Asian Cinema Review - ZOMEDY EDITION

TOKYO ZOMBIE


I love Asian Cinema, and for overall weirdness, gore, perversion and dark humor, the Japanese win every time. They're constantly outdoing not just every other country in pulpy cinematic respect, but also top themselves every other year.

Take for example TOKYO ZOMBIE from 2005. Now, I'm not much for the Japanese Horror films such as Ringu and the like, or really horror films at all, but zombie movies sort of transcend the horror genre. They tend to skirt satire on a good day and drama when well executed. And then sometimes, they are really funny.

Now, Shaun of the Dead had been released just the year before, so perhaps this low-budget movie was a direct response to that work of pure horror-comedy genius that Edgar Wright put together. And Tokyo Zombie is funny. I laughed out loud quite a few times at some really unexpected physical comedy and dark gags. Even when something is more heavy handed, if done with proper timing and direction, it could be borderline genius.

This movie isn't genius though. The first half is quite great. Two slackers that work at a fire extinguisher refilling station, who'd rather practice jujitsu rather than work, accidentally kill their boss. Well, maybe not so accidentally, but definitely surprisingly, for the viewer that is. Then they drive up to 'Black Fuji', the name of the giant black mountain of trash that has accumulated outside of town, where people bury all sorts of refuse, from refrigerators to porn to annoying in-laws and dead schoolboys.

Yeah, that's right, this is Japanese after all, so the perv-factor is quite high, but really only for the first 10 minutes or so. After we see people tossing away all this garbage, dumping bodies, well it all goes to Hell quite fast. The dead start rising from the black earth and head on down into town. The situation goes right to full on zombie infestation without skipping a beat. And the main characters just sort of roll with it with their poker-faces on. After all, they do know jujitsu.

So the first half becomes this sort of road movie where these friends bond, dealing with mortality, hypochondria, ineptitude, and lots of slapstick. Then they rescue a girl and suddenly the movie completely changes everything about itself. As we ride an animated segment into crazytown zombieville, we jump five years into the future where the rich have built themselves a protected pyramid of lush living, where they entertain themselves by having slaves (survivors they kidnap) fight zombies in a gladiatorial arena.

Yeah, I know. So then it becomes a matter of younger fighter having to defeat his former friend/mentor in order to overcome the self-imposed limitations he had. Seems fighting someone who's not a zombie isn't so easy though, so the whole thing falls apart. If this all sounds a bit messy and vague it's only because I would have to write a whole book to explain the bizarre twists and turns the second half of this movie takes.

So it is very flawed, but it's also worth a watch for the first half alone. The second half has its moments and is fun to watch just because it seems like someone changed scripts halfway through, switching from Shaun of the Dead to Gladiator. There's so many funny moments and the actors are really quite good in this quite low-budget horror comedy. But where Shaun of the Dead brilliantly walks the fine line of actual horror movie and comedy, this flick is pure comedy (with maybe a dash of drama).

But there are other foreign zombie movies out there to check out that I HIGHLY recommend.

REC (Spain, 2007)

This is my favorite horror movie of all time. A masterpiece of low-budget first person perspective horror that's very well acted and has great twists and turns that really keep the anxiety up and the ending is just...well, go watch it. AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT WATCH THE AMERICAN REMAKE 'QUARANTINE'. Not even the trailer. Don't. Do. It.


DEAD SNOW (Norway, 2009)

This is another movie that really skirts the line of various genres. It's a drama, of sorts, then a bizarre sort of comedy, and finally, a full on genre flick with at least one direct shout out to Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' movies. Oh, and did I mention, ZOMBIE NAZIS! Yes, that's right. Watch it. You may need two viewings, I know I did.


UNDEAD (Australia, 2003)

I didn't love this movie, but I know a lot of people that do. I think I need to watch it again. It has moments of genius, that I do recall. And the ending is really quite striking and powerful. I remember a lot of the incidental moments rather than the actual plot, but it really is worth a watch.

Walking Dead Episode #1 recap

The Walking Dead, AMC's new original show kicked off last night on Halloween. What better way for the channel to venture forth into the world of survival horror than on the sppokiest day of the year.

We start of the show with our hero Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) looking for gas at a gas station. We get the sense that something's not right from the abandoned cars and the decaying corpses in said cars. But suddenly he hears a shuffling footstep and sees bunny slippers and a teddy bear.

Too bad this little girl he tries to save is a full fledged brain snacking zombie which he promptly puts down with a bullet. Thus, our scene is set. Cut to the intro of spooky photo montages of empty lots and scenes. 

