Review: John Candy: I Like Me

The doc made its world premiere at TIFF last month

John Candy was a comedian who resonated with the Gen X crowd, who got laughs at The Second City and SCTV, then Saturday Night Live, and then on the big screen with Splash, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Home Alone and many other comedies.

But he died suddenly in 1994 at the age of 43 and disappeared from people's consciousness.

Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks' son along with Candy's children, Christopher and Jennifer, have made a love letter to him with the documentary John Candy: I Like Me. 

It had its world premiere at TIFF in September and next up was VIFF and when tickets were available I made sure I got one and was not disappointed.

Candy had wanted to play professional football

The film begins at Candy's funeral in Los Angeles in 1994 and goes back in time as Christopher wants to piece together his father's life.

Candy was born on Halloween, 1950, the younger of two brothers. But his father died of a heart attack on Candy's birthday when he turned five.

The family tried to be stoic and celebrated his birthday, but that left Candy confused and didn't know how to process his father's death. He suddenly grew up and felt he had to help look after his mother, a single parent.

In school he had dreams of becoming a football player, but a knee injury prevented him from going any further. He also wanted to enlist in the US Army to fight in the Vietnam War, but was rejected because of his injury.

So he turned to acting and found he flourished in comedy. From there he found his tribe.

A long list of actors and comedians are in the documentary, starting with Bill Murray, who says in his deadpan voice it was impossible to say anything bad about John Candy, and the others include Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Hanks, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Ackroyd, and even Mel Brooks. 

The film shows home video clips of Candy

Candy's training in improv made him a good actor, and Martin attests to this in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Martin realises that Candy is not trying to outdo him, but to play with him in the scene, and many others had similar praises.

He worked best with director John Hughes, who may be best known for making Molly Ringwald a star, but Candy collaborated the most with Hughes. Their families were so close they even took vacations together. 

Perhaps making his life come full circle was in 1991 when he, former hockey star Wayne Gretzky, and later disgraced sports executive Bruce McNall bought the Toronto Argonauts. Candy was involved in the Canadian Football League and used all his energy to promote the team, signing endless autographs and taking pictures with fans to promote his team.

Meanwhile he was desperately trying to look after his health, but directors wanted him to look big, as they created characters with him in mind. His fame also stressed him, leading him to eat, drink and smoke more, all while he was worried about his health (ironically).

He died of a heart attack in his hotel room when he was filming Wagons East in Durango, Mexico.

Christopher and Jennifer have wonderful memories of their dad, and there are many clips of home videos of Candy playing with them; his wife Rose speaks fondly of Candy too and gives context to his early life, along with some childhood friends.

Culkin with Candy in Uncle Buck

These are interspersed with scenes from films and SCTV comedy sketches, which reveal Candy's brilliance.

But also Culkin said Candy was an adult co-star who really cared about him. The now 44-year-old Culkin recalled how he had an overbearing father who was also his manager, and Candy sensed what was going on and would ask Culkin how he was doing, if he was OK.

There's footage of the two of them in rehearsal reading from a script, and viewers can see how Candy was patient with Culkin, treating him like a peer, not a kid. Rose adds he didn't look down on his children, but respected their thoughts and opinions.

John Candy: I Like Me is a comprehensive profile of him, and many in the audience laughed but also shed some tears, missing such a talented actor. It was wonderful to see him on the screen again and to learn more about his back story.

Murray is right -- it's really hard to say anything bad about Candy.

John Candy: I Like Me

Directed by Colin Hanks

113 minutes

Review: Factory

Factory gives a peek inside a Lenovo factory during Covid-19

The Vancouver International Film Festival started on October 2 and right out of the gate I watched a movie on the first day, a documentary from China called Factory (工厂）.

The country is known for its massive factories that churn out everything from cheap plastic goods to furniture, sex dolls to microchips and iPhones.

As trade wars have led to companies moving away from Chinese-made products, China is still considered the best when it comes to manufacturing smartphones, tablets and computers.

