Children of the Water

  This has actually been a short story that I've written a while back in high school that I'd still like to see one day done in film. Basically, my movie idea for "Children of the Water" takes place in a somewhat post-apocalyptic Hawaii. It's not too very far in the future, maybe a hundred years or so (not drastically futuristic). In this time period, a huge environmental change has occurred. Not too many years after present day, a huge natural disaster occurs and causes the Hawaiian islands to sink (this is reminiscent to Plato's writings of Atlantis). Due to that time period's technology however, the islands are still somewhat salvageable and most of the citizens are protected behind a shield-like "bubble" that were established around most of the major cities (one of them being Hilo). With that, the islands sank and settled not too far below the ocean's surface. As time goes by, the government starts to rebuild and add more technology to Hawaii to make it more sustainable in these "bubble cities." Football stadium-like lights were added to simulate sunlight, and a fake weather system was integrated to simulate seasons in the underwater cities. More animals were eventually re-introduced due to the natural disaster that had occurred. After most of this is settled though, Hawaii's government then made a decision to create a day in remembrance of the lives that were lost during the sinking of the islands called the "Children of the Water Day" (which is where my title comes from).

  However as Hawaii's reconstruction continued, the environmental effects grew drastically worse on the surface (a.k.a. the mainland). The air became polluted and most natural land was now replaced with industrial cities. It is then that the government starts making underwater sub "shuttles" to Hawaii from the mainland to escape from the detrimental effects of the polluted mainland (but this is only available to the higher class due to limited space); only Hawaii remains as a somewhat safer haven from the surface's environmental destruction. Which brings me to the actual plot for the story.

  It's the same way that other Hawaii movies start with: a boy coming to the islands and eventually meets a girl. Cliche, I know. The main character is a boy that comes from the mainland. His father is a big economical power in the United States. Due to his father's business deals with Hawaii's economic industry, he is forced to move to Hawaii with his family. Not too long after he moves however, he meets another main character, a girl named Isla, whose family has been in Hawaii for several generations (a true island girl). However, unlike most of the Hawaii female protagonists, she is strong-willed, independent, and some what of a tomboy. She doesn't need a man on her arm in order to do her own thing. For most of the story she shows the boy around town and they travel to other cities, where she explains about Hawaii's history and the land, and later takes him to the Children of the Water festival. She also explains the spiritualism that still exists in Hawaii. It is her opinion that the gods were basically angry (like in Plato's Atlantis) that their ancestors hadn't taken care of the land, and were therefore "punished" with the sinking of the islands.

  Not too long after though, another natural disaster is predicted to hit (a type of "super storm"). This time however, the natural disaster is a giant whirlpool that is about to wipe out most of ocean life. However, it is later suspected that the cause of this could be an ancient sleeping "curse" or ritual obligation that was never fulfilled that affected the islands in the past. It's up to them in the end to figure out what exactly caused the natural disaster in the past, before the super storm hits.

  As you can see, it's still a work in progress, but this is the basic idea of my movie's plot that I'd like to see one day. I love the sci-fi fantasy genre as well as adventure stories with strong female protagonists, which is why I wrote the story the way I did. I didn't really have any actors in mind for the roles though.. but I want most of the cast to be Hawaiian or someone local. As for format, although a live action movie with killer special effects would be really cool, I wouldn't mind also having a movie be an animate cartoon. I know definitely though that I would want Joe Hisaishi to do the musical score for the movie. His musical works and performances are excellent and add a lot of emotion.

The Descendants

  Out of the films that we have watched in class, The Descendants was definitely one of my favorites. In my opinion it was one of the films that I thought showed a very accurate representation of life in Hawaii in comparison to other films, especially the lifestyle of the locals. It didn't show any of the barbarianism in Bird of Paradise or the more "touristy" side of Hawaii. It even showed more local people too, though they were mostly just extras or minor characters (for example, Lani's mother). They also made a good point of adding in some pidgin to the way they spoke.

  Aside from that, I also really liked the plot's point of having a relatable situation developing in Hawaii. Some may think that Hawaii was just used as an "eye-catching" quality of the "regular" subject of affairs and what not. However in my opinion I think it does way more than just that. The fact that it's a relatable event breaks the stereotype of Hawaii being "paradise." It also goes to show that these same problems can also appear in the lives of those of the higher class. It's an excellent way of showing that even the problems of daily life and of the middle class can also appear in the least likeliest of places.

  Another aspect that I really enjoyed about the film was its humor. It equally surprised me that the book also had the same, if not more, humorous lines that the film had. This also made the book and the movie a lot more interesting and fun to watch, mostly because it wasn't always about the gloomier aspect of death over all.

  There were a lot of things that I liked about this film, however I thought that they could have added in more Hawaiian characters in it. The main cast mostly consisted of caucasian actors, although they did play characters that had some Hawaiian ancestry in them. It would have been nice to see more variety, but this could be because they were portraying a higher class family. In addition, although the movie was good and stayed as true as it could to the book, there were still a lot of elements from the book that were missing that would have gave the movie a different meaning. For example, Matt's wife's romantic and financial betrayal scheme. In the movie, she was portrayed as more of a character to sympathize over, whereas in the book she was portrayed as selfish. The book also gives you more insight on their marriage as well as the wife's personality that wasn't explored or described in the movie version. However, as a whole the movie was an excellent individual piece and I would recommend it to everyone to see.