Movies

Official Site 

Departures ^(PG13)        

Friday, July 3 at 7pm
Sunday, July 5 at 2:30pm
Monday & Tuesday, July 6 & 7 at 7pm

Runtime:  130mins

Starring:  Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Directed by Yojiro Takita

Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film!
In Japanese with English subtitles

Departures is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well as an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage.

Departures follows Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled Departures thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.

USA Today:  “Though events unravel predictably, the film is profoundly affecting, thanks to a well-written story, rich characters and superlative acting.”

Philadelphia Inquirer:  “Yojiro Takita's movie simultaneously tickles tears of mourning as it wrings laughs about the meaning of life.”

Tickets:  $7 general, $6 Seniors & Students, $5 Friends of the Palace.  Call 934-7010 for information.

Official Site 

Afghan Star ^(NR)        

Friday & Saturday, July 10 & 11 at 7pm
Sunday, July 12 at 2:30pm
Monday & Tuesday, July 13 & 14 at 7pm

Runtime:  87mins - In English, Pashtu and Dari

Directed by Havana Marking

In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing. After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, pop culture has returned to the country—and since 2005, millions are tuning in to Tolo TV’s wildly popular American Idol-style series Afghan Star. Like its Western predecessors, people compete for a cash prize and record deal. More surprisingly, the contest is open to everyone across the country despite gender, ethnicity or age. Two thousand people audition, including three extremely brave women.   And when viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, it is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process.

Winner of the Directing and Audience Awards in Sundance’s 2009 World Documentary competition, Havana Marking’s timely and moving film follows the dramatic stories of four young finalists—two men and two women—as they hazard everything to become the nation’s favorite performer. By observing the Afghani people's relationship to its pop culture, Afghan Star is the perfect window into a country’s tenuous, ongoing struggle for modernity. What Americans consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary—and more human—in this troubled part of the world.

Financial Times (UK):  “Havana Marking’s uproarious, awareness-raising documentary tells us more about the title country than a month of newscasts.”

Guardian (UK):  “It's a shrewd and entertaining guide to this popular phenomenon, which even the Taliban cannot quite suppress, though nothing in the film quite matches the poignancy and power of its opening minute, showing a blind child singing about the power of love.”

Tickets:  $7 general, $6 Seniors & Students, $5 Friends of the Palace.  Call 934-7010 for information.

Official Site

Unmistaken Child ^(NR)

Friday & Saturday, July 17 & 18 at 7pm
Sunday, July 19 at 2:30pm
Monday & Tuesday, July 20 & 21 at 7pm

Runtime:  102mins
 
Award winning documentary
Directed by Nati Baratz
 
In English, Tibetan, Hindi, Nepali
 
The Buddhist concept of reincarnation, while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most westerners to grasp. UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84. The Dalai Lama charges the deceased monk’s devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master’s reincarnation.
 
Tenzin sets off on this unforgettable quest on foot, mule and even helicopter, through breathtaking landscapes and remote traditional Tibetan villages. Along the way, Tenzin listens to stories about young children with special characteristics, and performs rarely seen ritualistic tests designed to determine the likelihood of reincarnation. He eventually presents the child he believes to be his reincarnated master to the Dalai Lama so that he can make the final decision.
 
Stunningly shot, UNMISTAKEN CHILD is a beguiling, surprising, touching, even humorous experience.
 
New York Times:  “UNMISTAKEN CHILD inevitably leads you to consider the material world and to contemplate the balance in your own life between physical gratification and spirituality. The rugged landscape, in which mist filters through craggy cliffs and wild flowers seem to dance in the mountain meadows, suggests that religion and geography are profoundly intertwined. How we perceive the universe, time, death and rebirth has everything to do with altitude and latitude."
 
Boston Globe:  “A poignant piece of non-fiction filmmaking…manages to be as graceful as its subject is divine."

Tickets:  $7 general, $6 Seniors & Students, $5 Friends of the Palace.  Call 934-7010 for information.

Tibet: A Light in the Darkness ^(NR)

Friday & Saturday, July 24 & 25 at 7pm
Sunday, July 26 at 2:30pm
Runtime:  120 minutes

A documentary and journey by
Sean Cassidy and Patricia Keith

Presented in association with The Hawaii Geographic Society

Last year Cassidy and Keith traveled by land cruiser and horse cart to "the top of the world," where singing and laughter ring through the mountains, valleys, and high plains of Tibet.  Exploring ancient Buddhist monasteries, they join thousands of pilgrims on a sacred Kora, camp beside sacred lakes, sing with blind children, and spend time at a Mt Everest base camp.  Cassidy and Keith researched and planned their filming expedition for several years; they then obtained grudging permission from authorities to travel and film through the region.  Although not a political documentary, the film contains historic footage of the Dalai Lama as a young man still living in Tibet; and there is commentary and scenes concerning the influx of Han Chinese at the behest of the Beijing Government.  The "stars" of this film are the indomitable people of Tibet with their ancient belief system, traditions, manner of dress, and stubborn survival skills.

The film will be introduced with in-person commentary from Prof Willis H A Moore, Chaminade University of Honolulu professor of history and political science.  Moore also serves as Editor & Manager for the Hawai'i Geographic Society; and he attended the Maui appearances of the Dalai Lama with his adult son who practices Tibetan Buddhism.  Opportunity will be offered for questions and comments at the conclusion of the feature-length color film.

Tickets:  $7 general, $6 Seniors & Students, $5 Friends of the Palace.  Call 934-7010 for information.