Viewers get access into the workers' dormitories

But what happened to these factories in early 2020 when an unknown virus seemed to originate from Wuhan, China and then spread around the world?

Director Hao Zhou focuses on the Lenovo campus in Wuhan during the pandemic and we see the operations manager named MT who is under pressure to figure out how to get workers back into the factory to get products out the door. He copes by smoking a lot.

Factory gives a very real picture of what factory managers need to do to curry favour with government officials in order to jump over bureaucratic hurdles, then rounding up workers, interviewing and training them, and then working them on the line.

It's soul-crushing work, having to work 10-12 hours a day, putting together circuit boards, assembling smartphones, testing them, and not only do it accurately but faster. Faster! Faster! 

In the 148-minute documentary, we also see life from the workers' point of view. One worker claims he is working hard enough, but his superior begs to differ, and they argue it out in front of the human resources staff. Viewers are shown what their dormitories look like, and how it's hard to get enough sleep when half the people are on the night shift, and the others on day.

Director Hao gives a real picture of factory life

One worker admits he feels lonely despite living with five other people -- he doesn't feel like he has anyone he can really talk to.

A round-faced woman wearing makeup explains she used to work in a beauty parlour and now is testing out smartphones before they are packaged. It's not the kind of work she wants to do, but it pays the bills, despite being away from her child and husband.

The younger workers don't like being called migrant workers -- that was their parents' generation. These Gen Z people want more respect and feel they deserve more pay for what they do. They only make a few hundred US dollars a month and wonder how they will ever afford to buy a home.

Meanwhile MT and senior managers are feeling the pressure to keep the company globally afloat, with supply chains in India faltering, while the United States sees its death rates skyrocket from Covid-19 infections. MT's friends wonder why he continues to do this stressful work when he's made enough money to retire. Maybe it gives him status? Financial security? Loyalty? 

Factory is pretty much unflinching picture of life inside a factory. It's quite amazing for the director to not only get this kind of access, but also be able to show many scenes with people swearing and workers being rebellious. There are even scenes addressing mental health issues like bipolar and depression, with one female worker having stomach pain issues and deals with it by cutting herself. How Hao was able to persuade Lenovo to film everything is a feat in itself.

Hopefully after watching this film, viewers will have a greater appreciation for the faceless people who made the smartphones, laptops and tablets they use everyday.

Factory

Directed by Hao Zhou

148 minutes 

Review: Atomic Habits Can Lead to Real Change

This book has clear, incremental ways to change your habits

If you've got some goals and wondering how to achieve them, James Clear has the answer for you -- Atomic Habits, incremental changes to your daily habits that must might help you succeed.

Clear grabs your attention right away by describing a horrific freak accident in high school that almost left him for dead. He had had dreams of becoming a baseball player, but this accident was a massive setback not only physically but academically too.

However, with good habits, from cleaning his room everyday to studying not only got him back on track to be named a top athlete in college, but also win academic honours too.

Clear gives examples of changing his life

He's living proof that small habits can lead to big changes, hence he calls them "atomic habits".

Clear tells another great story about the British cycling team and how they were not very good. But a new coach tried to make incremental improvements of 1 percent here and there, from the bikes to the uniforms to how they were training and strategy that led to British cyclists winning the Tour de France.

Basically Clear explains we have good habits and bad habits, so try to change your bad habits into good ones.

That means trying to make good habits easier to do, and bad ones harder. He gives the example of watching television. If you want to watch less, you can only turn it on if you can name the show you want to watch. Or unplug it so you have to plug it in. Or lock it in a cabinet, or place out of sight so you have to move it to be able to watch it. 

Another interesting point he makes is we make goals such as wanting to lose weight. How do you do that? Clear says we should try to be the person we want to be. If we want to lose weight we should start to think about how a healthy person thinks. Does a healthy person eat chocolate? Maybe you should put in extra steps instead, or eat an apple.

