Posted on: Friday, October 25, 2002

HIFF is ready to roll

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

"YMCA Baseball Team" kicks off this year's festival. Described as a zany sports comedy showcasing South Korean humor and patriotism, it's set in the Korea of 1905 — a nation not yet divided but suffering under Japanese imperialism. Courtesy Hawaii International Film Festival . . . Film festival details • When: Nov. 1-10 on O'ahu; Nov. 8-10 on Maui, Moloka'i, Kaua'i and the Big Island • Where: On O'ahu, at Dole Signature Theatres, the Doris Duke at the Academy, Consolidated's Waikiki 1 and 3 Theatres and the Blaisdell Center; one free screening at Sunset on the Beach at Queen's Surf Beach. On Kaua'i, at Kaua'i Community College's Performing Arts Center; on Maui, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theatre, Maui Community College Ka Lama No. 103, and the amphitheater at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua; on Moloka'i, at Kaunakakai School; on the Big Island, at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo's Campus Center, Palace Theatre and Keauhou Cinema • Tickets: $10 opening-night gala; $7 general ($6 children, military, students, seniors 62 and older); $1 discount for matinees before 6 p.m. • Hotlines: O'ahu, 528-4433; Kaua'i, (808) 823-8444; East Hawai'i, (808) 969-9412; West Hawai'i, (808) 322-2323; Maui, (808) 573-4242; Moloka'i, (808) 553-3455 . . . Films with a buzz Nominees for best feature film: • "Eyes of Beauty" (China) • "KT" (Japan) • "Mr. & Mrs. Iyer" (India) • "Somewhere Over the Dreamland" (Taiwan) • "Women's Prison" (Iran) Nominees for best documentary: • "Daughter From Yan'an" (Japan) • "A Dream in Hanoi" (USA) • "Georgie Girl" (New Zealand) • "Spellbound" (USA) • "A Wedding in Ramallah" (Australia) Opening-night film: • "YMCA Baseball" (South Korea), 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1, Waikiki 2; $10. Post-screening reception/party at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center rooftop, catered by Indigo Eurasian Cuisine, $50 Closing-night film: • To be announced, 8:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Waikiki 3, $7 . . . HIFF by numbers • 50,000: Number of HIFF film guides published and ready to be picked up • 200: Number of films to be screened, from features to shorts • 135: Number of "film packages," meaning stand-alone features and collated film shorts • 18: Number of world premieres • 36: Number of U.S. premieres • 7: Number of dollars for a ticket • 5: Number of O'ahu theaters where films will be shown • 5: Number of jurors who will select award-winning films • 1: Number of films with live-orchestra accompaniment . . . HIFF program guide • It's available at the festival box office at Dole Signature Theatres and at all Starbucks and Blockbuster outlets statewide. Jurors • Keiko Araki, director of the Pia Film Festival • Mabel Cheung, Hong Kong filmmaker • Richard Chew, film editor • Ahmed Lateef, representative of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association • Chris Lee, movie producer and co-founder of the University of Hawai'i's cinematic and digital arts degree program. HIFF ticket outlets • Box office at Dole Signature Theatres, opens to the public today: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 3). 528-4433. • Tickets also are available at the door at venues, one hour before showtime, unless all are sold. • Web site for information: www.hiff.org How to order tickets • HIFF box office sales: Cash, check, credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express), or vouchers (for HIFF 'Ohana members). 528-4433 • Fax orders: 525-5303 . Credit cards only; tickets must be picked up at the HIFF box office the next business day. Tickets will not be mailed. • There are no Internet sales. • Free tickets to seminars: HIFF box office or venues, first-come, first-served; limit four tickets per person per seminar • Refunds: Only at HIFF box office, subject to $2 fee unless event is canceled or rescheduled by HIFF HIFF 'Ohana perks • Gold membership: $1,000. Includes two statewide Flash Passes (good for all showings statewide) or 60 tickets to festival events; priority admittance; eight tickets to HIFF Spring Film Festival; invitation to all receptions • Silver membership: $500. Includes two O'ahu Flash Passes or 40 tickets; priority admittance; six tickets to Spring Festival; invitation to receptions • Bronze membership: $250. Includes 20 tickets to festival; priority admittance; four tickets to Spring Festival; invitation to reception • Premium membership: $100. Includes 12 tickets to festival, two to Spring Festival • Individual membership: $50. Includes six tickets to festival, one to Spring Festival • Student membership: $35. Includes six tickets to festival, one to Spring Festival

Like a mixed-plate bento, the 22nd annual Hawai'i International Film Festival — unreeling Nov. 1 through 10 at five O'ahu spots — assembles a savory feast of movies big and small to satisfy a variety of palates.

