The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003)

Waste of time

hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Just saw this film at the 2006 Pacific Rim Film Festival in Santa Cruz, CA, which at this writing has a couple more days to run. Its easily the most captivating offering so far, and structurally one of the most creative.Filmmaker/director/writer/animator Anne Marie Miller, a great-granddaughter of the subject Long Tack Sam, used her abundant skills and industry contacts to craft a deeply moving portrait of her once-famous vagabond Chinese ancestor, his Austrian wife, and their three children. It shows a family who made the bulk of their living from an international vaudeville circuit, but who were kept on the move as much by international events spanning both World Wars as by their own pleasure in traveling the world. One of the fascinating relics of their lives seems to be a tendency in their descendants to continue to spread far and wide. Indeed, its this mostly-unknown treasure trove of aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and old acquaintances in multiple countries who ultimately provide as much material in collective form as the various museums and associations of magicians Miller also consults.Long Tack Sam and his magical-acrobatic revue are just one example of entertainers who were very famous in their day, but who somehow have fallen through the cracks of history, even within their own family. Like the estimated 90% of all silent films lost to time and decay, what remains is the more interesting for the glimpse it provides into the early and middle last century. And Sam's story is yet another grand edition to the immigrant history of the U.S. and Canada.The only negative to all this is the fact no studio has picked this film up for distribution. Its a crime its not on DVD, and a worse one that its not been shown on PBS, nor, apparently, is PBS interested, according to the filmmaker. What the thinking is behind that decision is simply beyond me. Considering that PBS found the peculiar, disturbing, and emotionally distant documentary on the "art" of Henry Darger worth airing at least once, their lack of interest in "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" is puzzling.Bottom line: keep an eye on your local film festival circuit, if you're lucky enough to live where one is held. This is a movie worth seeking out.

Documentaries are supposed to be recitations of fact, stripped of emotion and bias. Thankfully, the "Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" is a reverential and emotional examination of a fascinating man by a great-granddaughter who never knew him. This is a long-distance story of familial love; it doggedly transcends the mists of time that all too often obscure the life stories of the average man even from his own descendants.Long Tack Sam, as he was known, should have ended up as the most obscure of the obscure -- a Chinese youth in a land riven with conflict, poverty and turmoil. But owing to his talent, drive, courage and a consuming entrepreneurial spirit, he became a world-renowned entertainer, parlaying the ancient Chinese acrobatic tradition into a magic act that toured the world.Anne Marie Fleming reveals the history of an unusual family that, to her surprise, seems to have forgotten the great-grandfather they knew but she did not. She finds physical traces of Sam's legacy stored in museums around North America and in a cedar chest in Hawaii. One such artifact is a beautiful silk backdrop from his vaudeville days.She also locates the spiritual remnants of her great grandfather in the memories of old magicians, vaudevillians and even a film clip paen to Sam delivered by none other than Hollywood's most famous prestidigitator, Orson Welles. With more irony than sadness, she notes that Sam is forgotten not only in Europe and America where he so frequently toured, but in China as well, noting that he incorporated so much of other cultures within his life that he perhaps became foreign to his own origins.The family is strikingly interesting owing to its international character. Sam marries an Austrian woman and his children and grandchildren are spread throughout the world. (This during a time when Chinese were still treated poorly by most cultures and by officially repressed by immigration laws worldwide.) This cultural collision is deeply fascinating. We learn her great-uncle went to boarding school in England and Austria and is in a photograph standing behind Adolf Hitler during the Nazi leader's visit to his school. This fact would have undoubtedly disturbed the lunatic zealot of racial purity had he known it. This tradition of multiculturalism is an enduring factor in the life of this Sam's family: Director Ann Marie Fleming was born on Okinawa of Austrlian and Chinese heritage.I never cease to be amazed at criticisms of films and documentaries by those who find a film "too long" or "boring." There is a difference between "reel" life and "real" life. Perhaps my own grandfather's accomplishments and zest for life against great odds makes me comprehend Fleming's appreciation of her forebear grandfather who understood the nature of drama and honed it to wow the public and carve out a modicum of success.Comprehending Long Tack Sam's background, his narrow escape from a life of obscurity and poverty, his entrenched optimism, and his ability to bridge cultures while astutely producing a popular stage act, may be difficult for those addicted to special effects and the emotional manipulation of fictional contrivance. Life is more complicated, difficult and, ultimately interesting than anything Hollywood can conjure which is why documentaries can be so spellbinding.Some who have criticized this documentary seem to believe Fleming is beating her own drum, or holding out her great-grandfather and her family as more interesting than they really are. What Fleming is doing, and we should be thankful she does so, is reminding all of us that we each have a fascinating history that should not be forgotten. This history is perhaps most important among our relatives who grew up in a time when a man had to wreck his body physically to make a living, or, in order to escape poverty, demonstrate extraordinary ability and courage to overcome stultifying physical and cultural boundaries. One cannot appreciate the Long Tack Sam's magical life unless one can grasp the circumstances of his times, which is part of Fleming's message.The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is a salutation to a remarkable family history driven by the accomplishments of a man who possessed courage and tenacity -- the true alchemic components of a "magical" life.

This pretentious film focuses entirely on the director for all but the first thirty minutes of the film. According to this documentary, we should all be so lucky to have an ancestor as famous as Long Tack Sam. But this would be only to bask in his glory, not to celebrate his life.In the film, we learn very little about Long Tack Sam's life and we don't see many photos of him. The film is all about Ms. Flemming's experience as she makes the documentary and is overly redundant when delivering this information. In the end I was bored and disappointed. This is two hours I want back so I can spend it watching a real documentary on someone who actually had a magical life.

This film is one hell of a sumptuous visual feast. The animated photographs are wondrous, seeming to bring Long Tack Sam and kin back to life. The multiple "origin" comics are lush with color. Both merge seamlessly with candid interviews and found(?) footage. I cannot rhapsodize enough about the aesthetics and style. Kudos to Ann Marie Fleming for this biographical masterpiece on her great-grandfather.The storyline is equally compelling. The scenic shifts from place to place, country to country, allow Fleming to uncover new facts about the acrobat/ magician's life, and cleverly parallel Sam's own perigrinations. Globetrotters, par excellance, the travels of Sam and Fleming provide effective narrative ballast, and in particular, Fleming's adept narration carefully focuses our attention, so that we feel privy to the historical events Sam lived through during the early and mid 20th century.The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is in every sense a celebration of an almost forgotten man, who perhaps until now, never got his proper due. And it pays homage not just to the remarkable Sam, but to other members of his family as well (especially his daughter Mina, Fleming's grandmother). With its grea t style and storytelling, this is a film to be seen again and again.