To build more good habits, stack them with ones you already have. For example, once you wake up in the morning, make your bed and then take a shower. Other possible good habits to add on are, if you see a set of stairs, climb them instead of taking the elevator, or if you want to buy something over $100, wait 24 hours before buying it.

In order to increase the chances of changing or improving your habits is to change your environment so that you will have a higher chance of doing them. He says if you want to draw more, put pencils, pens and paper on your desk, or to exercise more, have your workout clothes set out to change into, and to eat healthier, chop up vegetables and fruits and put them in containers so you won't turn to junk food.

Starting something may seem daunting to people, and Clear suggests the two-minute rule or at least opening a book and reading a page or working out for five minutes; in this way you have shown up which is a big part of starting good habits.

He also writes about a young man who became very successful in sales very quickly. How did he do that? He had two jars on his desk, one filled with 120 paper clips. Each time he finished a sales call, he would put one paper clip in the empty jar and so on until all 120 paper clips were in the second jar. It was a physical reminder of how much he had accomplished in one day. That's why things like journals can help people keep track of what they have eaten or done.

Atomic Habits is very easy to read with clear relatable examples that make you think there are some small ways you can improve yourself in all aspects of your life.

I borrowed the book from the library, but had to wait a while as there were over 90 people ahead of me wanting to read Atomic Habits too!

Laufey in Vancouver in A Matter of Time

Laufey has so many fans in Vancouver they filled an arena

Last night I went to watch the artist Laufey perform in concert live at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. This multi-talented half Chinese, half Icelandic singer, songwriter, cellist, pianist and guitarist knows no bounds.

She has literally had a stratospheric rise in the last few years after she started filming herself while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston when the Covid-19 pandemic began. She played her cello, and sang jazz numbers which caught my attention. Her fashion sense is "very demure", mostly covered up, long gathered skirts, lace blouses, and flats, the opposite of the stereotypical female singer who reveals a lot of skin.

Fans wearing bows and crowns

I missed Laufey when she performed in Vancouver at the Orpheum Theatre about a year ago, so when she announced her A Matter of Time tour with a Vancouver date, I was compelled to buy a ticket, which was not cheap -- $180 and that was the early bird price too, sitting in the lower level but at the back.

In the afternoon I passed by Rogers Arena on the way to watch a documentary in the Vancouver Film Festival, I saw crowds of people already gathering outside the venue. They were super early for the concert!

After 5pm I got a quick bite of beef pho at the food court in the shopping mall and did a quick five-minute visit to the Michelin event before heading to Rogers Arena. And there were a lot of fans, mostly girls dressed in Laufey-esque outfits, skirts, ankle socks, flats, big bows in their hair, or crowns; at every concert a super fan is chosen for their outfit and is given a Laufey crown by Mei Mei, her giant bunny.

The opening act was the antithesis of Laufey, Suki Waterhouse, a model, actress and singer who wore basically black lacy lingerie with lacy pants so her form fitting shorts were showing through. A fan blew her hair constantly on stage to give her a sultry look.

After about 45 minutes her set ended and the stage was set for Laufey. The wave went around the arena several times which was fun. 

Finally when the lights dimmed people screamed and the show started off with an intro much like a musical. Laufey appeared in a white spaghetti strap dress with a billowing full skirt.

Here's the set list:

This giant arena was almost all filled last nighte

Act I

• “Clockwork”
• “Lover Girl” (extended outro)
• “Dreamer”
• “Falling Behind” (extended outro)
• “Silver Lining”
• “Bored”
• “Too Little, Too Late” (extended outro; contains elements of "Bewitched")

Act II

• “Seems Like Old Times” (Carmen Lombardo cover)
• “Valentine” (Jazz version)
• “Fragile” (Jazz version)
• “While You Were Sleeping” (Jazz version; shortened)
• “Let You Break My Heart Again”

• 

  The sets were creative and elaborate

  Act III

  • “Carousel” (Live debut)
  • “Forget-Me-Not”
  • “Cuckoo Ballet” (Interlude)

  Act IV

• “Mr. Eclectic”
• “Castle in Hollywood” (extended outro)
• “Promise” (extended intro)
• “Goddess”
• “Tough Luck”
• “Snow White”
• "From the Start" (extended outro)

She removed the billowy skirt to reveal a fringy dress, sang a few jazz numbers in her own "jazz club" in the centre mini stage, and played the piano and guitar a few times, and an interlude on her cello. 

