Father Geek here... Well, someday I'm going to make it over to Honolulu's HIFF. This year I got as close as Seattle, Wash. 2 weeks after the fact, But standing on the dock of the bay peering out into the vast Pacific sunset I felt the call of the islands deep in my bones, or maybe it was just the bitterly cold wind sweeping over the choppy water making me long for the warmth of Hawaii's beaches. At any rate I thought of Moon Yun Choi and Albert Lanier on those distant shores, and the fest they've written repeatedly about on our site. Here's Albert's final report... they sure had some nice flicks out there this year...
THE HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2004 FINAL WRAP-UP...
by Albert Lanier
The 24th Annual Hawaii International Film Festival-held from
Thursday, October 21 to Sunday, October 31- has long since bit the dust
here in Honolulu but before images of the 51 films I saw here quickly
recede, I thought it best to drag myself away from the personal tasks
and errands that have taken up so much of my time recently and finish up
my coverage of HIFF for the fine folks that read Aint It Cool News.
2004 has all the marks of a successful year for HIFF. There was
certainly substantial audience turnout during the fest primarily during
the opening and closing weekends of the event. HIFF garnered a number of
sell-out screenings and no doubt having a well-known Asian film star
like Maggie Cheung present serving on this year's jury helped give the
festival a slightly more prominent profile (and maybe a little more
media attention).
There was a big difference between this year's HIFF and the 2003
festival. Last year, staffers and volunteers seemed to be caught off
guard by the sudden surge of filmgoing energy especially with crowds
lining up to see films during the fest's successful opening weekend
which featured a packed screening of the Scarlett Johansson film GIRL
WITH A PEARL EARRING.
This year, HIFF personnel appeared more confident and prepared to
handle a busy, frenzied and successful festival.
HIFF also invested more money in advertising and marketing this
year with commercials- featuring a hula dancer with a skirt made of
strips of film negatives-touting the festival shown consistently on
local tv.
No doubt a big reason why HIFF was able to invest in tv ads springs
from the financial largesse of their major sponsor Louis Vuitton who has
been the festival's presenting sponsor for the past couple of years.
But what really made the 2004 edition of HIFF stand out? For one, a
surf section that included such well-known surf films on the festival
circuit like SINGLEFIN YELLOW and RIDING GIANTS as well as the world
premieres of the documentary SPROUT and director Chris Molloy's A
BROKEDOWN MELODY, part of the Moonshine Conspiracy's gallery of films.
The Hawaii film section appeeared to have a appealing and
wide-ranging selection of films spanning from the beautifully
photographed teen centered short KAMEA to the appealing doc about
ukulele musician Bill Tapia TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA to the deliberately
cheesy and brutally bloodsoaked local horror film PUBLIC ACCESS: EPISODE
04 Of 05. It seems you could easily find a film in this section to
delight or disgust you.
In addition, the Hawaii section featured a new Youth in Film
subsection and a night consisting of student films produced in
association with University of Hawaii's fledging Academy of Creative
Media film school.
I already mentioned Maggie Cheung but this year's Golden Maile
award jury seemed top drawer though smaller (normally HIFF has a five
person jury) than usual this year. Judging this year's entries in
Features and Documentaries alongside Cheung was Australian actor David
Wenham and film critic and academic Emanuel Levy.
Since I've talked about the jury, I might mention their picks which
were announced during an awards ceremony held on the night of Wednesday,
October 27 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Monarch Room.
Katsuhito Ishii's TASTE OF TEA (CHA NO AJI) about an offbeat family
nabbed the top Golden Maile as Best Feature Film beating out fellow
nominees the Thai film BAYTONG, South Korean Director Im Kwom Taek's LOW
LIFE (which had its U.S. premiere at HIFF), the Chinese drama SOUTH OF
THE CLOUDS and the Taiwanese/U.S. co-production TAKE OUT.
