Thoughts on Mad Max: Fury Road

1) Lives up to the hype
2) Not bothered by the CGI (it's used judiciously and appropriately)
3) The stunts are magnificent
4) Proof that a sequel/remake need not be bad (Though does not justify Hollywood's current sequel/remake/reboot obsession. If anything, raises the bar for them to make ones that are actually good films in and of themselves)
5) Strong action heroines do not equal feminist propaganda
6) George Miller directs vehicle action like Yuen Woo-Ping directs kung-fu like John Woo directs gunfights like Busby Berkeley directed musicals. Action that advances the story, reveals character and revels in artfully capturing physical possibilities onscreen.
7) Minimal plot and character details usually sink blockbuster action films, but done right like here can create mythic, haunting and, dare I say it, poetic atmosphere.
8) Tom Hardy is both great as Max and the heir to Clint Eastwood's mantle as the Man with No name.
9) Other films I found myself thinking of while watching: The Warriors (1979), Fantastic Planet (1973) and Once Upon A Time in the West (1968).
10) Can't remember the last time a film got my blood pumping like that.
11) Hereinafter, the action in any movie should not be described as "visceral" by any critic until it can equal this one.

Time to Include Everybody

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Taking a moment to help a worthy cause. Local Chicago actress Emjoy Gavino has launched The Chicago Inclusion Project, an effort to encourage greater diversity in theater, including different people of different ethnicities, physical abilities and gender identities. On the horizon is a staged reading of William Saroyan's play The Time of Your Life at Victory Gardens Theater, which will hopefully be the first of many such performances. 

If you would like to contribute to this effort, The Chicago Inclusion Project currently has an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for its activities. 

Getting Ripped!

In-between weekends kung-fuing my way through The Big, The Trouble and The Little China with New Millennium Theatre Company and balanced against being a husband, dad and keeping up with Chicago Aikido Club, I'll be joining some of the good folks at American Blues Theater onstage or their annual Ripped: the Living Newspaper Festival. 

The one-night event is based on a 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA) era program that brought actor/director Orson Welles, and playwrights Arthur Miller and Clifford Odets into public attention. A series of short 10-minute performances inspired and ripped from today’s headlines will be presented to raise American Blues Theater's arts education program The Lincoln Project in Chicago Public Schools. 

Ripped: the Living Newspaper Festival takes places from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm on Tuesday, May 12 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue on the downstairs mainstage. Tickets (which also include food and drink) are $5 and available at www.AmericanBluesTheater.com/tickets.

Meet Wang Chi

Dennis Dun (as Wang Chi) and Kurt Russell (as Jack Burton) in Big Trouble in Little China

New Millennium Theatre Company is rolling out the publicity for their modest little Cowboy Western mashup/tribute/spoof of John Carpenter's 80s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China. 

They have a little "Meet 'Wang Chi'" video up with me talking briefly about joining in the fanboy mayhem. Check it out here. 

Some material reposted from the blog of Chicago Aikido Club (CAC)

In Memoriam – Donald Levine (1931 – 2015)

by ChicagoAikidoClub

Last weekend, Professor Donald Levine of the University of Chicago passed away on April 5 after a long period of illness. I first met Professor Levine as an undergraduate in 1993 when I took his Conflict Theory and Aikido course, followed by training with him as a member of University of Chicago Aikido Club.

A professor of sociology, Professor Levine began studying aikido in his 40s, eventually receiving the rank of yondan (4th degree black belt) under the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba (ASU). Over the years, he served as the conduit by which many young people first discovered and nurtured their interest in the martial art. He was also the founding president of Aiki Extensions, Inc., an organization that networks and supports individuals involved with “off-the-mat” aikido applications.

I actually started studying aikido the year before I met Professor Levine as an exchange student to Waseda University,  however my time with him proved very influential on my training overall. It was through him that I was introduced to the teachers and schools that have informed my aikido to this day: Kevin Choate, Marsha Turner, Wendy Whited, Joe Takehara, etc. He will definitely be missed.

A service in memory of Professor Levine will be held at 1:00 pm on April 9 at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 E Hyde Park Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60615.

Reposted from the blog of Chicago Aikido Club (CAC)

Happy 84th Takehara Sensei

Posted on April 8, 2015by ChicagoAikidoClub

Dr. Joe Takehara (竹原譲), senior instructor of Chicago Aikido Club (CAC) and a founding member of the original Illinois Aikido Club celebrated his 84th birthday on Saturday, April 4 at a party organized by his daughter Susanne. The lively gathering was attended by members from the CAC, as well as members of theMilwaukee Aikido Club, Chicago Aikikai and Ravenswood Shorin-ryu Karate Dojo.  Happy Birthday Takehara Sensei!!

