Starring: Maksim Komaro, Ville Walo and special guest appearance by Jay Gilligan. (OMG, Legends!)

Ok, let’s have a look at the box. Hmmm… recorded in 2000… my mind immediately thinks Old School. maybe this won’t be so interesting…

Now that I finally worked out how to use that ancient piece of machinery, the “VCR” I can sit and watch this. (To be fair, it is an OLD copy that i borrowed from Drew)

ok, Let’s go.

This video is Brilliant, with a capital ‘B’. I’d probably use smily faces to dot the ‘I’s as well.

very much a toss juggling video. with a few contact tricks thrown in for good measure, but thrown in CLEVERLY. not just filling space, but they fit in there, you know? The video is made up of lots of sketches. this works. I don’t get bored watching the same background again and again, the same situation, there’s variation in more than just the way the balls are moving or being thrown. IT STILL HAS MY ATTENTION AFTER TEN MINUTES!! which I must say, every other DVD I have watched has failed to keep my full, constant attention.

the backgrounds are fun and vibrant, with a very cartoony feel to them. There’s a nice mixture of outside filming, home video and studio shots, but, get this, a studio with a decent set! the Sketches give us the feeling we’re following Maksim and Ville during a normal day. Hurrah. a story, and it’s educational! Win! the sketches change between tutorial format, and busting out some crazy sh*t in a web video style, to more lighthearted juggling comedy sketch: Things like bounce juggling in a toilet cubicle, and accidentally dropping one down the pan…

the teaching style… Most of the teaching is in an ‘inspiration’ format. there is a lot of Maksim and Ville hanging out in various places and showing off some amazing stuff. during the tutorial structured sections, we first see the trick with one ball for a little while, then the second ball added in… then the third. uses different coloured balls so you can see what each ball is doing easily. complete with slow-mo shots, very useful. feels crammed into a small place, but useful. I guess this is gonna stop us from trying to copy exactly the examples given, instead of playing around and discovering for ourselves. either that, or they plan to wear out the forward and backward mechanism on my already frail VCR. Titles are always popping up, ready to tell us the name of a move.

one thing that does distract from the tutorial, is whenever Maksim is teaching something, Ville is always somewhere, doing some crazy or silly stuff that grabs you by the eyes and won’t let go. There is a lot of stuff in this video that is a case of watch again and again and try to copy, without any explanations or details being given. examples here are things like head rolls, rolling around the floor with headrolls (Ville, Insane!!) some complicated body throws. But hey, this video is gonna last, and be watched again and again. The short routines done by the artists gradually progress in difficulty, climaxing with some really tight and mind blowing juggling from these members of the juggling hall of fame. Maksim’s last routine is exceptionally good.

The Material. Oh. My. God. this will keep any juggler busy for YEARS. And I really do mean YEARS. from the basic three ball cascade all the way up to insane stuff i can’t even begin to comprehend. we have toss tricks, siteswaps, headrolls, bounce juggling, body throws, arm rolls, catches, starts… All it’s missing are things like body and footcatches. The section of combining 3ball toss and arm rolling is particularly interesting for contact jugglers. The appearances of Jay Gilligan are done very well and fit the style beautifully, and add an extra bit of fun to the video. the high level of skill from these jugglers means that the tricks are done in a style that shows control, and comfort doing these difficult manipulations. No fumbled tricks here!

It’s easy to see some thought and care went into the production of this video. Well made, well put together, well presented. There’s a written breakdown (a contents list) of the tricks available from HERE to make life just that little bit easier. yay!

video gets a 8.5/10 from me. Would be a ten out of ten, but I feel it could give a few more handy hints along the way. Way higher rating than I thought it would get, when I first looked at the box. An oldy, but a goody too. Goes to show, don’t judge a juggling video by it’s cover!

This is now available in DVD format, from www.peapot.net and all good juggling stores. I say, a good investment.

Previously posted: About Chinlone on Mystic ball site.
Chinlone on the ministry. Pre-review & DVD announcement.

“It’s your typical boy meets ball love story.” -Mystic Ball the Movie

8 years in the making, Mystic ball was directed by Greg Hamilton from Toronto and tells his personal story of 24 year passion for Chinlone and the first westerner to play Chinlone at the highest level. More than that, Mystic ball tells the story of Chinlone itself, its 1500 year history, its relationship with Buddhism and of the culture of Myanmar where it is the national sport, played so it seems, by almost everyone, of every age, everywhere. Mystic ball also shows the incredible skill and elegance of some of Chinlones greatest players and coaches, including the Dreamlovers team and Su Su Hlaing.

