January 2009 Archives

Another great is gone. John Updike did not just stand as one of America's most important novelists; he was a supreme master of the short story and highly regarded essayist, critic, reviewer and poet. He was an indelible part of the New Yorker over the decades and will be missed there more than anywhere else. He won the Pulitzer twice, both for works in his Rabbit series, four novels and a novella, about the decades long adventures of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom in his mid-American life. In fact, Updike will be remembered as the chronicler of mid-America, small town life and the sexual awakening of mundane suburbia over the '60s and '70s. His novel Witches of Eastwick made a pretty decent film and one of the last books he wrote was the sequel The Widows of Eastwick. Witches, like a lot of his work, contributed to the debate over sexuality in the US and though John Updike sparked controversies along the way his work on that issue will cement him as an icon of modern American literature.

John Updike    March 18, 1932 - January 27, 2009

Journey to the West, better known as Monkey, is one of the great tales of world literature and the Monkey King one of the great heroes of fiction. He's certainly one of the coolest. Being one of a vast many with this belief is largely due to that super-funky '70s TV series Saiyuki, known in English as Monkey, often and affectionately referred to as Monkey Magic! Big in the UK, bigger in Australia than even in Japan, it has maintained and grown a mega-cult following. Really, it's what cult followings should be about.

Monkey has appeared in other forms since that groovy show. One very notable version that I have not seen is a long running Chinese series in the mid-80s called Journey to the West which was very successful in its homeland and garnered praise for being the most loyal of versions.

Not at all a faithful adaptation but one I have a lot of affection for is by Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Released in 1994 as two films, A Chinese Odyssey - Part One: Pandora's Box, Part Two: Cinderella, they quickly became cult classics with Chinese cinemagoers.

The Monkey King doesn't properly appear till the second film, the first being largely slapstick as Stephen Chow's bandit character Joker is caught up in the affairs of demons who have been waiting 500 years for the Monkey King to reappear. Throughout the film we receive clues to what is actually going on, but you need to hold out till the second part for the proper appearance of Monkey as lead character.

For the most part it's a lot of fun, providing you have a taste or tolerance, to the wacky style of Chinese comedy, but when it becomes a full fledged Monkey film it surges with classic Hong Kong operatic bravado. However my affection for A Chinese Odyssey is because of the final act. The last part is not of action or even plot but of character dénouement. Indeed, I can only describe it as The Last Temptation of Monkey and though the whole thing is not faithful to the original texts it made me feel like I had just watched classic Monkey.

That was more than ten years ago, but the Monkey King is making fresh appearances. There's the hugely successful circus opera Monkey: Journey to the West an east/west collaboration with the Gorillaz guys, musician Damon Albarn and artist/illustrator Jamie Hewlett. Planet Blog already talked about this in October last year. But their Monkey seems to be an ongoing project that has since included this cool short film depicting a classic scene from the Monkey story.

The Monkey King also turns up in the Hollywood martial arts epic-let The Forbidden Kingdom. Besides the pleasure of seeing Jackie Chan return to his character of the Drunken Master we have Jet Li in duel roles of the Silent Monk and, yes, the Monkey King himself. Taking into account that this is a Hollywood film with the forced conditions of being so, like an American teen lead, it is still surprisingly better than you'd expect. Indeed, it was not hated in the land that has mastered and creatively owns such cinema.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the fan following brought about the return of Saiyuki, perhaps in the same manor that returned Doctor Who. This 2006 series is a very respectful revisit to the world of the original Monkey series. It tries for the same humour and general characterization, though smart enough to update it for current audience tastes, although, it maintained the tradition of a female in the role of the boy monk. Still, that may not entirely satisfy tastes for the original, but you can't really and shouldn't go back; retro needs revisioning to succeed as retro rather than retread.

I've not seen any of this new series, except brief excerpts like an amusing one where the new Monkey encounters a character played by Masaaki Sakai, the original Goku aka The Monkey King. What I have seen is the movie. After one season and the ratings being not much better than luke-warm, the network and producers decided not to do a second but to go with a theatrical movie. This paid off with a big hit in Japanese cinemas. In Australia, Madman Entertainment was smart enough to pick up the movie, which they titled Monkey Magic and gave it a decent DVD release.

