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With his Pacific Rim heritage, busted 'rubbah slippah' and surfer's build, John Ta at first glance easily passes for a local of the Hawaiian islands, where his debut feature Balls Deep is largely set. But John (or, at least, the eponymous central character and narrator he portrays in the movie) exposes himself as anything but local with his observation that 'People here are so...unmotivated' and his painful mispronunciation and out-of-context usage of the word 'howzit.' After those revelations, somehow it's hard to picture the guy answering someone's query as to how or what he's doing, with the ubiquitous Hawaiian expression 'cruiseen'.'On the other hand, the love and wonderment the author feels for Hawaii comes through loud and clear, if somewhat bittersweet. It makes you wonder: is there any difference between the John the protagonist and John the filmmaker? John the protagonist doesn't utter a single complimentary word about Hawaii, the island paradise he lives in, but John the filmmaker allows the Aloha State ample opportunity to tell its own beautiful story with pictures and music.This audio-visual exposition is one of the ways the movie develops its own particular style. Some may see various contemporary influences like the movies Fight Club and Timecode and the video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication, but we live in a postmodern society after all. For my part, I was at times floored by the visual and aural poetry of the movie even as I recognized these and other influences.Balls Deep establishes John Ta as a young filmmaker to watch. His command of the medium, especially on an obviously tiny budget, is impressive enough that Balls Deep has a chance of being for him what Reservoir Dogs was for Quentin Tarantino and Sex, Lies and Videotape was for Stephen Sodobergh.
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