After that we shoot back a bit and see Rick, a Sheriff and his partner Shane, kicking back in their patrol car talking about the differences between men and women, perhaps the great dividing line in humanity (before the living and the dead). We also get a hint of Rick's marriage problems, including opening up to his wife, and his inability to understand his woman.

Suddenly, they need to intercept a runaway criminal in a hot rod, and so, set up a speed trap. As the car crashes and flips excessively into the field, leading towards a shootout, and although our hero Rick gets hit in the vest with a round, it's only after his partner makes sure he's okay, that another of the criminals tags Rick from behind.

A trippy scene of his partner talking to him at his hospital bed leads right into Rick, still wounded in his bed and everything is dead. The flowers on his nightstand, the clock on his wall, the medical equipment he's hooked up to. Stumbling through the hospital he realizes that the entire hospital is dead.

Literally. There's a door he comes upon stating 'DEAD INSIDE, DON'T OPEN', which dead fingers attempt to pry their way out of. There's corpses littering the parking lot, discarded military vehicles everywhere, and not a living soul in sight. And so, he wanders off towards home. Before he can get a good distance he come across his first zombie, a half a corpse that crawls across the grass.

When he gets home, he finds it empty, his wife, Lori, and child, Carl, missing, and kudos to Lincoln on his performance here of a man trying to come to terms with this new nightmare his life has become. He does a great job a playing a man fully in shock. And so in shock is he that he doesn't realize the man shuffling down the street is a zombie, or that the kid coming up behind him is going to smash him in the face with a shovel.

And so, Rick meets his first survivors. Lam and his son, Dwayne, who take him in and tell him the basics of zombie survival. The dead walk, they're drawn to noise, and above all, don't get bitten. They're held up in a neighbor's house, seeking refuge from the shambling zombies that set off car alarms in the street.

When spying on the dead, we get a hint at the backstory of Lam and his son, who's wife/mother is now among the brainsucking dead. The next morning the living make a quick trip out to the front yard to kill a zombie, a brutal baseball bat to the head that leaves Rick a bit sick. Once inside his own home again we get exposition that proves that his wife and child left their home as living beings.

So off to the Sheriff's office, for a quick hot shower (oh how the little things mean so much), to stock up on guns and ammo, and set off in search of Rick's family, who may be in Atlanta, where refugees were all heading before things got really bad.

Lam and Dwayne head off back to the home they were holed up in, Lam trying to finally put his zombified wife out of her misery, yet finding he can't. Rick, meanwhile, heads back to the park to find the half a corpse he first ran into, in order to end its suffering. Each zombie death really resonates in this episode, and none more so than this. Rick weeps as he destroys this creature that was once human.

Once back on his own, Rick drives out to Atlanta, and we get a glimpse of a camp outside the city where survivors are, including his partner Shane and Rick's wife and kid, who we find out are together on the sly. It's about as cringe worthy as any death scene, even if we haven't seen Rick and her together yet.

Rick trades his patrol car for a horse (presumably after he can't find gas in the intro), and heads into the city where he stumbles upon a dead end (aka a city block chock full of the walking dead), and takes refuge in an empty tank while the dead feast on the poor horse.

After taking out an undead soldier inside, and shell-shocking himself with the noise of a point blank gunshot inside a tank, Rick eventually hears a voice over the radio which taunts him, mocking him for so carelessly wandering into the city.

Who is this survivor, how does he know what's going on, and does he know about Rick's wife and kid? If Rick keeps his wits about him (and his brains intact) perhaps he'll find out.

One Hit Wonder review

In our celebrity saturated society even those thought long forgotten, idols from our youth who glimmered for just a summer, leaving us with a singular hit song that resonated in the public sending ripples through the pop culture pool, even they become relevant and interesting once more.

In Carillo's new book One Hit Wonder, we follow Mickey DeFalco, a Queens native who hit it big with his sappy yet melancholy ballad 'Sweet Days' as he returns home an utter failure and total has-been. In his shoes we feel what it's like to be loved and adored for that one contribution to people's lives.

An aging fan hooking up with her teenage fantasy. Bitter former classmates still toiling at menial jobs at home. The girl that was loved and lost, inspiring those epic refrains. These are the people around Mickey that marvel at his achievement and fall from grace. They hold him at a distance, as something other than themselves.

Through flashbacks we're shown even more moments of awkward celebrity. From playing a cruise ship to kids birthday parties, no indignity is spared, and Mickey just casually walks his way through each of them, only passionate and excitable when clinging to his last shreds of dignity.

