HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Screensamplers
The Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival features movies of Japan, the West, Korea and the Pacific, including a documentary about Maui residents
COURTESY HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
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"Black Belt"
Part of the Spotlight on Japan showcase; 1:15 p.m. Sunday and 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dole Cannery multiplex
"Black Belt" is so relentlessly old-fashioned, it's a blast of pure air. It's like a martial-arts movie from 1962, influenced by the landscape of American Westerns and relying on A-to-B storytelling, villains and heroes unfettered by backstory or motive, and grueling fights that don't use hidden wires or computer effects. The climatic fight is even filmed in black-and-white, and the protagonists run out of wind. You can hear them wheezing. It's great.
It's set in the early '30s and has something to do with the establishment of Manchuoko -- whether the film is set there or in Japan isn't clear, but little matter, it's a rural environment. It might as well be Fort Apache or Tombstone.
The Imperial Army is seizing karate dojos, despite leases signed by the Emperor, because the army needs to learn a little chop-socky to deal with the Chinese, and besides, the unused dojos are ideal for selling farm girls as sex slaves and pocketing the dough. The Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun doesn't come off well here -- they're all greedy, swaggering bullies or gormless recruits -- but hey, every oater needs a passle of black hats to dispatch. Besides, that's pretty accurate for the period: Hirohito let the rebellious army push him around, and the stage was set for the Pacific War. That distant thundercloud hangs over the movie.
Things get more complicated when one karate dojo yields opportunistic traitor Taikan and callow innocent Giryu, both of whom are highly skilled at the martial art, but each with their own yin/yang paths. Their stricken sensei advises them to "Never attack in karate," before he dramatically expires, adding, "No kick either!"
Well, that's the essence of karate, isn't it? A self-defense art that uses the opponent's energy against him. Plenty of that here, and it's all filmed in gorgeous color, except for the aforementioned final scuffle. Director Nagasaki Shunichi used real karate pros of upper dan ranking in the main roles, and they're just fine, considering they have to pose rather than act. Everyone, including the women, snarl their lines from the lower corners of their mouth, drawing air-power from deep in the Qi, just the way sensei taught us.
Have you figured out yet that the climactic fight is between Giryu and Taikan, or have you never seen a movie?
"Black Belt" is either undemanding and rather fun, or cleverly blatant and still fun.
Burl Burlingame / Star-Bulletin
COURTESY HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
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"Year of the Fish"
Part of the Best of the West showcase
9 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday, Dole Cannery multiplex
What hath "Waking Life" wrought? Filmmaker David Kaplan is known for his clever shorts that project traditional fairy tale themes into modern life, and this, his first feature film, is not only a modernization of Cinderella, it's set in New York's Chinatown and it's "processed" through electronic filters that give it the painterly appearance of rotoscoped animation.
It's clever, a bit wacky, not for kids and at times quite gorgeous to look at. Delicate An Nguyen plays the suffering char-girl Ye Xian -- OK, she cleans up in a massage parlor -- and Tsai Chin has a delightfully nasty turn as the wicked stepmother, er, the aristocratic and bitter parlor operator. You can tell she's been around the block more than once, and wants to drags her girls along on another circuit.
Making the film "animated" creates a remove from the harshness of reality, like erecting a scrim between performer and audience, but it also makes for a certain glow. Curiously, it also allows the audience to zero in on subtle facial expressions, and all the actors are up to the task.
Cinderella is the original hard-luck sympathy character, designed to invoke buckets of empathy. It still works, and this particular edition is based on an earlier, Chinese version of the fairy tale, and involves a creepy old lady and the rapidly growing fish of the title. Kaplan's take runs to G-rated syrup, despite the creepy sexual innuendo of the massage parlor, where happy endings involve Handi-Wipes.
"Year of the Fish" will either suck you into its gritty magic or leave you cold with its arthouse pretension.
Burl Burlingame / Star-Bulletin
COURTESY HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
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"Maui Boyz"
Part of the Pacific Panorama showcase; 6:15 p.m. Saturday and 3:15 p.m. Monday, Dole Cannery multiplex
If MTV really wanted its Hawaii-based reality television series "Maui Fever" and "Living Lahaina" to succeed, they should have hired German filmmaker Carsten Maaz.
"Maui Boyz," Maaz's 85-minute documentary (which makes its world premiere at the festival), screens more like a two-hour pilot episode with the commercials cut out, than a full-length film. About a dozen local residents are featured, including lifeguard/surfer Archie Kalepa, windsurfer Robby Naish and 'Ekolu lead singer Lukela Keala.
With 'Ekolu's music as its soundtrack, the film follows each character as they do what comes naturally. Kalepa speaks of his pride in being a Native Hawaiian waterman, while surfboard shaper Jimmy Lewis shares his experiences of living and working on Maui as he preps a tow-in board for "New Jaws Generation" surfer Ahanu Tson-Dru.
Maaz adds another dimension to "Maui Boyz" by interviewing rancher Peter Baldwin, a descendant of missionaries, along with working paniolo Greg Friel and sugar plantation employees Donald Santos and Leonard Pagan. Hawaii residents won't be surprised to discover that people on Maui do more than just surf and suck 'em up, but give Maaz credit for painting a more complete picture of the island's inhabitants.
Throw in a few scenic shots and some big wave action, and "Maui Boyz" becomes a solid effort that illustrates the diversity our islands and the connection different generations have with the environment and each other.
Jason Genegabus / Star-Bulletin
COURTESY HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
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"And Thereafer II"
Part of the Korean Documentaries showcase; 9:45 p.m. Sunday, Dole Cannery multiplex
Even though I haven't seen filmmaker Hosup Lee's first film of his trilogy about Korean-born military brides to American soldiers, it seems he got more than he bargained for when he approached Ajuma, a Jersey widow, to initially ask her why women like her continue to marry U.S. soldiers despite anti-American sentiment back home.
Lee's film is not so much a documentary as it is an ongoing conversation between him and a lonely, childless and embittered woman who is a former prostitute. With every successive visit to Ajuma's home, she ruefully reveals more and more of her hard life, one made better materially by her American husband, whose life insurance policy and pension continue to provide for her even after his death.
Her frequent trips to Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City are her only ventures outside her home, artlessly depicted by camera shots through her car's windshield.
What I found annoying at first -- banal static shots, title cards of Lee's thoughts (we only hear Lee when he's talking to Ajuma off-camera) -- finds a rhythm, much akin to Ajuma's measured speaking tone that speaks of her lingering anger, one filled with casually said expletives, but with little venom.
Occasionally, Lee shows that he does have an eye for filmmaking, and some shots stand out: a lone goldfish swimming in a bowl with Ajuma in the background, out of focus; petals of touch-me-not flowers from Ajuma's garden being crushed in a bowl that will dye her fingernails; a careless but effectively askew shot of Korean dolls on a nightstand; and the faded color on her nails, her hands held in prayer at her husband's grave site, with light snowflakes falling.
It all makes for a sad, but very human, story.
Gary Chun / Star-Bulletin
LVHIFF Schedule Update
» The Dole Cannery multiplex features a special midnight screening of David Lynch's 1977 debut "Eraserhead" on Saturday. The man has made his reputation as a maverick filmmaker, and the film that started it all, a surrealist-horror classic, should look and sound great on the big screen.
» Screenings of the Singapore film "881" have been canceled. To find out what replaces its showings at 9:15 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Monday at Dole Cannery, go to www.hiff.org for the latest.
» "Before the Sunrise," the historical film about Dr. Sun Yat Sen, will screen 4 p.m. Sunday at the Hawaii Theatre, not Oct. 24 as originally listed.