Hawaii International Film Festival / This year’s Spring Showcase edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival, which opens Friday and runs through April 9, features more than 20 films, with the usual mix of culture and eclecticism. In addition to the films scheduled ([www.hiff.org]), there are also a few program changes.

The Italian film Gomorrah has been replaced with Burma VJ, a documentary about reporters in the dangerous country. Also added is Maili Land: Stories of Hope, a film on a Leeward housing program shot by 10 kids and their mentors from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu. Another late addition is Yamagata Scream from Japan.

Fans of the broad comedic stylings of Japanese cinema and connoisseurs of the hot zombie genre will no doubt want to see this one. Five schoolgirls on a history class field trip visit the rural area of Yamagata, where the villagers worship a shrine erected in honor of a samurai who was buried alive while on a mission to hide a sacred sword. A bumbling developer has the shrine destroyed and the samurai rises from the dead to wreak havoc. But he’s not alone. Those that betrayed him also rise from their graves (don’t ask) and suddenly the zombies are lurching all over the town, hunting for a blade that gives the bearer power to control the world.

The proceedings are done with unsubtle, wacky slapstick comedy; even the imposing head zombie gets madcap: a fear of earthworms that makes him scream like a girl. George Romero this obviously isn’t. Or even Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The low-budget production values result in bad-on-purpose make-up jobs with the occasional semi-impressive CGI special effect (the portal to the Land of the Dead is ominous enough). There’s not much for gore-hounds either. The closest they’ll get to grossing themselves out is blue puke spewing from the zombies’ mouths that cause anyone doused with vomit to be instantly turned into a member of the undead; they immediately sprout long obake hair and eyebrows and speak in a lower, slower octave.

Miles better is another entry from Japan. Shown in two parts, 20th Century Boys is an epic based on a popular manga series and while not perfect, it’s everything Watchmen should have been (it was filmed as a trilogy so there is actually a Part Three to be released in Japan in August). The huge storyline revolves around nine childhood friends who form a club of sorts, complete with their own secret symbol and a “Book of Prophecies.” Decades later, these normal kid-play activities turn deadly when a cult leader appropriates the group’s symbol and his reign of disasters mirror the book’s. The kids, now adults, are reunited and they slowly realize they are all that stand between evil and the end of humanity; essentially it’s Stephen King’s It without the clowning. Complicating the already complex storyline even further is the cult’s mysterious masked leader, known only as Friend. His knowledge of the “Book of Prophecies” leads them to believe that he is someone that they attended school with.

Part One is a masterwork of tone. A sense of ominous dread pervades even the very witty and unexpected scenes of comedy and dialogue-laden exposition. Each piece of the intricate conspiracy/end of days puzzle is revealed to us with satisfying build-up and punctuated like a cliffhanger. Just as eerie is a biological weapon that is being unleashed on major cities. Considering the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo, the parallel events are downright chilling.

Part Two doesn’t flow quite as well as the previous chapter. Like all middle entries of trilogies, plot plays a heavy factor so its pace is slightly slower, but still completely absorbing. The cultish aspects are ramped up and Friend’s God-like rise to power and deification go into overdrive here. Literally.

Both parts need to be commended for going just plain bonkers with its downright courageous insertions of science fiction and manga mainstays that border on the ridiculous in the life-like Japan the filmmakers recreated. Airports are blown up, large J-Pop concerts are staged, and the filmmakers somehow managed to make a giant robot destroying the city a believable plot device, something Watchmen didn’t have the narrative skills, nor the balls, to pull off (case in point, the infamous giant squid ending from the graphic novel).

Even without closure though, 20th Century Boys Part One and Part Two are well worth catching on the big screen. Stay for the end of the credits for a rocking trailer to Part Three. Those with sensitive arses need not fear; unlike Che, the two parts are shown in separate screenings on two different nights.

This year’s Spring Showcase edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival, which opens Friday and runs through April 9, features more than 20 films, with the usual mix of culture and eclecticism. In addition to the films scheduled ([www.hiff.org]), there are also a few program changes.

The Italian film Gomorrah has been replaced with Burma VJ, a documentary about reporters in the dangerous country. Also added is Maili Land: Stories of Hope, a film on a Leeward housing program shot by 10 kids and their mentors from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu. Another late addition is Yamagata Scream from Japan.

Fans of the broad comedic stylings of Japanese cinema and connoisseurs of the hot zombie genre will no doubt want to see this one. Five schoolgirls on a history class field trip visit the rural area of Yamagata, where the villagers worship a shrine erected in honor of a samurai who was buried alive while on a mission to hide a sacred sword. A bumbling developer has the shrine destroyed and the samurai rises from the dead to wreak havoc. But he’s not alone. Those that betrayed him also rise from their graves (don’t ask) and suddenly the zombies are lurching all over the town, hunting for a blade that gives the bearer power to control the world.

The proceedings are done with unsubtle, wacky slapstick comedy; even the imposing head zombie gets madcap: a fear of earthworms that makes him scream like a girl. George Romero this obviously isn’t. Or even Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The low-budget production values result in bad-on-purpose make-up jobs with the occasional semi-impressive CGI special effect (the portal to the Land of the Dead is ominous enough). There’s not much for gore-hounds either. The closest they’ll get to grossing themselves out is blue puke spewing from the zombies’ mouths that cause anyone doused with vomit to be instantly turned into a member of the undead; they immediately sprout long obake hair and eyebrows and speak in a lower, slower octave.

Miles better is another entry from Japan. Shown in two parts, 20th Century Boys is an epic based on a popular manga series and while not perfect, it’s everything Watchmen should have been (it was filmed as a trilogy so there is actually a Part Three to be released in Japan in August). The huge storyline revolves around nine childhood friends who form a club of sorts, complete with their own secret symbol and a “Book of Prophecies.” Decades later, these normal kid-play activities turn deadly when a cult leader appropriates the group’s symbol and his reign of disasters mirror the book’s. The kids, now adults, are reunited and they slowly realize they are all that stand between evil and the end of humanity; essentially it’s Stephen King’s It without the clowning. Complicating the already complex storyline even further is the cult’s mysterious masked leader, known only as Friend. His knowledge of the “Book of Prophecies” leads them to believe that he is someone that they attended school with.

Part One is a masterwork of tone. A sense of ominous dread pervades even the very witty and unexpected scenes of comedy and dialogue-laden exposition. Each piece of the intricate conspiracy/end of days puzzle is revealed to us with satisfying build-up and punctuated like a cliffhanger. Just as eerie is a biological weapon that is being unleashed on major cities. Considering the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo, the parallel events are downright chilling.

Part Two doesn’t flow quite as well as the previous chapter. Like all middle entries of trilogies, plot plays a heavy factor so its pace is slightly slower, but still completely absorbing. The cultish aspects are ramped up and Friend’s God-like rise to power and deification go into overdrive here. Literally.

Both parts need to be commended for going just plain bonkers with its downright courageous insertions of science fiction and manga mainstays that border on the ridiculous in the life-like Japan the filmmakers recreated. Airports are blown up, large J-Pop concerts are staged, and the filmmakers somehow managed to make a giant robot destroying the city a believable plot device, something Watchmen didn’t have the narrative skills, nor the balls, to pull off (case in point, the infamous giant squid ending from the graphic novel).

Even without closure though, 20th Century Boys Part One and Part Two are well worth catching on the big screen. Stay for the end of the credits for a rocking trailer to Part Three. Those with sensitive arses need not fear; unlike Che, the two parts are shown in separate screenings on two different nights.

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