There's something to Mickey's boy-like demeanor and passive aggressive nature that really shines in the prose. This feels like a real person who could neatly slide into our pop song past. His parents are peppered with sentimental details that make them so true to life. You can see their past as Mickey grew up in their home.

The whole book is littered with truths. About life, love, family. Just lines tossed out here and there that feel like universal truths, spit out by a wiseass Queens kid in a 38 year old's body. The concept of hitting bottom and trying to resurface, flailing about in inconsistency of actions, taking the easy route when available, this is how people behave.

And then there's lost love. Idyllic in memory, which taints all reality about him, making it all a joke, another tragedy heaped upon the pile. How do you react when all you want is the girl, but instead are given fame and fortune? You self-destruct of course. Spiral to the bottom and find yourself again.

The book is very well written and consistent in its tone, with more than a few twists and turns that feel like the randomness of life, rather than the structure of plot. Not to give spoilers, but there is a happy ending there, but it may not exactly come as you'd think it would.

I have yet to read Carillo's other novels, but from this book I imagine he's got more than just this one song to offer.

The Plan

The Production Company

TenTonStudios
Ten categories of entertainment media

Ten artist teams on ten panel stories
TenTonTenthology

Matt LaRock
Lee Estes

The foundation of TenTon

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Organize projects

Marvel Pitches
DC Pitches
Indie Pitches
TV Show (spinoff)
Video Games
Novel
Screenplay
Feature
Animation
Zine/Blog/Short Stories/Poems

Develop an idea for each.

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Get one page of coloring & one of lettering done a night.

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TenTon Order

St.Pierre
Brown
Baroody
Pham
Burnham
Kuder

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Concept
Digital/Print
Flash?
Music
Individualization
PDF, CBZ

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Relationships

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Puts the Emo in dEMOcracy

Broadway has seen its fair share of offbeat musicals in recent years, but The Public Theatre's emo rock opera about controversial president Andrew Jackson seems like a combo that's just to weird to work.

Taking the life story of the president that is responsible for the Trail of Tears which caused the deaths of numerous Native Americans, and fusing it with rockstar celebrity, it just somehow makes sense in today's day and age, making history more accessible by re-enacting it through modern tropes.

However, I was a poor history student so I really have no idea whether what I was hearing and seeing was even remotely accurate, but it sparked in me a desire to find out the true story behind the "American Hitler" that's also considered one of our greatest presidents "who put the Man in Manifest Destiny".

The show is playing at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, where the stage is small but even with a drum kit and piano set up, the cast makes good use of the space. The entire theatre is done up like a Wild West saloon with empty beer cans, animals stuffed and surrounding the stage, with an overall rockabilly flair. With parts of the cast coming out and playing instruments, it was a full blown band performance.

But this is where the show falters. The songs are not strong enough to stick in your head, leaving you unable to remember any individual song or lyrics. The singing falls a bit flat, never producing the power of Broadway vocals that gives you the chills. The music itself is really good, but the song compositions often break it up too much to really get into.

That said, the theatrical performances of the cast were amazing. Each member had great comedic timing and the supporting cast transformed itself with each change of scene, going from Southern Rednecks to Washington Aritocrats flawlessly. Benjamin Walker as Andrew Jackson was thoroughly charismatic, Maria Elena Ramirez felt like a poor casting choice as his wife, but it was Jeff Hiller as backup characters who stold every scene.

So all in all, it was a darn good time and had me laughing throughout, and even though the music I found lacking, it was refreshing to see something a bit more rock'n'roll in the form of a very un-PC, historical satire. Dare I say, it was a bloody good time.

Pryzmalite Massacre

Band Performance
Backstage Breakdown
Jen Solo

Dive Bar
Drummer Death
Stalker Setup

Jam Session
Bassist Stabbing
Hiding Out

Central Park
Heart to Heart
Guitarist Slashing

Agent Action
Manager Reveal
Killer Paparazzi

Superhero Script Ideas

Here's the basis for the superhero story that came out of thinking of something more lighthearted. It's my take on an un-ironic Kick-Ass. Not sure about it, still working out the narration, but it'll be about making friends and happy stuff. Let me know if you think tone-wise and interest-wise it'll work. Otherwise I was maybe thinking the Bob Awesome story would be a good choice for your style and be fun enough for the book. If you're still free...

Hope you guys had a good Labor Day!

K

Young superhero
Anti-Kickass
Inspirational
Non-ironic
Actual super moral ideal
Love story?

