Foodie Films at Hawai‘i International Film Festival Serve Up Different Degrees of Satisfaction
Driven by different quests, “Purehearted” and “The Dating Menu” are worlds apart.
Photo: Courtesy of Hawai‘i International Film Festival
HIFF’s two foodie films this year take place in locales relatively near each other—one in Okinawa, the other in Hong Kong and Taiwan—but in almost every aspect, they’re worlds apart. Which is part of the allure of the annual festival, isn’t it? That watching from our seats in darkened theaters, we get to see how people all over this planet live and think and feel, even if—or especially if—it’s not what we expect.
“Purehearted” and “The Dating Game” are part of the showcase of 84 films and 86 shorts that start Oct. 21 and run through Nov. 1 at Consolidated Theatres Kāhala before moving to Kapolei and the Neighbor Islands. You’ll find the full listings, tickets and other info at hiff.org.
SEE ALSO: What to Watch at This Year’s Hawai‘i International Film Festival
Purehearted
No Japanese locale is brighter than Okinawa—a land of subtropical sunshine, vibrant bingata shirts and the unfailingly effervescent Majimu Iha. Her humble job as an office temp charged mainly with resupplying the snack table doesn’t stop Iha from entering a companywide contest for a new business idea. Hers, born in a bar where she quaffs premium liquor with her grandmother, is to create the world’s first rum made from Okinawa-grown sugarcane. Iha’s road is rocky, paved with condescending work superiors and tradition-bound cane growers, but as we said, she is unfailingly effervescent. We’ll let you guess how the film ends.
Will “Purehearted” make you look for Okinawan rum? Probably, if you drink—it had me Googling as soon as I finished watching. It’s a satisfying hour and 45 minutes in which, caricatured characters aside, all loose ends of bingata come together in a finish that’s ultimately as sunny as Okinawa.
The Dating Menu
Hark Lam is a brooding chef, mired in a long-fizzled relationship with no dreams for the future. When his recently married ex purges the last mementos of their love, sending them back in a neat suitcase, Lam impulsively embarks on a quest for the teenage crush he met in an online chatroom. His only clue is her handle: Princess Zelda. Floating through life with no attachments, living out of his van, Lam scrolls dating apps looking for women named Zelda. One after another, different Zeldas take him up on his offer of a chef-cooked meal, each encounter offering up glimpses of a man alternately accepting, hopeful, resigned, yearning. In the end, we may or may not sense what Lam is looking for; or even if Lam knows himself. As unsettling as it is, the lack of clarity or resolution—and the realization that this might not be what’s important—delivers a kind of peace.
For foodies, scenes of food and cooking are too fleeting and inconsequential to make you crave omakase sushi, applewood-smoked vegetarian goose or steamed eggs with tofu and minced pork, all of which Lam seems to have mastered. More memorable are the quiet, intimate scenes of deep-night Hong Kong that backdrop his search; these will stay with you longer than the food.
Mari Taketa is editor of Frolic Hawai‘i and dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine.
