VIDEO REVIEWS

Rip It Up, Issue 243, 1 November 1997, Page 36

VIDEO REVIEWS

DANCING IN THE STREETS (BBC/Roadshow . Video) This is the absolutely fabulous BBC documentary series that screened .on the Horizon regional channels last year. It was a programming crime that this series was not on a Network channel. At the time TVNZ programmers feared putting any intelligent programming on TVI or TV2, so this series and the Southbank Show were confined to the regional channels. Well, now you can buy it on sell-thru video with no advertisements. Vol.l has three shows — Whole Lotta Shakin' ’(rock ‘n’ roll), So You Want to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Dylan, Beatles) and Respect (soul, Motown). V 01.2 has Cross-

roads (blues guitar) and Eight Miles High (psyche-delia). V 01.3 features Hang On To Yourself (glam, Iggy) and No Fun (punk). V 01.4 has Make It Funky (James Brown, funk) and Planet Rock (hip-hop). The excellence of the archival film research and exhaustive collection of interviews is phenomenal. The focus is on the actual music makers, whether writers, producers or innovative musicians. Larry Graham, Sly Stone’s bassist sits with his bass beside the pool and plays a classic line. The doco-makers found the Motown writers such as the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier. Roger McGuinn explains how the Byrds slavishly followed the Beatles from hair, to shoes, to 12 strings. McGuinn like many of the interviewees are willing to honestly cite their derivations and demythologise the making of the popular song. Some have criticised the lack of American hardcore or California rock in this series, but essentially these videos are essays that develop a specific theme to show the evolution of popular music in

a linear sense, linking several decades in one show. My only gripe with this series is that the over-the-top ‘rock star’ style titles bare no relation to the gritty realism of the documentary’s no bullshit story-telling. Dancing in the Street is music journalism at its best. It’s a pity we have not seen more of the BBC docos on the popular music business. Once again the BBC show why the governments DO have a role in owning media. Would a private TV channel fund docomaking to this level of excellence. Not bloody likely! Highly recommended for an entertaining and engrossing wander through four decades of great music. MURRAY CAMMICK

GOD OF GAMBLERS: THE RETURN Director: Wong Jlng Chow Yun Fat, without a doubt the coolest man in Hong Kong cinema, stars in this action flick as the mysterious ‘God Of Gamblers.’ When his pregnant wife is butchered (by representatives of ‘Devil Of Gamblers’ naturally), her dying wish is that he not seek vengeance, gamble, or reveal himself as the G.O.G. for a full year. So, Fat takes a holiday in Korea. Bad move. Surviving bullets and bombs, he ends up on the run with a smartass brat, dodging all manner of bad shit, making daring escapes, and generally being c 001... until he has to play the devil. Fast-moving, farcically funny, and possessing the weird logic that characterises the HK action genre, this film is smarter and more satisfying than the USA take on action comedy, but you miss Chow Yun Fat’s harder, ultraviolent roles of Hard Boiled and The Killer — no one else could fire two revolvers simultaneously with such panache. TROY FERGUSON

BRIAN WILSON I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times Director: Don Was (Siren Entertainment) This doco takes a loving look at Brian Wilson and the music of the Beach Boys. Wilson talks frankly, often playing piano to illustrate points, like what early Beach Boys songs owe to Chuck Berry, his love of the Phil Spector sound, his rivalry with the Beatles, writing ‘Good Vibrations’, and his. studiobound existence that gave birth to Pet Sounds. ■ . The anecdotes of friends and family are informative. We all knew Brian Wilson liked to sit in his sandpit, but one collaborator tells us, Wilson’s dogs liked to shit in the same sandpit. He found out the hard way. Wilson’s daughters recall that when father woke up in the mornings, the sound of the Ronettes 7 would always, blast out from the bedroom stereo. He obviously sought respite in the past to move into the future. Brian Wilson is a troubled and tragic figure, whether from drug abuse, psychiatric instability, or the martyrdom of genius. It is so bizarre and so LA that he lives in the same city as Phil Spector in a similarly reclusive manner. Both men bear the ‘genius’ cross, and both are estranged from the corporate music making machine that also resides in LA. A sad story about making beautiful music. MURRAY CAMMICK ASTRO BOY Volume 1 Creator: Osamu Tezuka. The first three episodes of the slightly off-beat, Japanese children’s cartoon (there’s 30 episodes available on video). A ‘Ministry of Science’ robot engineer loses his nine year old son in a traffic accident, so builds an exact replica of him — except that Astro Boy can fire lasers from his fingers and can fly via jet propulsion in his feet. This madness gets him fired from his job, so he takes the robot on a cruise. Anyway, ‘Dad’ goes missing (never to be seen again), and Astro Boy is tricked into joining a robot circus run by the Chicago mafia, before being rescued by Doctor Elefun. Astro Boy returns home to attend the school run by ‘Daddy Walrus’ — real name Albert, a “part-time detective, judo expert and flower arranger.” Nuts, all of them. Creator Osamu Tezuka: “The opinion is a simple message that follows, ‘love all the creatures. Love everything that has life.” Which means Astro Boy rescues loads of people amidst this array of loons.

TROY FERGUSON