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A treasure hunt through Kualoa Ranch drives the plot of “Finding ‘Ohana,” a family-friendly adventure comedy that debuts Friday on Netflix. But Hawaii residents might see the film as an Easter egg hunt for references to island culture and history as well.
“I think (Hawaii residents) will really experience it in a way that nobody else can,” said Kelly Hu, the former Miss Hawaii USA-turned actor who stars as a single mom in the movie. “There’s a lot of Hawaiian humor in particular that mainlanders will not get.”
Hu heads up a cast with deep ties to the islands, featuring Oahu-born Kea Peahu in the lead role of Pilialoha; Lindsay Watson, a native of Maui; and Branscombe Richmond, a longtime Maui resident who has appeared in films and TV shows set in Hawaii, including the original “Magnum P.I.” Alex Aiono, a singer/ producer of Samoan and Maori descent, also stars in the film, which got a shout-out on Jan. 15 from Maui Mayor Mike Victorino in a declaration proclaiming Friday to be Finding ‘Ohana Day.
Even with all that local star power, the highlight of the film will likely be Hawaii itself. It is presented not as some remote, primitive backwater, but as a blend of island and mainland culture and of ancient and modern times.
Older filmgoers will recognize “Finding ‘Ohana” as an homage to the 1985 cult classic “The Goonies,” but it’s less goofy and more spiritual. Both films feature fearless, happy-go-lucky kids seeking the treasure of Spanish pirates (and it’s important that they’re from Spain).
There’s another connection in actor Ke Huy Quan, one of the original Goonies, who has a small role in “Finding ‘Ohana.” The part was created for him after a serendipitous meeting with director Jude Weng at (where else?) a shave-ice shop near Los Angeles. She had run into a friend and told him, “I’m getting to direct my first movie, and it’s a sort of a “Goonies”-type adventure that’s set in Hawaii,” Weng said. “And from across the room, I hear this voice say, ‘Did somebody mention “Goonies”?’ And I turn around, and it’s Ke Quan.”
In “Finding ‘Ohana,” Pilialoha, a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who excels at geocaching, travels to Hawaii with her mother Leilani (Hu) and older brother Ioane (Aiono) to take care of ailing family patriarch Kimo (Richmond). It’s an unhappy homecoming. The gruff Kimo is upset that Leilani took the kids and deserted the islands 11 years earlier; Ioane is bummed to be stuck with his bratty kid sister; and Pili is missing out on a geocaching summer camp. Financial issues threaten the family’s lush Windward property.
Then Pili discovers an old Spanish journal among her grandpa’s belongings, and her brainy new friend Casper (Owen Vaccaro) recalls the tale of Spanish pirates who left a treasure hidden on the island. They set off in search of the treasure and, joined by Ioane and island girl Hana (Watson), experience a journey of self-discovery along the way.
WENG IS a native of Taiwan who, upon having her DNA tested a few years ago, discovered she has Polynesian blood. “It sent me on this personal journey of knowing that I was part Polynesian but I was never raised with any of the culture or any of the appreciation of that heritage,” she said. “That was really the key subtext for our main characters. Pili and Ioane, they’re Hawaiian diaspora, but they’re raised in Brooklyn, they’re New York kids. … So what does it mean to be Hawaiian when you weren’t raised to know and understand that much about your own culture?”
An experienced TV director before venturing into film, Weng got the opportunity to direct “Finding ‘Ohana” after telling her agent that she wanted to direct “action, adventure, comedy” films, with “character, family and a female lead as a bonus.”
“To my amazement, my agent sent me this script — the first script he sent me — and he said ‘I think this checks off all your boxes.’ ”
From there, the project moved at a surprisingly fast clip. Weng initially thought a film focused on Native Hawaiian themes would have trouble getting financing. “This was before ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ came out and before ‘Black Panther,’” she said. “But all of sudden there were these two major movies with people of color, and I think that started to change the conversation.”
She was amazed when Netflix bought rights to the film in late 2018, but by the time shooting began the next year, she felt additional pressure from the Hawaiian community, which through social media had circulated comments about “white-washing” — using white actors to play nonwhite characters. “That was absolutely a legitimate fear, given the work that has come before us,” she said, referring to the controversy over the 2015 film “Aloha.”
Weng’s cast is not only mostly Native Hawaiian, she also took every opportunity to consult Hawaiian crew members about the appropriate presentation of their culture. “I became really close with our transpo (transportation) guy, and I asked him tons of questions: ‘What do you think of the title of the movie? What do you think of this character?’ He told me he’d never had someone ask so many questions.”
Master storyteller Lopaka Kapanui served as cultural advisor for the film, which includes scenes with night marchers, properly decked out in warrior attire and even adorned with tattoos by Kali‘i Makua. For a party scene, Kea Peahu’s mother Sanoi Peahu taught the cast authentic hula moves. “It makes me proud that other Hawaiians will notice that and will say, ‘This is legit,’” Weng said.
HU, AS a Honolulu native who left Hawaii some 30 years ago to pursue acting, might have seemed like a natural fit for “Finding ‘Ohana,” but even she found plenty in her character to challenge her.
“There was going to be all this Hawaiian dialogue, and I found myself thinking to myself ‘Am I Hawaiian enough to do this?’” she said with a laugh.
Hu, who is Hawaiian on her mother’s side, attended Kamehameha Schools before it emphasized Hawaiian language. But she found two Hawaiian speakers on the film crew and had them coach her on set whenever she had to speak Hawaiian. “I didn’t want anybody who was a native speaker to flinch when I spoke Hawaiian,” she said.
In the film, there is one key conversation where Hawaiian is featured, when Leilani and Kimo make amends for past slights. Hu recalled that it was originally all in Hawaiian, but Weng wanted to avoid subtitling it. Hu had the passage translated and then figured out a way to mix in enough English “so that people could catch on and it would still maintain some of the culture.”
“I remember reading that in the script and bawling my eyes out,” Hu said. “It’s a beautiful scene of connection.”
Shooting the film in Hawaii provided a homecoming for Hu that might be increasingly rare. Her parents had just moved to the Las Vegas area from Hawaii a few months before the filming began and she doesn’t expect to be visiting the islands as often as before. “It was really a blessing to go back there and work after feeling uprooted,” she said.
KEA PEAHU also faced language issues for her role as Pilialoha, but not with Hawaiian. Her character speaks Spanish, having learned it because New Yorkers were always mistaking her for Puerto Rican. It comes in handy for translating Kimo’s pirate journal.
“Someone, I don’t know who, told them (filmmakers) that I speak fluent Spanish,” said Kea, who moved to Los Angeles five years ago at age 8. “When I heard that, I was like wait, what? Because I have never spoken Spanish in my life. … It helped that they told me, ‘You do not have to speak proper Spanish. It’s not what your character is, it’s just a language your character speaks.’”
She had to dig deep for some of her more emotional scenes. For one scene where she had to cry, she remembered her great-great-grandmother, who had passed away recently. “I got to come back to Hawaii a few days before she passed and say goodbye to her, and that really helped me,” she said.
There’s plenty of action sequences for Kea in “Finding ‘Ohana” — a wild bike ride through New York in the opening montage, falling through lava tubes and waterfalls in Kualoa. A naturally energetic child who first came to national attention with her dance appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Kea handled the action scenes with aplomb.
“I’m still in a dance crew, so we have to do really active stuff,” she said. “Whenever I get the chance to do stunts, I try to do it.”
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WATCH IT
“Finding ‘Ohana”
Debuts Friday on Netflix.
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