She decided just stick out like weeds, in which to wait for him...until she was case, you might as well make a blackmailed into marrying Lei. TV series. Complication #2: Bully Many of the subplots in The knows of their prior engagement, Great Magician go nowhere or are but feigns ignorance. dropped entirely. This makes the The labyrinth of Crete, which film less structured, less solid. Theseus navigated to slay the Mi- But what plot does exist also notaur, was NOWHERE NEAR has some inherent flaws: as complicated as the plot of this Problem #1: Xian and Xun movie! (And Theseus had a ball were once lovers, but with the of string to help him find his way, current circumstances, she is sad while all I had was my poor brain and resentful of him. to make sense of the plots and However, there is absolutely subplots of this movie!) no CHEMISTRY at all between That’s why a fundamental them. Even in her hurt and bit- rule in screenwriting is that any terness, there is no passion under- subplots have to ultimately gel lying it to indicate that she once and dovetail with the main plot. loved him so much, if she ever Unless you’re Akira Kuro- loved him at all. She just comes sawa, Robert Altman or Chris- off as a cold fish (and a frozen 36 one at that). Yin is a lovely ac- with, the choices that a villain tress, but at times she seems to be makes is such that ultimately, he trying to be like Gong Li. And cannot be respected or trusted. make no mistake, Yin is definite- That’s why they call them vil- ly NOT Gong Li! lains! Problem #2: The more in- Problem #3: The magic, teresting relationship is between which will be covered in an en- Xian and Bully Lei. tirely separate article! Based on Lei’s relationship The best part of this movie with Xian, they do create an in- was the performance of Tony teresting dynamic of constant ri- Leung. I’ve been an avid fan of his valry and one-upsmanship, but since first seeing him in the John it seems that Lei can’t decide if Woo classics, Bullet in the Head he is truly the heavy or not! Lei (1990) and Hard-Boiled (1992). then becomes a “likable “ villain. For me, one of his defining At times he does nasty things roles was as the undercover cop, as if to remind himself that he’s Officer Yan, in Andy Lau’s superb the bad guy. Big mistake. Though Infernal Affairs trilogy. (2002- it is good to have a villain with 2003). Like Ben Kingsley, Leung dimension, that perhaps under is one of those actors that when other circumstances we could given good material to work understand, or even empathize with, he truly shines. If he’s giv- 37 en bad material, he at least makes wondering, “Are Lei and Xian something substantive from it. meant to deadly foes? Friend- In fact, the aforementioned ly enemies? Archrivals?” It’s as if films are good examples of por- the movie couldn’t make up its traying someone with conflict- mind. ed loyalties and the anguish that And that leads to the biggest results, which he pulls off with problem of this film: What was aplomb. He brings the same to this film meant to be? A drama? The Great Magician, but the re- A comedy? A dramedy? A histor- sults are less than stellar, due to ical look at magicians in China? little or no (or the wrong kind A fantasy film? of) reciprocity! It could have been any one of In the case of Xun, as men- these and with a few more re- tioned before, there’s no chemis- writes of the script, a good ex- try or passion that even hints at ample of such. Instead, it seems love lost, therefore the anguish is it tried to be ALL of these and misplaced and unnecessary. therefore fell painfully hard. With Bully Lei, there is defi- And so, like many characters nitely more dimension in their in this film, and exemplified by relationship. But the dimension Xun’s sad face throughout the keeps shifting! Thus, Xian, along picture, we end up with potential with we, the audience, are left that is never realized. 38 The Great Magician: Nevertheless, I had made my The Magic choice. Upon popping it into Review by Ray Hoey our VHS player, my brother and father decided to join in the fun. In the tradition of the great About ten minutes into the film, Bill Cosby, I want to start by tell- I knew I was in for a unique ex- ing a story. perience. (Not a GOOD expe- One day in the summer of rience, but a unique one.) The 1988, I rented a video: American movie introduced the main char- Ninja 2: The Confrontation. (It was acters, Joe Armstrong (Michael the latest release by that legend- Dudikoff) and Curtis Jackson ary schlockmeister studio of 80’s (the late Steve James) arriving action features, Cannon Films!) at a Caribbean airport. They are In retrospect, there must have both U.S. Army Sergeants, and been no limits to the depth of are clad in Class A (formal) uni- desperation and sheer boredom forms. I must have been experiencing I should explain that at this to rent THAT cinematic classic! point in time, my father had re- Like everything in the Cannon cently retired from serving 20 pantheon, cheesy doesn’t begin years in the U.S. Army (1966- to describe it. We’re talking fro- 1986) and had retired with the mage a plenty! rank of E-7 or Sergeant First 39 Class. And some ways, it seems laughed, understanding what I like he never left... was getting at. I dread to think Case in point: He imme- how he would have picked apart diately pointed toward Steve a movie ABOUT the Army! James’s uniform and said, “His I tell this story to demon- stripes and division patches are strate that I really didn’t get a too high.” My masterful re- true appreciation of where my joinder was “Huh?” He went father was coming from...until I on to explain that on the Class became a magician...a WORK- A uniform jacket sleeves, rank ING magician. and division patches must be Up until recently, I could di- exactly six inches down from vide the portrayal of magicians the top of the shoulder. On on TV and/or film into the fol- James’s jacket, they were prac- lowing categories: tically touching the shoulder. Knowing something about A.) Actual magic shows the budget of a typical Can- performed on TV, non Films production, such a broadcast as TV spe- gaffe didn’t surprise me! Yet, cials. I felt compelled to say, “Dad, B.) Episodic TV series, you do know we’re watching where a magician is the American Ninja 2, right?” He main character. 40 C.) Episodic TV shows, where one outstanding exception: The 1973- his magic in clever ways to help peo- magic is the plot of a given 1974 season brought to NBC a drama ple in trouble. The best part was, all episode. called The Magician starring the late the magic Bill performed was done in D.) Films where magic is the Bill Bixby, of The Incredible Hulk TV the manner of actual professional ma- plot. series fame. Bixby portrayed a per- gician. Apparently, Bixby insisted on forming illusionist (who was also in- actually learning the magic his char- Of all these, A.) is the best por- dependently wealthy) who also used acter would perform and making sure trayal. Seeing an ac- that the performanc- tual magic show, you es would be filmed get to see a magician as it was a Category truly in his element. A.) I daresay, that if It’s how Doug Hen- he had ever given ning, David Copper- up acting, he would field, and later Da- have a great career as vid Blaine and Criss a magician. Angel got notoriety. C.) is where things Copperfield in par- start to turn sour. ticular really made Years of watching TV work for him, for magic-related epi- nearly two decades. sodes of TV dramas B.) has okay re- and comedies disap- sults overall, with pointed me greatly. 41 In nearly every show, the same cli- D.) takes things one step further a backseat. ches kept appearing: wisecracks about than C.) by either making the magi- In fairness, magicians like myself “making things disappear”, the same cian a villain, or a pathetic loser, and are partly responsible. After all, I am in vintage magic posters and props used the magic performances virtually take a business with trade secrets that the for set dressing (I could swear that the general public are usually not privy same Thin Model Sawing Box and to. Therefore, it limits what a given Zig Zag Illusion was passed around production can do as far as how to among the various studios over the approach magic performances. One is decades.) Plus, you’re left with the im- to hire an actual magician to perform, pression that Harry Houdini was the but that might limit the possibilities of only magician in history ever to have what can be achieved, due to risk of had posters made of himself! (Note to exposure. Another choice is to hire a Hollywood: There HAVE been oth- magician as a consultant to advise and ers!) The worst part however, was that teach an actor how to perform magic. the magician was usually the villain, Doing so might engender the magi- using magic to facilitate or cover up cian having to use alternate methods a crime. (I’m not the biggest fan of to achieve the effect for TV, though it Criss Angel, but I don’t think he de- might not be an actual method used served the portrayal of a magician who for a live performance. A third choice murders his assistant by literally saw- is for the production to simply guess. ing her in half, on an episode of CSI: And that leads to a new category NY!) that in some ways is the most egre- 42 gious: films that portray magic, but was using a film camera to film his act “enhance” it! In fact, at this writing, use SPECIAL EFFECTS instead of for reference purposes, and acciden- in the last six months, there have been true magic effects. tally discovering techniques to create two releases by Hollywood, guilty of Before anyone accuses me of be- magical effects on celluloid, special that transgression: The Incredible Burt ing a cine-phobe, I will state here effects might have evolved much dif- Wonderstone and Now You See Me. The and now that I am very much a cine- ferently. They are sister art forms, yet former is a black satire which pokes phile! So much of one in fact, that I each has their own unique singular fun at the Siegfried and Roy and always look for Special Edition ver- characteristics that makes them not Criss Angel/David Blaine archetypes sion of DVD releases of films I en- only distinct, but successfully distinct. (in rather poor taste, considering the joyed, because I love finding out the That’s why behind-the-scenes stuff, and the effort, I have been creativity and ingenuity that goes into d i s a p p o i n t - producing the effects in films. Knowing ed by films in this only increases my respect for such general that work. In much the same way, I always portray magi- enjoy finding out new techniques and cians, because ideas for magic tricks and illusions, be- special effects cause I know that there is time, effort, have been used blood, sweat and tears that goes into as a shortcut to that! In fact, many people don’t know “perform” an that special effects have their roots in effect, and at magic; were it not for a magician that the same time 43 tragic circumstances of the real- “green screening”. life Siegfried and Roy’s depar- I was very interested to see ture from the stage). The latter is the magic that would be por- a heist film, where several magi- trayed in this film since it is a cians, most of them petty crimi- specific period in Chinese his- nals (!) are brought together to tory, and I’m familiar with much use magic to, in Robin Hood of the magic of that era. Unfor- fashion, return people’s mon- tunately, much of what I saw ey that was stolen. The acts in was the sort of magic that might addition are apparently also an be seen in Las Vegas today! The initiation into a secret society of writers tried to blunt the impact magicians that have supposedly by having Tony Leung’s charac- existed since the dawn of man: ter “returning from a tour of Eu- Whatever... rope”, but the truth is much of In both cases, magic effects what he performs in the movie that were performed were clear- are elements that no working ly done with CGI. There are id- magician could pull off then or iosyncrasies that real magicians TODAY....even with a budget can spot and what I spotted was that matches the Pentagon’s! “green-screen performances”. The next problem was, the And sadly, The Great Magician writers and editors didn’t re- was another example of such search enough to give a sense of 44 MODERN one that has only been in ancient Aztec priests would use similar existence for about 20 years. That took ideas to keep their populations in line. me right out of the movie. There were Court magicians would use magic as other props that though they did exist a way to solidify and maintain their in a certain form at that