The Australian film MR PATTERNS which examines the aboriginal art
world took the Best Documentary Golden Maile with a Special Jury Prize
for Honorable Mention going to the South Korea/ U.S. co-production AND
THEREAFTER which dealt with Korean war brides.
Both films were selected over the other nominated docs IN THE
REALMS OF THE UNREAL from the U.S., THE MAGICAL LIFE OF LONG TACK SAM
from Canada and STILL, THE CHILDREN ARE HERE also a U.S. production.
Audience awards went to the Australian comedy GETTIN' SQUARE (Best
Feature), the locally made STEVE MAI'I (Best Documentary) and another
locally shot and produced film KAMEA (Best Short).
The Hawaii Film and Videomaker award went to the well-made short
SILENT YEARS directed by local commercial director James Sereno and
based a couple of poems written by well-known Hawaii author Lois Ann
Yamanaka
Maggie Cheung was bestowed with an Achievement in Acting paying
tribute to her remarkable range of roles spanning at least 75 films.
Oscar nominated DP Allen Daviau was given the Eastman Kodak award
for Excellence in Cinematography for work covering such films as E.T.,
EMPIRE OF THE SUN and VAN HELSING.
Finally, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema which sends
a jury to HIFF to bestow an award for Best Asian Film gave top honors to
the drama REWIND from South Korea directed by Kim Hak-Soon. Special
Mention was given to Director Tsuchiya Yutaka's PEEP "TV" SHOW.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FILMS?
Yes, I guess It's about time to talk about this year's crop of
films at HIFF.
The total number of features, shorts and documentaries-168
according to official sources-was slightly smaller than in the past
couple of years.
In terms of overall film quality, this year's fest was generally
superior to 2003. One reason was that HIFF had better U.S. and World
Premieres than last year with films like STEAMBOY and LOW LIFE making
their U.S. debuts here.
Another point in HIFF 2004's favor was that a greater number of
excellent to superb films screened at the fest compared to last year.
For example, there were only two outstanding films last year-the first
rate South Korean feature SAVE THE GREEN PLANET and the French drama THE
FLOWERS OF EVIL.
This year, there were at least three outstanding films which I saw
near the middle and toward the end ( as compared to watching GREEN
PLANET and FLOWERS OF EVIL) near the end of the festival.
The best feature films screening at HIFF this year were a divergent
lot:
PRIMER-Directed by Shane Carruth, this is without a doubt the
finest debut film I have seen this year. Carruth-who wrote and stars in
the film as one of two engineers who create machines that bend time to
their purposes-creates a highly believeable dramatic atmosphere for his
story. Carruth takes a methodological approach to his subject matter,
grounding his story in scientific technique and thought process. PRIMER
is not a film of answers but a series of questions and rationalizations.
STEAMBOY-Animator Katsuhiro Otomo's latest film years after his
brilliant previous effort AKIRA. Set in England in the mid-19th century,
Otomo surrounds his major character-young pre-pubescent Ray Steam and
his father and grandfather-with "technology" of the era (pipes, gauges,
levers) as well as slightly more advanced innovations to demonstrate the
onslaught of science and encroaching technology on the rapidly
industrializing world
in addition creating a crackling good action/adventure film that rivals
if not dwarfs many overbudgeted live-action epics.
NOTRE MUSIQUE-The great Jean-Luc Godard's latest film is not a
masterpiece but it is a compelling and suprisingly structured feature
from transports the filmgoer from hell to heaven (well, Godard's
versions anyway). Godard holds out the possibiities of transcendance
beyond the messy, bloody, strife-torn world we reside on but one will
never recieve pat, manufactured answers as to how to attain some
terrestrial nirvana from the man himself.
BREAKING NEWS-Terrific actioner directed by the talented Johnnie To
about criminals on the run, the intense police lieutenant who seemsto
have no other purpose in life than to capture the crooks and a female
police officer who wants to improve the Hong Kong Police Department
public profile by controlling public relations. These characters all
come together during a hostage standoff in a residential apartment
building. To and his screenwriters use broad humor and well-staged and
filmed shootouts (including the film's riveting opening gun battle done
in one take) to keep the audience sated but make salient points about
the manipulation of the news media and the polluting effects of public
relations on law enforcement entities and criminals alike.
