The Okinawa International Movie Festival has prided itself from the start as a community-based film event, each year striving to involve the farthest reaches of the island chain. But having been launched as a comedy film festival with the motto “Laugh & Peace,” it has rarely tackled issues of great controversy.This year though, director Regge Life presented the culmination of years of research on the issue of rape cases by US military personnel, a reoccurring problem that saw another incident earlier this year. His film “Cocktail Party” may be a fictitious tale (based on the Akutagawa Prize winning novella by Tatsuhiro Oshiro), but by refusing to pick sides, or focus solely on the crime, it examines the issue via a wholly realistic story.Regge Life has previously focused his work on documentaries, but it’s clear he approached his first narrative feature with an aim to paint a picture of the true Okinawan life its characters represent.Petty officer Lance Wilson (Andrew Spatafora) returns from a night out with 19 year-old Naomi (Saori Goda), whom he met at a bar. Once accusations of rape service, tensions rachet up between local residents and the US military, depicting how the actions of two people can cause international disputes, shape the social fabric of a local community, and put immense pressure on the individuals involved.
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