It has a bit of a slow start and suffers just a little for being aimed at an audience taken for granted has followed the series. However, the beginning meanderings can be used to acclimatize oneself as this is so much like the original Monkey, but different enough, that you need to be able to separate yourself from preconceptions to allow this one to breathe on its own. Especially with Monkey himself. Shingo Katori plays the sage rather differently, making him more like a rock star and emphasizing more crude habits. You might also need to get used to the blond monkey fur.

About half way through the film, the point you're likely to have fallen for the charms of modern Monkey, the film takes off, literally. Though adventures abound, the action you were hoping for finally takes off virtually the moment Goku jumps on his flying cloud (though, in this case a large surfing feather). What follows is a great special effect sequence of aerial combat, exactly the sort of thing you'd want from a Monkey show with new film technology. And when they hit the ground we get the martial arts action you expect and it doesn't let up till the classic style climax featuring Takeshi Kaga, aka Chairman Kaga of Iron Chef, as the villainous demon King Golden Horn.

I'm reservedly enthusiastic about Monkey Magic , but thanks largely to the actor playing The Monkey King, I left this film suitably entertained and my affection for Monkey adventures revitalised. Indeed, I hope Madman pick up the series.

Hmm, in fact I have an urge to watch the flying cloud battle all over again.

It is the bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe. This is being celebrated around the world and especially in his home country of the United States. So, there's no need for me to go on rapturously about the significance of this most ominous of ominous writers. At least, not for too long.

He is easily recognized as one of the founding writers of modern horror, but it is all too often overlooked that he is one of the fathers of detective fiction, the psychological thriller and science fiction. And as a poet he was worthy of being a rock star. 

His influence on literature, film, television, theatre, art and culture is immeasurable. He was a pop culture icon before the idea of pop culture was conceived. His inspiration to future generations of artists is inherently

deep and intertwined within so many disciplines that range from doctoral dissertations to children's toys.

Most important to me is not any particularly work or set of works by Poe, but the artistic and narrative mindset that he has established and over more than a century kept entirely and exclusively his. You can pastiche him and tribute him, but the atmosphere of a work of Poe always remains in the ownership of Poe, no matter who put the words down or the images on the screen.

Sure, many people over time did build his reputation. Done so through glorious illustrations by people like Gustave Doré or the series of very successful film adaptations by Roger Corman (even when they weren't always that faithful), the performances of his poems by greats like Vincent Price, Orson Welles and James Earl Jones (yes, I'm referring to that Simpson's episode), volumes of music including the Alan Parsons Project prog-rock album and tribute works like the recent anthology Poe as edited by Ellen Datlow.

But despite all those who did and continue to contribute to his fame and his immortality, if the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe could appear - during a very Poe style séance, I'd like to imagine - to accept an award for his contribution to culture I think Edgar would have every right to say "I have no one else to thank but me, the work is all mine, I did this."

That's enough about Mr Poe. I think to celebrate his birthday it would only be proper to watch a bit of Poe in action. Here's John Astin, best known as Gomez from The Addams Family, which only seems apt, in Poe garb reciting The Raven.

Go on, relax and enjoy

Patrick McGoohan will forever be Danger Man and The Prisoner. After turning down the parts of James Bond (prior to Sean Connery) and Simon Templar (prior to Roger Moore) McGoohan turned John Drake (aka Danger Man, aka Secret Agent) into one of the biggest and coolest TV heroes of sixties television. He did this by creating a character complexly charismatic and deeply intelligent who more often used his wits to get out of a sticky situation than his fists or a gun. And he never kissed on screen, which might partly explain his 58-year marriage.

