Art-house cinema finds a home in Kahala

The demise of art house havens like the Varsity Theatre left Honolulu residents with little or no opportunity to see independent or foreign films outside Netflix.

[theOpinionator]

Honolulu Academy of Arts Theater, Dole Cannery, Movie Museum, Aikahi (now closed) have all shown "Artsy Fartsy" Movies over the years, to my great pleasure. They're out there if you know where to look. See you at the movies!

[auriga]

Yay! How nice to have access to foreign and other "art house" movies in East Honolulu. I am all for this change. I will have an alternative to using Netflix to see these wonderful films.

[bruddah c]

Thats great, I used to go to the Varisty quite often for alternative movie fare but its good to have the Kahala pick up the slack for the defunct Varsity. Good job.

[Stumbling Drunk]

Excellent!

[Pat]

I have really missed the Varsity. Quality films are few and far between on Oahu. All of the theatre's carry the same tiresome films. I am wondering why Windward cannot have quality films particularly when we are all trying to save gas? Driving to Kahala to see a good movie is going to be questionable for a lot of people. Educated sophisicated people do live on the Windward side, too.

[Varsity Widower]

Looking forward to Mongol. Thank you Kahala 8 and Ellen Cotter!

[Lork]

The Academy was great and had a cool selection of the artsy fartsy, but no stadium seating!

It'll be great having another resource...bravo!

[Blackpope808]

please patronize Kahala Theaters and their art house features...the workers there are friendly and diligent. I have seen two movies so far that warrant an "art house" moniker, and was pleasantly surprised at how relaxed the atmosphere was. The manager even started to make fresh popcorn even thought it was close to the last feature being screened. I had to get some popcorn!

[Jason Tom]

I love the fact that there is an alternative to blockbusters. I look forward to seeing "Mongol" when it comes out. Genghis Khan proved to be one of the greatest rulers to ever have lived, even greater than that of Alexander the Great.

I caught the touching "The Children of Huang Shi" starring Chow Yun Fat, and Michelle Yeoh last night. It's funny, because I recently bought the DVD documentary entitled "Nanking." Kahala Theatre rocks for offering foreign films, and what not! After watching "The Children of Huang Shi" it makes me wonder now how many marches actually took place in China. I've only studied about the Long March led by Mao Zedong prior. I was most moved and touched when I saw the Chinese survivors (still living today) that spoke of the heroic efforts by George Hogg. It truly brought me back to China, which I've had the grand opportunity to study abroad at a few years ago. I miss China.

Mahalo,
Jason Tom
www.jasontom.com