The Hawaii International Film Festival's Spring Showcase, opening Friday and running through April 7, is by necessity a cinema soiree of a significantly different stripe.

Smaller in scale but not light on content, the Showcase traditionally screens films whose releases don't match the festival's normal screening cycle. In its first seven years, the spring showcase has premiered films such as "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "In the Mood for Love."

"(The main festival in) October is a big international show," said film programmer Anderson Le. "The Spring Showcase is more of an arts and cultural event for Hawai'i. It's an appetizer."

This year's Showcase, which marks the beginning of the festival's 25th year, features 30 films from 14 countries.

The Showcase actually kicks off a day early tomorrow with a special screening of the submarine thriller "Phantom Below," produced by the Hawai'i-based Pacific Films and filmed on O'ahu.

The official opening night on Friday features the feel-good indie "Millions," a comic fantasy about young boy who finds a bag of cash, from director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting"), as well as the Chinese feature "The World," set in a Beijing theme park, "The Ballad of Jack and Rose," featuring Daniel Day-Lewis, and "One Missed Call," the latest popcorn-spiller by notorious Japanese director Takashi Miike. All are Honolulu premieres.

Festival executive director Chuck Boller said that while the Showcase generally attracts a higher proportion of local filmgoers than the main festival, hard-core cinema buffs from around the country will be in attendance.

In addition to film clubs from Chicago, Japan and Germany, the Showcase will be attended by 18 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Members of the association have been to festival events before, but this year it's official business. The Hawaii International Film Festival and its Spring Showcase have been officially designated as a qualifying venue for members of the association to screen films for Golden Globe consideration.

Two Sunset on the Beach events are planned, one to recognize the presence of the press association, but no details were available at press time.

The festival is also teaming with the USS Missouri Memorial Association in the presentation of the special focus "Lessons of War," featuring Pacific Rim films that depict courage, perseverance and human compassion. Each of the films — "Out of This World," "Purple Butterfly," "Bread and Roses," and "Tama Tu" — take place during the World War II years.

The closing-night feature is "Veer-Zaara" a sprawling Bollywood musical about an Indian air force pilot and the Pakistani woman whose life he saves.

"It's a great closer," said Boller. "It's an epic film that examines geopolitical issues, religion and racism, and yet it's also touching and intimate."

Aside from "Phantom Below" (at the Hawai'i Theatre Center) and "Bread and Roses" (at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Hono-lulu Academy of Arts), all of the films will be screened at Signature's Dole Cannery Stadium 18.

Tickets are $9 general; $8 for children, seniors, students and military; and $7 for HIFF Ohana members.

Tickets can be purchased at Dole Cannery Stadium 18 Theatres and at www.hiff.org, or call 528-4433 or 528-3456.Í

1931 Massie case, submarine focus of locally made flicks

Among the 30 films collected for the Hawaii International Film Festival's Spring Showcase are two films of special interest to local viewers.

"The Massie Affair," a documentary produced for PBS' "American Experience" series, takes a critical look at Hawai'i's original trial of the century.

Most Hawai'i residents are familiar with the story: In 1931, Thalia Massie, troubled wife of naval officer Thomas Massie, claims she is raped by a group of local men. Police round up five young men from the Kalihi-Palama area under questionable circumstances. Amidst growing racial and social tension in Hawai'i and under increasingly harsh, racist scrutiny from the Mainland, a mixed-race jury deadlocks on a verdict. Before a second trial can be convened, one of the suspects, Joseph Kahahawai, is murdered by a group that includes Thomas Massie and Thalia Massie's mother, Grace Fortescue. Kahahawai's killers are found guilty but, with pressure from Congress and the threat of martial law looming, Territorial Gov. Lawrence Judd reduces the 10-year sentence to one hour in his office.

As Young says in the film, "It fits into a broader context of mistrust and out and out hatred in a way that's initiated by the military occupation (of Hawai'i) and made worse, scratched like a sore that's already infected, by what happened to Kahahawai."

The documentary does a fair bit of reverse-demonizing with its unflattering (but not necessarily unjust) portrayals of Fortescue, the Massies and Admiral Yates Sterling, the white supremacist who championed the Massies' case. The filmmakers fare better when they seek to explain how locals and Mainlanders could have had such divergent perspectives of the scandal.

Compared to the real-life drama of "The Massie Affair," "Phantom Below" — in which the United States and North Korea teeter on the brink of war and a submarine commander seeks to save his crew and his reputation from a mysterious underwater enemy — seems refreshingly light.

The first film project by the local production company Pacific Film Productions, "Phantom Below" (aka "Tides of War") was shot on O'ahu with a 99 percent local crew and 100 local extras. The "Tides of War" version of the film, produced for here! TV, a premium cable network aimed at gay and lesbian audiences, includes a brief kiss between two male characters. "Phantom Below" does not include that scene. (Both versions will be distributed internationally.)

The sexuality of Commander Frank Habley (Adrian Paul), is incidental to the story. Habley is the commander of a submarine attacked by an untrackable North Korean vessel. The attack kills Habley's best friend and puts his reputation and future in question.

Habley's shot at redemption comes on a subsequent mission in which he has to contend not just with the shadowy enemy but with an ambitious lieutenant commander (Mathew St. Patrick) authorized to usurp his leadership.

Despite a relatively low budget, the film is expertly directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and handsomely shot by acclaimed local cinematographer Paul Atkins ("Master and Commander").

Absent any high-art pretensions, the film succeeds as a plot-driven adventure with enough personal intrigue to balance out the streaking torpedoes.

Film Schedule

"Tama Tu" is one of the films that will be presented as part of the spring festival's focus on "Lessons of War."

Tomorrow

• 8 p.m. — Phantom Below (at Hawai'i Theatre Center)

Friday

• 6:30 p.m. — Millions
• 6:45 p.m. — The World
• 8:45 p.m. — Ballad of Jack and Rose
• 10 p.m. — One Missed Call

Saturday

• 12:30 p.m. — Moolaade
• 1 p.m. — Schultze Gets the Blues
• 3:30 p.m. — Out of This World
• 4 p.m. — A Talking Picture
• 6:30 p.m. — Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World
• 7 p.m. — Kung Fu Hustle
• 9:30 p.m. — Mondovino
• 10 p.m. — Oldboy

Sunday

• 12:30 p.m. — Purple Butterfly
• 1 p.m. — Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents
• 3:30 p.m. — Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World
• 4 p.m. — The Massie Affair (with Tama Tu)
• 6:30 p.m. — A Moment to Remember
• 7 p.m. — The World
• 9:30 p.m. — Moolaade
• 10 p.m. — Throw Down

Monday

• 1:30 p.m. — Bread and Roses (at the Doris Duke Theatre)
• 6 p.m. — Mondovino
• 6:30 p.m. — Lost in Time
• 8:45 p.m. — Schultze Gets the Blues
• 9 p.m. — Layer Cake

Tuesday

• 6 p.m . — Gloomy Sunday
• 6:30 p.m. — My Mother the Mermaid
• 8:45 p.m. — Mondovino
• 9 p.m. — Windstruck

April 6

• 6 p.m. — Lost in Time
• 6:30 p.m. — Apres Vous
• 8:45 p.m. — Woman of Breakwater

April 7