time, the par- position of standing in the court of ticular version that Leung was carry- their lords, whether it was in ancient ing was again, a MODERN version, Egypt, or medieval England. that didn’t exist a century ago, due to In addition, throughout history, the simpler manufacturing techniques, magicians have also often been em- the period. There is a moment in the scientific innovations and most of all ployed to use their principles and film, where Leung is preparing for a TRADE RELATIONS that had yet techniques to fight, win (or in some show, and he opens up The Case. All to be born! cases, prevent) wars. From the colo- working magicians have one: it’s ba- Plus, the magic portrayed in the nial French in Algeria, to the North sically a bag or valise that contains film is often used for nefarious pur- African Front in World War II, magic close-up and parlor tricks and effects. poses, such as theft or kidnapping. One close-up of the contents of his That’s not to say it was a total loss, magic case only added to my disap- magic-wise. For example, it did show pointment. For example, there was a how magic has often been used to in- deck of Bee Playing Cards lying on fluence socio-political agendas (such top. Bee Playing Cards have existed as when Bully’s right hand man, Butler since the late 1800’s, but the particu- Liu (Wu Gang) uses a magic effect to lar BOX DESIGN on his deck is a coerce prisoners to join his army. The 45 was often used to make military his- this film would serve to boost the es- tory. teem of magicians. There seems to be Also, in spite of the shortcomings a stigma that magic as it is performed of many of the scenes of magic, they live would not be “exciting” enough did inadvertently demonstrate key on screen. So, in much the same way ideas in magic today. For example, the that car chases and explosions are need- six wives of Bully Lei were no doubt lessly incorporated into action films, included for comic relief, but I just producers for films like The Incredible found them annoying. However, there different audiences, such as one for Burt Wonderstone, Now You See Me and is one scene, in which they challenge schoolchildren, or another for adults, The Great Magician feel the need to Xian to perform some close-up magic or a mix of them. That’s also accurate. “punch up” the magic elements. Un- for them. In essence, they begged, “Do Yet, in another example of “one step fortunately, this creates a false sense of a trick, do a trick!” That request, (more forward, two steps back” in one of the what a working magician is capable like demand) is the bane of working shows, he is performing pyro (fire) ef- of. One of the strengths of live per- magicians today. It encapsulates the fects for an audience of school kids, in formance magic is the way it presents attitude of much of the general pub- a theater built of wood. That may have possibilities never thought of before, lic, that magic is not so much an art happened in that time period, but that in the real world, and how incred- form, as it is an amusement with an situation would never happen today. ible those possibilities can be. Films entertainment value on par with that All of those elements together is a di- like these only serve to push magic of an organ grinder’s monkey! saster (not to mention multiple law- into the realm of incredibility! What There are also scenes where Xian suits) waiting to happen! might have been greeted with awe is is performing different shows for In the end, though, very little of instead met with disdain, for being so 46 preposterously over the top. As a more importantly, an under- consequence, in much the same standing of what it takes to be way that over-the-top action in one! It’s the visual equivalent of a film is used to gloss over script someone lip-synching to a re- deficiencies, the magic is used to cording of a song, intending it gloss over a plot so complicated as a live performance. that it is nearly incomprehen- It just goes to the funda- sible. The most effective arts are mental difference between the the ones that bring something mediums, one that is a recorded to the audience’s sensibilities. An reflection of what takes place in over-the-top action flick with the real world, while the other a bad script brings only visceral takes place in the real world! In thrills, with no resonance. An ar- its own way, The Great Magician tificially created magic trick on demonstrates the innate differ- a two dimensional medium, in ences (and incompatibility) of the service of a bad story, brings the two arts. This incompatibil- no context and no meaning, and ity is highlighted by a statement therefore, no resonance either. that And the saddest truth of all I am reminded of by an Ital- is that because the actors are not ian magician, Aldo Colombini, performing actual magic effects, once stated in a lecture I attend- they gain no true respect, and ed years ago: “ Magic is meant to 47 be performed on stage, in a theater. It is not meant for TV or the street.” More and more, I find myself agreeing. After all, scientific advances in electronic entertainment such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops have com- partmentalized such entertainments, making our en- joyment of them a singular experience, with little to no interaction with the outside world. Magic on the other hand, by its nature, is at its best in a live, interactive venue. It’s meant to be seen, enjoyed and most of all appreci- ated in person. And if films such as The Great Magician are the example of how to portray and appreciate magic today, it would be best to leave it to the profes- sionals... In person… Like myself.

48 Delain is a real winner with radio appeal. In Although the band was origi- Interlude fact, there isn’t a bad song on the al- nally formed as a project by a former 2013 bum. founder of Within Temptation, they Review by Jack Avery Live versions are quite good with have developed and grown into a band excellent recording quality. The sort- with a distinctive sound of their own We reviewed Delain’s debut al- of-Steampunk “Mother Machine” is, centered around Wessels’ vocals. She’s bum back in our second issue. Since if anything, even better able to combine deep then they have released a couple more live as are “Milk and emotion with real rock full albums and just a few weeks ago, Honey” and “Electric- power in her singing. they released Interlude comprising a ity”. Lead singer Char- While the band came few new songs along with alternate lotte Wessels’ appeal- out of the symphonic and live versions of previously released ing stage personality metal realm, the sym- songs as well as a few covers. shines through on all phonic elements on this Included is a very nice ballad ver- six of the live versions latest effort have be- sion of “We Are The Others”, a song included. come more of a back- written in response to the brutal mur- Following so soon ing element to a more der of British goth Sophie Lancaster after the album We Are guitar-oriented mod- by a gang of teenagers. The original is The Others, the new al- ern hard rock sound. the title track for their 2012 release and bum is surprisingly good, this isn’t just Both of their recent albums are while both versions are quite good, I a quick bunch of studio outtakes for well worth picking up for the rock think I actually prefer the new one. the hardcore fan, but a great album on fan and are must-haves for fans of the The new song “Breathe on Me” its own. band. 49 Nacho Vigalondo been in the direction of horror, the Nacho Vigalondo. Article by España Sheriff macabre, and the surreal rather than I would likely have let that slide science fiction. Because of this I took by on my feed, except that Millar also Although there are more Spanish quite a bit of interest when comic book mentioned that Vigalondo had a new and hispanophone genre filmmakers writer Mark Millar (of Kick-Ass fame) movie out right now called Extraterrestre than there used to be, it still seems mentioned he was collaborating on a (Extraterrestrial). A quick Google as though the inclination has always project with a Spanish director named search revealed that this was actually Vigalondo’s second movie, his first being a 2007 science fiction film called Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes). I decided I must watch both of these as soon as possible, and six months later (I’m easily distracted) I have now done so. I had meant to start with Cronocrimenes, since it was his first feature film and I love me some time travel, but in the end I watched Extraterrestre first. And I’m really glad it turned out that way, because it is by far the superior of the two, in my opinion. In any case, they’re 50 quite different in tone and people who groundbreaking time travel story. The than an average Outer Limits episode. love one seem to invariably hate the lead actor doesn’t seem very promising And there’s some ham-handedness and other. in the beginning, and certainly the lead a little gratuitous nudity that knocks it Both movies are relatively low in a US remake would be younger and down another notch. But I see why it budget, not in the sense that they look slimmer, but he turns out to be am made a name for Vigalondo; as a debut cheap, but rather in that they feature a excellent choice, an everyschlub who film it shows a steady hand and lack of small handful of characters in situations is more convincing than I expected pretension plus a respect for the genre that are definitely science fictional once things really get going. The basic core that lets the central premise stand but which don’t require a while lot plot holds together well but doesn’t on its own without tedious explaining of effects or costly chase scenes and quite satisfy or amount to much more or needless philosophizing. settings. As the name suggests, the first film is a time-travel thriller, while the second is a relationship quadrangle with a (un)healthy dose of paranoia, and the slimmed down approach works wonderfully for both. Cronocrimenes gets off to a bit of an odd start, with a few scenes that seem like they should be significant later on but don’t really amount to much--but from there it picks up the pace and is a competent though not particularly 51 If Cronocrimenes is a middling the post-tryst motions that should The emergency broadcast stops soon Outer Limits, Extraterrestre is a very lead to him leaving and never seeing after, leaving them in an informational good Twilight Zone; a man wakes up in her again, they discover that Madrid vacuum subsisting on rumours and a strange apartment with a one-night has been evacuated due to massive speculation. stand whose name he can’t remember. spaceships silently hovering over cities The lead actor, Julio Villagran, As they awkwardly try to get through all over Spain, and possibly the world. looks like a Spanish version of 52 Christopher Eccleston. He plays the role with science fiction” but Vigalondo describes himself Spain affability, and enough of an edge to make things as a SF fan and doesn’t seem to feel the need to interesting, but while things do get a bit intense distance himself from the genre. He talks about in spots, this is less of a thriller and more of a Stanislaw Lem and Philip K. Dick, about what SF character study. People being people in the midst really is (is there any subject more fannish than of extremely strange circumstances. Perhaps its that), and about how true science fiction fans my own filters, but it seemed particularly Spanish read novels, which I found a terribly charming in its tone, there is suspicion and paranoia, anger thing coming from a man who makes science and jealousy, but also an essential shrugging low- fiction movies for a living. Original keyness to it that I can’t imagine from a similarly Currently Vigalondo is making an English- Language: plotted US film. language movie starring Elijah Woods called Spanish Perhaps the Brits could have put out Open Windows, which is a technological thriller something like this. But despite containing all that sounds pretty interesting and for which Format: the elements that could easily make it a terrible, he also wrote the script. I also look forward to Film trite romantic scifi flick, the denouement won seeing what Vigalondo can do with Millar on me over utterly. Supercrooks. Genre: When speaking of Extraterrestre during If you want a taste of his work (and his Science an interview, Vigalondo rather refreshingly acting) you can find some short films he wrote Fiction defended its science-fictionality. It’s closer to and/or directed on YouTube including 7:35 in The Quiet Earth than Independence Day, if you the Morning, which he wrote, directed, and acted see what I mean, and is exactly the sort of thing in and which was nominated for an Academy some creators will airily describe as “not really Award. 53 David Koresh Superstar The Indelicates Review by Jack Avery

