10,000 Miles in Under a Week

With my family in New York, while I study in Hawaii, there really isn’t a great opportunity to travel home for a break or certain smaller holidays, like Thanksgiving. However, this Thanksgiving, my dad and I devised a plan to surprise everyone, especially my mom, and have me come home for not only the Thanksgiving holiday, but also my mom’s birthday on November 26th.

On Sunday the 22nd, I left from Honolulu International Airport and arrived at JFK International Airport the following day at 7:00 am. My dad picked me up, telling my mom he had an early meeting, and when she heard the garage door opening later on, she came to the door seeing why my dad was back, and she comes to find her daughter who should be 5,000 miles away! Mom was so surprised, my dad described her reaction as to seeing a ghost who is holding a winning lottery ticket.

I was able to spend time with my family, see some friends, celebrate my mom’s birthday and Thanksgiving, do some Black Friday shopping, and get some much needed R & R, all in a matter of six days, while being totally jet lagged. Even though I had to do homework like crazy beforehand and I’m swamped with work now, I wouldn’t trade my moments home and the look on my mom’s face when she saw me at the door Monday morning for anything.

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HIFF Wrap Up

The Fall 2014 Hawaii International Film Festival was successful to say the least. During the festival I attended the opening press conference and three Films; Stations of the Cross, Kabukicho Love Hotel, and Mary Kom. There were more films that I wanted to see like Beyond the Surface, Imitation Game, and others, but those films either didn’t fit with my schedule or they were sold out. Most of what drove me to the films I was able to see, was my free time while they were playing, but more specifically each one had something that piqued my interest. Stations of the Cross intrigued me, not only because I am a Catholic, but because it seemed interesting how they connected this young girl’s journey to that of Jesus, my classmate and I saw Kabukicho Love Hotel with our interest from the HIFF website description of how a group of people connect to each other, through this surprising “love hotel,” and finally, I have had some previous kickboxing experience and Mary Kom looked like an empowering movie about overcoming the odds.

The highlight of the festival for me personally had to be the opening press conference. I throughly enjoyed the press conference, as it was my first one, I felt like my presence was like being a secret agent- I had the first eyewitness account of what was going on for the festival and I was able to interview a few different individuals responsible for making HIFF possible and effective. Participating in HIFF meant a lot for me. It was an incredible experience that helped me take my learning outside of the classroom. I think this application of learning outside of the classroom is extremely important, because we can become somewhat robotic in the classroom of standard papers and due dates. However, I learned that through the many write ups and reviews I had to complete on the HIFF website, made me realize it’s all up to me to make my deadline. Instead of waiting for the professor to assign us to post on the HPU HIFF blog, I wanted to post a review as soon as possible after viewing the film, because I wanted it to be relevant and up to date.

Other than learning to drive myself to complete my work, there were some lessons I took out of the individual films as well. As for Stations of the Cross, I was influenced for my own filmmaking about the power of a shot, and the directors decision to primarily use still shots and only pan the camera for specific scenes, symbolizing a greater meaning. One thing I really didn’t like about the film Kabukicho Love Hotel  was the vulgarity of the scenes they showed. I felt extremely uncomfortable and it challenged my view of what should be deemed appropriate for a movie theater before it becomes more of a pornographic film.  In the future I hope that HIFF would specify or leave a mark that there is nudity and extreme sexual content in the film’s description. However the benefit of an international film festival is the opportunity to view cultures in their most natural view. Things that are completely customary in one country are completely interesting for another. For example, in Mary Kom it was interesting to see the Indian cuisine and the way it is mixed and eaten with the hands, as well as the traditional celebratory dancing and music soundtrack, even the sound of the Hindi language was beautiful.

Furthermore, I will most certainly be using what I learned about the Fall Festival at HIFF this year, not only from the films, but the need for promptness to provide feedback, in order to be relevant in the media world. In my future profession, it is evident that media requires some sort of immediacy for the people, so I got a small taste of that from the festival. Overall, my experience at HIFF was a positive one, and I can’t believe how quickly it flew by. I would most certainly recommend HIFF to my family and friends for the years to come, as well as remain an active role in my participation.

Respect the Gloves: A Review of Mary Kom

This Saturday after seeing Kabukicho Love Hotel, I stuck around and was wowed by Mary Kom. The way the film was shot, the acting skills the characters displayed, and the overall story had me so enthralled into the plot, that I felt I was transported to India and was watching this woman’s life in fast forward. Mary Kom was an incredible film and I think my favorite of the festival.

