If you were to pick the most honest and realistic film set in Hawaii, it would be hard to overlook The Descendants (2011).

Starring George Clooney and directed by Alexander Payne, this film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and is special for being one of the few films that does not portray Hawaii as just a paradise. It candidly shows the lives of the Hawaiian people behind the glamorous image of Waikiki Beach.

The protagonist, Matt King (played by George Clooney), is a lawyer and a descendant of Native Hawaiians living in Honolulu. When his wife falls into a coma due to a boating accident, he, who has always been distant from his family, spends time with his two daughters and uncovers his wife's secrets. At the same time, he is also the representative of a land trust that has the authority to sell a vast amount of land on Kauai. As the issues of land sales and family intertwine, the film deeply explores the meaning of living in Hawaii.

The filming took place on the islands of Oahu and Kauai. In Oahu, real residential areas in downtown Honolulu and Kaimuki appear as backgrounds. It showcases the neighborhoods where locals actually live, rather than the glamorous Waikiki.

On Kauai, Hanalei Bay and areas near the Na Pali Coast serve as the backdrop for the land sale discussions, filling the screen with the island's pristine beauty. It is rare to see a film that captures Kauai's scenery so beautifully, even though it is not a promotional film for Hawaiian tourism.

The land issues addressed in the film are also sensitive matters in reality. The problems of selling land owned by Native Hawaiian descendants to development companies, the impact of that development on Hawaii's natural environment and community, and the complex legal structure of land trusts that have been passed down through inheritance are fictional in the film but resonate with real-life issues. In Hawaii, the ownership structure of land is complex, divided into simple sales and leasehold, and issues related to Native Hawaiian land continue to be political and social points of contention.

George Clooney was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for this film and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama. The film itself was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, receiving significant attention in the American film industry that year.

The local response to the film in Hawaii was positive. Many locals felt that it presented a realistic view of Hawaii from a different perspective.

The Descendants is a film that shows another side of Hawaii to those who only know it as a travel destination.

If you live in Hawaii or want to understand it more deeply, I highly recommend watching it.

After watching the film, you will start to see the neighborhoods of Kaimuki or the coastlines of Kauai in a different light.