The screens showing Laufey were helpful!

During her costume change, a pre-recorded video of her showed a "backstage" back and forth with Laufey and her sister Junia who is her stylist that was quite amusing. Laufey changed into several outfits, including Snow White that got everyone excited, and it was a song she sang towards the end of the show.

One extra song was inspired by Vancouver's rainy weather, and she sang Misty while playing the piano.

Laufey is one talented young woman, and authentic in what she says. At the end she sang From the Start, as a song to inspire everyone in the audience to chase their dreams, because she did, and now she's filling arenas around the world!

Vancouver's Two New Michelin Stars

Chef Lee of Sushi Hyun with one star

The 2025 Michelin Guide awarded two new Japanese restaurants a star each -- Sumibiyaki Arashi and Sushi Hyun, making it 12 Michelin-starred places in Vancouver.

The last two years have also seen Japanese restaurants win stars: last year was Sushi Masuda and the year before Okeya Kyujiro.

Sumibiyaki Arashi has a star

In a way Japanese restaurants tick the boxes for Michelin, with impeccable service and food, fresh produce and exquisite presentation. The price tag is stratospheric though, starting at $200 per person!

Will Vancouver have two Michelin-starred restaurants? Highly doubt this, but the excitement around Michelin has definitely brought foodies to Vancouver. This helps when a lot of locals aren't dining out as much because they can't afford to...

Remembering Jane Goodall

Goodall was fascinated with animals at a very young age

This morning we heard the sad news that primatologist and passionate advocate for animals Jane Goodall died in Los Angeles. She was 91 years old.

My memory of her dates back to 2007 when she visited Beijing as founder of the Roots and Shoots program, where Goodall inspired the next generation to care about the environment where they live through local conservation projects.

This was my blog post on November 18, 2007 when Goodall was 73 years old:

In her youth she dreamed of going to Africa

Dr Jane Goodall has arrived in Beijing for a week-long visit to China.

Known for her ground-breaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania, Goodall now travels the world some 300 days a year, spreading the word about environmental and animal conservation.

And she specifically focuses her message on young people, which led to the establishment of Roots & Shoots, an education program in 1991. There are now more than 800 of them in 98 countries, with over 300 R&S in China.

Some of these groups, ranging from elementary, secondary and university students came from Shanghai, Dalian and Tianjin as well as Beijing to show Goodall their environmental projects.

They ranged from planting trees in Inner Mongolia, to conserving rain water, feeding bears in a zoo with a pinata filled with fruit, and making crafts out of aluminum cans.

The famous scientist was dressed warmly in a large red coat and her silvery hair tied back loosely in a clip. When she arrived at Beijing City International School Goodall received applause from the students and they practically mobbed her, trying to take pictures and getting her to autograph pieces of paper.

She handled the attention quite well, and visited each of the booths and praised the students for their work.

The event then moved to the theatre where she gave a speech encouraging the audience to continue their conservation efforts as they are the next generation.

She said they were like roots and shoots, like the name of her program, growing and taking root and then breaking through tough barriers to grow.

She studied chimpanzees for decades

Then she told a story about a chimpanzee who was taken from his mother when she was shot dead. He was nicknamed "Old Man" after enduring 15 years of tests scientists conducted on him.

He was left to retire in a zoo on an island with three other female chimpanzees. A zoo keeper called Mark was to look after them but was warned not to get too close because they didn't like humans.

