mweston

This is a wonderful parody of Hong Kong action films, and also of "Star Wars," "Titanic," Quentin Tarantino, and probably many other things I've forgotten.

The film starts with two kids in an airplane piloted by the father of one of them, somewhere over the south Pacific. Marvin is not the pilot's son and is clearly Trouble--he refuses to stop kicking the back of the seat in front of him. Sione is the son of the pilot, and grows up to become the title character under the training of Master Magasaki. He doesn't *seem* much like a Ninja, though. He's more like a big, bumbling kid.

The look is intentionally that of a low budget Asian action movie, which is probably at least partially motivated by the fact that *this* film has a low budget. None of the acting is very good, many of the characters are dubbed (badly, for effect), and it looks like it was shot on video. In one particularly funny scene, you see a microphone stick down into the shot, and you think that it is a mistake. The second time, you decide it's probably intentional, at which point you see one of the characters on screen reach up, grab the microphone boom, and begin to use it as a weapon.

But wait! There's more! It's also a musical! And a floor wax! No, not really a floor wax, but it is a musical, complete with an Elvis, and with go-go dancers who suddenly appear for a musical number and just as suddenly disappear.

This is a film of continuous little jokes, like a Ninja having to move his mask each time he wants to take a drink. Think of it like "Airplane!" for the 21st century.

Seen on 11/8/2002 at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival, where an earlier showing was the U.S. premiere. Assuming it gets home video or theatrical distribution, you should definitely seek it out.

I found little to recommend this film except decent production values and few subtitles to read since there is so little dialog. At least to my western eyes, it seems to consist of random passionless sexual encounters, or worse, random *hostile* sexual encounters punctuated by more hostility (e.g., slaps, spitting in the other's face). The hostility might have been trying to say something, but it wasn't clear to me and it was sure unpleasant to watch. And the rest was just boring.

I need to redo my rating scale so that I can give this even fewer stars, but for now this is about right.

Seen on 11/3/2002 at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival. This was the U.S. premiere screening, and the producer (Eun Lee) made a few content-free introductory remarks.

If anyone can explain what the meaning of this film is, please let me know. Seriously.

This is a documentary about eight kids in the national spelling bee. It follows each both before and during the nationals. It includes kids from privileged backgrounds (e.g., San Clemente) and otherwise (e.g., a Texas farm and a poor part of Washington, D.C.). It includes kids who parents push them, those who push themselves, and those who don't push at all. It includes kids returning to the nationals from previous years, and those who are there for the first time. The structure is cleverly tied together with a visual consisting of eight vertical sliced photographs of the kids, which helps you keep track of them as they are introduced, and later as they drop out in the national competition.

There are some great moments, including when the mother of one contestant is being interviewed and the family dog is licking her leg (which is ignored). Another moment is a sign on a Hooters restaurant giving "Congradulations" to the local winner.

Overall, I can't think of a documentary that I've liked better than this one. There is an excellent blend of humor, tension, and drama. There are eight slices of American life, and views into eight American families. It's just wonderful, and I really hope it gets some distribution beyond the film festival circuit.

I saw this on 11/3/2002 at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Maile award for best documentary. The editor (Yana Gorskaya) was at the screening to talk. She said that there was a total of 165 hours of material, and that they originally followed 13 kids. Dropping five of them was a very painful decision.

If you have a chance, see this film!