This was one of those late shows where the first act doesn't come on until 10 pm and the last act takes to the stage at 1 am. I gave Slowhand Motem a listen online. Their sampled techno style didn't really appeal to me so I stayed home until about 10:20 pm. Upon arriving around just before Hooded Fang played the set, I noticed that it was a sparser crowd than other shows: maybe about 50-60 people. With a cover of $3, I thought there would be more people.
Hooded Fang gave a typical fun set although some of them missed some cues here and there. Overall, it was a relaxed performance from the 7 members. I'm happy to learn that they have finished recording their debut LP and will be having a CD release in a few weeks.
Steve McKay was the main act at 12 am. He is the drummer for Bruce Peninsula and has put out a solo effort. His back-up band is also composed of 7 members including the drummer from Hooded Fang. They are friends from other musical acts including Allie Hughes and members of Bruce Peninsula. Interestingly, though the crowd still numbered the same, I'd say about half are different people from the previous set. His light indie pop didn't really stick with me. The lyrics sounded interesting but I couldn't really decipher most of it. I gave a pass on his debut CD, though the various arts and crafts items, as well as some baked goods at the merchandise table did tempt me. I headed home at 12:30 because I had an early day tomorrow.
Saturday morning at 8:15 am I headed down to the Varsity to see a TIFF movie. I wanted to see some more cerebral fares including Nostalgia For the Light and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives but they were sold out. I decided to try and get rush tickets for Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen starring Donnie Yen. I guess martial arts film don't appeal to the typical TIFF crowd because I was able to get a ticket right away and the theatre was only 60% full - although Varsity 8 is a rather large theatre.
But instead of some bone-crunching action, it turned out to be a melodrama. A period set in Shanghai in the 1920s, it had beautiful sets, costumes, and classic cars. The sky-line of old-time Shanghai was a shoddy piece of CGI though. Although the actors were competent, it's nothing more than a glorified soap opera. Chen Zhen (Donnie Yen), a role made famous by Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury and reprised by Yen in the 1995 TV series Fist of Fury, returns to Shanghai after working at the front-lines in WWI France with other Chinese labourers. He befriends a mobster and joins in with the Chinese resistance against both the increasingly powerless British and the evil Japanese. The nationalistic rhetoric (e.g., "Jap dogs", "Chinese is not the sick man of Asia", "We Chinese must unite", and so on) got tiresome fast.
Sadly, the fighting was few and far between and suffered from the recent Hollywood style of erratic, close-up action shots usually meant to disguise the poor martial prowess of the actors. I can't believe Donnie Yen and producer Gordon Chan would resort to it in a Hong Kong action film. I can only think of 3 reasons. One, it was stunt heavy and Donnie Yen is not Jackie Chan. Two, his main opponents were not trained in stunt fighting. Third, he had a hard time emulating Bruce Lee's fighting style. Though Yen did throw in a couple of Lee-inspired "Hee-ya" in the final Dojo scene, I thought the jumpy camera shots during his awkward nun-chuk scene illustrated rather clearly why this sleight-of-hand was needed. He needs to stick to his usual brutal, MMA-style technique.
Apparently, this film has been optioned for a North American release in 2011; it will open in Asia in September of this year. I'd be surprised if it doesn't go straight to DVD here.
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