Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: PRINCESS KAIULANI limited run begins May 14th

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-09-2010, 11:34 PM:

PRINCESS KAIULANI a film about the last heir to the throne of Hawaii when the islands was still a independent kingdom during the last two decade of the nineteenth century begins a limited run in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and theatres throughout the state of Hawaii next Friday. The film received it's world premiere last year at the historic Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu and it along with five performances during the Hawaii Film Festival were all sold out. The film received standing ovations after the showings and was voted the "Audience's Choice' at the festival.

PRINCESS KAIULANI was photographed on actual location here in Honolulu as well as England where the real princess received her formal education. Much of the scenes in Hawaii was filmed at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu where most of the story took place . The palace was built by King David Kalakaua in 1883 and was the royal residence for both he and his sister Queen Liliokalani who succeeded him to the throne. Parts of the movie involves the queen and how she and her government was overthrown in 1893 and Princess Kaiulani's effort to restore self rule by petitioning the U.S. congress and the president but was not successful.

The Film was directed by Mark Forby and stars Q'orinaka Kilcher who was last seen as Pocahontas in the 2005 film THE NEW WORLD with Colin Farrell and Christopher Plummer. PRINCESS KAIULANI also features Will Patton as Sandfor P Dole as the first governor of Hawaii after the overthrow. The film will be distributed in the United States by Road Side Attractions.

The original title of the film when it was world premiered was THE BARBARIAN PRINCESS but after a lot of people in Hawaii had objected to the title, Road Side Attractions changed it to the very classy PRINCESS KAIULANi. The real princess was no barbarian but a very beautiful young island princess who had a lot of class but did not enjoy a long life. Princess Kaiulani died in 1899 at the age of 23.

-Claude

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 05-10-2010, 09:59 AM:

I saw this film at an Academy screening a couple of weeks ago, and found it quite enjoyable.
If one is going to be a picky critic, the script and acting are a bit schoolbookish, but it held my attention, and I rooted for the Hawaiians.

DM

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-10-2010, 01:49 PM:

Richard,

The overthrow of the kingdom and the government of Hawaii at the time was indeed an illegal act and if I was a citizen of Hawaii at the time, I too would have objected to what had happened and having the United States annex the once island kingdom. Since that time, a small group of people has always been complaining about the overthrow but most of the residents were proud to be a part of the United States as a territory. Before Hawaii could be admitted into the union of American states in 1959, the people had to vote if they favored statehood and both of my parents proudly cast a vote in favor. I was not eligible to vote until the following year in 1960 but if I was, I would have proudly voted in favor of statehood. The people at the time, approved statehood by a huge margin and Hawaii was admitted into the union on August 21, 1959.

I am looking forward to seeing PRINCESSS KAIULANi this weekend and I know I will enjoy it but my main concern is how a small group of people who had been trying to get Hawaii to secede from the union would use the movie to incite anger and get more people to join their cause to restore the Hawaii monarchy and a royal government. I know this will never happen because the majority of people in Hawaii are proud Americans like myself and would never be in favor of it.

MODERATOR: I hope you do not consider this post political, if you do, I
apologize and you may delete it

-Claude