Lost In Translation

Hotel Honolulu

Paul Theroux's Hotel Honolulu (2001) is a curious novel for several reasons. First of all, his novels are often hit or miss for me-but I enjoyed this novel for it's liveliness and insights filtered through the Theroux-like doppelganger narrator (a common device in Theroux novels) who divorces and moves to Hawaii to start over and ends up managing a third rate hotel in Waikiki. This manager, a former writer (we never learn his name) who recounts the stories of the people he encounters as the manger of the bigger than life owner Buddy Hamstra's hotel. Hamstra is a rich self-made, self-proclaimed "dog" known for his excesses in eating and drinking, and an unrepentant practical joker who survived two wives and ends up with a mail order Filipino bride. Hamstra can be seen as a metaphor for Hawaii itself in some respects. Many of the stories end violently or are concerned with sex and they allow the narrator to make observations about people, Hawaii, and life in general. It is essentially a collection of vignettes held together by location and the narrator who recounts the many stories-there are 80 rooms in the hotel and 80 chapters in the book.

Kaili Blues

Bi Gan's directing debut Kaili Blues (2015) is pretty impressive. The film belong to the slow school of film making and is long on mood and short on exposition. It follows the lives of people in a small community in Kaili, a province in south China not far from SE Asia. The principal story concerns Chen (Chen Yongzhong), a former convict who works as a doctor and goes on a search his nephew, Wei wei-whom he fears will be sold into slavery by his gambling addicted half brother know as Crazy Face. This allows the director to document Kaili as it is now-for ti is sure to change in the modern surging  economy of China-in this sense it reminds me of the early films of Jia Zhenghke, who also was documenting the changes in his home province of Shanxi. One of the highlights in the film is a 40 minute no-cut, wide angle traveling shot on a moped in the middle of the film is a legend in the making – it is an impressive and cinematic sequence. I look forward to see what his next film looks like.

Kailua, Kakaako, & Waikiki

The Kailua farmer's Market on Sunday.

There were many interesting murals in the Kakaako area which lies between Downtown Honolulu and Waikiki beach.

I was meeting an old fiend for lunch at Moku.

Ala Wai

Outer part of Waikiki, I believe I stayed near this whale mural building during my first trip to Oahu in 1997.

View from SKY Waikiki.

Tap & Barrel by Lanikai Brewing in Kailua.

Oahu: The North Shore & Chinatown

I had planned to go to the North Shore with my friend, but the weather was a bit wet, so we decided to head back to Honolulu and check out Chinatown.

Ioloni Palace downtown Honolulu.

Lunch at The Lady and the Pig in Chinatown.

Big Trouble in the bathroom...

BLACK GARLIC CHAR SIU PORK JOWL: smoked with kiawe then finished on the grill, green asparagus namul, pickled red fresno peppers, cilantro.

Foster Botanical Gardens in Chinatown.

Kauai Day Two

It turned out to be an overcast day with the possibility of rain-so I decided to join Clark's Hop on and Off Tour of sights nearby instead of more elaborate hikes.

My first stop was Smith's Garden and Park.

Koloa Rum Company on the Kilohana Plantation Estate.

The County Office.

The Kauai Museum.

The bridge near my accommodation to Duke's.

The Hula Kalua (roasted kalua pork shredded with mozzarella and homemade Siracha aioli & homemade marinara) at the Nawiliwili Tavern.

Serie Noire

Serie Noire (1979) is Alain Cornea's adaptation of a classic Jim Thompson  novel (One Hell of a Woman). Franck Poupart (Patrick Deware) is the hapless door to door salesman that stumbles into a plan to rob Mona's (Marie Trintignant) abusive aunt (Jeanne Herviale), who pimps her out for money.It feels like a successful adaptation in that the story feels connected to the seedy Paris of the 1970s as well as the actors who seems to embody the seediness in their characters. A surprising gem.

Blind Chance

I was inspired by the extras in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors boxset to see his earlier masterpiece, Blind Chance (1987). It has an original idea in that the main character Witek (Boguslaw Linda), a medical student whose father dies, lives out three different realities. These are based on whether or not he catches a train to Warsaw. These realities include becoming an active member of the communist party, a member of the opposition, and becoming an apolitical doctor/researcher. The ending puts the three realities in perspective-an inventive and thought-provoking film that was originally shelved in 1981 by state-imposed censorship due to the film's political content.

Kauai Day One

I arrived on Kauai early before I could check in at my Air BnB and before my helicopter tour of the island, so I headed for the beach near the Mariott Beach Club.

Breakfast at the Mariott while I wait.

Lots of roosters all around.

Sunset happy hour in the park.

Overlook IPA at Kauai Beer Company.

In the Nawiliwili Tavern.

Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tour-Kauai

I had some time to kill before checking into my Air BnB accommodation on Kauai, so I decided to take the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tour of Kauai Island, since most of it is inaccessible and privately owned.

Norwegian Wood

I was surprised by how much I liked Anh Hung Tran's Norwegian Wood (2010). But I should haven't been since I enjoyed several of his previous films (Cyclo, The Scent of Green Papaya, and Vertical Ray of the Sun). Furthermore, the cinematography was exquisite and was done by frequent Wong Kar-wai and Hsiao-hsien Hou collaborator Ping Bin Lee (In the Mood for Love, Millennium Mambo, The Assassin, etc.). Furthermore, the sparse score was done by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood. It is an adaptation of Haruki Mursakami's most beloved novel of the same name. It is the story fo Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsyama) a student in Tokyo during the turbulent late 60s who recalls when his best friend Kizuki (Kengo Kora) killed himself and how he grew close to Naoko (Rinko kiuchi), Kizuki's girlfriend. Then later another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori (Kiko Mizuhara). Make no mistake this is an art film, it is over two hours long and mostly involves conversations between lovers but has some very evocative cinematography-certainly not for everyone. But I felt it was a successful adaptation of a beloved novel by Murakami.