The Wind & the Reckoning: A Hawaiian Western

Did make sense for the post-monarchy Hawaiian government to quarantine indigenous leprosy patients at the colony on Molokai, despite the disease’s low level of transmission? Before you answer, review your positions on Covid mandates and lockdowns. In light of the last three years, it is illuminating to revisit the Leper War of 1893. Ko’olau, the Hawaiian cowboy previously immortalized by Jack London, fights for his family and his way of life in David L. Cunningham’s The Wind & the Reckoning, which opens this Friday in New York.

Both Ko’olau and his son Kaleimanu have contracted the disease, but not his wife Pi’ilani. Unfortunately, she would not be permitted to accompany her husband and son to the colony, where all marriages are declared void on arrival. It is clear Sheriff Stoltz and his lowlife deputies consider this a side-benefit to the quarantine policy when they arrive for Ko’olau and Kaleimanu, because Pi’ilani is quite pretty. However, neither Ko’olau or his Yankee “Uncle” Eben Sinclair will submit, but their violent resistance makes the father, mother, and son fugitives.

A party of soldiers follow Ko’olau into Kalalau Valley, along with Marshal Edward G. Hitchcock, a holdover from the days of the Kingdom, who has little enthusiasm or stomach for the man hunt. According to the historical record, they were also accompanied by a Board of Health rep, but that character was dropped for the film (perhaps out of fears of potential Fauci-esque echoes).

Regardless, Wind & Reckoning is inescapably timely. Throughout the film, viewers should ask themselves is this all about health or control—and which outbreak are we talking about? Sadly, health crises are often used as an excuse to curtail civil liberties. Cunningham and screenwriter John Fusco clearly argue that was the case in Kalalau.

It is also a solidly executed revisionist western. Jason Scott Lee (from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Rapa Nui) is a credible strong, silently steely rifleman. Likewise, Lindsay Marie Anuhea Watson is fiercely protective and keenly sensitive as Pi’ilani. Arguably, Johnathon Schaech’s portrayal of Marshal Hitchcock makes him the film’s most complex and conflicted character. The late Patrick Gilbert also contributes a lot of heart and poignancy as the profoundly decent Sinclair. Plus, action star Ron Yuan adds his big presence to the film as Lee, the soldiers’ literal howitzer bearer.

Kuleana: Sunny Noir, Hawaiian-Style

Hiram Fong became the first Asian American U.S. Senator when he was elected to represent Hawaii in 1959 and he became the 50^th State’s last Republican Senator (thus far) when his final term ended in 1977. Roughly the same period is covered in this thriller of real estate development and cultural identity. Misfortune struck the Kanekoa and Coyle families in 1959 and in continues to compound twelve years later in Brian Kohne’s Kuleana (trailer here), which opens tomorrow throughout Hawaii and on Guam.

As children, Nohea Kanekoa and Kimberley Coyle played warrior and princess together. Then she disappeared one fateful night, supposedly the victim of an abduction. Kanekoa’s conveniently missing father was the prime suspect, but the real villain was Coyle’s abusive Anglo father Victor, a mobbed up real estate developer.

Flashforward to 1971. After his lower leg was amputated in Vietnam, Kanekoa works at a luxury tourist hotel, at least on the days his Uncle Bossy hasn’t fired him. It is he who discovers the body when Rose Coyle, Kimberley’s mother, coincidentally turns up dead after turning state’s evidence against her husband. The prodigal daughter sensed her mother was in danger, but she came out of hiding too late to save her. Frankly, it takes a while to convince Kanekoa she is indeed the long presumed dead Kim Coyle. Together, they will try to take down her father and start leveling their families’ karma.

It is easy to see why the Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce would support Kuleana, because its message is obvious: move to Hawaii and never age another day in your life. Aside from Nohea and Kimberly, who appear as children in 1959 and world-weary adults in 1971, every other character looks completely untouched by the passage of time. As a result, it is often difficult to distinguish the flashbacks from the 1970’s era timeline. Viewers will also do a double take when Ms. Rose (a distractingly young-looking Kristina Anapau, who also serves as an executive producer) visits her husband’s nemesis, Det. Tulba, to drop a dime, coiffed and outfitted like the Black Dahlia.

As a crooked land use thriller (begging for a Chinatown comparison), Kuleana is pretty underwhelming stuff. It is a shame, because the cast is much better than the material they have to work with. Moronai Kanekoa and Sonya Balmores show some real presence and charisma as the adult (namesake) Kanekoa and Coyle. There are also some memorably colorful supporting turns from Vene Chun, Branscombe “He Looks Familiar” Richmond, and Steven Dascoulias, as Uncle Bossy, the local crime boss’s chief henchman (known as “The Moke”), and Chad Blake, a sleazy yet oddly principled attorney, respectively. However, they are all struggling with a dubious narrative that manages to be simplistic and also logically-challenged, simultaneously.

