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[Fantasia 2019] Making that Steampunk Connection with the Everyday

2 Aug

steampunkBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

To find upcoming showtimes, please visit the official website here.

Steampunk may simply be characterized as Victorian age sensibilities with technology powered by steam, but there’s more to it than just that. The literary worlds of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells are just one example of what this genre represents. Another is in how it invites the imagination to ponder alternate possibilities if western civilization went a different way.

The documentary, Steampunk Connection, made its world premiere at Fantasia Fest 2019 on August 1st, 2019 and it describes this genre as a fictitious, futuristic trope that gives us the means to question today’s technological revolution by comparing it to an obsolete technology of a bygone era.

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[Fantasia 2019] The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale. When Bites Are Not Free!

31 Jul

Image result for The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale posterBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

South Korea certainly has a handle on the zombie epidemic. Whether that’s with a period movie with Rampant (see review here) or the crowd-pleasing Train to Busan, the latest titled The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale (기묘한 가족) is a zom-com that’s basically a Looney Tunes style cartoon with Shaun of the Dead as the hook. Director Lee Min-jae makes his debut and I feel this movie has cult-favourite written all over it! He knows which films from zombie culture to take inspiration from and crank it up a notch.

The action takes place in Poongsan, a remote South Korean village, where the folks there do not even know what a zombie is. Man-Deok (Park In-hwan) is simply wanting to take a vacation. His son Joon-Gul (Jung Jae-young, Castaway on the Moon) and his pregnant daughter-in-law, Nam-Joo (Uhm Ji-won) are a handful. When middle-son Min-Gul (Kim Nam-gil) comes home because he has nowhere else to stay (he lost his job), life is a touch more problematic. Nobody realizes a straggler into town (Jung Ga-ram) is a member of the walking dead and the bites Man-Deok!

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[Fantasia 2019] The Moon in the Hidden Woods, A Movie Review

31 Jul

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

CAST: Lee Jihyon, Jung Yoojung, Kim Yul

When the Moon is longer illuminating the night sky, the kingdom around Trade City is thrown into chaos. Muju, the red sky, is like Sauron from Lord of the Rings. What he wants is to destroy the world. His agent, Count Tar is far more dangerous than anyone can realize. But when the Moon no longer rose from Twilight (it’s resting place) to bring peace throughout the land, the protectors disappeared.

People started to talk. Rituals to honour this lunar deity stopped. The brave went across the desert wasteland to find the Moon in the Hidden Woods.  This apt title sets the tone of this South Korean animated film which borrows heavily on local folklore and the Hero’s Journey to tell its tale.

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This Little Light of Mine is on a Free Trip to Egypt

29 Jul

Playing at The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas St,
Victoria, BC 

Runs till Aug 1st, 2019

For showtimes and online ticket purchases, please click here.
Please check local listings for a screening near you.

I will gladly accept a Free Trip to Egypt. Had I learned about Tarek Mounib‘s mission to reverse the xenophobia and reveal the true side of this country, I’ll be there in an instant! I want to take in the ancient wonders of the world and experience the culture as it is now. People forget that the Egypt we know of today differs from the one from the antiquities. They were occupied by at least five other nations when the pharaonic world was fading. My assumption is that some stayed and became citizens. The creative mind behind this project comes from a blended society. Given how old this country is, the mix of Greco, French, Roman, Nubian, Ottoman, and Arab in some bloodlines is no surprise.

Mounib is a Canadian-Egyptian entrepreneur living in Switzerland. In response to increasing levels of xenophobia and portrayal of the predominately Arab world on broadcast media, he reached out to people who fear his culture. Some reactions are straight out of what one would expect in buying into the (sic WW2 era) propaganda and others with trepidation. With those that he found, five people in total, they got an eye-opening trip.

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