OH "Boy"

Aloha HIFF Goers!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Boy. I have to say, if you did not see it, you missed out big time. At first I did not want to go, but since it somehow fell into my schedule and the synopsis said Michael Jackson, I decided to go. That was the best decision I had made. I LOVED it! This film filled the theater and even made some run for the door in order to get a seat.

Summary

Well, the film is about a little boy named Boy who finally meets his father Alamein when his grandmother is away. The film begins with a humorous imagination that Boy has of his father, Boy also says how he hopes to see Michael Jackson live one day. His imagination of his dad does not come close to him in reality. Rocky is Boy's younger brother who believes he has magical powers, powers that were so strong that it killed their mother when he was born (according to Boy). His role throughout the film continued some of the comedy and provided the innocence of childhood. Little things here and there help Rocky to believe that he really had powers.

When Boy's father Alamein (who is played by the director Taika Waititi himself) arrives, he is not very good news. Boy does many things such as help his father find his buried cash and steal marijuana in order to make his dad happy. All he really wants is a dad and to have that father-son bond, but Alamein is not quite the material.

Sometimes throughout the film, a "weirdo" man is part of the scene and Boy is mean to him while Rocky befriends him. The audience later learns that it is this man that saves Boy's life after he had fallen of the bridge since he was drunk and high. Though a kid, Boy was like that because he was disappointed in his dad. In the end the grandmother returns home and things go back to normal. In the final scene, Boy, Rocky and their father are sitting around the mother's grave.

You had to see it

Its hard to explain why its so good. There is nothing that I can directly pin point and say "yeah, _____ was good." If you had seen it, you would know how I feel. I'll try to explain why. First, it was funny how Boy would explain his imagination of his dad, and then the screen would show his dad just as Boy explain. If you watch the trailer, you can see what I mean. Just watching the trailer made me crack up. Second, the film kind of made me feel whatever you maybe feeling when you say, "aww" is that heart-warming? I'm not quiet sure. I guess you could say that the film sunk into me. As I'm typing this, I feel the same way as I had when watching the movie. Third, it was kind of cute in how the audience could see the a child's innocence. Gotta be kids. It made me think how I was as a child and how I used to believe everything I heard.

Well even though it passed, you should still check out the trailer. Boy - Trailer
Even watching the trailer now makes me crack up laughing. I also can't help but think that Taika Waititi sounds like Johnny Depp.

Video Blog Seesaw

I got the chance to see Seesaw on Friday. Since one of my video files is not supported by my movie maker I was using, I was unable to stitch the videos together. Please enjoy

 Starla Video Blog - Part 1

Starla Video Blog - Part 2

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Campbell High School Uses HIFF to Teach Students About Globalization

Today before watching Summer Pasture, I had the opportunity to talk with and interview Jamie Suehiro and Barbara Aly, both teachers from Campbell High School. They took a bunch of students to see the film in order to teach them about globalization and how other cultures live in other parts of the world.



Movie Review of the Short Program #1 Oct. 15

Today's Short Program #1 included the films:

Air Knob

Empire Corner

Green Tie Affair, The

Happiest Man Alive, The

Junko's Corner

Masala Mama

Suicide Brothers, The

Wu is Dead

All nine films were great but five of them stood out to me.

Air Knob

Air Knob was a comedic film about a man and his neighbor having an "air" guitar competition with each other on their front porches. Though there was no dialogue throughout the film, it was easy to understand what was going on. The music their air guitars supposedly made, were very good.

Playing his air guitar

 This film was indeed comedic. Air Knob was funny especially in one scene when one guy decides to show off his skills by playing his air guitar with the lower front half of his body. Do not worry, the entire bottom half of the movie screen was blackened. It was also very amusing when a neighborhood boy witnesses these two strange men strumming their guitars. To add to the humor, the men are the only ones who seem to hear the music they're playing. I thought that the actors were able to imitate the playing of an actual guitar very well, it was impressive.

