| Director | Christopher Kahunahana |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 77 min |
| Country | United States |
Kea is first introduced in a short scene as a dancer performing the hula to the well-known romantic song “Waikīkī” (1938) by Andy Cummings. She is then shown as a bar hostess who is verbally abused and mistreated by her partner Branden because of this job. She flees into the night in her van and hits Wo, a homeless man who is crossing the street. He becomes her silent companion for the next few days as she unsuccessfully tries to find a new apartment and eventually loses the van.
The day after the mysterious Wo enters her life, Kea is late for school, where she teaches Hawaiian. She explains to the class the Hawaiian proverb “He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka” (The land is the Aliʻi, man is its servant) and its deeper meaning that humans are dependent on the life-giving land.
The plot is interrupted several times by shots of mountains, waterfalls, and waterways on the one hand, and flashbacks showing Kea as a child with her grandmother on the other. She teaches her the children's song “Ke Ao Nani” (this wonderful world) by Mary Kawena Pukui and how it is danced as Hula noho (seated hula). Also when Kea, living as a homeless person, desperately wonders “if everything will turn out okay,” her grandmother appears to her. Further flashbacks interrupting the plot, in which she is seen as a child with Uncle Bully, hint at abuse and violence.
Finally, Kea kneels on the ground in a park on Sand Island, looking out over Honolulu Harbor toward the Kakaʻako skyline, among others, with clear criticism of touristy Waikīkī.