Of course, Kohne and cinematographer Dan Hersey fully capitalize on Hawaii’s stunning natural beauty, because it would be madness not to. For real authenticity, the soundtrack also features Willie K’s blues-flavored Hawaiian music. It looks good and sounds good, but it can’t get the job done as a mystery-thriller, which is a serious drawback. Kohne and company mean well, but we just can’t recommend Kuleana when it opens tomorrow (3/30) in Pacific theaters.

IFFR ’18 on Festivalscope: August at Akiko’s

Sadly, many of Hawaii’s best-known jazz musicians have passed away, including Lyle Ritz, Bill Tapia, and Betty Loo Taylor, but they were all probably too swing-based for an experimental improvisor like Alex Zhang Hungtai to mesh well with anyway. Regardless, he finds himself alienated and at loose ends when he returns to his family’s former Hawaiian homeland. However, a Buddhist bed & breakfast might be just the thing to center him in Christopher Makoto Yogi’s’ August at Akiko’s, one of several recent selections from the International Film Festival Rotterdam that streams for a limited time on Festivalscope’s public-facing VOD platform.

Indeed, Zhang (playing a meta analog of himself) learns you cannot go home again, in just about the saddest way possible. However, fate and his mother’s vague recommendation takes him to Masuda Akiko’s Buddhist B&B/hostel/retreat. It turns out the meditation and communion with nature she offers is what his soul needs. He even starts volunteering for community service projects, but he still has some unfinished spiritual business to tend to.

Although Zhang plays half a dozen instruments in half a dozen styles, both under his real name and the monikers “Dirty Beaches” and “Last Lizard,” throughout August he performs on tenor sax in a free improvisational style influenced by Ornette Coleman. Frankly, it is nice to see free jazz get some sympathetic screen time, but it is particularly apt, because Yogi’s patient but sure-handed approach is a lot like the best of avant-garde jazz. At times it feels diffuse and hazy, but it all comes together at the end (which features an arresting performance by Zhang).

Zhang is quiet and moody as his second self, but it is still an effectively sensitive and lowkey performance. In contrast, Masuda is wonderfully charming and all kinds of dynamic (albeit in a mostly quiet way) as herself, more or less. Together, they share an unforced rapport that is pleasant to experience second hand.

Cinematographer Cho Eunsoo fully embraces the picturesque Big Island landscape, but in a deeper way than mere picture postcard visuals. If you stick with it, Zhang’s music is plaintive and devastatingly powerful. Plus, we also get to see the Hilo Taishsoji Taeko Troop in performance, which is a cool bonus.

With August, Yogi rather remarkably proves that a film with a somewhat free-ish ethos can still inspire a warm emotional attachment. Very highly recommended for Zhang’s fans and sophisticated audiences, August at Akiko’s is available for general VOD streaming on the public Festivalscope, until February 20^th.

DOC NYC ’16: Finding Kukan

It is arguably the most historically significant lost American film. It was one of the first documentaries recognized by the Academy Awards (via a special citation) and it provided a first-hand record of the Japanese bombing of Chongqing from the fire-engulfed streets. Yet there are no screenable and preservable prints currently known to be in existence. Fellow Hawaiian filmmaker Robin Lung illuminates the content of the missing film and the role played in its production by the glamorous and mysterious Li Ling-ai in Finding Kukan (trailer here), which screens during DOC NYC 2016.

Frustrated by the lack of media attention devoted the Japanese aggression in China and concerned for the safety of her beloved nurse sister, Chinese American Li understood the way to reach American hearts and minds was through cinema. Fortuitously, there happened to be an adventurous photo-journalist in Honolulu by the name of Rey Scott. With a little goading, Li convinced him to capture conditions throughout China, including the war-era capitol Chongqing for a feature documentary she conceived.

It seems Scott later spliced in footage of Li he shot in the U.S. before leaving for China, but like so many aspects of Kukan, the question remains murky. However, Li clearly assumed the financing and publicity responsibilities, even though she was only credited as an advisor. Lung persuasively argues Li did not get the credit or recognition she deserved for Kukan (which incidentally roughly means “bitter struggle”). However, she takes nothing away from Scott, who very definitely risked his life shooting the film. In fact, Scott emerges as a sympathetic and somewhat tragic figure, due to struggles with post-traumatic stress after serving as a military cameraman in several theaters of combat.

While there are certainly issues of appropriation in Finding Kukan, it is refreshing that both the Scott and Li families appreciate the contributions of each filmmaker. If there is a villain in the film’s mysterious disappearance it is probably the bankrupt distributor or Hollywood’s general short-sightedness. Some talking heads speculate 1950s anti-Communism led to the film’s devaluation, but this seems unlikely given Kukan’s pro-Nationalist perspective. It would also be colossally and cosmically unfair that Kukan would be discarded, when the deliberate and overt white-wash of Stalinism, Mission to Moscow (in which the victims of the Moscow Show Trials had it coming) still survives in all its shame to this day.