Mary Kom is about the life story of a Chuneizung, a woman from India who grows up to become a world champion boxer. The story follows her life from finding a boxing glove in the rubbish, to her starting a family, and getting back into boxing.

The thing I liked the most about the film was the story is not just Chuneizung training to become a boxer. There are so many conflicts she endures throughout her life that unfold onscreen. I think this is extremely effective, because it makes it more realistic to life and we feel heartfelt empathy for her. Throughout the film, the audience is taken through a roller coaster of emotions; the evident sexism angers us when Mary tries to get into boxing initially, we get a sigh of relief and excitement when her father finally accepts that his Chuneizung is now M C Mary Kom when he breaks his stone face against boxing and cheers along at the TV, we feel the chemistry and love between she and her husband and his sweetness “giving her diabetes,” as well as the unconditional mother’s love she has for her sons, and how their struggles reflect on her own self. As an audience member, I love being able to feel what the characters feel, and Mary Kom most certainly did that.

The only downside I found in the film was it started out with Mary and her husband struggling to get to the hospital, so that she could deliver a baby. However, even though the film had an additional flashback later on of this scene, I would have liked to see more of this in the end. I wasn’t entirely sure if this pregnancy was with her twins or with a new child, because of the violence that was occurring during those scenes, but not evident when her twins were born. Despite my slight confusion with this aspect, everything else came full circle in the plot and it even ended with pictures of the real Mary Kom.

The story was powerful, the acting was incredible, and life lessons and motivational inspiration were apparent. Overall, I thought Mary Kom was a knockout! *boxing bells ringing*

Dangerous work: A review of Kabukicho Love Hotel

This Saturday, I saw a double feature of Kabukicho Love Hotel and Mary Kom. I started off with Kabukicho Love Hotel, and it was not what I was expecting, to say the least.

Kabukicho Love Hotel is about a hotel in Japan that is primarily used for sex. They deal with pornography, prostitution, cheating, and it is very dangerous work. The story follows the struggles of young people dealing with situations surrounding the love hotel. However, the main problem I had with the story was it was not clear whose main story it was. There was really no protagonist guiding the plot. Yes, there were several conflict of multiple characters, but it lacked the fundamental main character who we follow the most. Instead, we were given multiple characters, which unfortunately made each of there problems jumbled, rather than focusing on one dramatic one.

Despite this discourse, one thing I throughly enjoyed about the film was the directing. The shots tended to move with the characters and get up close and personal to their faces. I feel like this brought us closer to them and feel sympathy, even though there wasn’t a main individual’s conflict driving the plot.

Another thing that was worthwhile with this type of film was that I indirectly got to learn more about another culture. Before Kabukicho Love Hotel, I had never seen a Japanese film. One thing done well was showing the setting of Japan and where they were. Never having visited Japan, it was interesting to see the type of architecture and how it was similar to New York and Hawaii simultaneously. There were also little things of Japanese customs that I picked up from the film like how they sat on the floor to eat, the huge fish market, soy sauce on tables instead of salt and pepper, little things that would be normal to a Japanese person, but different to me. I think that is a wonderful thing about the film festival, because since it’s international, one can get a new perspective on different cultures and I get to learn more.

On the downside though, I felt even with the vulgarity of the story, some of the scenes were too overtly inappropriate in my opinion. There were times when I was watching the scene and I felt uncomfortable sitting there. Even though this was a film about sex, I felt like at times it was too much for me. Along with this, when the actors weren’t having sex and they were acting through different conflicts, I felt their acting was over dramatic and unrealistic. There were times when I didn’t know if it was supposed to be serious, because of the unnecessary drama that they acted out.

Even though personally the scenes were inappropriate for my eyes, it really woke me up to reality. I’m embarrassed watching this on a screen, but this is happening globally, how do those people living it feel? 

When I first finished the movie, I thought that I didn’t enjoy it at all, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I missed the point of the film in the beginning. The purpose of Kabukicho Love Hotel was not to sugarcoat the illegal sex trade occurring in Japan- it was to expose it. Now that I can see the film like that, I realize the film was quite well done and it was done in more of a documentary style rather than story, because it is reflecting how some people are unfortunately living their lives.

Overall, I personally would not watch the film again, however I am glad I viewed it once. The lessons I took away from it about the struggles people endure may make me uncomfortable, but then it brings me to reality to try to think in their shoes and how they must really feel.