The Green Tie Affair

Having the chance to watch this film in person was unlike watching it on a computer screen. I have to admit that I was smiling throughout most of the film. Why? The music was catchy and upbeat. "I've got my green tie...feels like I can touch the sky." Jordan Segundo's voice along with the voices of the other cast was amazing. I had expected a lot after my interview with Dane Neves, and my expectations were met. I believe that this film has a lot of potential to be the next Sesame Street because of the possible moral lessons it can teach and its peppy music.

Director Dane Neves, Jordan Segundo, Assistant Director Shasta Yamada, Brianna Abregano, Me

The Happiest Man Alive

The Happiest Man Alive made my mouth drop many times and my friend close her ears. You see, the main character went throughout his day with a very sharp knife protruding from his chest. Imagining what it would be like to have a knife in my chest made my mouth drop. The sound of it being stabbed back into his chest made my friend close her ears.

Co-worker using his knife (that was in his chest) to cut her bagel.

Through the film, the main character does not speak. He makes his lunch, stabs himself, and goes on with his day. His coworkers seem to notice the raspberry stain on his tie rather than the knife. When he gets home, he makes dinner and enjoys it with his wife who has a cork screw on her forehead. He talks for the first time within the film, which shows that he indeed is the “happiest man alive”.

The plot and weirdness of the film made it good. Since the audience is unable to predict what will happen next, it leaves them curious and focused on the screen. I probably was not the only one in the audience who was thinking, “How can these people not notice the huge knife protruding from his chest”. There were little things that also made me laugh.

Junko's Shamisen

Looking through the HIFF newspaper/flyer, I had seen a picture from this film and thought about how it reminded me of The Grudge. It is this thought in mind that made me think this film was going to be scary. I was wrong.

Junko

Junko's Shamisen is about a girl who lives with her semi-blind grandfather who always plays the shamisen (a Japanese stringed instrument). One day she decides to make a doll of herself and wander away since she is bored. While away, a man kills her grandfather and burns their home. She is forced to leave with the shamisen that was punctured by the man and a magical fox. Junko finds the murder one day while begging for money. Having found him, she then kills him with the help of the fox and uses his skin to fix her shamisen.

In Asia, there are theaters where many people work together using paper pictures to portray a story. Watching Junko’s Shamisen made me feel as if I were in this theater watching these people enact the story. This film was different. What made this film unlike any other was its use of technology. I guess I can say that some things were created by CGI, but I am not too sure. Junko's Shamisen was able to incorporate real people in an imaginary world like AVATAR. Though the world was not green like Pandora, its realness and ability to work together with the actor was swell. Sometimes throughout the film there were caption blocks that made it seem like a Marvel comic. The visual effects are what made the film so good and really interesting.

The Suicide Brothers

Just as the title seems, the short film is about two brothers that try to commit suicide but are not successful. While it snows heavily outside the brothers share a meal, but once the cuckoo clock koos, they make their way to the barn. It is at the barn they attempt to commit suicide. Though the audience expects them to hang dead after jumping off the stool, the brothers have too long a rope and too short a stool. Their failed attempts to die and their actions made the film comical. The pixie that is also within the film finds a bottle of liquid that would guarantee death if “eaten with cake”. The two brothers try it and their hearts come out through their mouths and onto their plates.

Meet the Suicide Brothers

The CGI was great, it made the snowy setting very realistic and helped to assist in the feel of the film. The pixie was also very realistic and I feel that they did an amazing job in creating that character. The Suicide Brothers reminds me a lot of Tim Burton’s film in its strangeness. Is it not strange, that these brothers are trying multiple ways to die? Or the hearts the cough out at the end? Though it was strange, I found it amusing too. Their appearance also added to the strange factor with their pale faces. Though there was no dialogue, the music helped to assist with this visual process. I have a feeling that it will not be long before this film will be a short for a Tim Burton film.

I do not own the featured pictures except for the Green Tie Affair. These pictures were obtained from www.hiff.org.

Its A Green Tie Affair

Dane Neves, Jordan Segundo, Shasta Yamada, one of the cast and me :).

