Tag: Western

The Wind and the Reckoning Highlights a Tragic Moment of Hawaiian History

Ultimately, The Wind and the Reckoning is about this Pi’ilani;s willingness to be with her family till the end.

Tne Wind and the Reckoning Movie PosterDavid L. Cunningham‘s The Wind and the Reckoning, is a frightful reminder of the days of Imperialism. In what he adapted from Ka Moolelo oiaio o Kaluaikoolau (“The True Story of Kaluaikoolau” Amazon link) into a movie is a tale about love, commitment and hate. Thankfully, the former is about a family sticking together, and the latter concerns how America took control of Hawaii. This book has been reprinted many times since its original publication in 1906, and I believe it’s essential reading.

Because nobody back then knew how to treat leprosy, a lot of natives got displaced. Locals were expected to “do what’s right,” and the law would make sure it happened. The inhabitants feared being moved to the remote colony on Moloka’i and many no doubt fled to deeper inland if not to the caves. And in what made me invested is that what occurred there also transpired in various corners of the world too. In Victoria, BC, anyone with this condition, namely the Chinese, were sent to the nearby D’arcy Island, and weren’t given much to help them fend for themselves.

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New Gods Yang Jian Ushers In Chinese New Year

New Gods Yang Jian not only ups the ante in what Light Chaser Animation can do with the animation medium but also update a traditional tale to the science fiction medium.

New Gods Yang JianGKIDS
Playing at Select Theatres Beginning Jan 20
Coming to Digital on April 11 and Home Video April 25th, 2023.

Light Chaser Animation‘s New Gods cinematic universe has another hero, and his name is Yang Jian (voiced by Wang Kai). He’s also known as Erlang Shen, a god with a truth-seeing eye, but in this film it has even greater power which can’t be defined.

Thankfully, no prior knowledge of who he is or the prior film are needed (Nezha Reborn) is on Netflix and my review can be read here), but it’ll help explain the surprise bits found in this tale. In this second film to this franchise, titled New Gods Yang Jian, he gave up his godhood to become a mortal, a bounty hunter, and for much of the tale, he has no regrets over this decision.

Despite everything we know about how the Divine World fell apart, nobody in this new utopia is truly at peace. The introduction talks about an averted civil war, but all is not well. In Penglai, a futuristic neo-feudal tech city located upon a mountaintop, the people live in relative peace. But this home of the gods may well become a target should a boy assemble the pieces of a destructive lamp. The beauty this location represents is just one of many places this film visits. The look of Ancient China juxtaposed with the industrial age looks wonderful. When the adventure moves to the countryside, the landscapes look like they’re straight from a bamboo tapestry. The softer use of colours is not always pronounced, and that helps with giving this movie a better richness than those highly saturated works other CGI films, like Kung Fu Panda, prefer to emphasise.

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News of the World Makes It’s Call on Home Video

I believe this movie is about Kidd’s depression getting the better of him. He’s on the road a lot to hide from what he can’t bear to be around.

News Of The World (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital)
Available to order on Amazon USA

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Universal Studios Entertainment
Spoiler Alert

Sometimes no news is better than fake news in the one subplot featured in Paul Greengrass‘s movie, News of the World. The film is imbued with a subtle reminder of race relations while life in the wild west was hard. The Civil War is over, and people are still trying to figure out what side they are truly with. The collision between the cowboys, indians, and immigrants makes up one layer of this movie adaptation of Paulette Jiles‘ novel of the same name. Another is about the journey of one very lonely individual.

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Confederate veteran of the US Civil War, and after losing this battle, he has no reason to fully live. To make ends meet, he travels from town to town to offer his services as a town crier of sorts. He reads the local paper out aloud in town halls, to deliver the news to those who can’t read. Plus, he hasn’t seen his wife in years. Hanks’ performance makes me wonder if Kidd is kidding himself about his occupation. He sees home as a disease. Johanna (played by Helena Zengel), to whom he has to deliver to her next of kin, proves to be more of a boon than a bane of his life.

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[VFF2018] The Wild West Tale is Redefined with Undertaker’s Son, A Short Film

poster

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Making an effective Western that stands out can be a challenge. All the tropes have been done to death and how can any filmmaker offer a tale that’s new? Foreshadow Film‘s (formerly known as Affolter Entertainment) The Undertaker’s Son is a very impressive work which I believe deserves number one place if I was to say which one of the 2018 Victoria Film Festival‘s BC Shorts Program (which played Weds night) I enjoyed the most.

This piece began as a challenge under the auspices of Vancouver’s Crazy 8’s challenge — to make a film in eight days. Since finishing this project a year ago, this nugget of gold has been making the film festival rounds.

With this tale, young Christopher’s (Darien Provost, The Whispers) anxiety shows when he knows that one day he is to train and be the next in line to continue the family business. In the days of the Wild West, death can be anywhere. Whether that’s a matter of surviving in untamed frontier or the lawlessness that’s around, we hardly learn about those on the sidelines or has the thankless job of burying the dead at Boot Hill. This short film looks at the life of a young lad — who clearly has interest in a girl he meets along the way to the morgue — and also his relationship with his father, Jonathan (Louis Ferreira, Breaking Bad & Stargate Universe).

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Disney’s Latest Look at Lone Ranger

Disney has also included in the featurette the horseback riding accident involving Johnny Depp during shooting.

Go behind the scenes on one of Disney’s latest films The Lone Ranger in a new featurette. In roles originally brought to life on the silver screen by Chief Thundercloud and Lee Powell, Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer continue the legacy as Tonto and the mysterious masked man respectively.

Disney has also included in the featurette the horseback riding accident involving Johnny Depp during shooting.

Directed by Gore Verbinski (Rango) with screenplay by Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott (Shrek) and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), this film will open July 3rd.

Source(s) Movie Clips Coming Soon, Digital Spy,

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