Warriors of God: A Review of Stations of the Cross

Today at 3:30, I saw my first film of the Hawaii International Film Festival. I am upset I haven’t had time to make it to any previous ones, but I felt like Stations of the Cross was a good starting point for the rest of the films to come.

The film started off with a view of the priest sitting around a table with children who are soon to be confirmed. They were discussing temptation and he was teaching them to not only deny modern satanic things, but to tell their classmates to deny them as well. One of the children at the table is our protagonist, a fourteen-year-old girl, Maria. This opening scene and conversation of giving up excess things to bring oneself closer to Jesus, foreshadows the events in her life that unfold before us.

At first with this opening scene, that is a single shot of one view, I thought it would have been better if they used multiple cameras to capture close ups of the children’s faces or at least moved the camera around. However, as scene after scene opened and concluded with the same camera angle shot, I began to realize this was done purposely to create a certain type of feeling, which could be interpreted in many ways. In my interpretation I think this was done to reflect the one sided view of Maria’s family as well as mirror the actual stations of the cross Jesus went through, leading up to his crucifixion. In addition to the still shots, there were only two scenes where the camera moved. This is where I knew for sure the director had done single still shots for the other scenes purposely, and it wasn’t just because they didn’t have another camera or how know to operate it. The two scenes where the camera followed the characters were during the conformation, following the children from the pews to the priest to be blessed, as well as the view of Maria’s grave following up to Heaven. I feel like these two scenes were isolated with the movement, because in relation to Jesus’ crucifixion, the conformation scene was mirrored to step 9.Jesus falls the third time, and this is the final time Jesus travels before he is nailed to the cross, so movement was significant symbolism here. As for the final grave scene, it symbolically portrays Maria’s ascention into Heaven, just as Jesus did back to God the father.   This is my interpretation of the scene shots, but I feel that with such symbolism and religious influence anyone who watches this film, probably has their own view of interpretation.

Another thing I found interesting about the film was the juxtaposition of Maria and modern society, especially when she is at the doctor after falling ill. A girl who is so consumed by the ideals of God and what her church is telling her; don’t be vain, live for God, be selfless, etc., and the doctor says he thinks she has anorexia. This statement flabbergasted me and gave me a wake up call to society. Usually anorexia is caused by ones desire to fit the physical body they desire and doing measures gravely, like denying themselves food, for appearance. However, in Maria’s case she was not malnourishing herself out of vanity, but the exact opposite. She wanted to sacrifice herself to God for the sake of her younger brother’s health. There were many other references to society and the church in parallel, but this one about vanity stuck out to me in particular.

Overall, I felt the film was a bit dramatic, yet extremely well played out. The acting skills and dialog created tension you could feel extending out of the scene and filling the theater. The way the film followed the actual stations of the cross Jesus endured, was done extremely well, and looking back at my notes after the film and really letting it sink in, allowed me to see the serious symbolism that went into its production. I would most certainly recommend this film and I am glad I started the festival off with this one.

The scariest and saddest end to Halloween night

Last night, October 31st, 2014, was Halloween night. I dressed up as Jigsaw from the Saw movies.

However, that wasn’t the most terrifying thing that happened all night. A few of my friends and I went to Art After Dark: A Nightmare on Beretania Street at the Honolulu art museum. It was really fun seeing everyone dressed up in their halloween costumes along with the aesthetics of the artistic atmosphere and galleries surrounding us. I wanted to make a post about my experience there, but I felt the events that unfolded after were worth writing about for my own good.

Warning: I am not sure if this is the most appropriate thing to post about, but it was extremely traumatic and getting my feelings written down will hopefully make me feel better.

After my friend and I returned from the Art After Dark party, we retreated back to my place and were debating if we should take the trip out to Waikiki to continue our Halloween festivities. Shortly after we returned back, about five minutes of being in my apartment, I heard an extremely loud sound that sounded like a car crash. Being on the third floor, we hear street sounds very clearly, but this one was out of the ordinary. I look outside and see branches scattered all around and some guy saying, “He’s bleeding…he’s unconscious, I think he’s dead.” Not believing what we hear, my friend and I head downstairs to see the events that unfolded in front of my window, less than fifty feet away. I come to find the most grotesque view of a man’s mangled body plastered onto the concrete and brains scattered around the area. My heart was beating out of my chest, I felt sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t fight back tears. I was in shock. The few people who were outside were standing like deers in headlights, as I was. We asked if anyone called an ambulance and it human psychology took over, where everyone thought someone else would call. I picked up the phone and dialed 9-1-1. I could not understand nor hear the other line. My ears and body were numb. I just kept saying Kukui plaza, the address, and a man jumped out of the building and is probably dead until the police arrived.