On the menu: A South Korean feature about baseball and nationality, a documentary about the right to carry arms, documentaries on island music-makers such as Keola Beamer and the late Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake, a Chinese feature on three women whose lives intersect, and a documentary about Filipinos during World War II.

These films continue on the festival tradition of fostering understanding among ethnicities, particularly with Asian and Pacific cultures, that has been the festival's signature since its humble free-admission beginnings more than two decades ago, said Chuck Boller, executive director. While expenditures have leveled somewhat, the quest to showcase top-echelon films remains the same, Boller said.

For the first time, the festival has taken on a title sponsor, Louis Vuitton Hawai'i, to help keep the festival financially viable.

"We're still all about cultural understanding, trying to give a cross-section of films from countries and peoples of Asia, the Pacific and North America," said Boller. "The goal hasn't changed — to showcase films that reflect life."

This year's spotlight will be on South Korea and Shanghai.

South Korea, because the state is marking 100 years of Korean immigration to Hawai'i.

"We've got a number of Korean films and film stars here for the festival," said Boller. The expanded Spotlight on Korea segment is funded by the Korean community here and in South Korea.

Shanghai, because HIFF is a sister festival of the Shanghai International Film Festival. A delegation from Shanghai is attending the event. In return, a group from Hawai'i will visit the Shanghai festival next June.

Movie buffs with a voracious appetite for Asian and Pacific films, including a few homegrown products, will find a lot to chew on in this year's list.

The films are the stars, with only a few personalities adding their luminous presence to the festival. However, several actors, including the Philippines' Cesar Montano — appearing in "New Moon (Bagong Buwan)" — have achieved superstar status and may create a local stir.

"We have a problem placing him a room at the Sheraton Waikiki (one of the sponsoring hotels) because all the Filipino housekeeping crew get all excited," said Boller.

Those who seek celebrity and flash probably need to look elsewhere. While there are a few notables among the attendees, this is Hawai'i, not Hollywood, so traditional star-gazers may find the pickings slim, Boller added.

All told, Boller said, HIFF 2002 will assemble about 200 titles in 135 packages (shorter films are lumped together for convenient billing and viewing) to be shown at Dole Signature Theatres, the Doris Duke at the Academy, Consolidated's Waikiki 2 and 3, and the Blaisdell Center. Plus Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki, where "Heart of the Sea," a film on late surfer Rell Sunn, will be premiered for free Nov. 2 as part of the city's Sunset on the Beach program.

Festival notables include:

• Lee Woo-jeung and Shim Jae-myung, the husband-and-wife producers behind the opening-night South Korean feature, "YMCA Baseball Team," a film celebrating South Korean nationalism set against America's favorite pastime. Also in attendance: Song Kang-ho, a recognizable figure in the Korean community.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times' syndicated film critic, hosting "Democracy in the Dark," his scene-by-scene analysis and commentary on Orson Welles' acclaimed "Citizen Kane." A "Kane" screening is set for 6 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Doris Duke at the Academy, with Ebert's discussions set for 3:30 p.m. Nov. 4, 5 and 6.

• Pat Morita, best known for his "Karate Kid" movie and Arnold ("Happy Days") TV roles, co-stars with Mako in "Talk to Taka," a Korean short film, in which Morita portrays a sushi chef.

• Elizabeth Lindsey-Buyers, an actress-turned-filmmaker, who will narrate her award-winning documentary "Then There Were None" (HIFF 1995), in a presentation with the Honolulu Symphony, Nov. 1 and 3 at Blaisdell Concert Hall.

• The aforementioned Montano Boller said HIFF films continue to be unrated, so some caution is advised. Some films have nudity and violence — so the queasy beware.

Boller's recommendations:

• "YMCA Baseball Team," the Korean entry based on a true story. "It's ... about a little baseball team that could. A story about a winning team, which helped identify a nation under Japanese control. Heart-warming and funny."

• "Bowling for Columbine," an American entry by Michael Moore. "It's a very revealing, perhaps controversial, look at violence."

• "The Maori Merchant of Venice," a "Shakespearean" entry from New Zealand that Maori audiences have not yet seen.

• "Russian Ark," a Russian feature by Alexander Sokurov, shot inside the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg. "It's a nonedited 96 minutes that's very clever, with the camera as (the director's) eyes, going through different areas of Russian history."

• "Heart of the Sea," a premiere of a documentary by Charlotte Lagarde and Lisa Denker, on local surf legend Rell Sunn — the late Queen of Makaha. "It's a touching look at her spirit."

• "An Untold Triumph: America's Filipino Soldiers," a world premiere by director Noel "Sonny" Izon and co-producer Stephanie J. Castillo, that chronicles the role Filipinos played in World War II. "It's a moving documentary about a people the world still knows little about."