Aloha Summer

  For the section on the "Angry Hawaiian," "Aloha Summer" was one of the films we decided to watch. Although the film was mainly a coming of age story, it featured a prominent, antagonistic portrayal of a Hawaiian character that implied racism towards "haoles." In a nutshell, all I can really say was that the movie was overall very cheesy. There were some good points in it and it was in turn very interesting, but the logic of the film was really off, especially where love was involved.

  Apart from it just being interesting, I really liked the idea of featuring several characters of different ethnicities interacting with each other positively. Sure, it has its moments of friction (namely with said antagonist), but the film really put an emphasis on the friendships that were made between them. Before this, there weren't that many films that had given a lot of screen time or shown a lot of interactions between whites and non-whites (or giving some backstory to supporting non-white roles), so it was very refreshing to see. The topic of the film was also very relatable, so it was pretty interesting to watch.

  However, the "angry Hawaiian" character's portrayal was something I had a problem with. Yeah, he threw some racist remarks and implied some racial disgust towards the tourists which makes him as a character pretty "bad." But what I think people tend to overlook that he was also reacting angrily due to  his protectiveness over his sister, which is something I think anyone would be angry with, especially if  a player was going to try and use her. Having a sibling myself, I think I would have been just as mean and angry towards someone I thought was trying to take advantage or could potentially hurt my sister. So to me, using his supposedly "unfair angry protectiveness" to justify his own death is wrong. It only annoyed me even more when his sister, after his death, decided to marry the guy that her brother had tried so hard to keep away. What was more ridiculous was the fact that this reformed player somehow got an attitude adjustment within a short time span of interacting with her.

  All in all, I think the film did a poor job in development of the character relationships, as well as creating the overall perceptions of some of the characters. 

Phineas and Ferb Hawaiian Vacation

  For the Tiki Tacky Too section, a lot of same cliches of curses and the discovery of tiki idols that bring coincidental misfortune are used time and time again in these movies. It's become a very common concept in tiki movies, such as "She Gods of Shark Reef" and the Brady Bunch in Hawaii special. The way it starts off is that same too, which is usually by removing the tiki from its sacred ground. It is then that the tiki god/idol places a "curse" on whoever removed it, and can only be lifted when said idol is returned to its original spot.
  However, after watching Phineas and Ferb's Hawaiian Vacation, I have to give it some props for making the turn out of the cliche cursed tiki idol element different from how the problem was solved in past movie plots. Though the show starts off the same way with the same cursed tiki premise, the show shows a lot more "self awareness" in the characters of the commercialized state of tikis (ex. tiki merchandise). They drove this point home when the character Candace finds out that the tiki necklace that she found was not indeed cursed (though the situations she was put in implied otherwise), but was actually a fake tiki used to tell customers when their tables were ready at a local tiki-volcano themed restaurant.
  I don't usually watch this show a lot, but from the episodes I've watched it's a good show with humor (not to mention interesting song bits). But when I found out that they made an episode that took place in Hawaii, I was kind of iffy on the turn out, but when I watched it, it wasn't that bad. I liked the twist that they put in the end, especially. The ending really set itself apart from what other shows/movies have tried and done in the past, making it kind of "refreshing" (a little) from the usual stereotypical portrayals in Hawaii films about tiki. Overall, I thought this episode was good and found it rather enjoyable.

South Pacific

  Out of all of the movie that we watched, I really enjoyed this one the most (but that could also be because I have a bias toward musicals, especially those made by Rodgers and Hammerstein). The storyline follows two couples : Lt. Cable and Liat and Emile and Nellie. Lt. Cable is a marine flying in to Bali Hai, where he meets the matriarch of the island, Bloody Mary, who plays matchmaker with him and her daughter, Liat. Emile on the other hand, is a middle-aged French plantation owner, with two half-Polynesian children, who becomes romantically involved with Nellie, a U.S. Navy nurse. However, due to the social pressures and frowned upon opinion of interracial relationships (of the marital nature), the couples end up facing many obstacles. In the end, only one couple manages to overcome this.
  This movie, I thought, made a really bold statement that other movies in the past weren't brave enough to do at the time. Though the interracial relationship between Liat and Lt. Cable didn't become successful, the movie made a valid point in the song "You Have To Be Carefully Taught." Of course people took offense to it, but it was probably because they didn't want to see the truth; society is what teaches things like racism. You're never "born" with it.
  I also thought that this movie did a good job with "softening" Lt. Cable and Liat's relationship. After reading the excerpt from Tales of the South Pacific (which is what the play was based on), the relationship seemed like it was supposed to be a lot more "physical" love than how it was portrayed in the movie. If anything I think that the movie made it seem more like a love at first sight type of romance in contrast. However, it proved to be faulty due to the fact that Lt. Cable was so taken aback by Bloody Mary's remark that they would have beautiful babies together, that he decides to tell Liat right then and there that they can't be together. And this was right after he had given her his precious pocket watch too!
  But I'll give Lt. Calbe the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Lt. Cable did love Liat in some way (but evidently not enough). I also see the relationship as kind of that with a man and his mistress (although it was not said in the movie, Lt. Cable did have a sweetheart back home that he was going to marry). He loves her to an extent, but not enough to leave his fiance/wife. Instead he gives her precious gifts to compensate or to show how much he cares.