The scariest and most heart wrenching part of it all was when a girl in her twenties, dressed like a cat came down to join us. She looked at the body, covered her mouth, and began to scream and cry as she backed up. We asked if she knew him, and she didn’t respond , but with her screams, we knew she had to. That girl made it real. It just wasn’t a body that projected from the high twenty floors, it was a man, a friend, a son, a real person with a real life, all taken away in an instant on impact.

My friend and I didn’t know what to do after witnessing what we did so we just stayed there- sitting on the floor outside surrounded by caution crime scene tape. From our time there we heard the girl who knew him mention something about an argument, where he was trying to get her back, but she didn’t want him, so he jumped. By about 3 am the finally finished the forensic pictures on the body and the street was cleared up, but the memory remains in my head.

I will never forget that sound of his body crashing through the trees and bones breaking on the pavement, I will never forget that scene of his bloody body on the sidewalk I walk on every day, I will never forget how precious life is and how quickly it can be gone.

HIFF: Connecting the East and West Through Film

Today, I had the honor of receiving a full press pass to the Hawaii International Film Festival, and it was truly a memorable experience.

This was my first press conference and film festival I have ever intended, making my naive curiosity intrigued from the start. Once I completed one of the most important aspects- figuring out what to wear to my first press conference for the Hawaii International Film Festival– the next step was to get my equipment and show up! 

The conference was held at the beautiful Halekulani hotel in Waikiki. When we arrived, we walked into the high ceilinged, wide-open courtyard. After admiring the setting momentarily, we headed up to the second floor and received the holy grail of the HIFF, our full press passes, giving us complete access. As soon as the conference began, there were so many camera’s flashing and audio devices recording, it felt incredible to be part of such an important and worldwide event.

With the different speakers, each gave a part of the festival the piqued my interest even further. At the end of the conference, my classmate and I had the privledge of interviewing Program Director, Anderson Le, Chief Officer, Georja Skinner, and Executive Director, Chuck Boller. I am going to post about each interview in a later post, because each had a myriad of important information. 

The only downside to our interviews was that when we completed them, all the sandwiches that looked very delicious, were all gobbled up. I guess I’ll just have to wait until next years press conference for those sandwiches, but movie theater popcorn will have to satisfy me for now!

Just from the energy and enthusiasm felt at the opening press conference I attended today, I am extremely excited and eager to attend the films presented this year.

Some of the films I have on my list to definitely see are

Beyond the Surface

Big Hero 6

The Imitation Game

Lahaina Noon

Lava

These are just a few that caught my eye, but the HIFF has a numerous amount of films available I will probably be interested in seeing. I think the best part about the varied list of films they are presenting is that it gives me an opportunity to see films I wouldn’t normally and get international perspectives. Overall, I think the energy of the HIFF’s opening press conference foreshadows the success of the rest of the festival to come!

My baby, aka the HPU Swim Club

So I actually did it! With much planning and advertising for it, my swim club has been up and running for three weeks now! Let me back track a little bit…

I joined my first swim team at the age of 10 the Sharks, which is the same name as HPU’s team (anyone see the sign?!), and I fell in love with the sport. I swam varsity all through high school and became captain my senior year. Since there is no swim team here at HPU (yet!), I create my own workouts and swim on my own at my apartment or YMCA. Even though I’m no Michael Phelps, swimming is my passion and I really wanted to create a team/club atmosphere HPU has yet to create with a swim club!

Our first meeting was on Wednesday October, 1st. I was very nervous to say the least. From club carnival I had accumulated over 100 emails of students that were interested in the club. I was so apprehensive that I wouldn’t be able to handle the extensive amount of people there, but in reality the outcome was extremely different. I received a total of 41 responses to my email, 40 of which were mail delivery subsystem error responses, with one response from an actual human, asking if she needed to know how to swim. Well, long story short, three people showed up. Three. However, those three that showed up gave me hope. They showed up the next week, and that week I coached two of the girls, while I taught the other girl, one of the sweetest and willing people I have ever met, how to swim. I taught someone how to swim. Yes, maybe my expectations for a team style practice club was different, but the fact I was able to teach someone something so special to me, that they can carry on forever, is better than any team practice I could hope for.
This week even more people showed up, as we changed the meeting day from Wednesday to Tuesday, and I can only see the club developing more from here. I am extremely proud of myself for taking on this leadership position, and even though it’s hard work and different than my vision, this club is something I can call mine and try to make it better for HPU.

