October 31st, 2008
It has been several long months since that lonely night I typed out The Last Princess film blog. Since it was published, I have seen my blog read, reviewed, replied to, and used in other articles relating to the film that I greatly anticipate. I have even begun to suspect that my blog may have had some influence over the actual film itself, but I have no proof to confirm that.
Needless to say, after moving to Los Angeles, concluding half a year of Film School, and maturing into a young woman from that angsty, cursing teenager who wrote that blog, I will admit that it now has made me cringe and wonder if the world honestly took me seriously with the forceful and rude way I was writing.
Now, as an official student filmmaker, I believe it is my responsibility to redeem myself and write a new article about the Ka’iulani film. There have been many new developments, controversies and new opinions about the film that I wish to address, as well as to assure the world of my newfound maturity.
The new blog will be available here, as well as my website in the coming weeks. For now, I have edited my old blog to make it more User-friendly (which basically meant just deleting all of the curses).
Be sure to check back here soon for my new article.
-Mahalo
Any little girl dreams about being a fairytale princess sometime in her life. After that they usually graduate to movie stars, pop idols or Power Rangers. I am not guiltless of this Princess obsession, and I have my share of memories that include dressing up in homemade fantasy gowns and strutting about the house singing the princess theme songs.
These princesses include all of the girls in the current Disney Princess line up except Mulan, who was introduced when I had already long outgrew Power Rangers, and is technically not a Princess anyways and I think was only included as an excuse for cultural diversity. Anastasia came out late as well, a product of Don Bluth rather than Disney. In my opinion, had Don Bluth made more Princess feature films after Anastasia, he would have been more successful and would not have had to throw the white flag at Disney.
Anyways, the point is, all of these Princesses were FICTIONAL, which is why I believe they appeal to younger girls who were more or less forbidden to have a grip on reality until they became preteens. Not many real princesses led lives that would be appealing to little innocent girls, and the few that were based on real girls would never have been so admired had the animators stayed so completely true to their stories. (Anastasia and her family met with a bloody end, and don’t even get me started on Pocahontas)
Since I am American, I had the misfortune of growing up in a country famous for rejecting Royal influence. But jolly lucky me! I didn’t grow up just anywhere in America, I GREW UP IN HAWAII.
Besides all the obvious things that will make you envious at all the things I grew up with (Sand, Sea, Surf, Sun, Summer all year…. green yet?). We had something that the rest of America lacked. A Royal family.
So yes, Hawaii had a royal family. And what would a royal family be without Princesses?
Hawaii had its share of famous Princesses. There is Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who founded the Kamehameha schools and has billions to her name. Miriam Likelike, who the famous highway was named after, and one of the most well known, Princess Victoria Ka’iulani.
I don’t know when I first heard about Princess Ka’iulani, but I knew by the time I landed in Fresno that I was so touched by her story that I was sobbing in the airplane. It must have been sometime in high school when I began doing serious research on the princess. The more I read about her, the more she felt like one of those fairy tale princesses that I had so admired as a child. She was born amidst much celebration, crown princess of an island nation, raised in a tropical paradise with ever blooming flowers, friend to famous poets, writers and royals, owned a garden full of peacocks and her very own white pony.
She was also raised amidst much political turmoil, with outside forces trying dirty tactics to get Hawaii for themselves. She traveled around the United States in an attempt to gain support for her kingdom, but ultimately failed and saw her kingdom overrun by the US. With apparently nothing left to live for, she fell sick and died at the tender age of 23.
Her story really struck a chord with me, and I spent my last few days in Hawaii wandering around Iolani Palace, the State Library and the State Archives dabbling in information about her. I even bought a biography about the princess that kept me occupied and in tears all the way to Fresno.
While being notoriously bored in my new home because the extreme weather kept me indoors, (100+ in the summer then abruptly 30 in the fall and winter?!) I began to formulate plans of making the touching tale of Ka’iulani into a motion picture. I had been a video productions student for years back in Hawaii and was on my way to Film school anyways. So to keep me sane, I began making plans to make a film about her in the far future after I was completed with Film School.
One night I was randomly Googling info to see if any movies were made on her previously
and that’s when I found THIS
I was utterly devastated. Partly because my grand idea was already being undertaken by someone else, but mostly because I was really looking forward to making this and I had lots of grad ideas and research planned, and had such hope for this project that made me happy during those inhospitable months in Armona.
I was so emotional that night that I went on a tirade on one of the internet forums that I frequented.
After I had calmed down and composed myself, I wrote the man-in-charge Marc Forby for additional info, and we exchanged a few e-mails and phone numbers.
I totally abandoned all thought of the Ka’iulani picture after talking with Forby, since I didn’t need any more reminder that he beat me to the punch. But after those few e-mails I somehow was able to convince myself that Forby was an OK man for the job. One of those reasons was his correction on my use of titles for Ka’iulani, something about using Her Royal Highness instead of Her Majesty or some random thing like that. My subsequent Google searches also have shown to me that Forby really did his research and was taking this very seriously, so I felt safe to trust him.
But one thing that really irked me about Forby and the movie was that the announcement and casting call were so clearly published before I left Oahu in Augyst, 2006. You would have thought that I would have heard about it before I decided to make a film about her, but Noooo! I’m like “You’d think I would have heard about it before I left!” Especially since Forby claimed to have done all the following:
1) Published an article in the Star Bulletin in 2005
2) Did an open call at the PK hotel
3) Did an interview over the local radio calling for auditions
4) Auditioned the drama department at Kamehameha schools
5) Used the services of the top two casting directors in Oahu, Ms. Fishburn and Mrs Doversola
6) Auditioned clients of print modelling agencies and Kathy Muller agency (which lead us to Kaimana)
7) Contacted over 20 hula halaus in Oahu
Contacted hula halaus in California
9) Auditioned a Hawaiian athlete who had a great look but no experience
10) Casted a Hawaiian girl in 2005 and announced it in the press, trained her for one year before realizing she could not carry the film.