The U.S.A. One nation under God. The Promised Land. But which God? Which Promise? And what happens when in the land of Guns and God conflicting beliefs collide? It took an obscure British indie rock duo to have the necessary distance to do the subject justice in the unlikely format of a rock opera based on the story of the Branch Davidians. The story being told is a clash between the Apocalyptic mythology of the Davidians and the conservative law-and-order bible- belt mythology of the A.T.F. This is one of those projects that in retrospect obviously needed to be done, but nobody thought of it until British alt-rockers Simon and Julia Indelicate and the group of talented American guest artists they assembled 54 came along to create it. parallels come mostly from the title and the Great Britain I haven’t heard anything in their previous occasional use of Greek chorus in some catalog, mostly consisting of uninspired British songs. alt-rock, to presage the brilliance of the new The album begins with the stirring album, although it’s not the first effort at a “Remember The Alamo!” which serves to religious musical. The pair have an earlier establish the Texan attitude that it is noble to concept album based on the Book of Job that sacrifice one’s life for an idea and to die in riffs off of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor opposition to the appearance of tyranny. It Dreamcoat. sets the stage for Texas as a place where epic But David Koresh Superstar? Incredible! struggles take place. And it is a place where Original Language: A rock opera using a mix of styles, but dying heroically while losing can be seen as English predominately American country-style roots winning. rock with a bit of ‘70s funk and musical theater This album is about the mythology Format: to tell the story of David Koresh and the siege of America as well as the mythology of Rock Opera/ at Waco, Texas in 1993? Brilliant! Christianity and how the two intersect. This Concept Album Koresh was, after all, a would-be singer song is where the parallels between patriotic and songwriter himself, so it is ideal to use and religious fervor begin. I’m sure that from a music to tell his story. It also makes perfect British perspective the song is meant ironically, Genre: sense to contrast the story of Jesus with the but it would get a standing ovation if played Roots Americana story of Koresh by invoking parallels between on the P.A. at any gun show in America. this album and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd The background of how Vernon Howell 2011 Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, even if those becomes David Koresh and his journey from 55 childhood to the Branch Davidian complex is shoehorned into the next song “The Road From Houston to Waco”. It’s an adequate, if shorthand, retelling of Howell/Koresh’s early days. It sets up parallels between Koresh and Jesus, noting that his father was a carpenter and he was born to an unwed mother. It also establishes Koresh’s track record of sexual escapades as well as his penchant for taking the theology of an existing group and twisting it to justify his own desires. The story of Branch Davidian leader Lois Roden is given short shrift in the song “The Woman Clothed With The Sun” which identifies her with a character from the Book of Revelation, but doesn’t go into her importance in the history of the church and her place in how Koresh eventually took over the church. “The light of the world is fading, Lay me in my grave, Sinful Messiah, receive my soul, tell me 56 that I’m saved.” of showing why people would Roden’s story is a tragic one. follow Koresh and what the Julia Indelicate’s sorrowful vocals theological issues were, Simon as Roden bring out the tragedy Indelicate’s portrayal of Koresh in of a woman who inherited this song does a frightening job leadership of the church on her of both showing how ordinary husband’s death, rose to national Koresh was and at the same time prominence as a proponent of how charismatic he could be. women’s role in religion, then The video can be seen on became a tragic footnote to Youtube and is a perfectly history when she became a dupe understated yet powerful of Koresh. explanation of Koresh’s appeal as The real standout song on the Simon Indelicate channels Koresh album is “I Am Koresh” which in full-on come-to-Jesus religious provides the one music video experience mode. from the album. Sung first person Lyrically, I don’t know that “A as if by Koresh himself as a sermon Single Thrown Grenade” moves where he declares that he is God the plot forward, but musically, to the music of acoustic guitar the folk rock number does tie the and Hammond organ. seekers of the Branch Davidians While I think that overall to the larger counter-culture the album doesn’t do a good job movement that is in search of 57 some greater religious experience it effectively brings all of the players between competing versions of the not found in more staid Christian together for the fateful raid and takes American religious destiny. sects. The song also speaks to why the the saga from just prior to the raid to To the A.T.F., Koresh was a members of the church would blindly the start of the siege and the media heretic, a destroyer of the conservative, follow Koresh to their deaths. blitz that followed. It’s not only a comfortable promised land of middle While not a bad song, “I Don’t catchy song, but a masterpiece of America. Care If It’s True” doesn’t do enough to clever musical theater. “These kids are crazy since the wars all address the theological inconsistencies This is followed by the brilliant got won. We built Jerusalem for ungrateful in Koresh’s beliefs. Part of the problem “The Ballad of the A.T.F.” It is a scum.” is that we don’t really know what satirical take on the agency and their Facts and common sense, the Koresh’s real beliefs were. Was he a loose-cannon, cowboy attitude that rule of law and freedom of religion madman or a charlatan or a mix of led to the mistakes that ended with were ignored. Just as the Puritans, the both? His theology seemed to be that the raid and the siege. The agents are idea of Freedom of Religion means whatever he desired was what God nostalgic for the days of the Cold War freedom of everyone to believe in wanted. Which, I suppose, is not far and “missing the future that we had in their religion. off of any religious leader. the past”. On the other side, Koresh and Another standout song is “We need the victory, we need the his followers saw the government “Something Goin’ Down In Waco”. press, we need it for the A.T.F.” agents as the Beast, key players in their Musically, it’s the sort of thing that These two songs, “Something apocalyptic world view. Tom Waits might do. With a multitude Goin’ Down in Waco” and “The “Get your guns and take position, of different lead singers portraying Ballad of the A.T.F.”, are the core of it’s time to fight for your religion, there’s various observers and participants, the musical. The key conflict here is something goin’ down in Waco.” 58 Untitled-2 2/20/13 7:50 AM

Just as “Remember the Alamo” connects the events to DAVID the American past, the next song, “McVeigh”, connects the KORESH siege to the future. SUPERSTAR THE 3RD INDELICATES The song is sung first person by the character of Timothy ALBUM

PREORDER NOW ON CD McVeigh who actually attended the siege as a spectator or AVAILABLE AS A PAY-WHAT- YOU-CAN DONWLOAD before becoming the terrorist behind the Oklahoma City from 00:01 16/5/2011 on corporate records bombing two years later. I do have a problem with having Visit www.indelicates.com the McVeigh character link the Warsaw Uprising to Ruby for more information Ridge and Waco as the real McVeigh was an anti-Semite, but other than that the song is a driving exposé of McVeigh’s mad world view. One of the shortcomings of the album is that there is a lack of an adversarial voice such as the one provided by Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. There’s no Judas or Pontius Pilate here to confront the main characters about their beliefs or actions. The closest we come is the slow dirge of “What If You’re Wrong?” “A Book Of The Seven Seals”, sung in an etherial style by Julia Indelicate, gives voice to the apocalyptic visions of the Branch Davidians that led them to believe that they were dying for their religion as was foretold. It’s also the song that most directly evokes the music 59

http://corporaterecords.co.uk/koresh/guide.html Page 1 of 2 of Lloyd Webber while taking Let the mother fucker burn.” to become myth. Koresh is not going lyrics straight from the Revelation This is the opposite of Jesus Christ to spawn a new religious movement theology. Superstar’s song of the same name where the tale of the siege is taught in A lengthy instrumental portrays where Jesus doubts and questions the Sunday school. Neither is this a proud “The Siege”. While there is some purpose of his end. moment for the FBI and the ATF variation, the monotony of the “Superstar” is also in direct to celebrate as they do the taking of repetitive notes echoes the length contrast to “Superstar” from Jesus Dillinger or the Barker Gang. of the siege. The use of musical saw Christ Superstar as it shows that the The album ends with a growling, provides an otherworldly edge. The end of Koresh and his followers is emotional cover of the American song ends with a muddle of recorded ultimately futile. The simple tune and gospel and blues classic “John The voices of the participants in the siege uncomplicated production perfectly Revelator”. overlapping each other that represents convey the let down of the absence There are some parts of the Koresh the breakdown in communication of a great apocalypse in contrast to story that are missing and that cry between the two sides. the triumphant bombast of the Lloyd out for inclusion. The power struggle “Gethesemane” is Koresh’s final Webber and Rice version. between Koresh and Lois Roden’s sermon where he connects their “No wearing of halo, your hair is on son George Roden for leadership of end with biblical prophecy with the fire. Just wrong or just horny, just insane the church and control of the Mount A.T.F. and F.B.I. taking the place of or a liar. Just another victim, Just another Carmel compound, for example, the Romans. Like Jesus, Koresh has a tragedy.” would have made a good addition to wound in his side. While the album has been all about the story. “It is the second greatest story, I don’t American mythology, “Superstar” is How could they not include a care if I return. We don’t need any water, where the story of the Davidians fails song about disinterring a corpse and 60 having a contest to see who could raise the dead? Or Koresh’s armed midnight raid of the compound? Or one about how Koresh got control of the compound by paying back taxes after George Roden went to the loony bin for splitting his roommate’s head with an axe for claiming to be the new messiah? Similarly, the album needed more about the sheer incompetence on the part of the federal agents. The fact that their warrant was based on information they knew to be lies, their idiotic assault plan, the failure to abandon the mission when they lost the element of surprise all needed to be spelled out. When the U.S. Army takes one look at your plan and then decides that there is no way they want to have anything to do with it, it’s probably time to rethink what you’re doing. These represent significant missed opportunities, but in order to do the story justice, this would have had to have been a 61 double album. the cult and who chose to stay despite quarter of the Davidian casualties of Another point of view that is Koresh’s increasingly erratic theology the raid were British nationals. It also missing is that of the other Branch and in the face of the FBI assault. helps to see the political and cultural Davidians. We are told to “think of the While one might wonder why nuances of the story from an outsider’s children” but we don’t actually get to it took a British group to produce prospective. hear their voices. an album based on a distinctively So, just how soon we can expect We also needed to hear more from American story, it does make sense an expanded stage version of this and those who chose to become part of when one recalls that more than a will it tour in the U.S.?