Page 1
Origin
Hyper Maximum
Sugar & cartoons

Panel 1
Young kid watching cartoons and eating cereal, repeated three times across the top. (Maybe a bit older each time, or at least in different sci-fi outfits, cowboy to spaceman to pulp-hero?)

HM: (NARRATION) ONE FATEFUL SUMMER AT OUR NEW HOUSE...

MOM: (Off Panel) MAX, DON'T SIT THERE ALL DAY WATCHING CARTOONS.

HM: (N) A YOUNG BOY WHO HAD SEEN TOO MANY SUPERHERO CARTOONS AND HAD WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR...

MOM: (OP) YOU'VE GOTTA GET OUT THERE AND MAKE FRIENDS.

Panel 2
Max running out the front door, blurs into Hyper Maximum in costume.

HM: (N) WAS FORCED OUT INTO THE SUMMER DAY...

MOM: (OP) GET OUT THERE RIGHT NOW YOUNG MAN! ENJOY YOUR YOUTH/SUMMER BEFORE IT'S OVER!

HM: (N) WHERE HE BECAME...

(Title-logo) HYPER-MAXIMUM!

Panel 3
Snatches a cat from the street before a car hits it.

HM: (N) PROTECTOR OF THE STREETS.

Panel 4
Chasing off bullies from a dorky kid.

HM: DEFENDER OF THE WEAK.

Panel 5
Diving and catching a girl falling from a tree.

HM: (N) SAVIOR TO THE MEEK.

Panel 6
Close up. They smile at each other.

HM: (N) IT WAS MY DESTINY TO HELP THOSE I COULD.

HM: (N) THERE WASN'T MUCH ROOM FOR THAT SUMMER FOR...FRIENDS.

Page 2
Partner
Ultimate Extreme
Wrestling & spray paint

Panel 1
The dorky kid from page 1 is now dressed up in a neon costume, raging and yelling as he runs along a picnic table in a backyard.

HM: (N) ONE DAY I SAW THAT MY PRESENCE HAD INSPIRED ANOTHER.

Panel 2
Jumping off and tackling three kids to the ground. HM in the background, high above in his tree house watching.

HM: (N) COULD THIS WARRIOR BE A PARTNER IN MY MISSION?

Panel 3
The duo chasing a bike thief who's speeding towards us. Maybe HM is hanging on the back of the bike as UE grapples the kid.

HM: (N) SURE ENOUGH WE TEAMED UP AND BATTLED TWICE THE THREATS I COULD ALONE.

Panel 4
Eating candy sitting atop the playground. A giant rocket. Outside the window is the girl from page 1.

HM: (N)

Panel 5
Close up on the porthole on the rocket that shows the girl out on the playground.

HM: (N)

Page 3
Panel 1
UE yelling at HM. Wrestling near the edge, UE pushing HM closer.

UE: YOU'RE SO RETARDED!

HM: GET OFF!

Panel 2
Fall out of the rocket and hit ground.

Panel 3
HM hurt, UE storms off as the girl comes up to help.

Panel 4
HM takes off his mask, bleeding a bit from the nose, looks up at us (The Girl) smiling.

Page 4
Conflict
UE vs HM

Panel 1
UE all dark and sinister watches as HM (out of costume) walks around with the Girl.

Panel 2
Ice Cream Truck, he peers from broken slat in fence.

Panel 3
Swimming pool, he hides beneath umbrella as Max dives off and Girl waves.

Panel 4
Max & Girl holding hands, walking towards us, UE in the background, a bit more exposed with a darker costume, riding a skateboard speeding up behind them.

Page 5
Villain
UE returns evil
Splash page

Panel 1 (Main Image top left)
UE dives off skateboard lunging in mid-air towards Max who has turned preparing for attack. Girl is in shock.

Panel 2-6 (all surrounding the main shot)
UE beats up Max.
Roll on the ground.
Punch to stomach.
Kick in the butt.
Pushes him back down to sidewalk

Page 6
Fight
Battle

Panel 1
Girl swoops in, her own costume on. (Flower Girl?).

Panel 2
Gets UE on the defense, Max in background taking costume from backpack.

Panel 3
UE bracing from Girl's attack.

Panel 4
UE cocks his fist back, about to punch Girl.

Panel 5
HM clocks him good with FG.

Page 7
Resolution
Team up

Panel 1
UE is stripped of part of his costume as he shouts from the back patio, the back door sliding closed as he yells.

Panel 2
HM & FG stand atop the tree house.

Panel 3
They look at each other smiling.

Panel 4
Close up on them holding hands.

HM: (N)