In 1967 he moved on from Danger Man to a mini-series that he largely developed, acting as executive producer and writing & directing several episodes including the contentious final episodes. The Prisoner is the biggest true cult TV show today and certainly worthy of that mantel. Very original, very clever, thoroughly enigmatic and very playful, the series knew how to use paranoia as a multi-layered narrative tool to develop intrigue, satire, intellectual puzzles and social commentary. And the center and drive, the dynamo heart, was Patrick McGoohan as Number 6. He played a character of sharp wit, fierce intelligence and unbreakable of will. And one couldn't help feel the real Patrick McGoohan was not far underneath the ever-cool Number 6 veneer.

But besides all of Patrick McGoohan's cult accolades, he had a long and illustrious career as an actor on stage, film and television. He left behind a huge and loving family. And that is as a good an epitaph as he could have wished for.

Patrick McGoohan March 19, 1928 - January 13, 2009

On the 10 January 1929, the first in the series of The Adventures of Tintin was published in a Belgian newspaper. That makes Tintin 80 years old. Yes, Tintin, the chipper young journalist and adventurer who got himself in all sorts of intrigue and nasty scrapes has been at it for that long. So too has his ever faithful Snowy, the brave little fox terrier, as also Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and the detectives Thomson and Thompson.

Created by Georges Remi, using the pen name Hergé, he executed a beautifully simplistic but expertly drafted style that had a full understanding of the language of sequential art. The stories themselves, though extensive in all manner of genre and spanning the world and a bit beyond, were a tad formulaic, but this was made up for by intricate detail of history, archaeology, science, culture and politics. Indeed, they had a sophistication you just don't see in usual children comics (though Carl Barks' Scrooge McDuck comics were also an exception).

Hergé created new adventures for Tintin and Snowy right up to his death in 1983 at the age of 75, leaving the last book, the twenty-fourth adventure, almost, but not quite finished. Throughout that time Hergé was influenced by every manner of world change, especially during World War II and the immediate aftermath. Hergé's own life was an adventure in itself and his experiences are woven within Tintin's exploits.

Hergé's career as a graphic novelist was not all-smooth sailing. His political views were scrutinized and criticised from both sides. Tintin was also attacked in later years for racial stereotyping. This resulted in some bannings, forced changes, some

voluntary changes and some or all of the volumes being moved to adult sections of bookshops. Most recently there's been a debate over Tintin's sexual orientation. Why not, I guess?

But regardless of the ups and down, Tintin has become an institution of reprints, retrospectives, apropriations, tributes, stage, film and TV adaptations. It has been merchandised, even industrialised, but somehow it had not lost its integrity, despite some of those controversies previously referred to having some legitimacy, though now largely forgiven in historical contexts. And though the images of Tintin have become iconic, it never presented itself for more than it was, that being the adventures of that enthusiastic mystery solver Tintin.

The Adventures of Tintin deserves to be around today as big as its heritage clearly is.

Hergé deserves this legacy.

We deserve it too.

There was a glorious time when Australian cinema was full of good bad movies and bad good movies, with awesome car stunts, chopsocky, desert vampires, alien invaders, psychos, weirdoes, nymphos, bikers, marsupial werewolves and killer pigs. That was the era of the Ozploitation movie. It was a golden period in the '70s and '80s when Australia was churning out low budget gems usually with a sense of outrageousness whether it was a bawdy comedy or an uberviolent auctioneer.

It's without doubt my favourite period of Australian cinema, not just because I'm cult film inclined but I have a fondness for unrefined commercialism. When you don't have the money you have to become resourceful and stylish. It didn't always work, but it could result in some clever, innovative and hell entertaining flicks. And what is surprisingly common, that sometimes that cleverness, that refreshing kind of entertainment isn't fully recognized to well after the movement is over.

The feature length Not Quite Hollywood documents and celebrates the Ozploitation era. And it is thorough, covering as much as can be crammed in the two hours. It makes sure you don't miss anything. It feels like every bit of exploitation in the Ozploitation cannon is exhibited here. Every bawdy moment, every nude scene by a known actress, every time a body part is cut off, every car crash, every stunt gone wrong, every dirty one-liner, every punch, kick and explosion, everything that gave Ozploitation its identity.