Battlelore: Doombound ic doom metal and the the sweetness trasted with the “Uruk-Hai screams Review by Jack Avery of symphonic folk metal. of front orc” Tomi Mykkänen. Battlelore is all about J.R.R. Tolk- My favorite song on the album If you want serious ien. Doombound, in fact, is “Kärmessurma”, which is sung in fantasy metal, look no is entirely about the Finnish I think. I suppose it could be further than Finnish Children of Hurin, Elvish or something. The rest of the band Battlelore. telling the story of album is in English. On their last album Túrin Turanbar, which I’m not fan of death metal, and I before going on a hia- in turn was based on will admit that Battlelore does have tus, 2011’s Doombound, Finnish folklore. some death metal attributes, but for they continue to find The sweet voice of me, they managed to temper that a fine balance between “Elven” vocalist Kaisa harshness with the symphonic and the harshness of melod- Jouhki is nicely con- folk elements. 62 A Taste For Death have been less so, such as the two movies and Great Britain BBC Radio Four the American TV pilot. December 17-21, 2012 The most recent try has been BBC Radio 4’s adaptation of O’Donnell’s novel A Taste For By Jack Avery Death this past December. The series stars Daph- ne Alexander as Modesty and Carl Prekopp as She stands tall. Long legs. Long black hair. Dark eyes. Willie Garvin. Young. Superb. In her twenties she led an interna- As one of the great action characters of fic- tional crime ring called The Network, transforming an tion, and one of the few strong women charac- ex-convict into her right-hand man. Now her life is ters to be the lead in her own action franchise, her own. Rich. Clever. Daring. There is no other like Modesty Blaise is certainly deserving of adapta- Original her. She is… Modesty Blaise! tion by the Beeb. Language: The BBC is adapting the books out of or- English Originating as a comic der as this adventure comes chronologically be- strip in 1963, the character fore Last Day In Limbo which the BBC adapted of Modesty Blaise has been back in 1978. In fact, Limbo is almost a sequel to Format: adapted to a number of dif- Taste as A Taste For Death introduces psychic and Audio Play ferent formats over the years. regular supporting character Dina Pilgrim who Some of these have been plays a key role in the resolution to Limbo. (Lu- successful, such as the nov- cifer from the novel I, Lucifer also plays a part in Genre: els written by creator Peter the Limbo storyline, even though the BBC has Adventure O’Donnell. Some of these never adapted that novel.) 63 This adapting out of order, and tations. They need to get on that. BBC use this waiting more than 30 years before The only other Modesty Blaise cast and crew attempts, is a problem as major sup- story adapted for audio is Pickwick to adapt all of porting characters are introduced in Talking Books’s “I Had a Date with the books in the early novels and here they just Lady Janet” from the early 1980s. This publication or- show up as part of the existing cast. was an excellent choice for an au- der, including Although the real problem is that the dio adaption, as it is a short story and re-doing Last BBC is not trying to do a uniform and the only one in the canon that is told Day In Limbo. regular series of Modesty Blaise adap- first person by Willie Garvin. The ac- While the at- tor playing Wil- tempt was no- lie Garvin, John ble, the avail- Thaw, therefore able recordings was able to just of it are poor quality and would ben- read the short efit from an update. story. One thing I would like to see tak- The most re- en from the Last Day in Limbo produc- cent adapta- tion is the opening introduction that tion is the best I transcribed above. Read in a tense so far, despite British accent and backed by thriller being truncat- music, it’s a fine way to start a radio ed. It would be play. Actress Daphne Alexader as Modesty Blaise great to see the A Taste For Death doesn’t really 64 have an opening, the archeological dig. ing the action scenes that are hard to just a snippet of The biggest problem with the reproduce in radio format, along with theme song and BBC’s ABBC Taste Radio For 4Death - 15 Minute, is the Drama, format. Modesty theBlaise plot - A Tastepoints for... that lead up to those http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012g21d that made it a It was serialized in five episodes as part scenes. bit harder to get of the Beeb’s 15 Minute Drama series First off, Willie Garvin’s rescue of into the mood on Radio 4. An hour and 1515 minutes Minute Diana andDrama their escape back to Brit- for the show. is just not long enough to fit in an en- ain from South America is reduced to In the story, tire novel, even a fairly short one. The an offhand mention by Willie. But this Modesty Blaise earlier Last Day in Limbo play is nearly sequence takes up most of the first half is asked by old three hours over six episodes. Even “I of the novel, involving a classic and

friend and Brit- Had a Date With Lady Janet” clocks More clips from Episode 1 ish spymaster Gerald Tarrant to un- in at more than an hour even though Meet Modesty officially look into an archeological it’s based on just a short story. Blaise (aka the female James dig in North Africa where something Novelist Stef Penney, who wrote Bond) nefarious might be going on. At the the play, did an excellent job as when A villain to make same time, Willie Garvin is in South listening one doesn’t notice all the bits your spine creep America on vacation when he rescues that were cut off. The adaption was a blind girl from some kidnappers. in good hands as Penney is a fan of Of course, the two plots are con- the novels and she counts A Taste For See all clips from Episode 1 nected as the blind girl is being sought Death as one of her favorites. More clips from 15 Minute Drama by the bad guys to use her psychic But huge chunks of the novel are Preview clip of powers to help find buried treasure at missing. Most of what was cut out be- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (Eps 6The5 Modesty Blaise look 6-10). DURATION: 00:42 DINNER AT THE Actress Daphne Alexander gets her Modesty Blaise makeover. HOMESICK RESTAURANT, BEACHES ON THE MOON Share this page Share 'She's a mistress Facebook of emotions' Twitter Rebecca Lenkiewicz on Anne Tyler

DINNER AT THE THIS CLIP IS FROM HOMESICK RESTAURANT, 15 MINUTE DRAMA DESTROYED BY LOVE Modesty Blaise - A Taste for Death, Episode 1 'You can't run away that easily'. Anne 1/5 Modesty takes on public school villain Simon Delicata Tyler on portraying in a deadly Sahara showdown. family life. Not currently available FIRST BROADCAST: 17 Dec 2012 DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, TEACHING THE CAT TO YAWN

Preview clip of Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, PEARL

1 of 2 5/27/13 2:46 PM thrilling Blaise/Garvin operation and missing is the sadistic swordsman Ma- ending with a pair of major fight se- jor Wenczel. This is a great shame be- quences that showcases the pair’s rela- cause the novel features two of the tionship. The real shame of the loss of great, iconic set piece battles of the this material is that it establishes the entire series. One has Modesty fight- character of our heroes. It’s not just ing Wenczel to the death in a duel of another action sequence. épées where she not only has to Gabriel and McWhirter are two of defeat an opponent who is her the most iconic and important Blaise better with that particular villains. Gabriel is one of the few bad- weapon, but also do so dies who survive to face Blaise and in a way that furthers partner Willie Garvin more than once her plan to escape. in the comic strip. He and McWhirter Without Wenc- are also main villains in the first Mod- zel, the en- esty Blaise novel, the graphic novel tire sword that O’Donnell wrote for DC Com- f i g h t ics, and the 1960s movie. i s But only McWhirter makes the cut for the radio play. Gabriel is en- tirely missing. Another villain from the book who is 66 missing. die together. good match for their characters. The other great fight that is missing It is the single greatest Willie I thought the music was a bit pe- is a memorable battle between Garvin Garvin fight in the entire cannon and destrian, although it was written for and monstrous main villain Delecarta it doesn’t make it into the radio play. the production. Even though the ear- in an abandoned Foreign Legion out- Instead of a sequence consisting of lier BBC adaptation used canned mu- post in North Africa. Willie has faced a sword fight, a daring escape, a des- sic, I thought it was a better fit and him before in hand-to-hand combat perate journey and then the climactic gave it a real 1970s spy thriller feel. and knows that he can’t beat him. With battle in the desert, we get the villains But despite some short comings, I only his fate defeated in a short battle consisting of enjoyed the play. If you weren’t famil- in the bal- a few grunts and sound effects. iar with the book, you wouldn’t no- ance, he is In the book, Delecarta is a mon- tice what had been cut out. But for the resigned to ster. He feels no pain or fear and pos- Modesty Blaise neophyte, I’d recom- death. But sesses immense strength and fighting mend starting with the novels to get when Mod- skill. He’s a fitting opponent for our the full Blaise/Garvin experience. esty forces heroes. In the radio play, you can hear This year marks the 50th anniver- the issue by the fear in his voice when things go sary of Modesty Blaise. Titan Books r e v e a l i n g wrong and he’s no match for Willie is continuing an excellent attempt to herself, ei- who takes him out in a few seconds. reprint the entirety of the strip, now ther Willie For the most part the actors do a more than two thirds done. It would must find a good job. I thought Jeff Mash’s “Amer- be great to see all of the books in print way to win ican” accent for Skeet Lowry, was a bit again and all of the books adapted for or both will off, but the other actor’s voices seem a radio by the BBC as well. 67 The Nine-Tailed Fox

Gumiho Wehjun Love. Review By Jack Avery The forbidden love in this case Soap operas with supernatural is between lovely themes certainly aren’t new, Dark fox Yoon Shi-yeon Shadows comes immediately to mind, (Kim Tae-hee) but they seem to be more successful and her human in Asia than in the west. childhood crush One reason may be the inclusion Kang Min-woo of lots of martial arts action and a (Jo Hyun Jae). It’s willingness to get a little gorey along not just that they are with the twisty plots and star-crossed different species that makes lovers. their love forbidden. She’s one Korea’s Gumaho (aka Fox with of the Fox Clan’s warriors Nine Tails) is a good example of the who are tasked to keep their blending of romantic melodrama existence secret from the with supernatural action. In fact, the mortals while he’s a police romance is so important to the series inspector recruited into a that an alternate title for it is Forbidden special unit to investigate her 68 South Korea people. human livers ripped right from the The Gumahos are a tightly- victim is just too much of a temptation controlled society in order to for some foxes. Thus the need for allow them to live among humans the Warriors, made up of five foxes undetected. In addition to being raised to be the enforcement arm supernatural shape shifters with the for the Council of Foxes. Shi-yeon ability to beguile mortals, they have is therefore a heroic figure, a sort a taste for human livers. It’s more of police officer, who helps track than a taste, actually, the eating of down and kill the foxes preying on Original human livers is an important part humans and who tries to stop the Language: of their culture and is as addictive black market in fresh human livers. Korean to them as drinking blood is to a But the Council of Foxes isn’t the vampire. only group that has noticed humans Format: TV Naturally, they can’t just go are being attacked and their livers around killing random humans taken. There’s a secret government Total Episodes: 16 and eating their livers. So the Fox strike team that is also on the trail society forbids the practice except and who know that the foxes exist. Genre: in controlled ceremonies using livers Despite their best efforts to remain Modern Action/ procured from the already dead unknown, the Korean government Supernatural via their contacts in the mortuary is on to them. world. As a police inspector, Kang Min- 2004 Oh, but the desire for fresh hot woo’s investigation brings him face 69 to face with one of the renegade foxes. the love that was torn away from her and the