Chinlone has 2 forms, The team style “wein kat” (meaning: circle kick), and the solo/performance style “tapandaing”. Wein kat performances are accompanied by live music, the players improvise to the music, and the musicians improvise with the players. The live atmosphere in those performances made me promise myself that one day I would go to Myanmar watch them.

As with contact and juggling, Chinlone is fantastically difficult, one beautiful moment comes when Greg, after training on his own for 14 years, plays in a circle for the first time; “I sucked.” he says “Even the little kids were better than me!”

The veterans team, left me absolutely speechless. 6 players all 65, 75 and even 85 years old, playing and performing Chinlone.

….Mystic ball will engage you in a beautiful story about the happiness and fulfilment that comes from following ones passion.

Jugglers, manipulators, Poi swingers and contact jugglers who love the combination of object manipulation and dance, will love this film, it gets the Ministry top rating - “Highly recommended”.
Mystic Ball - the Movie official website and order page.
Drew
Nope, we don’t have any commercial ties with Mystic ball DVD - we just like it.

MoM received our copy of Mystic Ball the Movie about Chinlone yesterday. Sorry, no time to write a full review now. Briefly, it’s as good as the web-promo makes it seem that it might be! If you are into Juggling or contact or dance with manipulation - OMG Buy yourself a copy.
Players like Su Su Hlaing, Ko Maung Maung, Aung Soe Moe and Motta, left my jaw on the floor with the elegance of their play and the octogenarian players with 70 years of playing experience ensured that it stayed there.

Bonus: Shipped to UK/Europe it cost only about £18.
Full review next year ;). Also a teaser: we just received some particularly good news for 1 ball contact jugglers. We’re just awaiting some final details, and hope to be able to make an announcement in the next few weeks.

Hardcore indeed. The Contact world has a new rockstar?

Masaki Hirano (?) busts out some new-style contact juggling.

Greg Hamilton has just mailed the Ministry and tells us that his award winning film about Chinlone, Mystic ball the movie, is now available to buy on DVD

Last minute Christmas shopping, this could be the number 1 Contact Jugglers stocking filler of the year (Ok, forth place after a new ball and a copy of Multiball Contact, and the InIsolation DVD…but obviously, you’ve already got those, haven’t you).

The Ministry is now recommending DVDs that it hasn’t even seen! whatever next. We’ll get a review up in a couple of weeks - when our copy has arrived.

Drew - Who is very happy because he’s been waiting 2 years to see this film, which has never yet screened in the UK.

Chinlone is hard to define. It’s a team sport without an opposing team, part dance, part meditation. There is no competition, no winners and no losers. The game is back-breakingly difficult, yet is played by almost all Burmese, from young children to octogenarians. - writes Greg Hamilton

In answer to the next question, her name is: Su Su Hlaing

Chinlone is the national sport of Burma/Myanmar, where Mystic ball the movie was filmed. Chinlone festivals, are often played in the grounds of Buddhist temples. This year in Burma, sadly a LOT of Buddhist monks have been killed by the military government. Those monks can be seen in the trailer above, wearing red/orange robes sitting in the audience watching the Chinlone.

Can you guess, who are my current favourite choice for the EJC final show next year?

Billy Marks bounces balls into a cup.

YouTube - David Bernal (Elsewhere) Interview/Special

I’m still amazed by his general flow and complexity of rythm.
His entire solo from Detours is available on MoMTV

Kelvin is one of our favourite Contact Jugglers. Such good control. See www.kelvin-kalvus.de for more information on this machine of a contact juggler.

The video quality is a little poor, but I think that the quality of the Contact more than makes up for it. Kelvin comes on stage after 1 minute into the video.

Thanks to Jowze from .org for the link.

Streetball battle 2007 - Kyushu Round. This link came to us via Tommy Baker, who won First prize and $2000 in a Freestyle Streetball Basketball trick competition in September.
Japanese skills, Japanese Style!

2 more videos after the jump. (more…)

Ken French (aka Toast) is the worlds fastest clapper.