So he fed them by throwing food at them. He later noticed they got excited and hugged each other when he rowed the boat towards them. So Mark gradually brought his boat closer and closer to them until he could hand a banana to the Old Man.

He then stepped onto the island and nothing happened to him. Later on, he and Old Man made physical contact, grooming each other.

Old Man even had a baby chimpanzee with one of the females.

One day Mark was on the island but he tripped and fell on his face near the baby. The mother was horrified and came to rescue it, but not before biting Mark on the neck, thinking he wanted to harm her child. The other females followed her lead, also biting him on the leg and arm.

When Old Man came, Mark thought the chimpanzee would surely kill him. Instead the animal pushed the three females away so that the zoo keeper could get off the island and row back to safety.

Goodall said that if a chimpanzee, after all the years he was treated badly by humans, could bridge the gap and look after a man, we humans who are even more intelligent, should do the same, if not better.

It was a message that resonated with the audience and hopefully that will spur them on to continue their green efforts.

Goodall taught us to care for our community

But the fight for funding, especially non-profit organizations in China is tough. Only foreign companies step up to the plate and make contributions as there's no such thing as tax breaks for charitable donations. Non-profits do get some donations in kind by local companies, but those are few and far between.

The Chinese government is looking at creating a charity law. But this needs to be established soon, otherwise the momentum for non-profits like Goodall's will quickly fade when in fact they're making a huge impression on young people who are eager to make a difference. 

Rereading her story about Old Man, I can already imagine her talking about it in her soft voice that left everyone rapt with attention. 

A few weeks ago she was interviewed on CBC Radio and the host asked her how to have hope in the world when there's so much destruction, war, climate change, and so on.

Goodall replied that one can start by caring about their own community, finding something they want to save or conserve, and looking for others to help out.

When she was young she intently observed what animals, and in her case, chimpanzees did, and from watching them, she gave the rest of us more insight into their lives.

What she was doing was in a way mindfulness, being in the present and focusing on what was happening around her.

I've read she was most comfortable being with animals -- and actually her favourite is not chimpanzees but dogs for their unconditional love.

We are so lucky to have had Goodall in our lives, to remind us to look after the animals and environment around us, and that every little bit of care for them helps not only them, but us do better. We all have the capacity to help, love, nurture and care.

Cooking the Classic Stir Fried Tomato and Egg

Many Chinese kids learn to cook stir fried egg and tomato

A classic Chinese homestyle dish is stir fried egg and tomato and I'm getting the hang of making it. 

It's one of the first things Chinese kids learn how to cook, but I'm learning how to make it decades older!

Cooking the tomato first in the wok

Nevertheless, it's a dish young and old like -- the savoury-sweetness from the tomatoes combined with the silkiness of the eggs make it kind of saucy so it must be eaten with rice or noodles.  It's a bright colourful dish, and for the elderly it's easy to eat and has a good amount of protein.

A few days ago I walked by a neighbour's house where they have a cardboard box out and put extra veggies in there and this time there were some tomatoes! I picked two and brought them home where they ripened a bit more.

Tonight we made stir fried egg and tomato, first by heating up some water in a pot and then scoring the bottom of the tomato and removing the core. When the water was boiling, we put the tomatoes in for about a minute or two before taking them out, running them under cold water and peeling the skin.

We then sliced up the tomatoes and heated up the wok. We added oil and when it was hot, put the sliced tomatoes in and then chopped them up a bit more with the wok spatula and added a dash of maple syrup (or sugar). 

Picked up some juicy tomatoes!

In the meantime we cracked four eggs and mixed them together, adding a pinch of salt to the mixture. Then we added the eggs to the wok, and used the spatula to stir the mixture periodically to let the eggs cook a bit until it was incorporated with the tomato, but still a bit runny thanks to the tomato liquid.

The end result was fantastic, as the homegrown tomatoes were sweeter than the ones you usually find in the supermarket, and I had a better handle on cooking the eggs.

Delish!