other warriors are suspected Despite his martial arts training, he’s when she was orphaned and brought as the assassins. no match for the super-powered fox, into the warrior training program? One advantage of these Asian until he is rescued by the masked Shi- Is he the long-lost love that has been series is their length. Instead of going yeon. (She’s the only fox warrior who pining for her all these years and has on for hundreds of episodes while wears a mask as she’s the only one who remained loyal to her memory? Of coming up with more and more plot needs to keep her fox identity secret course she won’t find out for sure until from the hero for dramatic reasons.) we undergo episode after episode of Shi-yeon should kill him too as anguish and heartbreak. part of the cover up, but something An additional plot complication stops her. He’s familiar. Could it be? comes when members of the fox ruling Is he her long lost first love? Is he council are assassinated and Shi-yeon The Legend of the Gumaho In Korean folklore, a supernatural fox spirit called a gumaho gains a tail for every 100 years of life with nine-tailed foxes being the ultimate form. They can disguise themselves as humans and use this ability to trick their prey. Gumaho are traditionally malicious, killing humans and often disguising themselves as their victims to stalk their victim’s loved ones. 70 alterations, they tell a story and then serial murders, the organ trafficking humanity. end. Gumaho, for example, is a mere and assassinations. Of course 16 episodes. Even at that short length, We quickly find out that fellow he ends up the romantic entanglements slow warrior Chae-yi (played in the best with the down the action and the melodramas soap opera vixen style by Southern legendar y seem to go on forever. California-raised model and actress Red Moon The sensitive head of the warriors, Han Ye-seul) is working for the bad Sword that Moo Yung, is in love with Shi-yeon, guys. She starts assassinating leaders only one providing a love triangle. Another of of the Foxes and she uses her disguise loved by the warriors, the goofy hip hop one, powers to frame Shi-yeon for the the Fox of is in love with the cold calculating deeds. a Thousand warrior Chae-yi, who just thinks of The lies and manipulations of Years can him as a friend. Chae-yi in turn has those in power also set Kang Min-woo wield. the hots for Moo Yung. Min-woo’s and Shi-yeon against one another and The series does bog down a bit in sister tries to set her brother up with only their eternal love for each other the middle with too many soap opera Shi-yeon to tragic effect. can save the day. It turns out that Shi- bits, such as a sub-plot where Min- Luckily there are distractions from yeon is destined to become the Fox of woo’s sister comes down with that the endless romantic obstacles. Both the a Thousand years on the night of the disease where you cough up blood Council of Foxes and the government next lunar eclipse. Shi-yeon thinks that and faint when the plot calls for it. have secrets to hide from our heroes. only her sacrifice can free the Foxes There’s also the unneeded comic There’s a third set of players, a group from their curse, while Min-woo is relief of Min-woo’s partner who is of renegade foxes, who are behind the told that he has to kill Shi-yeon to save recruited along with him into the 71 is marvelous to watch as the type outfit, a modified Raccoon sly and wicked renegade fox City Police Department outfit would warrior. Out of all the foxes, probably work pretty well. Of course, her character is the only one sometimes cosplayers can run into who actually seems to have problems with real police officers fox characteristics. while cosplaying in close-to-real-life The style of the show is police uniforms. very definitely that of a soap The female lead, Yoon Shi-yeon, opera. This was filmed on video has a nice battle costume for a cosplayer and it shows. Visually it looks who likes long black vinyl coats. With more like a soap opera than an the addition of custom gauntlets, and secret government SWAT team that action-adventure show. a simple half-face mask, the costume is tasked with tracking down and It’s an enjoyable supernatural soap is mostly done. Her twin kris blades eliminating the foxes. despite too much melodrama that gets are a key element to the outfit, but But despite the occasional slow in the way of the action. shouldn’t be any harder to do than the dramatic aside, the series does have Cosplay Opportunities: typical blades used in Final Fantasy its moments. There are a number of The downside of cosplaying this cosplay. good fight scenes between the good series is that probably nobody would The various other foxes also dress foxes and the bad ones, and between recognize the character. quite stylishly and distinctively and foxes and humans. The political The male lead, Inspector Kang would make a nice group, even if the scheming and underhanded plots keep Min-woo, would be easy to do. He cosplayers had to constantly explain the story moving along. Han Ye-suel dresses in a fairly standard S.W.A.T.- what series they were from. 72 Germany Yellow Zone of a typical HK 80’s opening with establishing Review by Jack Avery shots of the Hong Kong cityscape while cheesy synthisizer music plays. This was done so perfectly No matter how much you might love 80’s that at first I thought they had borrowed it from Hong Kong action films, you don’t love them a real HK movie and I just couldn’t remember as much as Producer, Actor, Director, Director which one, but I think they actually filmed it of Photography, Camera Operator, Martial Arts themselves. Choreographer, Stunt Man, Action Director, Andy Long and a friend (Khoi Chau) are Original Editor and Sound Designer Andy Long. touring the city when they have a minor Language: In a collaboration with Mag-Fighters, Reel argument. This, of course, leads to a pretty good German Deal Action and NDTeam, Long’s seven and a half kung fu fight. minute short Yellow Zone faithfully recreates the This is an old school fight with no CGI, just Subtitled in look and feel of those classic movies, particularly flying fists and kicks and leg sweeps. There’s some English the fight scenes. very nice leg-work here in particular. It’s a loving tribute right down to the Police After sending off his defeated friend in a taxi, Format: video Story theme that plays over the end credits as the Long continues on his way, until a mysterious short stunt out takes and deleted scenes roll. figure (Can Aydin) appears and challenges him Interestingly, the language is German, but the to a fight. Genre: rest is pure HK as the cast even visit locations used This fight is actually really good. While the Kung Fu Action by Jackie Chan in some of his more memorable fighters are obviously not Jackie Chan or Jet Li, fight scenes. it’s surprisingly close to the quality of fights you’d The short starts with a pitch-perfect recreation see in many second tier action flicks from the 73 period. style sound effects for each strike and a short to showcase the action, but then If that sounds like I’m damning maneuver. Somehow they’ve even again, there were lots of HK movies in them with faint praise, well let me managed to make the film stock look this time period that didn’t have much just say that the fight was just as good the same with the sort of off-color, more in the way of a plot. as some of the The credit out- fights in movies takes include a like Yes, Madam. “deleted scene” In fact, Long where the cast even duplicates visit the same one of Cynthia mall used in R o t h r o c k ’s Jackie Chan’s o v e r - t h e - Police Story and, shoulder kicks using guerilla- from the airport style filming, fight scene in even replicate that movie. one of the minor This sort of stunts on the tribute depends same escalator on getting the used by Chan. little details right, and Yellow Zone soft fuzzy look I’ve seen in so many The entire short can be seen is all about the details. There’s cheesy HK movies on the big screen. at http://www.youtube.com/ dubbing, continuity errors and HK There’s not a real plot here, it’s just watch?v=qqY4KbV7plw 74 Django see, that is Franco Nero, the Ital- Review by Ray Hoey ian actor who portrayed the orig- inal titular character in Django in When I first saw the trailer for 1966! That’s the cool thing about Django: Unchained in mid-2012, I Tarantino: he would be aware of was excited. Not only because it such trivia and just because he was the latest Quentin Tarantino can, he asks the original actor to film, but because for me, the most make a cameo in his movie…and notable thing was at the end of it happens! the trailer. There is a snippet of Granted, I can understand the scene where Django (Jamie that during the pre-publicity of Foxx) is getting a drink at the the movie, there was much fo- bar of the estate known as Can- cus on the slavery aspects of the die Land. Next to him, is a well- plot. After all, this took place in dressed, gruff man with a beard the ante-bellum South, shortly and mustache. He asks Django, before the Civil War and the sto- “What’s your name?” Django ry focuses on a slave that is look- blows smoke from his cigarette, ing to not only free himself, but and replies, “Django…the “D” is rescue his wife from slavers. Such silent.” The gruff man simply re- a dark chapter in American his- plies, “I know.” tory is something that needs to Damn right he knows. You be addressed, and should never be 75 forgotten, without question. The in- Charlie Rose, seemed to realize that has nearly been forgotten: the spa- teresting thing is that hardly anyone, the inspiration for Django: Unchained ghetti western. with the possible exception of PBS’s was also a tribute to a film genre that In a sense, that’s not surprising, since it’s been nearly fifty years since the first spaghetti westerns made their way onto cinema screens. At that point, the Italian film industry was at a crossroads, what with pepla (sword- and-sandal) epics that had dominat- ed Italian screens for so long now losing steam. Italian film executives knew they needed new product to get “bums on seats” as the British are fond of saying. So, it was decided to make Westerns. They had always been popular in Italy, relatively inexpensive and easy to make. By 1964, around twenty-five such films came into be- ing, usually with an American actor in the lead role, and the names of prin- cipal personnel on the film were An- glicized to disguise the fact that they were local productions. It may have been un- play the lead. The rest they say, is history. Little Italy necessary, since these initial films did little to did either man realize what a history they had distinguish themselves from what their Ameri- started… can counterparts had already done. By 1966, Sergio Leone was riding high on That all changed when a director named the success of A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and A Sergio Leone came on the scene. He decided to Few Dollars More (1965). His principal actor, East- take his inspiration from a film he had seen and wood was now an international star. The public enjoyed (Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo-1961) and had yet to see the genius of The Good, the Bad, use that as his template to make his first West- and the Ugly. Most important, other Italian di- ern. For the paltry fee of $15,000, Leone hired rectors were making their celluloid statements Original a American TV actor named Clint Eastwood to about the cheapness of life at the business end Language: of a Colt revolver in the American frontier dur- Italian ing the late 1800’s. Granted, not all of these sagebrush sagas were Format: winners. In fact, it’s fair to say that Leone has Movie set the bar and the standard by which all other such films were measured. However, one young Genre: director, Sergio Corbucci, (who like Leone, had Western served his time in the pepla salt-mines) avoided the pitfalls of trying to measure up to Leone; he 1966 simply created his own standards. Thus, Django (1966) was born. 77 As the film opens, we see from ican banditos. However, their enter- Maria was the “property” of both this behind, a Civil War Union officer is tainment is rudely interrupted when group and the Mexicans, and both walking across a snowy, muddy plain. shots ring out and all of them, sans sides wanted her back. As the Klans- He’s carrying a saddle, but has no Maria, are blown away. One naturally men attempt to “retrieve” Maria, they horse(?) Most intriguingly, he’s drag- assumes it was Django, but considering too are blown away…and this time ging a coffin behind him! (Nothing several of them looked like they