The packaging and arranging of all these bits and pieces is an entertainment in itself. It's a fun film carefully designed to be accessible to anyone who has not seen a single film mentioned. Indeed, I saw it with just such a person and they got quite into it all. I greatly enjoyed the film, but I have to admit I got a buzz from identifying so many great and cheesy movies. However, even if I was chuffed at how many movies I recognised, I was in awe of Quentin Tarantino; the man knows his Aussie action stuff.

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Anyways, here are my five favourite Ozploitation movies. It's not what I think are necessarily the best films or the most representative; this is simply my five personal choices.

Stone (1974)

This is a landmark in Australian cinema and heralded the dark side of the Ozploitation era. It is a semi-real insight into biker culture, its the philosophy and codes. It was a tough film and brave for its day. It has dated but in such a way as to work as a '70s period film. And its exploitative aspects have actually kept it fresh.  Stone is not just a good Australian biker film; it is a good biker film, period.

Mad Max (1979)

One of the most important films to come out of the colony; it established the Australian Car Mythos and then exported it to the world. Hard to believe such a well made film came from so small a budget. Again, audiences reacted to the brutality but it revamped the hero myth and made its indelible mark. Its sequels pushed it into the popular consciousness.

Road Games (1981)

Quite consciously a Hitchcockian road movie - the director Richard Franklin went on to make Psycho 2 - and quite slick overall. Odd to have two American leads but I got over that quick enough as they are both good enough actors to carry the intended transpacific feel. It is the closest Ozploitation got to mainstream.

Running on Empty (1982) / Midnight Spares (1983)

I cheat, here are two movies; I couldn't make up my mind which I like more. Both are suburban car movies trying to create a fantasy mythos around car culture. Both create quirky support characters and set up hero/villain archetypes in a mundane environment. Running on Empty is turning

the drag racing scene from Rebel Without a Cause into a hero fantasy. Midnight Spares is more down to earth as eccentric tow-truck drivers get involved with a car stealing crime ring. Both have big car climaxes, both are little blasts of Aussie cool.

Razorback (1984)

Jaws in the desert, yes, but so what? It might be in essence a big scary pig movie, but made with so much '80s music clip style by Russell Mulcahy that it becomes an uber-cool sight and sound piece. Great soundtrack by Icehouse lead Iva Davies enhanced the whole thing. Is it a good film? Not a relevant question to ask.

On the first of January this year, an obscure gentlemen with a most significant cultural heritage, turned 80. His name is Haruo Nakajima and you'll almost certainly not recognize him by his face or his name as someone famous.

Yet, he played one of the most famous characters of all cinema history. For Haruo Nakajima was Godzilla. Yes, Haruo Nakajima was the guy in the Godzilla suit.

Now, don't you go shrugging off that piece of information. It's no small thing being Godzilla. He didn't happen to be any guy putting on a monster suit. He was carefully chosen for the role and he and the crew regarded it as important as any performance. It took physical strength and stamina to move about and perform in a costume so cumbersome. It was heavy and uncomfortable, it absorbed water easily, and it was incredibly hot. More than once Nakajima fainted from heat exhaustion, falling on city models that needed to be rebuilt so he could demolish them properly.

I did a week's work, six shows a day, in a very professional animal suit, and I can tell you, it was very hard work. Trust me, if you have to ever wear a full body animal costume (bucket Koalas don't count as much) you'll soon have proper respect for rubber-suit professionals. And there is none greater than Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla in 12 films, from 1954 to 1972. He also was Rodan, Varan, Moguera, baby Mothra and King Kong (in King Kong Escapes, 1967), amongst others.

He is the Monster Man. And he is a legend.

Haruo Nakajima, we salute you.

On the first of January, J. D. Salinger, the author of the seminal work The Catcher in the Rye, turned 90. It would not surprise me that some of you had no idea he was still alive. We have heard nothing from him in decades. In fact, his last published work was in 1965 with a novella in The New Yorker. His last interview was in the early '80s. So what happened to J. D. Salinger?

