"One Kine Day," the local indie film from Chuck Mitsui that taps into the rhythms of life in Windward Oahu, is getting a significant boost in exposure thanks to a Hawaii theatrical release and a distribution deal with DVD rental companies here and on the mainland.
The film debuted at the 2010 Hawaii International Film Festival, where it won an audience choice award, and was a hit at festivals in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.
This weekend it began its run in local theaters for the first time, at the Consolidated Pearlridge West 16, Mililani Stadium 14, Kapolei 16 and Koolau Stadium 10 theaters. And on April 24 the film will be available from Redbox kiosks statewide through a distribution deal arranged by Osiris Entertainment.
"I think our biggest market for this film is here, and once a buzz gets created and the people from Hawaii get behind it, the film will pick up steam beyond Hawaii and into the U.S. mainland," Mitsui said.
Even after a successful festival run, a local theatrical release is special, he said.
"We are giving people of Hawaii a chance to see this on screen, and for me, this being my first feature film, it is awesome to open it in theaters," he said. "That is always everyone’s goal, but it is a rarity, really, to get that going."
The film is set on the sleepy, Windward side of Oahu and follows a skater named Ralsto, played by Ryan Greer, as he deals with the news that his 15-year-old girlfriend is pregnant. A coming-of-age drama, "One Kine Day" takes place in the most important day of Ralsto’s young life. Up to this point he’s been content to simply skate through life. Now responsibility is staring him square in the face, but at every turn something else goes wrong.
The film also stars Christa B. Allen as Ralsto’s girlfriend, Nalu Boersma as his good friend and Julia Nickson-Soul as his mother, Suzie, who feels her son is wasting his life.
Osiris Entertainment felt "One Kine Day" was unique, said Doug Dohmen, the company’s vice president for sales and marketing. The film will also benefit from a heightened awareness of Hawaii created by the huge success of "The Descendants," he said.
Dohmen liked the rural look of Windward Oahu, the clipped shorthand of pidgin English and the production quality that Mitsui put into his first feature film.
"It was a film produced with a real local flavor," Dohmen said. "You have a film that is homogenous to Hawaii because of the cast and the director, and it is filmed on location — there is always an inherent value to that."
The story was years in the making. Originally from San Francisco, Mitsui arrived on Oahu in 1992 to pursue a marine biology degree from Hawaii Loa College, now Hawaii Pacific University. He wound up opening a skateboard shop — 808Skate in Kailua — and making short skateboard documentaries and commercials for his business.
Mitsui wanted more control over the stories and turned to writing. When he was accepted into the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam in 2006, he brought a fleshed-out version of "One Kine Day" to the labor-intensive, six-month writing fellowship. It was a bit of a gamble: The story he had initially submitted for the program had to be scrapped when Mitsui’s business partner backed out.
"One Kine Day" had mostly been notes and gut instinct when Binger gave Mitsui the nod.
But the folks at Binger, who accept only a dozen students for each term, had never seen Hawaii presented in the way Mitsui presented it. Both the landscape of the story and the characters were drawn from Mitsui’s commute from Kaaawa to Kailua and the skaters who frequented his shop.
Torry Tukuafu, a local camera operator who works on "Hawaii Five-0," served as a producer on "One Kine Day" and said he was drawn to the story’s honest look at life here.
"This is our story," he said. "There’s a whole bunch of truth in it."
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Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