11) Offered the role in December of 2005 to a Hawaiian actress in Hollywood who later bowed out.
12) I even tried cast a cousin of mine who is Hawaiian but she did think she could act.
Yeah, just looking at that list could make you faint, especially if you had any idea how difficult it is to cast a film (among other things!) But really, if it was really this hyped out, why didn’t I hear about it?
I’m better connected than others, especially since I had contacts with the Hawaii Film Festival, The Hawaii Film Commission, the ‘Olelo Community Television Networks, Searider Productions in Waianae, and lots of actor friends. With my connections I would have at least heard a whisper about the film before I had time to grow such burning desire and passion to create a Ka’iulani picture before Forby beat me to it.
Now that it is clear that Forby will take this thing to fruition, I better stop ranting about it and instead write about what I expect to see in this picture when it comes out.
First off, no title for the Ka’iulani film has been announced, so we can only call it now The Ka’iulani film/picture. I myself had wanted to call my version The Last Princess. I’m sure Forby wouldn’t really agree with this title since Ka’iulani wasn’t the last princess of the Hawaiian monarchy. I thought it would fit since Ka’iulani’s life and death centered around the collapse of the monarchy, and also for audience appeal as well, since titles such as The Last Samurai, The Last Emperor, The Last Mimzy, The Last Unicorn were pretty good. Titles beginning with The Last… also invoke lots of emotions too, from curiosity, to hope, to intrigue about what the story is about and how it will resolve, which is a good audience attractor. Add “Princess” to that, and you double people’s interests. “Ooooh! The Last Princess from where? Who was she? What did she do? “
Another title I had for my film was Island Rose in reference to the poem Robert Louis Stevenson wrote for her. This choice seems far less appealing though, since it sounds too much like a romantic comedy/chick flick or an NC-17 tropical romance title. Anything with a Hawaiian name would confuse the predominantly English speaking world. If it were named simply “Ka’iulani” you could guarantee that 95% of the people who see the movie poster will pronounce it Kai-you-lan-knee, which is absolute torture.
I’ll let Forby handle this one, since by now I know that he wouldn’t resort to a corny title for his prized masterwork.
As for the girls Forby casted to play the Princess, I actually don’t really have a problem with them. Kaimana Pa’aluhi, (the girl to be playing young Ka’iulani from 12-17 years old) looks very pretty and haughty, with a hint of mischief, which is just like the Princess. But IMO she’s a bit thin. I know the Queen had once told Ka’iulani to watch how much she eats, but really, she couldn’t have been *that* thin at that age. It would be better if Kaimana gained a few pounds to get those young plump princess cheeks, but we’ll see if she can pull the acting bit off regardless how big her cheeks are.
Starting Ka’iulani’s story off at 12 years is something that worries me a bit. That was around the time Princess Likelike, her mother, died and the Princess left for England for her formal schooling. I’m wondering how much of her life in Hawaii Forby plans on showing in the film. In my version, I had planned to show a collage of Ka’iulani from her birth at Keoua Hale to when she meets her governess Miss Gardinier, which means casting up to 4 separate girls for Ka’iulani for the entire movie. One as an infant, one as a child from 4-12, another for 12-17 and one other for her as a young woman. Oh well, let’s see what Forby does with it.
Speaking of which: Forby has chosen Q’orianka Kilcher to play Ka’iulani in her later years. Best known for playing Pocahontas in the 2005 film The New World (which I haven’t seen yet, I know, I’m a pathetic excuse for a film major). Apart from also being very pretty and haughty, Q’orianka looks convincingly Hapa Hawaiian. Even better, she’s an indigenous people’s activist, which was exactly what Ka’iulani was when she traveled around the US to try and stop Hawaiian annexation, or something close. The decision to cast her in the role of Ka’iulani has caused some controversy in the Hawaiian community due to her nationality. But I agree with Forby, in that if she looks the part and she can act well, especially in a film as sensitive as this, then she gets the part. Purity of blood has nothing to do with acting skills, so why choose a Hawaiian girl if she can’t act anyways? I would care less about an actress’s blood quality and focus more on her acting skills when I enter a cinema.
For me, I had been eyeing Keisha Castle-Hughes to fill the role of Ka’iulani. Not only is Maori blood closer to Hawaiian that Quechua (Kidding kidding, don’t take me seriously here) but Keisha was already well liked in the islands for her performance in the movie Whale Rider. I honestly thought her acting could have done some more work, but her performance was wonderful and I liked the movie. I’m sure Forby must’ve considered her at one point, and he must have had his reasons for not offering the role to her, or maybe he did and she refused. Or maybe it had something to do with her 16-year-old self plus a big growing belly that by now has turned into a Joy Bundle. I dunno, I’ll have to give him a ring to find out.
All-in-all, I can’t wait to view this film and see what Forby’s version of Ka’iulani’s life story will be. I doubt that Ka’iulani will achieve the same fame and admiration as Disney’s fairytale princesses, but hopefully her story will inform people of the true history of Hawaii and maybe let the world have some respect and pity for the former Island kingdom that has since been degraded to a tourist spot full of primitive beliefs and native girls in grass skirts. It’s so hard to have a decent conversation about Hawaii with Mainlanders who grew up with the notion that Hawaii is a third-world settlement that caters to the thriving tourist market.
But mark my words, Marc Forby! If I am not totally satisfied with what I see, expect both a phone call and a hard time from me. I still have a chance at a remake.
-Val