It was way better on the big screen than in comparison to the computer screen. It was GREAT! :)

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The Man Behind the Idea

The Green Tie Affair

Unlike any other film within the festival, The Green Tie Affair is indeed unique. With its catchy upbeat tunes sung by Hawaii’s own Jordan Segundo, The Green Tie Affair is about blue puppet with a green tie named Hickey. When people begin to copy Hickey’s green tie, he becomes depressed since it is no longer his own identity. Behind this genius idea is Dane Neves, the director, producer and screenwriter of this short film.

Hickey Pine and Dane Neves

I had the opportunity to learn more about the film through my interview with Dane. Aspiring to be an animator as a child, Dane became involved in video production in high school and college. As a graduate of the University of Hawaii’s Academy for Creative Media, Dane has also produced The Monkeyboy Fever,  a short film that has been shown at HIFF. How does he feel about having The Green Tie Affair in this year’s HIFF? Dane says, “It feels so good to be part of the lineup of so many great international films. When you get your film selected in one of the top film festivals in the world, you know that you're doing something right.” The journey for The Green Tie Affair from the beginning, to where the film is today, began a year ago.

Dane began writing and planning in September 2009. In November and December he and his crew filmed and the completed the project in January 2010. I had to ask him what it was like creating The Green Tie Affair and he said, “It was surprisingly easy to plan, shoot, and edit this film because of the amazing team I had supporting me from Henry Mochida, my director of photography, to Lily Brennick, my puppeteer, to Shasta Yamada, my assistant director. You can't make a good movie without a good team.” Part of that team was also Jordan Segundo who Dane had the opportunity to work with. With Jordan’s inspiring morals and principals, together, they were able to cater to their target audience of children. What better way to cater to children than to also use a puppet.

Using a puppet not only appeals to children, but it also helps to support the uniqueness of the film. With the lesson of the film being that we should accept our unique identity, Hickey makes The Green Tie Affair distinctive. Being a fan of puppets in films like Gremlins and Muppets influenced Dane to make Hickey a puppet living in a human world. Hickey’s story provides many morality lessons, “…the biggest thing that audiences should "get" is that you should accept your identity no matter what.”

To wrap it up, as a local filmmaker, Dane wants people to be inspired by his film and its progress since few short films come out of Hawaii. The Green Tie Affair’s progress is immense as it is one of 200 films to be shown in the film festival. Another thing that he wants others to know is that, “mainstream films can be made in Hawaii by locals.”   

Every time I watch the trailer for this film, I cannot help but smile because I am that excited to see the film on Friday October 15th at 5:30 p.m. So, I highly encourage you to watch The Green Tie Affair and vote for it Vote Green Tie Affair

The Green Tie Affair Trailer

Today's Your Day

Before I begin, do you see what I see in the picture?
YES! It's the HIFF poster. I happen to see it almost everyday, and today (while on the bus) blog about it.

So what do you mean your day is today? What I mean is that you can purchase your tickets today! Make sure to get them before they are sold out. You can print electronically or call to order them and pick up your tickets on that particular day.

Well, have a great day!

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V-O-T-E

VOTE for The Green Tie Affair for the local short film award!

VOTE for "The Green Tie Affair"

Follow the link and it will be at the bottom of the page!

Thank You!

Got Tickets?

I got mines! I got them last night and I am extremely excited to watch the films.

So far I've got:

The Green Tie Affair (Oct. 15 @ 5:30 p.m.)
Seesaw (Oct. 15 @ 8:00 p.m.)
Summer Pasture (Oct. 17 @ 11:30 a.m.)
Hanamizuki (Oc 24. 5:00 p.m.)

According the the HIFF website, the general public may begin to purchase tickets online or by phone on Monday October 4th. Students, I highly recommend that you check out a few films since you only have to pay $10 rather than $12 for the general admission. For more information, follow click this link HIFF Ticket Information

Be sure to get your tickets before they run out!

While at Ahi & Vegetable at Fort Street Mall, I happened to find this flyer that contained the film times and summaries! :D