The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 when Salinger was 32. It was published to controversy that followed it even up to the late '80s. But, though it was first infamous it became one of the most famous novels of the 20th Century. It certainly seems to be one of the most important works of American literature. Regardless, though originally intended as an adult novel, it has become the text for disenfranchised youth and kept that mantle over generations. Holden Caulfield, the pro-antagonist of the novel, has become a beacon for teen rebellion.

Over 75 million copies of Catcher in the Rye have been printed and it is a best seller every year without fail. Naturally, that would draw a lot of attention towards Salinger himself, something he did not welcome. He disliked it so much that he withdrew from the public world. What's more, his experiences with the business side of writing discouraged him from the whole publishing scene.

But it did not discourage him from writing. Although many speculations, bordering on myth, have surrounded Salinger as a mystery man, it is known that he has kept writing profusely for half a century. Writing, not for anyone else but himself. And all this writing is only to be published after his death. Apparently, he has files and files of work and it includes at least two novels.

How much there is in its entirety, few know. But you can be sure that when the day comes for all this material to be released (over years, I'm sure) it will be one of the most significant events in literature and publishing for decades to come. Think of all the PhDs that will result from it. How many works of critical analysis? How many discussion groups will form to discuss it?

And whether J. D. Salinger's new works are greeted with love or disdain, there is little doubt it will shake up the literary scene for a mighty long time.

I very much hope it does.

The New Year has begun.

But before we start to look forward, I want to have a glance back. Planet Blog started in September of 2008 and during that time I tried to cover topical, cool and groovy pop cultural moments. Favourites seem to be the ones about The Phantom, The Day of the Dead, Errol Flynn, War of the Worlds, Banksy, Philip K Dick and Bettie Page.

However, I missed some things because they were before the blog began or I just couldn't fit them in. For instance, I would like to have written about the 100th Anniversary of Wind in the Willows, one of the most endearing works of literature.

I would have lamented the passing of Roy Scheider. Amongst all his many films he was best known as Sheriff Brody from Jaws, but with that amazing performance in All That Jazz, he showed he was one of the last great leading man character actors. I'd have acknowledged the great b-movie actress Beverly Garland who had a long, successful career but will be remembered by me for her strong performances in '50s cult classics like Not of This Earth and It Conquered the World.

I would have saluted Arthur C Clarke, his remarkable contribution to science fiction and the bridging of art and science, and of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey. And I would have expressed my regret at the tragic loss of two writers; David Foster Wallace, a master of irony in fiction and non-fiction and his major tome Infinite Jest, and Tom Disch, a significant writer of allegorical literature, satire, essays and poetry. Disch especially deserved a wider audience than he had during his life. I hope both only grow in stature. I'd especially like to see Disch's cult classics Camp Concentration and 334 contunie to garner a receptive audience. His children's book The Brave Little Toaster will forever be a classic.

I would have done a nice spread on the art of Dave Stevens, creator of The Rocketeer and the first major artist to seek to immortalize Bettie Page (his work does appear in the Bettie Page post). I'd have a final salute to Ollie Johnston, the last of the great Disney animators who worked on Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia and Bambi. And I would have done a spectacular showreel of the amazing work by special effects artist Stan Winston. Stan gave us the Predator, the Alien Queen, the Terminator, the Jurassic Park dinosaurs and innumerous effects and creatures ending with the Iron Man suit just before his unexpected death.

I have received some nice feedback (all of it welcome) for the topics and artists covered and the attitude Planet Blog takes, but I have been amused by it being referred to as a bit morbid with its "Death of the Week". I'm afraid that probably won't change while humanity has yet to achieve immortality, but I do try to make my obits works of salutation and celebration of cool dudes and dudettes and to pay tribute to remarkable works of sub-cult-alternate-general pop culture.

Enough looking back, time to look forward, or at least to the here and now; there's plenty to write about, plenty to cover. We've got a whole year a head of us full of neat stories and images.

So, I guess the best thing to do is to get on with it.

Robin Pen