were by Django! He then escorts her into like intrigue from the get-go) For hit near simultaneously, it’s highly un- town for her own safety. about the next forty-five minutes, the likely. In fact, they’ve been smoked by Then again, “town” is putting it audience’s curiosity about that coffin a group of cowboys nearby, all wear- politely. The only inhabitants are all (and what’s in it) already makes this ing red sashes. film riveting. Therefore, somehow, H o w e v e r , we just know this loner is Django! these saviors are He crosses over the crest of a hill the proverbial toward a gorge. Spanning this gorge “fire” from jump- is what has got to be the ricketiest- ing out of the fry- looking bridge in cinema, at least un- ing pan. They’re til Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom racist Confederate (1984) came to theaters. Near the Ku Klux Klans- entrance to the bridge is a wooden men, all work- post where a beautiful young woman ing for a Major named Maria is tied to. She’s being Jackson. It seems viciously whipped by a gang of Mex- that at one point, 78 clustered at the local inn. The inn- Rodriguez. keeper, Nathaniel, is also the resident Complication # 1: Major Jackson pimp! His stable of girls all live at the at one time had murdered Django’s hotel, and their outfits provide about wife and Django seeks vengeance. the only color in the drab, dullness of Complication #2: Django saved this nearly abandoned burg. There is Rodriguez’s life during the Mexican- also a priest (!) named Brother Jona- American War. than, who skulks around, acting as an Complication #3: Django plans to informant for Major Jackson. It seems help Rodriguez rob a Mexican Army that this nameless city is caught in the fort in order to steal a gold shipment middle of a range war between Ma- that will allow them to buy weapons jor Jackson’s men, and a large gang of to fight Jackson’s men…only Django Mexican banditos, led by a renegade has his own plans for the gold… Mexican Army General named Hugo Thus, the stage is set for a classic in Italian spaghetti cinema. Of course, the idea of one man, a stranger, work- ing two opposing factions against each other is nothing new. Dashiell Ham- mett used such a plot in Red Harvest, bucci, however, had a novel approach to and the aforementioned Kurosawa and his plotline. Leone used that idea in Yojimbo and For starters, Corbucci seemed deter- A Fistful of Dollars, respectively. Cor- mined to show what truly nasty pieces of 79 work these factions are. For example, That’s before they kill him! You lit- the extent of violence seen on cine- Major Jackson is an avid enthusiast of erally have to see it to believe it. (I ma screens today, the violent scenes in skeet shooting…except, instead of us- will say however, that as hard as it is to Django might almost be considered ing clay pigeons, he likes using poor watch, it will instantly ring a familiar dated and cartoonish. But, Corbucci Mexican peasants as his targets! He bell with Tarantino fans!) was smart enough to recognize that will literally shout, “PULL!” and one This film also has an unusually there comes a point when something of his men below will urge a Mexi- high level of violence, even for a spa- over-the-top continues for too long, can that he’s corralled earlier to run ghetti western. There’s at least two then, it creates a feeling of discomfort. as fast as he can in any direction, at mass slaughters in the movie, in addi- It turns the viewer against what they any speed, to try to get away from the tion to all the gunfights. Considering are seeing. tower where the shooters gather to Yet, for all this “compete”. Jackson then waits, chal- in-your-face lenging himself, to see how long and brutality, Cor- how far the Mexican can travel, before bucci intro- he tries to bring them down with one duced some shot. subtleties that Jackson never misses. made his films Rodriguez and his men, are just as stand out on an bad. At one point, they capture Brother existential lev- Jonathan in town, and inflict a form of el. Through- torture on him that would make the out the film, Marquis de Sade wet his pantaloons! Major Jackson’s 80 men wear red hoods, along with their rum to illustrate waste than during the his producer reached a more econom- sashes. Hoods are nothing new to the winter time? For, unlike his contem- ical compromise: There would be KKK, but reportedly, the reason Cor- poraries, Corbucci wasn’t interested second unit establishing shots in snow, bucci made them red was to reflect the in filming in the Tabernas or Almeria but the town scenes would be shot at fact that he grew up during the Fascist desert regions of southern Spain. He the Elios Studios in Rome. But, the regime of Benito Mussolini in World was much more interested in snow and ground would be muddied up and the War II. Couple that with Jackson’s at- mud. His original intention was to film filming would be during the winter titude towards Mexicans and his need in Cortina, in northern Italy, near the season, in order for the wet, cold at- to dominate the “lower classes”, and Alps. However, knowing the expense, mosphere to be authentic. (Corbucci you have one of the ear- would get his wish later liest examples of socio- with what is considered political commentary in his best film – The Great a spaghetti western. The Silence (1968)). constant fights between Giancarlo Simi, Cor- Django, Jackson, Rodri- bucci’s set designer, then guez, their henchmen took the ingenious step and the Mexican Army is of creating a town that done in a way that meta- looked as if it had been phorically and graphical- patched together with ly shows the futility and whatever could be found, waste of war. in a slap-dash, haphazard And what better fo- fashion. Dirtying up the 81 buildings, muddying the streets, cou- pled with filming on cloudy days with grey skies truly served to give the at- mosphere of a desolate wasteland. This town didn’t look like it had fallen on hard times, it had been born into hard times! Subsequently, the near deserted condition of the town creates a feeling of isolation, making you notice what goes on it that much more. Then, ac- cording to Corbucci, what we might call “civilization” often has very little to nothing civil about it. (Tarantino picked up on this and paid homage to it by having Django: Unchained take place during the win- ter time.) Cannon Films! Then nine years later, colonel (William Sadler), who holds It’s hard to believe that my first in- came Die Hard 2: Die Harder, where Dulles International Airport hostage troduction to Franco Nero was Enter he played a Latin American military so that they can ex-fil the general to the Ninja (1981), the beginning of the dictator/drug lord being extradited a country with no extradition trea- ninja craze launched by the schlock to the U.S. for prosecution who is ties with the U.S. and live off his drug action studio of the 80’s and 90’s, then rescued by a renegade U.S. Army profits. (At least, before Bruce Willis 82 steps in!) the role with a world-weariness that serious physical damage at the hands These were not necessarily the is believable. He manages to evoke so of others. But, he manages to retreat, best forums to show Nero’s acting much with his eyes, in much the same recover, regroup and re-formulate a skills. The interesting thing about spa- way that Clint Eastwood does when strategy to win the day (and usually ghetti westerns, though, is that you he squints. But, behind Django’s eyes a reward as well). Django also experi- don’t necessarily have to be the best is not just the steel will of a killer, but ences physical torture, but he then has actor. But, you must have presence. the sadness and loneliness of a life go- no time to recover and barely enough When Nero is in the scene, you feel ing to waste. It shows a vulnerability to regroup before he has to win the it. Everyone feels it! He embodies the that keeps him from becoming a su- day. Whatever strategy he employs is unique archetype of the soldier who’s perhero, such as some might perceive one of desperation, the only goal being been fighting for so long, he doesn’t Clint Eastwood. know how to do anything else. The That’s not film clearly shows that his marksman- to say that East- ship is almost supernatural, and that wood’s “Man he is at his best, when he’s at war. Un- with No Name” fortunately, he’s so good that when character was he’s not at war with others, he’s at war necessarily a su- with himself! There is a restlessness, of perhero either. In a man who will not allow himself to all the films of Le- be at peace (his self-imposed quest to one’s trilogy, East- seek vengeance for his wife’s murder). wood’s character It helps that Nero as Django carries undergoes some 83 to survive. This is what gives Django tries to convince Django to just give lains are the ones that hardly raise a bit more dimension than Leone’s up the path he is on, and just run away their voice. The ones who display af- character. When fate deals Django a with her. Granted, that sort of scene fable charm one moment, and lethal bad hand, you root for him, not be- is not new, but Nusciak has an ear- intent the next, without blinking. cause you know he can pull Think Hans Gruber (Alan things off, but because you Rickman) in Die Hard, or don’t know if he can! (The the aforementioned Colo- final reel is a perfect illus- nel Stuart (William Sadler) tration of this). in Die Hard 2. (What is it Loredana Nusciak as about the villains in Die Maria is beautiful, (with a Hard films?) Come to think strong resemblance to Clau- of it, there’s a moment in dia Cardinale from Once Die Hard 2, when Sadler’s Upon a Time in the West – character decides to teach 1968) and has great presence the people of Dulles Air in the film. However, like Traffic Control an “object most women in spaghetti lesson” for trying to inter- westerns, she is, unfortu- fere in his plans, by imper- nately little more than the traditional nestness that makes you feel for her sonating an air traffic controller and damsel-in-distress. But, to Corbucci’s having found (and more importantly deliberately crashing a commercial credit, there are a few moments where recognized) a kindred spirit. 747 by misleading the crew of their she stands out, particularly, when she I’ve always said that the best vil- altitude upon landing. As the plane 84 livers attitude by the spoonful, but he does it with the air of an aristocrat who has lost whatever sense of place he has in the world, and is trying to hold on to whatever he has left. Therefore, he avoids the drudgery of the “cardboard villain”. And let’s face it: anyone that doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with using Mexican peasants as clay pigeons for skeet shooting has GOT to go! All of this serves to illustrate the hallmarks of a director who is trying to be unconventional. (Though he succeeded, I would be hard-pressed to think of anything conventional in disintegrates, with the passengers and ing Mexican peasants one by one… a genre that sought to break conven- crew screaming, Sadler’s face turns up for sport. It just goes to show that tion in the first place!). As Corbucci’s in a very tiny self-satisfied smirk at his it doesn’t require a lot of mustache- career went on, his films were often accomplishment. twirling and over-the-top histrionics accused of being pessimistic. That may Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo) to get the audience to boo the villain. have had something to do with the adopts a similar grin as he’s murder- All you need is attitude. Fajardo de- fact that like many auteurs, he want- 85 ed to create the films that he wanted their movies about the Mafia: Fran- a reflection of the world around us, to see, as opposed to meeting audi- cis Ford Coppola and Martin Scors- and how precious life can be as a re- ence expectations. More often than ese. With the Godfather trilogy, Cop- sult. But unlike Roberto Benini, who not, that approach then tended to re- pola created an opera in the form of tried to show us that “life is beautiful”, flect the uglier side of human nature, a film saga, detailing the rise and fall Sergio Corbucci was simply showing the side people might not want to of a criminal empire. In it, you see the us that sometimes life just IS. Life is see or think about (at least not with- near-saintly but tragic sinners who also always on the move, constantly out a positive ending). But Corbucci would often pay dearly for the life changing, and it will go on with or knew that life is often devoid of posi- they chose…and they were mourned without you. Just like the English- tive endings, which tends to make his with all the grace, pomp