Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Mad Shelia: Chinese take on the themes of Mad Max


It's no secret I was a very big fan of Mad Max: Fury Road even as I've been less than impressed with recent efforts in Hollywood such as the remake of Ghost in the Shell with its techno-orientalism or the constant attempts to make a live-action Akira repositioned in New York. My objection to the latter stems from so much of the power of the Akira narrative being derived from a bold proposition of what the future culture of Japan and Neo-Tokyo would look like, and how the traditional values and subcultures of Japanese society might change in the years ahead. And of course, recent questions from Dr. Strange.

So, that all leads to the very interesting trailer that's just been released for Mad Shelia. From the first looks, it appears to take on the themes and tropes of the Mad Max series and wasteland apocalypse films in general. Will it be successful in its efforts? We might well ask if it will be playing it off for comedy as in Kung Fu Hustle or taking things somewhat more seriously in the tradition of The Heroic Trio?



In any case I remain optimistic, aided in part because I do have a fondness for the low-budget films who are forced to be somewhat more creative with their visual and audio shorthand to create an overall effect that a more polished studio-backed film would have. One might liken it to Deadpool or El Mariachi in that regard.

But in any case, here's the trailer:


Hey, I think I have those goggles.

But back to the subject. It almost makes me wonder if we should get Mattie Do and the team at Sleepy Whippet Films fired up to do our own take from a Lao perspective, roaring down the highway to Savannakhet.  I suppose the result would look like the tuk tuk chase from Ong Bak with more leather, BeerLao and sinh. But I could be wrong. What say you?

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