Steve Iwamoto and Constance Wu in I Was a Simple Man
A healing haunting.
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Christopher Makato Yogi s second feature is a gentle reflection on memory and death, featuring Constance Wu as the ghost of a woman who returns to comfort her Japanese Hawaiian husband near the end of his life.
In the opening scene of Christopher Makoto Yogi s lyrical family drama,
I Was a Simple Man, the elderly protagonist looks out over densely built-up Honolulu and recalls when there was just beautiful green where concrete towers now cluster. That sense of a spiritual connection to nature, cultural foundations and people long departed, even to the characters younger selves, permeates this delicate, time-shifting study of a solitary man s rueful end-of-life introspection. Dying isn t simple, is it? asks the ghost of his wife, who died young, leaving him with sorrow and anger. But it s a transition that ultimately brings peace in this modest work of lingering beauty.
Catch these Sundance Film Festival selections from Jan 28 to Feb 2.
By
Gwendolyn Knapp
1/27/2021 at 1:16pm
Moonstruck Drive-In is located at Midway s upcoming East River development, 100 Bringhurst St.
Attention, movie buffs. The Sundance Satellite Film Festival touches down at the Moonstruck Drive-In, January 28âFebruary 2. Because this year s famed Sundance Film Festival, which happens every January in Park City, Utah, had to be canceled, the organizers rolled out satellite film festivals in 20 cities around the country (along with going largely virtual as well), so we re lucky to be in that number.
In Houston Sundance has partnered with Houston Cinema Arts Festival, bringing six screenings to the drive-in, along with a screening at the DeLUXE Theater and a couple of virtual offerings. The screenings are going for $30 per carload, or, if you have a cool $120, throw it down for a festival pass, which includes everyone in your car for all the fil
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When the Sundance Film Festival kicks off on January 28, 2021, in Park City, Utah, there won’t be a long line of people standing outside the Eccles Theater, watching their breath catch in the cold winter air and Main Street surely won’t be packed with revelers and sponsor activations, either.
Instead, on account of the coronavirus pandemic, next year’s Sundance will actually expand amid the contraction of live events. Rather than relying solely on in-person experiences, the festival has plans that extend far beyond the theater: a digital platform where patrons around the world can watch this year’s lineup; drive-in screenings at venues around the country; in-person showings at independent art houses nationwide where indoor events can happen safely and in accordance with public health guidelines; and even a virtual reality space that includes live performances and a lobby where people can digitally congregate.