The official website (http://www.microwavefilms.org/Laninbwil.html) has some scenes, snaps, descriptions, and soundtracks, which can help get a vibe for the film. It also offers future DVD sale. I plan on getting one not only because the movie is amusing, but also because it's one of the few examples of spoken Marshallese language I can find. The site also directs to the other two movies from the same group (although I've seen or investigated neither).
We first learned of the film from the posters all over the hotel and in storefronts around town. The poster is hard to miss, as the graphic is half of a persons head, well-lit in red, with a spooky yellow eye staring at you. The poster warns “an enraged Mejekenwar demon plunges and island town into darkness.”
It seemed touted as a horror film of sorts, but I've seen scarier episodes of Ghost Hunters on the Discovery Channel (or is that one on History?). Once you forgive that it isn't really a horror film (or that the island definition of “darkness” is a lot different than it is in the U.S.), it's an entertaining film.
Of course, the movie is set in the Marshall Islands, as advertised. More specifically, on the Majuro Atoll. I've not yet gotten the breakdown of towns or neighborhoods here, but the scenes were pretty much what we've seen during our visit, so at least we had that much context. I suspect, then, that this is the “island town” to which the poster refers.
From the first scene, the sound mixing was a problem. Background music was much too loud, especially during cut scenes when the instrumental was playing. Part of this was probably the desire of the “projectionist” to over come the chattering in the crowd. Different etiquette, I suspect, as many of the groups watching the film chattered amongst themselves the whole time. During what should have been solemn bits of film, though, the volume was such that it was distorting, and that got distracting. I'm sure in a more self-controlled environment the sound would be less daunting.
Other sound mixing flubs I give to the low-budget nature of the film. Shot entirely on location, there were overpowering echoes in small rooms, obnoxious click-clacking of the ubiquitous footwear (flip-flop sandals), and background noise washed out dialog from time to time, including the surf and passing vehicles. Some of this was washing over the dialog, which was a little disappointing, even though I wasn't able to follow the verbiage; it did eat into a little bit of the mood. The mixing-over of sounds didn't distract me too much from the dialog, as I was taking advantage of the English subtitles anyway.
The video was shot from what I'd guess was a high-quality (if not high-definition) handheld camera (or few), but I suspect in most shots the camera was fixed on a tripod. There were a few scenes that panned with the action (usually of someone running down a street), but most just watched from a fixed vantage point. Except for the cut scenes (where the camera was stationary in a vehicle that moved), there wasn't a lot of other action filming. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of zooming either. Off the top of my head, I can't recall any zooming, which means there either wasn't any, or it was suitable. Too often, low-budget films are shot “rough” with handheld, including a lot of zooming in and out for no apparent reason, except perhaps to try to create some tension that the story otherwise wouldn't have.
The film starts out during childbirth, where what I thought were the Marshallese equivalent of midwives (but by visiting the website learned were the laboring mother's relatives) were tending a woman in labor. She started babbling some pretty mean stuff, like “let me out so I can eat all of you,” which we learn as the other women bicker is because she's succumbed to evil, probably by being left alone at some point during the pregnancy. We learn this is the Mejenkwar, an evil demon who possesses pregnant women, and later tries to control their children.
The movie skips ahead several years, and we're re-introduced to the child, our protagonist, Lañinbwil, now a teenager. He lives in a cardboard box festooned with postcards and pictures clipped from magazines and newspapers. The movie turns humorous almost immediately as he stretches and then pulls a fork from his overly curly hair. He then pulls some glasses from a bin beside his box and puts them on, and then rubs the cruft from his eyes through the missing lenses. He also sprays down with some air-freshener, and tapes a picture of Barack Obama next to Darth Vader on his box.
Very soon after, he has a bit of a psychotic moment, which we're invited into by means of over-loud roller coaster sounds, and quick cuts of black-and-white video snips, including the roller-coaster tracks an bits from old and recent television, atomic blasts, strong weather, and other visual cacophony. All the time he's shown rolling his eyes, and grabbing his head and bobbling about a little. He does this a few times throughout.
We're treated to a few scenes to build his character, as he's picked on by other children, and as he wanders through his daily routine. He has a handset from a cordless telephone which he carries and mutters into, which is brought to our attention through this taunting.