and circum- version of the theme song played over movies more immediate and in their stance given to a fallen king. Scorsese the opening and ending credits ad- own way, accessible, compared to his on the other hand, used a “warts and monishes, Django must “face another contemporaries. all” approach, with near documentary day…” but is encouraged with “after So, while Sergio Leone might style classics like Mean Streets, Good- the showers…the sun will be shin- have been created a masterful painting fellas and Casino, showing that more ing.” with his spaghetti westerns, making often than not, the criminals weren’t Now, go on…see the movie and them nearly operatic in scope, Sergio all handsome, and wearing tuxedos. find out what’s in that coffin! Corbucci simply looked out his win- They were just as often broke as they (NOTE: Whoever did the English dow and did a thumbnail sketch on a had wads of cash. Life itself was usu- dub of the Django character sounds shred of paper. I liken the contrasts in ally the cheapest commodity of all. like he read his lines off a teleprompt- filmmaking to the approaches of two And that is ultimately, what Djan- er. Go for the original Italian language other Italian (-American!) directors in go, like many classic films, shows us… print, if you can.) 86 Servant of the Jackal God about Kamose, the Archpriest of By Keith Taylor Anubis. Taylor’s done something Review by Jack Avery very interesting here, he’s taken a character who would have been Since I’ve read and enjoyed the villain of a typical Howard the first four of Taylor’s Robert E. Conan story and made him the Howard-inspired Bard novels about protagonist. an Irish adventurer, I was really happy Kamose gained his powers by to learn that I had been chosen to stealing scrolls containing magic receive a review copy of his latest knowledge belonging to the god book via Librarything.com’s Early Thoth, paying a horrifying price Reader program. and earning the wrath of the god Like his earlier work, this and his followers. collection of tales is historical sword Kamose is basically an evil, or and sorcery only set in ancient Egypt at least amoral, wizard. However, instead of dark ages Europe. being Archpriest of one of the most Fittingly, most of these stories important Egyptian gods, he uses his were originally published by Weird dark powers and cunning mind to Tales with the addition of a couple of uphold the status quo, punish grave never before published adventures. robbers and defend the Pharaoh. Servant of the Jackal God forms Oh, and to scheme against and a set of loosely-connected stories defend himself against his political 87 Australia and religious rivals. I also see some parallels between Kamose and Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane as both are physically capable, sorcerous anti-heroes. Like Wagner, Taylor makes his protagonist palatable by matching him against other villains or having him fight sorcerous threats to the common good. He also has several stories that feature a clever thief, Si-Hotep, as the main Original Language: protagonist who is easy to root for even if English he is working as an agent for Kamose. While not specifically a part of the Format: Short Story Cthulhu Mythos, and with the magic sort of based on ancient Collection Egyptian belief, there is still a good dose of “things man was not meant to know” in the stories. The stories are fun, clever and show a good variety of plots Genre: within the overall structure. Historical Fantasy The first several stories are mostly to set the stage. In the first story we learn who Kamose is and how much power he 2012 possesses. The second story establishes Egypt’s society and shows his place therein. The third story serves as an 88 origin for Kamose as well as establish Kamose not know who is behind his use of disguises and misdirection. the plot negates A later story is told like parable and enough of his tells why Kamose chose to become a power to make devotee of Anubis over other gods. the situations Most of the stories form an challenging. overall plot about an attempt to This is also why discredit Kamose and his attempts the Si-Hotep to discover who is behind it. stories work. He’s This first of these stories “The competent, but Emerald Scarab” at first read as a mere is one of the weakest stories m o r t a l in the collection. As a story man, he has to itself it is a little unsatisfying, but earn his successes. He’s it serves to set up the plot threads that in genuine peril and he’s will continue for most of the book. likable in a way that Unfortunately, these plot threads Kamose can never be, come to a dead end and the mystery so it’s easy to root for him. is not solved in the stories in this With some of the stories, there collection. is a lack of dramatic tension The stories concerning this plot because Kamose possesses against him work well because having immense political, social, financial 89 and religious power. Not to mention them effortlessly. Scrolls of Thoth and he that he is the nigh-immortal most One thing I found puzzling was and the priests of his powerful sorcerer in existence who that at some points, Kamose dismisses and various other can command baleful creatures and Egyptian religion, essentially saying gods all routinely has the protection of one of Egypt’s that the entire belief in life after death can learn working greatest gods. A few of the stories is false and that Egyptian religion is magic spells based on c o m e down to the just plain false. Yet he is personally the Egyptian religion. “bad guys” acquainted with the pantheon of The whole point a n n o y i n g Egyptian gods. of the series is that K a m o s e He’s the enemy of Thoth and has Egyptian religion is and Kamose suffered the god’s vengeance personally. the basis of the magic crushing He has to watch out for magical attacks system, so that should by the priests of Thoth whose power be taken to it’s logical is based on their religion. He’s under extreme and not the protection of Anubis and takes care discounted, particularly to do a diligent job as his arch priest. when it wouldn’t have For example, he ruthlessly hunts affected the stories to do down tomb robbers, makes sure so. the funerary rites are properly Still, for sword and performed and makes sure to sorcery fans, this collection keep his god happy. of Egyptian themed stories He gets his magic from reading the is highly recommended. 90 91 Van Canto Even better, the band is very fantasy-friend- Germany Break the Silence ly. While they avoid the most extreme wiz- Review by Jack Avery ard rock, their songs and videos are frequently about sword swinging revolt against oppres- Van Canto is without a doubt the greatest sion or have other light fantasy elements. a cappella heavy metal band in existence. Purists may argue the a cappella label as Granted, they are the only a cappella heavy they use an actual drummer, Bastian Emig, but metal band in existence. that’s just splitting hairs. With the exception But if there were another a cappella heavy of percussion, traditionally all the rest of the metal band, it would be hard to imagine they band’s sound comes from the human voice. could do it better than Van Canto. One thing that I have a quibble about is the way they handle Stefan Schmidt’s wahwah solo guitars. While the sound is generated by Original Language: human voice, their studio recordings use so English/German much distortion and processing that he sounds pretty much the same as an electric guitar. But Format: Album other than that, you can tell the other instru- mental parts are being done by voice. In addition, Schmidt provides “lower rak- Genre: ka-takka vocals”. Ingo Sterzinger is in charge Symphonic Metal of what’s called “doom a bass” which is essen- tially the base guitar parts while Ross Thomp- 2011 92 son handles the “higher rakkatakka songs. I’m sure it’s just a matter of the earlier album A Storm To Come. vocals.” time. Others are a bit more tongue-in- With Break the Silence, though, the They certainly do the reverse, cov- cheek such as the brilliant skewering band does start to move away from a ering songs by other bands in a cap- of heavy metal excess as when they purely a cappella sound, not always pella form. Some of these are honest cover Manowar’s “Kings of Metal” on successfully. While most songs are still 2008’s Hero. human voice only, a few songs do have On their most recent offering, the instrumental backing. opening of “If I Die in Battle” sends While I am absolutely enamored shivers down my spine. The title song of the fact that they are an a cappel- and first single off of their latest al- la band, I think that the group’s song bum, Break The Silence, is an anthem of writing ability is such that I’d like their standing together to fight for freedom work even if they were a usual instru- against tyranny – one of the band’s ma- mental band. They build their songs jor themes. The strength of the music just as if they were writing for instru- and intensity of the singers gives real ments. They have twin lead guitars emotional punch to what could have riffing over a driving bass line just as been a schmaltzy effort. many another European heavy metal The song begins with a purely band. choral arrangement that showcases I’d really like to hear some of tributes that add a welcome variation the incredible individual voices of their contemporaries do instrumen- by being put into a cappella form, such each of the group’s singers. Then the tal backed cover versions of their best as covers of Metallica’s “Battery” from song cranks up into a blistering wall 93 of sound in a full-on metal assault. A lyrics just don’t provide a coherent that I don’t have a preference as to metal band would be lucky to have plot. which version is best. That’s high praise just one vocalist with the power and The stirring “Primo Victoria” as I consider “Primo Victoria” one of talent of any one of the group’s mem- is about the landings on D-Day. Van Sabbaton’s best songs, both musically bers and when they all let loose at and lyrically. Not only do we have the once, it’s something to hear. vocals of Van Canto on this song, but Male lead singer Philip Dennis Sabbaton lead singer Joakim Brodén Schunke’s purring vocals and female provides guest lead vocals with his lead Inga Scharf’s sultry vocals are growling style providing an amazing strong enough and distinctive enough extra texture. to cut through the tsunami of sound Scharf takes the lead vocals for provided by the “instrumental” vo- “Black Winds of Hate” a good bit of calists, a feat that would be beyond female-fronted metal that also pro- lesser singers. vides a good showcase for the backing The second single from the group, vocals. Scharf is easily one of the most “The Seller of Souls,” is my least fa- talented of the current crop of female vorite on the album, despite having metal vocalists working in Europe. an addictive tune and the most heav- Canto does at least one cover song on “The Higher Flight” is another ily fantasy-influence theme. I think every album, and this one is original- good a cappela effort. Yes, that “guitar” the song itself is fine, but I thought ly from Swedish metal band Sabbaton is actually a distorted human voice. It’s the lyrics didn’t hold together. There’s (whose latest album was reviewed in not a standout, but it shows the classic a story they are trying to tell, but the the last issue.) This cover is so good Van Canto sound. 