SEARCHING

Day 124 of the Lower Puna Eruption, where fissure #8, where the crater is now up to about the height of Aloha Tower (184 feet), this weekend showed some sign of life.

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My movie of the weekend was Searching, rated by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers at 91, with an audience like of 86%.  The production was almost documentary in presentation, placing you, the viewer, in the middle of the action.  You were compelled to be personally drawn-in to the anguish of the father, John Cho, by the disappearance, and apparent murder, of his high school daughter, trying to help the detective in charge, Debra Messing.  This is one of those films with assorted twists and things not being what your mind says must be so...and not.  Fresh clues keep changing the reality.  Apparent scoundrels are mostly benign and heroes become heels.  If you are a father, you will re-think your role.

Much of the effort involved the father searching on his computer, using his smart phone, and otherwise being intimately involved with the social media of his daughter.  If nothing else, it brings you up to date on what that next generation does today.  I loved Searching.

Following up to the hoopla of Crazy Rich Asians, this is the first Hollywood mainline film headlined by an Asian-American.  Actually, John Cho was born in Seoul, but moved to the U.S. at the age of 5, and mostly lived in California.  His father was a minister, originally from North Korea.  John graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and went on to teach English at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood.  Thus, the link to entertainment.  He was also the lead singer for Viva La Union (also Left of Zed), a Los Angeles garage rock band composed of former Berkeley and USC students.

He had roles in both American Pies, but I first remember him as Harold in the 2004 film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (Did you know that the hamburger from White Castle has five large holes?), with Kal Penn, who also has done well.  There were two more H&Ks, a bunch of small stuff, Sulu in Star Trek, and a short-lived sitcom Selfie, becoming the first Asian American to play a romantic lead on a U.S. television series.

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By the time you read this, Typhoon Jebi will have crashed into Japan as a Category 2 or 3, with winds in the range of 100 MPH.

Landfall will be short because the eye will move over Kansai (Kobe and Osaka), then zoom north into the Sea of Japan.  While destruction could be significant, Japan has seen this type of storm and should be well-prepared.

In the East Pacific, Miriam is gone, Hurricane Norman is weakening and should largely bypass Hawaii to the north, while Olivia will most likely follow a similar path:

Gordon and Florence in the Atlantic should remain as tropical storms.

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I should mention that this weekend was among the best ever for University of Hawaii sports, as the women's volleyball team shut out Coastal Carolina twice, the football team beat Navy 59-41, and the women's soccer team won two on the road, Sunday over Pacific, 5-0 a rare score in soccer.

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