Li’s story is fascinating and interview footage of her recorded in the mid-1990s, when she too was in her mid-90s, proves she was something else entirely. Sharp as a whip, she could break-up the film crew with her acerbic asides (so do not leave while the closing credits roll). She could turn on the charm and generate press, so it is rather baffling that she was nearly forgotten until Finding Kukan just started making the festival rounds.

Finding Kukan makes you want to see Kukan, which is rather the point, so let’s hope a salvageable print turns up in a vault somewhere. It also inspires respect and affection for its forceful protagonist. Time spent with her is a pleasure. Very highly recommended, Finding Kukan screens this Tuesday (11/15) and Wednesday (11/16), as part of DOC NYC 2016.

Pali Road: A Hawaiian Detour

It is sort of like a Hawaiian Mulholland Drive. Dr. Lily Zhang’s life will drastically change after an accident on this titular scenic route. Most distressingly, she finds all traces of her lover have been mysteriously erased. However, she will tenaciously cling to her memories in Jonathan Lim’s Pali Road (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

The Chinese-born Zhang cares about her patients and about what her parents think. Both cause a lot of stress in her life, especially given how strongly the latter object to her American significant other, grade school teacher Neil Lang. Of course, they would happily approve of her arrogant colleague, Dr. Mitch Kayne, whom Zhang was briefly involved with—much to her regret. However, when a quarrel with Lang leads to a severe-looking car crash, Zhang wakes up to find herself married to Kayne and the mother of a five-year-old son.

Much to her alarm, none of Zhang’s friends seem to remember Lang. Kayne’s creepy psychiatrist colleague diagnoses late-onset amnesia and prescribes some happy pills. Nevertheless, Zhang remains suspicious, especially when she uncovers traces of her life with Lang.

Given the warmth and vulnerability she exhibited in films like Hear Me and Ripples of Desire, USC alumnus Michelle Chen was a fitting choice to lead this American-Chinese co-production. She definitely has an appropriately intelligent presence for a driven doctor, even though the narrative often feels rather half-baked. Once again, Chen instantly claims viewers’ sympathies and credibly turns up the angst and pathos down the stretch. As Kayne, Sung Kang agilely turns on a dime, from a slimy jerkheel to an apparently caring husband and father. Frankly, he is a major reason why the film is able to keep the audience somewhat off-balance and not completely sure where it is all headed.

The problem is reality-bending films of this nature almost always end in one of two ways: either with a frustratingly Lynchian lack of resolution or an overly pat gimmick. Such is the case again with Pali Road, but at least the Hawaiian backdrops are lovely to look at. The work of Chen and Kang is also well worth watching, even when the bottom falls out of the third act. Recommended for Chen’s fans, Pali Road opens this Friday (4/26) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Paradise Broken: the Mean Streets of Waikiki

This is not Steve McGarrett’s Hawaii. Behind the luxury hotels, sex and drugs are openly sold, with nary a cop in sight. Even though they are locals, a junkie-pimp and his prostitute-girlfriend have a hard time making it on Waikiki’s mean streets in James Sereno’s Paradise Broken (trailer here), which MarVista Entertainment releases today on VOD platforms, including Vudu.

Ray Geronimo and Misha Domingo vaguely dream of owning their own beachfront bungalow, but their day-to-day concerns solely focus on their next hit of smack. Towards that end, Geronimo reluctantly started pimping Domingo out. It was really her idea. She thinks they can do better if they join forces with the Mainlander known only as “Pimp” (seriously, that is all it says on his business cards), but Geronimo sees him as just another outside exploiter. He would rather poach the gangster’s greenest new street-walker. However, Geronimo’s expansionist plans incite Domingo’s jealousy, leading to a messy split at an inopportune time.

Whether together or apart, Geronimo and Domingo will do junkie things as junkies do, which isn’t very pretty to watch, but it is relentlessly honest. Similarly, Sereno is determined to reinforce the notion of two radically different Hawaii’s, immediately following up every glamour shot of the coast line or the night club with an up-close-and-personal look at the underclass squalor of Dante’s life.

As Geronimo, Dante Basco (a veteran of the Awesome Asian Bad Guys) is a tightly coiled spring, always ready to explode with rage. Nadine Nicole Heimann is also plenty erratic as Domingo, while Katherine Emily Mills is a disturbing picture of innocence as the girl he tries to recruit. However, the demonically charismatic Khalil Kain steals scene after scene as Geronimo’s more ruthless rival. Some might consider it a dubious honor, but Kain’s nameless antagonist might be the most distinctive movie pimp performance since Morgan Freeman’s Oscar nominated turn in Street Smart.

Although there is a bit of an over-reliance on flashback devices, Sereno’s execution is still pretty smooth and the ensemble performances are faultless. Still, there is no getting around the fact this is one downer narrative. Nevertheless, it is genuinely a film of and by Hawaii, featuring some breakout-worthy work from its principals. Recommended for those who appreciate gritty, street smart dramas, Paradise Broken launches today (8/11) on VOD, from MarVista Entertainment.