94 I’m not so fond of “Dangers in My to sound. bonus track “Betrayed” which com- Head” which I thought was just pe- Additional covers on this album bines their a cappella style with more destrian. It just wasn’t “metal” enough include Manowar’s “Master of the traditional symphonic metal elements. for me. Wind” and Alice Cooper’s “Bed of I can still tell this is a Van Canto song I feel slightly betrayed by “Spelled Nails”. As much as I love Alice Coo- with strong dual lead vocals and plen- in Water”, a ballad featuring guest per, I have to say that the a cappella ty of “rakkatakka” in addition to the vocals by Blind Guardian’s Marcus treatment of the later song only em- orchestral instruments being used. Siepen. It’s not a cappella, there’s ac- phasizes how silly it is. Other bonus tracks include “A tual acoustic guitar being used. It’s not The Manowar cover however, is Storm to Come” with guest vocals by a bad song, but not a standout and it a quite touching ballad sung by Inga Helen Vogt, and a cover of Running just doesn’t sound like a Van Canto Scharf with the addition of some guest Wild’s “Bad to the Bone”. song. piano work. Again, the signature a While overall, I think this is a per- While I’m happy that most Eu- cappella sound of the band is missing fectly fine Van Canto album, I think ropean metal bands sing most of their here. that for the uninitiated, starting with songs in English, so I can understand It’s a nice song, but I miss the Van one of their earlier albums might be them, I do also enjoy it when a band Canto style. I can understand that the wiser in order to get the full a cappella puts in a song in their native lan- members of the band wants to stretch treatment. Although this album does guage. For this album, Van Canto’s to- themselves musically and do differ- contain my two favorite Van Canto ken German song is “Neuer Wind”. I ent things, but I think that the whole songs in “If I Die In Battle” and “Pri- don’t know what it’s about, but it’s a point of the band is the unique ap- mo Victoria”. Videos for both those stirring hard rock effort that returns proach that a cappella provides them. songs, and lots more, can be found at the album to the trademark Van Can- I think they do a better job with Youtube.com. 95 Pericles, Prince of Tyre should just cut my losses and walk out even be- U.S.A. Berkeley Rep Theatre fore the play actually started. It was only the fact May, 2013 that I’d spent more than $70 on a good seat that Review by Jack Avery kept me from leaving. I know what you’re saying, I shouldn’t ex- When the musical director came out and pect much from Pericles. Most people find it to tried to teach the audience a song, I knew that I be Shakespeare’s least important play. But this isn’t my first Pericles. It’s actually one of my favorites. I love this play. You see, Pericles is responsible for Original my love of Shakespeare. Language: The single greatest performance English of any play that I’ve ever seen was a production of Pericles I saw 23 years Format: Play ago. I’ve been chasing that high ev- ery since. Genre: I was on an exchange semester at Adventure London University. I had an English class on the theater where as part of 2013 our coursework we saw at least one play a week. Most plays were quite 96 enjoyable, I saw The Lady in Black and I’d never understood the appeal of life, made a connection with the au- Les Mis in the West End and both of Shakespeare before. Mostly because I’d dience, sold the play. those were excellent. I saw great ac- never been able to understand what The action was thrilling, the plot tors, including Derek Jacoby in Burn the actors were saying. The Elizabe- was engrossing, the play was mesmer- This. Man, can that guy chew scen- than English defeated me. For this izing. ery. performance I understood every line, They did all of that on a bare, tiny, One week the play was Pericles. every word. I realized that good Shake- square stage surrounded on four sides Not just any Pericles. The Royal Shake- spearian actors speare Company’s version of Pericles. can bridge the My word, was it good. gap, make the This was a version done by the text work for younger, less experienced members a modern au- of the RSC. It was put on at the Pit dience with- Theatre at the Barbican. It was a small out sacrificing cast production in an intimate space. authenticity. It was brilliant. S h a k e - With such a small cast, most ac- speare’s weak- tors had to play multiple roles. It was est play? Not dizzying to see how fast and how with these ac- completely these actors could change tors. Each one character and how convincing they brought their could be. characters to 97 by the audience armed only with the I’ve seen Pericles since then. A doz- to set their play apart. text of the play, a few props and cos- en years ago, I saw a version put on by If I want to see a modern play tumes, and sheer talent. the student actors associated with the about modern concerns, there’s no Magic Theatre at Fort Mason Center shortage of opportunities. in San Francisco. It was quite good. What I want is some Shakespeare. Not quite RSC, but an enjoyable night Often what I get instead is a play called of theater done well and competently “Julius Caesar” that is an indictment staged. of the modern media. Or “Richard Since that first performance all the III” as a commentary on post 9-11 those years ago, I’ve made it a goal to global politics. For the entirety of the see a great, definitive, performance of second Bush administration it seemed every one of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s like every play put on in the San Fran- been harder than you might think. cisco Bay Area was about the Iraq war. You see, theater companies that put on Shakespeare plays often make the mistake of misunderstanding what the Shakespeare audience is after. They want to do Midsummer Night’s Dream because it’s popular, but they reason that their audience has obviously seen the play before. So they modernize it. Or they try to find something “new” 98 Lately, everything has been about gay piece can resonate with a contempo- of the play, Pericles and his wife and marriage. rary audience.” He wants to “viscer- daughter sing the song, the audience But Pericles is often free of that. ally re-imagine the story.” could “experience a shared memory Because theater companies assume Bollocks. of learning the song”. If at the end that the audience is unfamiliar with So why was the audience taught a of a Shakespearean play the audience it, they usually try to play it straight. song? It was so that when at the end needs some sort of a trick to feel a They assume that the connection to the main audience is made up of characters, you’re doing Shakespeare fans who are it wrong. taking a rare opportunity The main objection I to see the authentic play have to this production as Shakespeare more or is that the tools of live less intended. theater were deployed But not director Mark badly. Wing-Davey. He can’t Let’s start with the ba- just give us a pure shot of sics: blocking. I’m not a Shakespearean goodness. thespian. But as a theater As Berkeley Rep Artistic fan, I know that there Director Tony Taccone are certain problems that says, he “boldly re-con- need to be overcome textualizes the narrative when it comes to where so that the heart of the to situate your actors on 99 stage. We have a more than 2,500 year Why use masks, made out of paper was the lack of connection between history of theater and these problems plates, of characters that are being worn the actors and the audience and the were solved long ago. When your ac- by the actors playing the characters? A masks only made this worse. I suppose tor is speaking, do not have them turn major problem with the production my RSC experience is influencing my their backs to the audience and have them project toward the rear stage curtain. This is particularly important when the actors are speaking Eliza- bethan English and are already at a disadvantage when it comes to being understood by the audience. Yet several times, during major speeches, actors marched out to the same spot on the edge of the stage, did a 180 and then proceeded to mono- logue with their asses pointed to the front row. Doing it wrong is not innovative. It’s just doing it wrong. Masks are another common the- ater technique, one that this produc- tion used to excess, and again, badly. 100 judgment as the RSC also had a very And then there were the puppets. duction of Pericles I saw at the Magic small cast, but didn’t need masks to My first reaction was that using pup- Theatre years ago also used puppets and compensate. Instead, they used ACT- pets was in itself a sign of a failed pro- I didn’t mind that at all. A production ING. duction. Then I recalled that the pro- of “Animal Crackers” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last summer used one of the same puppet techniques to quite good comic effect. So it’s not the fact of using puppetry I object to, it’s just the way it was used in this case. I usually like innovative and clever use of props and complex use of the stage. I really wanted to like what was being done here, with a crane, a multi- story set with sliding doors and roll- ing stairs and some extravagant stage effects, but I was so divorced from the characters and the story that I just found them distracting. The crane seemed like it was be- ing used because they had a crane and not to contribute to the storytelling. The one really impressive ef- 101 fect came when a fire hose was I also didn’t need a come- brought out on stage and aimed dic pornographic wedding night at the back curtain with the deck scene where the bed was literally of a ship being rocked on a set of rocking. springs to simulate a storm at sea. And I really didn’t need a 1960s Unfortunately, I really didn’t care Batman TV show reference along if these characters drown. with other pop culture jokes in I don’t have much to say about my Shakespeare. I really didn’t. the actors. I suppose that’s as much The only real bright spot in of an indictment as one needs. I’m the play was the work of com- inclined to blame this mess on the poser and Music Director Marc director, but none of these actors Gwinn and musicians Jessica Ivry stepped up and saved the play with and Jeff Holland. The musicians their performance. were seated in one corner of the According to the program, upper level of the set and really there were a number of people did a nice job. working on costuming. but the This is a play that has intrigue, overall effect was as if the com- romance, pirates, soldiers, fights, a pany had just rummaged through noble hero, an assassin, shipwrecks, some assorted random bits of cos- betrayal, tragedy and triumph all tume left over from other produc- set to the Bard’s poetic dialogue. tions. And yet, in the end I was bored. 102 Solomon Kane Hell, perhaps, never really said, and is attacked France Starring: James Purefoy, Max Von Sydow, by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, I mean, Czech Republic Rachel Hurd-Wood, Pete Postlethwaite United Director: Michael J. Bassett Kingdom Review by Richard Berman

The action starts in 1600 AD North Africa with Solomon Kane and his gang laying siege to a temple, presumably for the pile of treasure within. Kane dispatches the human Original guards almost single-handedly, but Language: his crew falls victim to a very wicked English trap involving mirrors and some nasty wraiths. Kane’s remorse over Format: Movie his fallen comrades is quickly eased by the mass of gold in the center of Genre: Action a chamber in the temple. However, this too is a trap! Yes, 2009 Kane is transported somehow to 103 the Devil’s Reaper. turn back to the path of violence to character never shows up until the Hey, they look exactly alike, easy save the surviving member of a family very end. mistake. who saved him from bandits in hopes Eventually, Kane gets it together Anyway, the Devil’s Reaper of redeeming his soul. The downside enough to lead a small band of fed- establishes that Kane is a bad man, to all this are the bad guys seem like up villagers to attack the bad guys. I’ll destined for Hell and tries to claim his they would be more at home in a leave out the major spoilers, so let’s soul. Kane rejects the Reaper and dives Mad Max movie than in 17th century just say he slogs through the villains out a window, proving that demons England. of varying power and ability into an can’t swim. And now the movie really The struggle Kane goes through action-packed, though predictable, begins! is very measured and makes it all the conclusion. Now this is an example of what more satisfying when he does decide In an interview with Fangoria. goes on throughout the film; some very to adopt some of his old ways. com, Michael J. Bassett stated he good ideas and scenes are put together, This great characterization is wanted this to be the first of a trilogy only to have the whole thing derailed derailed when Kane eventually falls of films, hence we only see the Howard by some very cheesy antagonists. off the hero wagon, so to speak, and Solomon Kane in the final scenes. To Fortunately, most of the film is starts drinking and whining. At this me, this seems presumptuous that he quite enjoyable, though very cliche. point, I really missed the Robert E. would have that kind of success to He gets waylaid by bandits, only to be Howard version of Kane. You know: warrant another two films. saved by a family traveling on the road. the absolute fanatic whose faith was All in all, Solomon Kane is a decent He begins to get attached to them, more unshakeable than his skill with action film that has glimmers of which of course won’t end well. a blade. And that’s another downside brilliance, mainly due to great acting, A pacifistic Kane must eventually to the film; the Robert E. Howard but is brought down by a so-so story. 104