Masao is an elderly Japanese-American dying of cancer and living alone in a shack in rural Oahu. He still keeps a small Shinto shrine to his long dead wife, Grace in his home, with her ashes buried under a giant tree nearby.
The movie slowly unwinds the story of Masao's difficult life. We are introduced to his three children, first an adult son who is with him at the clinic. This son seems to be struggling, possibly with mental disease, as he keeps seeing the ghosts of his dead mother and other ancestors. Later that night, Masao tries to call his other son, perhaps to tell him about his cancer diagnosis. This son had long ago moved away to the mainland US, somewhere on the East Coast probably, and had broken off contact with Masao. The son's irritated reply "Do you know what time it is? There's a six hour time difference!" before hanging up on him, pre-empts anything Masao might have wanted to say to him.
Finally we meet Masao's daughter's family. She is married, apparently to a Caucasian guy. She appears to have one son and one daughter, the daughter being married to an Asian man, and has young children of her own.
The story briefly introduces Masao's part-Caucasian grandson, before seguing to a series of flashbacks that recount the rest of Masao's life story.
At some point before America' entry into WWII, the young Masao has fallen in love with Grace, who is Chinese, and so is rejected by Masao's rigid Olde Countrie Japanese parents, who want only to return to Japan. Masao runs away from home to be with Grace, and so is ostracized by his Japanese parents and community. His parents then return to Japan without him. The war begins, Japan's cities are firebombed, and Masao's parents and family die in the firebombings. In anger and/or despair Masao turns away from his wife and family and begins a ruinous life of drinking and carousing with his buddies. Grace slowly dies of something that is not otherwise detailed in the movie. After her death, Masao sends his young children to live with their aunt (Grace's sister), while at the same time stealing Grace's ashes from her house one night and burying them at the base of the giant tree near his rural shack, to fulfill a promise he had made to Grace.
There the story ends, with the ghost of Grace narrating the last parts of Masao's story in these flashbacks, as Masao dies in his home.
It's a slow and sad but thoughtful story, not the usual dramatic Romeo and Juliet story of love clashing against families and cultural values, but far grittier and closer to the truth of how these cultural conflicts often play out. The interesting parts of this movie come from the reveals of Masao's past, which appear to be haunted by ghosts now.
The story is also not really about Olde Hawaii so much as it is a story of the Japanese and Chinese peoples on the island in the pre and post WWII era. Most of these people had been imported into Oahu as cheap labor for the pineapple and sugar cane fields that were the major industries there at the time. It's all different now of course, and this movie reminds us of that part of Olde Hawaii.
The movie slowly unwinds the story of Masao's difficult life. We are introduced to his three children, first an adult son who is with him at the clinic. This son seems to be struggling, possibly with mental disease, as he keeps seeing the ghosts of his dead mother and other ancestors. Later that night, Masao tries to call his other son, perhaps to tell him about his cancer diagnosis. This son had long ago moved away to the mainland US, somewhere on the East Coast probably, and had broken off contact with Masao. The son's irritated reply "Do you know what time it is? There's a six hour time difference!" before hanging up on him, pre-empts anything Masao might have wanted to say to him.
Finally we meet Masao's daughter's family. She is married, apparently to a Caucasian guy. She appears to have one son and one daughter, the daughter being married to an Asian man, and has young children of her own.
The story briefly introduces Masao's part-Caucasian grandson, before seguing to a series of flashbacks that recount the rest of Masao's life story.
At some point before America' entry into WWII, the young Masao has fallen in love with Grace, who is Chinese, and so is rejected by Masao's rigid Olde Countrie Japanese parents, who want only to return to Japan. Masao runs away from home to be with Grace, and so is ostracized by his Japanese parents and community. His parents then return to Japan without him. The war begins, Japan's cities are firebombed, and Masao's parents and family die in the firebombings. In anger and/or despair Masao turns away from his wife and family and begins a ruinous life of drinking and carousing with his buddies. Grace slowly dies of something that is not otherwise detailed in the movie. After her death, Masao sends his young children to live with their aunt (Grace's sister), while at the same time stealing Grace's ashes from her house one night and burying them at the base of the giant tree near his rural shack, to fulfill a promise he had made to Grace.
There the story ends, with the ghost of Grace narrating the last parts of Masao's story in these flashbacks, as Masao dies in his home.
It's a slow and sad but thoughtful story, not the usual dramatic Romeo and Juliet story of love clashing against families and cultural values, but far grittier and closer to the truth of how these cultural conflicts often play out. The interesting parts of this movie come from the reveals of Masao's past, which appear to be haunted by ghosts now.
The story is also not really about Olde Hawaii so much as it is a story of the Japanese and Chinese peoples on the island in the pre and post WWII era. Most of these people had been imported into Oahu as cheap labor for the pineapple and sugar cane fields that were the major industries there at the time. It's all different now of course, and this movie reminds us of that part of Olde Hawaii.