Ya Got Trouble in Little China

After spending most of the past year since my son's birth cooling my heels actor-wise (which has unfortunately included missing most of my friends' performances), I'll be jumping onstage again in May in New Millennium Theatre Company's show The Big, The Trouble and the Little China. 

The show is in keeping with the New Millennium's ethos of raiding the American pop culture closet for fun and laughs, something I first encountered when I saw their homegrown Evil Dead: The Musical performed in the backyard of my former Scrap Mettle SOUL colleagues Bill and Mary Claire Hersh (called RowHouse Theatre) in 2002. This time around, it's a mash-up of the 80s John Carpenter/Kurt Russell cult classic Big Trouble in Little China and Westerns films and TV shows, tossing in bits from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Once Upon a Time in the West, Mel Brooks' spoof Blazing Saddles and the HBO series Deadwood.

Interestingly, if you check out Big Trouble's IMDB trivia page, you'll find out that the film was originally conceived as a Western, which was eventually deemed too difficult, so the setting was updated to the present day.

The show is coming at an interesting time for me. On one hand, it's perfect for this still periodically sleep-deprived dad: it's short, incredibly silly, entirely inconsequential and aiming for nothing but good-natured laughs from the audience and knowing appreciation from fans of the original film. 

On the other hand, it's also a self-indulgent thrill ride for me, even if on a modest itinerant Chicago theater scale. I'm getting to play Wang, the character played onscreen by Dennis Dun. One of the notable things about Big Trouble in Little China is that even though the white guy (Kurt Russel) is ostensibly the lead, he is portrayed largely as a fool and buffoon. Wang is presumably the obligatory sidekick when the story begins, but as things unfold, it is clear that he is the more knowing of the two characters, and certainly the more competent hand-to-hand fighter when the kung-fu breaks out.

Dennis Dun as Wang

According to the IMDB trivia page, Carpenter originally wanted Jackie Chan to play Wang, based on his then-recent Hong Kong work (including the classic Police Story). However, this was still a decade before Chan would break into the Hollywood box office, so the studio was unsure of his casting, and Chan himself apparently wasn't interested. 

Personally, I'm glad Chan didn't get the part. He's one of my all-time favorite action stars, but I think his naturally exuberant clowning would not have fit the character. One of the fun things about watching Dennis Dun in the role is he's so unassuming; he makes for a great martial arts everyman that the audience can root for. Also unusual for an American martial arts film is that no attempt is ever made to offer an explanation for Wang's martial arts prowess. Usually there is a need to include a bulky explanation or backstory for why someone fights the way they do (especially in 80s Hollywood films), whether they are ex-military or grew up next to an old master. When the fisticuffs begin, Dun just launches into action, and not even Kurt Russel's character bothers to question it (which is funny since up to that point, Dun is presumably just the proprietor of a Chinese restaurant).

Dun is probably one of the reasons that Big Trouble has a lot of fans among Asian Americans. At the time it came out, there was even less representation of Asian and Pacific Islanders onscreen than today. So it was really thrilling to see a film with so many Asian faces about, both the good guys and bad guys, even if Kurt Russel and a pre-Sex and the City Kim Cattrall were supposed to be the leading guy and gal. 

Going back to The Big, The Trouble and the Little China, it's also going to be the first time I have really had a chance to extensively fight as a martial artist onstage. Although I had fun as one of Lifeline Theatre's Three Musketeers  and as an onstage combatant in Roméo et Juliette at the Lyric Opera, this time I get to draw upon my background in aikido and live out my personal Jackie Chan and Jet Li fantasies.  I am actually quite grateful to our fight choreographer for allowing me to insert some dancelike Asian stylings into the action. 

On a final note, I recommend that any fan of Big Trouble in Little China should also check out Zu - Warriors from the Magic Mountain. This absolutely insane Hong Kong kung-fu fantasy sword and sorcery film directed by Tsui Hark was supposedly one of John Carpenter's inspirations for Big Trouble and shouldn't be missed.

UPDATE

Probably a good idea if I actually include the information on the show, right?

New Millennium Theatre Company Presents
The Big, The Trouble, And the Little China

Adapted and Directed by Meagan Piccochi

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm
May 1st - May 23rd
Sunday May 3rd at 3pm
At the Royal George Theatre
1641 N. Halsted

Tickets available at nmtchicago.org