Whenever I see a movie that is set in Hawaii, it gets my attention.  This was the case as, while scrolling through Netflix, I landed upon Finding ‘Ohana (2017).  If you do as I did, and you are familiar with your classic 1980s cinema, you might look at the trailer on the streaming service and say to yourself, “This looks familiar. . . .”  It is what you get when you blatantly rip off The Goonies (1985), subtract a large portion of the title team, give hints of Lilo & Stitch (2002), have nods to Indiana Jones, and add in Hawaiian folklore.  Finding ‘Ohana is, as the cliché goes, a modern take on earlier, beloved story.  As bad as this might sound on paper, I actually found that I enjoyed it.  Indeed, I daresay that it has more of an emotional core than its forerunner, and thus a little more interesting to this sappy Catholic.

Instead of Finding ‘Ohana, the film starts with twelve-year-old geocache enthusiast Pili (Kea Peahu) tracking down clues in Brooklyn, New York.  Her and her friend end up beating out a team of boys to claim the prize of a summer geocaching camp in the Catskills.  However, instead of attending this event when the season comes around, she and her brother, Ioane “E” (Alex Aiono), and their mother, Leilani (Kelly Hu), travel across the country to Oahu in Hawaii.  They go there because Leilani’s father, Kimo (Banscombe Richmond), has been having some financial and health issues.  It has been over ten years since Leilani has visited, having left for New York following the death of her husband, Kua Kawena (Brad Kalilimoku), and Kimo is not completely welcoming.  In fact, Leilani wants to settle dad’s affairs in Hawaii and move him to the Big Apple, something about which he is even less thrilled.  On their first day on Kimo’s property, Pili notices a defunct school bus that has been converted into storage, and she is eager to get inside.  Once she does, her search uncovers a journal of a seventeenth century sailor named Monks (Ricky Garcia).  His scribblings reveal what is a well-known legend on the island: the existence of a large horde of treasure.  At first, she tries to keep this a secret, but her theft is noticed by a local boy named Casper (Owen Vaccaro).  He is known to Kimo, and to Hana (Lindsay Watson), a girl who also lives nearby and happens to be the same age as Ioane.  Despite Ioane’s misgivings for being in Oahu, seeing Hana for the first time starts to warm him up to the place.  For her part, she quickly sizes him up for being the “mainlander” (somebody who lives in the continental United States) that he is, and appears initially immune to his charms.  As for the diary, later Kimo finds Casper and Pili attempting to translate it.  At first, Kimo reacts angrily to having had his things casually taken, but soon he sees it as an opportunity to bond with his granddaughter.  He takes her to a nearby island with a view of Oahu where he reveals some of the history behind the journal, and gives her a coin that belonged to Monks that points the way to where the riches could be hidden.  Intrigued, she attempts to climb higher to get a better look at the location the coin is indicating.  Kimo tries to stop her, fearing for her safety, but falls and breaks a rib in the process, requiring him to go to the hospital.  Pili blames herself.  Her solution to the situation, and helping her grandfather to keep his place while also allowing her to return to New York, is to locate the treasure.  Of course, she enlists Casper’s help, who is fine with them stealing a truck to drive to where the clues are leading them.  So, yeah, twelve-year-old drivers. . . .  Anyway, Leilani leaves Ioane in charge while she stays with her father, but the next morning Ioane awakens to his sister being gone with his cell phone.  He tracks the device to a nearby valley, and asks Hana to go with him to retrieve Casper and Pili.  Hana and Ioane find the kids at the bottom of a pit in a cave where Pili has found an expensive ring on the skeleton of one of Monks’ crewmates, which is enough to keep them going forward.  They also have no choice when Hana and Ioane fall into the same predicament, the result of the older ones attempting to rescue the younger ones.  From here, it is a matter of making it through a series of Indiana Jones-esque booby traps, before they find a way to safety.  Adding some urgency to the matter is the fact that Ioane has been bitten by a potentially deadly spider, and gradually weakens as they continue through the cave.  Just when they are about to exit and head home, Pili spots a feature she remembers from the journal, which leads them to the fabled horde or gold and jewels.  They are busy lining their pockets with riches until Hana notices something on the other side of treasure room.  It is the mark of an ancient Hawaiian burial ground, meaning that they are not allowed to take anything from the place.  They all empty their bags and pockets except for Ioane, who believes it is all a bunch of superstition.  His mind is promptly changed when the cave goes dark and the torches turn into blue flame.  Running for their lives, they make it out where they are found by Leilani.  Yet, the Hawaiian spirits have been awakened, and they still come after our little band.  Taking shelter in an abandoned hut, Pili realizes they must relinquish their pilfered goods.  When she does so, the figure of Kua Kawena appears before his living family, and they share a moment.  Despite this terrifying ordeal, it convinces Ioane and Pili to want to stay in Hawaii, and they apparently live happily ever after.

In case you are wondering, Finding ‘Ohana is about (and please, no Fast & Furious jokes) family, and family sells their property in New York to help their ailing grandfather.  In other words, they did not need the gold of lost treasure when they have something greater between the three of them, four if you count Kua Kawena’s spirit.  This is a Catholic theme, though perhaps an obvious one.  The love that families have for one another is meant to be a model of that which God has for us.  What imperils it are emotional scars, and the characters all have their share of wounds.  Leilani feels guilty for leaving Oahu and Kimo behind; Kimo is angry for the same reasons; Ioane misses his dad and develops a grudge towards his sister for how much he is called upon to take care of her; and Pili is feeling the effects of being severed from her cultural roots.  One of the best ways of healing this woundedness is through forgiveness.  This concept is perhaps the most important theme in Christianity.  Jesus says in the Bible that one of the primary reasons for Him coming into the world was to call sinners to repentance.  Reconciliation between people is important because it comes up when we feel like another person has sinned against us, has wronged us in some manner.  If allowed to fester, that hurt can turn into ugly feelings and reactions.  We see this on display between Ioane and Pili, who bicker at seemingly every opportunity.  What I appreciate, though, is how the film shows the importance of saying sorry to loved ones in Hawaiian culture.  Unfortunately, modern culture does not seem to have an equivalent.  We care less about how others feel and more about being heard and recognized as individuals.  Luckily, Catholicism has Confession, and when our sins involve others, we are encouraged to “make it right,” as they say in the movie.

While the themes discussed in the last paragraph may not sound like The Goonies, there is also the presence of Ke Huy Quan as Kioki in Finding ‘Ohana.  He played Data in the 1985 film.  It is interesting to compare the two films, and I would say the more recent one is better suited for audiences of today.  That is not to denigrate the beloved classic, but to underscore changing storytelling styles.