Winners & Losers is a slam-dunk history of Toronto sports

Toronto is officially the most sport-crazed city in Canada, boasting big-league franchises in hockey, basketball, baseball and football (both kinds). Championships and chokes (see below) are embedded in the collective Torontonian memory.  That's why the new exhibition by Myseum is essential and a lot of fun.

For once, the Leafs win this one

Winners & Losers celebrates the relationship between Torontonians and its teams over the decades in a city that has radically changed in terms of race and gender parity. The exhibit does not celebrate hall of fame ballplayers (the Hockey Hall of Fame down the street does a fine job of that already), though it name checks the likes of Joe Carter, Frank Mahovlich, Kawaii Leonard and Pinball Clemens.

The great Mahovlich scored for not one, but two Toronto hockey teams: the Maple Leafs (including the 1967 Stanley Cup champions) and the Toros of the short-lived WHA

The exhibit grans equal space to pioneers and local heroes, such as Billie Hallam, a female pitcher who was also crowned 1937's Miss Toronto, and the Toronto Huskies who were roaming NBA courts decades before the Raptors.

Winners & Losers also excels in being interactive. We're not talking smartphones and touch-screen TVs, but games, such as Playoffs (below) where visitors can choose Toronto great basketball moments, whether by Eastern Commerce or by Vince Carter. 

Of course, there's the requisite table hockey game (Leafs vs. Habs, of course) and finely chosen memorabilia, like a vintage boxing programme from Maple Leafs Gardens.

It's remarkable the span of artifacts that Myseum has assembled in a single room, which still allows space for interactivity and TV screens. Obviously, thought and care has been invested in how this compact space should look, sound and feel, from basketballs handling from the ceiling to gridirons covering the floor.

The only critique is the lack of football (soccer), the fastest-growing sport among schoolchildren, and of course the Toronto FC. This can be forgiven since Myseum occupies a tight space in the basement of 401 Richmond (though visible from the sidewalk near Peter Street).

Aside from that, Winners & Losers is an excellent show. Strongly recommended for sports fans, both adults and children, and it's certainly family friendly. Myseum is open Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 6pm (closed Sunday-Tuesday). Admission is free, though donations are welcome. Full details.

film review: The End of the Storm

 

 

Directed by James Erskine

Written by James Erskine

ChinoKino score: D

Review by Allan Tong

The End of the Storm plays like one of those glossy mini-hagiographies that sports networks run during intermissions to keep hometown fans cheering between halves and periods. The big difference is that End of the Storm runs for 99 agonizing minutes and hypes the entire Liverpool football club who topped the Premier League in 2019-20. 

I'm not slagging Liverpool FC at all. They're a great team. Legends. But this documentary is such an obvious exercise in corporate P.R. that I get no sense of what it's really like for them to compete in the top football (soccer) league on the planet. Pro football is big business, where coaches are turfed when their team slides or players are hounded by fans when they slump. The pressure is enormous, the egos are explosive and the fan expectations unrealistic. You get none of that in this film.

What to watch this week: Pelé, Tokyo Girl, Creem magazine

 

Tokyo Girl

reviews by Allan Tong 

TOKYO GIRL (on Prime)

ChinoKino score: A

Tokyo Girl would kick Emily in Paris' ass in a Superbowl game.

Tokyo Girl is a Prime series about a smalltown girl who finds her dreams working in fashion in the big city, while Emily in Paris, the Netflix hit, follows a Chicago girl who trimphs in the European culture capital through her Instagram account. Both heroines are fishes out of water, bore wear gorgeous clothes and they dine in dazzling restaurants with lovers and backstabbing colleagues.

After watching Emily in Paris, I remember gorgeous Paris and posh clothes. After watching Tokyo Girl I remember work triumphs, everyday struggles and broken relationships. I remember watching a real person mature.

This comparison, I admit, can go only so far. Emily is told in real time while Tokyo Girl spans nearly 20 years in the heroine's life. Also, Emily is lighter while TG mixes drama with laughs.

Both shows are helmed by strong actresses, though. Emily takes a lot slagging for being an American philistine, but Lily Collins nails the role. Collins injects her character with unexpected vulnerability at times. (A shout-out goes to Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu who nails Emily's bitch boss.) Asami Mizukawa (pictured above) has a tougher gig in Tokyo Girl, portraying how smalltown girl Aya turns into career woman Aya by age 40, when she wonders what th hell she'll do next with her life. Mizukawa pulls it off.

TG's writing is tougher, smarter and more complex. Guys need to watch this show to understand women better. Emily, in contrast, overdoses on gee-whiz sweetness that would kill a diabetic. But, hey, Paris, is dazzling.

The call: Tokyo Girl by 14 points.

 

PELÉ (on Netflix)

ChinoKino score: B

Before Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky, there was Pelé. This kid from the slums of Sao Paulo shot to football (soccer) superstardom and put Brazil atop the football map. This doc covers the meat of his career, playing for Santos and leading Brazil to three World Cups, from 1958 to 1970.

Those years were a hell of a ride that lifted Brazilian national pride and made Pelé a rock star. Goals, goals, goals. There's an endless stream of Pelé making acrobatic moves on the football pitch, drawn from vintage black-and-white footage and grainy colour. This doc is thrilling to watch, and captures a lot of Pelé's former teammates and coaches on camera recounting their victories and struggles.

Pelé himself, now 80, tells a lot of his story. He needs a walker these days, undoubtedly a result of many years of taking cheap shots from less-talented opponents. Yet, he still speaks with a sparkle in his eye. All great. However, the issue of him never opposing Brazil's dictator, who imprisoned and murdered his countrymen from 1964 to 1985, is thorny. Credit this film for including Pelé's critics as as well as offering Pelé's own justification for keeping his nose out of politics. Maybe we expect too much from our athletic heroes (Jordan and Gretzky were also apolitical, not Ali), but I winced when Pelé hugs the country's butcher after the 1970 World Cup victory.