More than just a mustache

In December 1980, a new show called Magnum PI was created by Belisarius Productions, Glen A. Larson Productions, and Universal TV on CBS. Magnum, Tom Selleck, is a Vietnam war veteran who now works as a private investigator in Hawaii dealing with many hard hitting political issues, such as the drug deal in this episode. The show is filmed and based in Hawaii, which reveals a lot about what actually happens beyond what the tourist know of Waikiki beach. Some people during this time period would just watch Magnum PI as pure entertainment. Entertainment it most certainly was, but there was much more issues that were tackled hidden behind mustaches! On a larger scale, Magnum PI has themes focusing around the Vietnam war, sexism, history, and other prominent social issues and values during this time period.

A big part of Magnum PI includes flashbacks from the Vietnam war. This is significant to the 80’s when the show was on TV, because Magnum PI was really the first to break the ice with talking about the Vietnam war, and showed a side to the Vietnam war most people never gave recognition to. Magnum’s frequent flashbacks to the war showed their valiant fighting as well as a sense of unity with the team spirit keeping them together and strong, contrasting to what the public viewed as a wasted war effort.

Another American ideal during this time in the ‘80s was the over-sexualization of women. Magnum PI really depicted women as objects during this period, since women in the show are either showing off their bodies or having a face full of makeup, or something in between those lines. The main women in this episode are Alice, who is portrayed as the ditzy blonde that is nice to look at, but she gets herself too involved in people’s business and the two women staying at the estate, who are at first eye candy, then turned into nuisances when they blow Magnum’s cover at the airport.

Finally, the character’s in Magnum PI represent different countries during the American Revolution through their characterization. Magnum represents America in this context, because of his easy going, loose view on life, and wins his cases on intuition, and living off President Ronald Reagan’s trickle down theory, living off of Master’s estate. On the other hand, Higgins would represent Britain, from his up tight, territorial persona that is stereotypical of Britain. Higgins is trying to control Magnum and make him follow the rules, as he is in control of the estate, Magnum does what he wants, rebels, takes out Master’s ferrari, similar to the way Britain tried to control the American colonies.

Overall, Magnum PI was more than just a show on CBS for entertainment purposes. The show was jam packed with values and problems that were occurring while this show was taking place. Also the fact that it took place in Hawaii, America’s newest beautiful state, revealed to people that Hawaii was not just a tropical paradise; they also had social problems. So next time you watch Magnum PI, look beyond the mustache.

My interview with Victoria Piccoli

This week I interviewed my classmate, a new friend, Victoria Piccoli. Victoria was a pleasure to interview and she had a lot of life experience being just twenty years old. Victoria was born in North Carolina, but with her dad being in the military, she and her family moved around a lot. Victoria being the oldest, she watched her family grow with her younger two brothers and sister. Moving around so much was hard when she was young, but as she grew older Victoria realized that this was beneficial to her, because the fear of leaving a place or new beginnings somewhere else would not be able to stunt her success in the future when she said, “nothing can hold me back.” Victoria’s relationship with her family was good growing up. Her mom wanted her to follow her dreams and her dad being in the military, inspired her to join at age 18. For Victoria, love was where she least expected it. While being in the military, Victoria met the love of her life,Arnes Hadzik, and now husband for over a year. Deeply in love, Victoria made the difficult decision to leave her home town and move to Hawaii, where Arnes was being stationed next, joining the Hawaiian Army National Guard. It wasn’t all easy sailing though when Victoria first announced her engagement to her parents, having only met Arnes once. However, they trusted Victoria’s decision, and off she went with her new husband to Hawaii. Her initial reaction to the island life was a defined as she said, “culture shock,” but being with that one person she truly can rely on and grow old with has made it worth while. With Victoria’s past of moving around a lot, she doesn’t see Hawaii as a place she wants to finally settle down, Hawaii is more of a “pit stop” for her. A challenge Victoria revealed to me has to do with her hobby of photography. Victoria has her own photography website and does event and portrait photography. However, since moving to Hawaii, it has been hard to promote her business and as she said, “get her foot in the door” not having many connections here yet. Even so, with Victoria coming back to school, she hopes in the future to have a career in graphic design, starting a family with Arnes, and ideally living in a big house in Texas with a community atmosphere. With all the accomplishments and milestones Victoria has achieved in her life thus far, I can only predict what success she will have in the future awaiting her.