By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

I sort of wanted to defy expectation," filmmaker Sean Terry says of his work.

The Iolani senior did just that at the recent 'Ohina Short Film Showcase with his piece called "Winning Style." The audience went wild over the story of a bumbling- but-sweet high school student who has to stand up to a bully for the girl he likes. Sean wrote, produced, directed and edited the piece. He also choreographed the realistic and sometimes hilarious martial arts scenes (he has a brown belt in Okinawan karate) and acted in the role of the hero's mentor.

The project was for a course, "Fiction and Film," that he took last school year.

"It's reserved for seniors," Sean explains, "but I was one of two juniors to get in just because I was able to sort of harass my counselor to put me in there."

This year, Iolani isn't offering any film classes, so Sean devised a plan to keep filmmaking a part of his education. "I asked the school if I could do an independent study in film and they said OK, so that means for the whole year, in order to get a grade, I have to make films. I get a grade for doing something I love."

He also manages to work filmmaking into the rest of his curriculum. "Whenever I have a big project I have to do for class, instead of making a poster or a diorama or something like that, I always ask the teacher if I can do a video. I did one for physics explaining a physics concept and the teacher liked it so much, he said he's going to use it to teach his classes."

As for defying expectations, "Winning Style" accomplished that in a number of ways. Considering it's a movie by and about teenagers, it's amazingly engaging for an adult audience. Unlike much of its genre, it's a martial arts flick with a coherent story. And the biggest twist of all — the good guy gets beat up in the end.

"I thought it would be interesting that the hero would end up losing," said Sean. "Never in a Bruce Lee movie ... does he get beaten up and his master has to come and fight for him."

The honorable way in which the hero fights, despite defeat, leads to the movie's title. The message is nicely sewn up with this line of dialogue: "Jared never gave up until the end. He still lost, but he did it with a winning style, you know?"

Sean wrote the story as variation on the adage "It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game".

"In life," he says, "sometimes despite trying your hardest, you can still fail. I just wanted to convey that sometimes life isn't really fair. The main character has a whole bunch of horrible stuff happen to him. But in the end, he still gets the girl and is still a winner, still a hero."

Sean has his sights on film school and a career in Hollywood. But for now, his latest work is playing in an Iolani physics class.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.