Satan's Luau

AMERICANese: A+

I went in thinking that this movie, because of the story that it is based on, might be a very political movie -- since it deals with relationships and race, a real tightrope because sometimes those things can be hard to capture without being overly expositive (too much talking) or preachy (too much saying these grand statements that normal people do not remotely talk like)

However, much like Charlotte Sometimes before, it is about the characters and the situations they are in. An old man who longs for his wife, and does not want to be alone. A middle aged man who has had a failed marriage, and now may have lost the one chance he had for real love because he could not accept her -- not learning the key relationship principle that sometimes it is better not to be right (learning also you can't shape another person into who you want them to be). The young hapa woman who needs to take control of her life, and is growing to realize things about her family and friends -- and her former middle aged lover. The middle aged woman with a past that haunts her, and makes her unable to connect in a relationship, though she desperately wants the future to be better.

The way I described it makes it sound really hard coded, as if the puppets go through all the motions in a predictable way. However, I noticed that this movie really captures those universal things that everyone, no matter the race, goes through -- and not with overwrought dialog or incredulous situations -- this movie is a very quiet movie, the words are not the only way in which the story is told.

The way the characters look at each other, the things they do, the things they are concerned with -- are everyday things, everyday situations, but we can connect with them, understand them, know things about them even without their words -- largely because at some point in our lives we have been there too or have helped someone when they were there.

This is not to say that watching this film drains you or gives you the feeling of watching paint dry -- the movie really immerses you into it much like a mystery or suspense film, where you think you may know what will happen next ... or you start to take sides with what the characters deserve or can hope for.

As I told SD, there was this one instance in the film where the politics came out full force in the dialogue, and at the time, it broke my immersion into the film -- like scratching the record to me because I was so into the movie, not even concerned about those things. I thought it may have been a misstep because it was going along so well, but later the jarring made sense -- it was comparatively about how deep a person's love for is another ... is it so deep that you can accept everything about the other person unconditionally? Or, will you be hung up on something the other person really cannot change -- or be unable to accept their rationalization of why they are the way they are

At the end of the day, it is a very human film -- and I find Eric Byler's movies to be very unique in capturing emotion and drama in realistic ways. It was interesting because during the Q&A after the film, he had made remarks that beyond the politics and having Asian Americans in the film, he made an art film about relationships. Maybe he meant that there is a great beauty in capturing the lives of his characters from a universal emotional perspective that everyone can appreciate.

It was extremely well acted -- I found it odd because one man in the audience during the Q&A asked Byler if it was hard finding Asian American actors of quality, as opposed to, I suppose, white actors of quality -- eye opening, isn't it? This racism thing ... hooboy

Also during the Q&A, Byler revealed that the film got distribution last week, so if you do not get to see it this coming Saturday -- it will likely be making a stop at your local indie film theater at some point in the spring.

Very highly recommended film -- Byler is definitely a rising star as a director, and his movies are really fantastic.