Lañinbwil is befriended by an old man, Jacob, who shoos away some tormenters and gives him a bottle of water and bag of chips. When Jacob is asked by his checkers opponent why he bothers tending the village idiot, we get a flashback of the Jacob as a young boy, also tormented, but for being a bit of a drunk. Young Jacob outruns his tormenters (who are after the booze bottle he drops) and while catching his breath is visited by a noniep, a Marshallese fairy, who gifts him a better life. He's instantly transformed to a clean-cut sober kid with nice clothes. This is done with the condition that he never drink alcohol again, and go to church. He is also compelled that later he would have to help someone, and when he did he'd be returned to the person he was before the noniep helped him. Throughout the film, we're reminded of the fairy's words, that he'd know who, he'd know when, and he'd know how to help. Flashback over, Jacob responds that “he's just a kid, and he has no one else.”
We're also introduced to the beautiful heroine, Miko, recently returned to the island from a failed time in the U.S. with her uncle, who got them deported for being drunk. They return to live with her grandmother, a Marshallese shaman. Bubu (Marshallese for “grandmother”) previously dabbled in the black magic, but has since turned her life around, and is for the most part magic-free.
Miko returns to her school, where we also meet her friend and would-be suitor, Liki. Liki's the star of the class, and has an obvious crush on Miko. She seems to know this, and would probably more directly reciprocate, if society allowed.
After we're introduced to everyone and are comfortable with Lañinbwil's condition, the Majenkwar gets in his head and tells him to press the phone to his head. He transforms into the suave Letao, or Tao for short. Tao is clean-cut an handsome, with a slick not seen since Chachi on Happy Days. He's told (and frequently reminded) to confuse, trick, and discombobulate people. This, I think, is the “darkness” into which the town is plunged.
Tao talks his way into school (by confusing the principal with a wad of cash), joins the class Miko is in, and the mayhem begins!
First, he distracts all of the classroom girls with his wiles and charms. Then, he shows-up Liki by beating him to the answers to tough trigonometry problems the teacher has on the board. He moves in on Miko without a struggle, putting Liki in a funk. Later, when out with Miko, he confuses the fella at the EZ Mart by waving a wad of cash in his face, and then walks off with a couple of nice cell phones.
At first, Miko is disappointed, taking the phone, but walking away from him. Later in school she confronts him, and we learn she's jealous because of all of the attention he's getting from the other girls. They go visit a public official for a class project, and as part of his confuse, trick, and discombobulate scheme, he somehow sneaks the pen from the official's desk while he's trying to jot down a number from a phone call, only to find that Miko is holding it, ready to take notes with.
He eventually woos her, even turning her to the bottle, which she'd long sworn off because of the troubles it's caused her family, including the death of her parents and brother, and her recent deportation from America.
During this mayhem, we're introduced to another pregnant woman. She's in the hospital, unconscious with unknown ailments. Her husband is a friend of Miko's bubu, and seeks her assistance in healing his wife. Bubu suspects the Majenkwar is to blame and gives him some magic potion to anoint his wife with, but with strict instructions that no one can watch. Of course, while he shoes his sister-in-law from the room, she peeks around the curtain at him, and things go wrong. His arms turn black with the magic gone bad. He returns to bubu for assistance, an when she touches his hands, he's healed, but she evidently dies in a burst of magic.
The noniep helps Jacob turn Tao back into Lañinbwil, by again pressing the phone to his head, thus defeating the Majenkwar. The old man becomes the beat-down person he would have become, and Lañinbwil is charged with taking care of him. With this, bubu is revived, scaring all those in attendance as she lies in state on her porch. Peace is restored, and the Majenkenwar is defeated!
There's a little bit more to the story, including some additional characters, and lots of moments that caused the audience to laugh uproariously. The major time-passing was done in cut-scenes using scrolling views of the island, as if looking out a taxi window as it drove down the island's one road. Some scenes contained apparently prominent, or at least well-known people and places, as the audience would react to some of the shots. In one scene of the film, we saw the judge who preside over our adoption, and recognized many of the places we've been or passed, so I'm sure it was the same and more for longer-lived residents of the area.
Given the vibe from the island, I guess confusing some girls, stealing some cell phones, and showing up the smart kid is probably pretty close to what a possessed person would do to cause mayhem on the island. Really, the secondary story of the pregnant woman and bubu's magic involvement wasn't because of or related to Lañinbwil, except that both were victims of the Majenkenwar.
Even without getting a lot of the inside culture-based jokes, the movie's a bit funny, and is a good watch. If it ever makes it to video near you, and you don't mind the subtitles (or speak Marshallese), I recommend it, if for nothing else than a bit of insight to a small island nation's people.
