Tag: Comedy

Ed’s Picks of the 2017 Victoria Fringe Festival

Victoria Fringe Festival

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The 2017 Victoria Fringe Festival has one show where any paranormal enthusiast must not miss. Fake Ghost Tours will no doubt tickle the funny bone in its satire of an industry that I feel has gone too far. I will say more on this later. After picking up a program guide and thumbing through, I have found my picks for this year.

With no surprise, Mystical Wishes Puppet Company, has been invited back with two productions later this year, in November, with special performances of Shadow Performances and Space Hippo. Although listed as part of the Fringe show, they bear honourable mention to mark the calendar for.

But for the week of August 23 to Sept 3rd, there’s plenty of variety to enjoy. But I have to begin with a fuller reveal of my top choice:

Victoria Fringe Festival

Fake Ghost Tours
Whells Phargo Productions

This walking tour of old Victoria is set to expand your mind and open your wallet (like, who has not experienced this problem before with pay-for ghost hunts?) as amateur ghost hunters Abdul Aziz and Shawn O’Hara take you on a “100% accurate” and legitimate look at the old quarters of this city? Plenty of criticism has been made about what you see on television as potentially faked, but what you have to experience it for real?

Will this show go extreme, like with a particular fun-filled version of the Ghost Walks which take place come Halloween? Or, will we get to laugh at the absurdity of seeing how some scares are manufactured. I will be showing up with a few of the tools most modern day ghost hunters use, so audiences should be aware – a wrench may be thrown in to tell all.

Note: the meeting point for this show is in Bastion Square near the Old Maritime Museum.

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[Victoria Fringe Festival 2017] A Peek into a World Premiere of “Leer”

LEER-Skull

Metro Studio Theatre
1411 Quadra Street
Victoria, BC

The 2017 Victoria Fringe Festival will soon take over this Garden City located on Vancouver Island, and Outpost 31 (Casino Royale, Winnie the Pooh) is back with the world premiere of Leer. David Elendune wrote and directed this tale which looks into the deepest layer of Hell, where Satan is female (played by Wendy Magahay, known for Jocasta Regina and The Old Lady’s Guide to Survival) and has three daughters — Lilith (Ellen Law), Beelzebub (Amber Landry) and Asmodeus (Wendy Cornock) — to tend to. The cast also includes Pan (Caroline Mackenzie) and Belphegor (Leanne Allen).

Magahay explained why she took on the role: “I’m a mother, so I’m used to making scary choices. Because it’s a terrific story and actors can’t resist good stories. Because it’s gender-bent and provides a new and important lens. And sadly, because mad dictators seem never to go out of style!”

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The Little Tears in Captain Underpants, A Movie Review

captain-underpants-new-posterBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

DreamWorks adaptation of Dav Pilkey‘s Captain Underpants, The First Epic Movie is deserving of one half juvenile delinquency at its finest and the other, I don’t get it. The humour can garner giggles to a very select crowd of young boys but for everyone else who are not familiar with the source material, this film is better off skipped.

I admire this studio’s original work and many adaptations because the writing teams often create a well-meaning tale about relationships. Whether that’s between unlikely personalities, family members or brothers in arms, the joy is in seeing how the bond becomes firm. Underpants is a tale about two mischief fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, dealing with elementary school life. They try to brighten up life there because the place feels like it should belong in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and they also fear where their friendship will go if the mean principal, Mr. Krupp, separates them.

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Reading Mokoto Shinkai’s “Your Name” as a Monomyth

Victoria Fringe FestivalBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Plenty of praise and examinations have been given to Makoto Shinkai‘s Your Name since its debut last year. Although this film is essentially a romantic comedy, I was more enamoured with the mythic elements. This filmmaker took the best from other cultural traditions and wrote a Twilight Zone style story which I liked. This movie has an East clashing with the West attitude. It shows when Mitsuha Miyamizu (Mone Kamishiraishi), a young girl from a rural part of Japan, yearns for a life in modern Tokyo and makes the mistake of wishing upon a falling star.

She wanted to shirk cultural traditions and from there, I knew where this film was going. Since classical times, spotting such a fireball was often feared more than regarded as divine intervention. If a prayer is said upon seeing it, just what happens can go any which way. In this film’s case, both are considered!

Comet Tiamat is getting closer to the Earth and it is the raison d’être for how this tale comes together. She’s not always a creation goddess but is also representative of primordial chaos. This chunk of rock and ice could have been given any name, and some viewers may wonder why this Babylonian figure is used? My theory is that this name was chosen to make viewers of this anime aware that this film is a shōjo product through and through. Her essence is everywhere. From the Earth to the Heavens, in the offerings at the shrine and coming visible at twilight, a sense of omnipotence can be felt as she comes closer to Earth affecting the main character, Miyamizu-chan.

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Getting “The Last Word” Out Can Be Tough, A Movie Review

lastword

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Life is not always a bed of roses for three generations of unlikely individuals coming together in The Last Word. Here, this film shows not everyone finds happiness (the lead looks like she has a very lonely life), other folks may well feel stuck in what to do with the rest of their lives because of a dead end job and for the kids, the growing pains are varied. This movie written by Stuart Ross Fink and directed by Mark Pellington explores possible reasons for why some people you meet in life are the way they are.

Octogenarian Harriet Lauler (perfectly played by Shirley MacLaine) is cantankerous and ill-tempered. Just how she survived in a man’s world is because she was willing to burn bridges and fight against the norm (in the 40’s and 50’s) in order to succeed in the business world. Her controlling nature earned her a reputation, and when she realizes she’s at her twilight, something has to change. After reading a death notice in a newspaper, she visits the office and recruits a 20-something writer Anne Sherman (Amanda Seyfried) to pen her obituary. Her job at the newspaper is not a glorious one, but as a droll obit writer, it pays the bills. Lauler wants to be positively remembered and Sherman has her work cut out for her.

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[Victoria Film Festival 2017] Dealing with Karma in The Suffering of Ninko

the-suffering-of-ninko-film-posterBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The trailer for the movie, Suffering of Ninko, is deceptively wonderful. We are presented with what appears to be a comedy about Ninko (Masato Tsujioka), a novice Buddhist monk, whom many a woman wants to cuddle up with. There’s even two male members of his order who show interest, and to see how he struggles to stay celibate is at the heart of this rated R film. Reciting his mantras is easy, but when he is presented with physical challenges, averting his eyes is not. However, there’s more he must face to test his virtue.

The people from Edo-period Japan tends to have a deeper spiritual connection with the world. Whether that’s in the art they produce or their every day life, the supernatural is generally believed to exist everywhere. When rendered to a form either on paper or with a word, there’s a life given to the work. With literature, it gives the narrative a higher meaning. In the full 70minute film, just what this tale means is worth exploring. Is it folklore, a Brothers Grimm type tale or symphonic prose?

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