I also got see a couple of short programs at HIFF for the first
time in a couple of years. What stood out? Shawn Ku's
terrific musical short PRETTY DEAD GIRL a chirpy, happy yet macabre film
about a morgue attendant who only has eyes for female corpses and the
nurse at the hospital he works at who loves him from afar. An extremely
well-done student short.
David Marmor's SPIN is an intelligent short subject about a
physicist who mathematically and scientifically analyzes the reasons why
he wasn't killed when he collided with a car while riding his bike.
Lancelot Van Naso's THE SURPRISE from Germany is an amusing film
about the perfect romantic dinner gone hilariously awry.
Finally, Grace Lee's BEST OF THE WURST takes the director on a tour
of wurst stands in Berlin, Germany asking Berliners eating currywurst
(curry powder and paste smeared on a sausage) about their city and
trying to decid whether she should move to Berlin.
There were a healthy number of fine features and documentaries many
of which I have already mentioned or reviewed in previous dispatches to
AICN such as MY LITTLE BRIDE, OVERNIGHT, DOUBLE DARE, JASMINE WOMEN,
SILMIDO, CLEAN, HANA AND ALICE, CUBA LIBRE, and AZUMI.
Some other good films that screened at HIFF that are worth noting
are:
SWIMMING UPSTREAM-Directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Geoffrey
Rush and Judy Davis, this biopic of 50's Australian swimming champion
Tony Fingleton who endured a somewhat dysfuctional family life growing
up with an alcoholic father who pushed him into swimming competitively
is an effective though standard paint-by-numbers screen biography. Fine
performances by Rush and Davis here especially Rush who takes what could
have been a thankless beersodden character and infuses the role with
some pathos. Direction by Mulcahy is solid as well especially the
swimming sequences which (thanks to use of split screens and box
screens) brim with enregy and are highly watchable.
LOW LIFE-Im Kwon Taek's latest drama stretches in time from the
late 50's to the late 60's in South Korea and centers on tough guy
Taewong Choi who rises from rough and tumble gang member to head of
company that oversees the procurement of contracts for U.S. military and
South Korean Government projects. Im and screenwriters Hwang Jo Yoon and
Im Yoon Hyung have crafted here in LOW LIFE a film that is really about
the inherent, festering nature of graft and corruption in South Korea's
past. Having a criminal as the main protagonist ensures the film's dual
nature (gangster as member of society/ metaphor for decrepit nature of
ethics and corruption within society) and make the point clear that
South Korea's government agencies (such as the CIA) and entities are far
more criminal in their behavior than even Choi who at let has a sense of
honor, duty and obligation even if he is a thug with a business sense.
TARNATION-A ludicrously overrated documentary that is a
computer-edited quilt of home movies, video and photographs assembled
and directed by actor Jonathan Caouette. Ostensibly about Caouette's
mother Renee and her difficult state of mental health, TARNATION is
really more a self-aggrandizing portrait of Caouette utilizing videos he
shot of himself as a teenager in the 1980's. Still, TARNATION is a
triumph of sorts in form (the use of video and snapshots edited along
with other backgrounds is first rate and weirdly creative) here as a
documentary about family dysfunctionality that is clearly meant to be a
underground movie to the nth degree. This film will unsettle any
filmgoer who has only seen generic hollywood films. TARNATION is like
Kenneth Anger on acid or Andy Warhol on crack. It doesn't assault the
senses; it tries to annihilate them.
And having written the above about TARNATION, I feel it is time to
move on and close this chapter of coverage on HIFF 2004.
Some HIFF devotees here in Honolulu might feel totally sated by this
year's fest.
As Jason Bateman would say on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT "I have no
problem with that."
END
| 
