Film Flam

The Implosion Of A Son

RISING SON: THE LEGEND OF CHRISTIAN HOSOI

There have been a few documentaries on skateboarders and skateboarding culture over the last few years. All of them feature guys who’ve grown up and look back at their day in the sun as a glorious time.

It started with Dogtown and Z-Boys directed by the phenomenally talented Stacy Peralta, and without a doubt Peralta’s doc is the template for all of the sports centered docs that have come since.

It had it all and its influence is analogous to the Z-Boys themselves. There are stylistic things that you’ve see over and over again in recent documentaries; montages of photographs juxtaposed with photographs and visual effects. A talented counter culture icon/actor narrating, a moment in the film where the tone of the film completely shifts and you’re emerged into the dark abyss of loneliness.

Sure, Ken Burns has been doing that kind of stuff for years, but not with such a hard edged style. Peralta brought a real sense of rock and roll to it all. A feeling of life and energy. I’d say with relative confidence that the Dogtown doc is probably the most influential documentary of the last decade.

You see its tone and visual flair emulated in commercials, films, and in Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. Which I think is a great thing. Rising Son has a real energy burning through it and it nails a whole lot of thing dead on. I don’t know what kind of camera rig or sound system they used but there’s something fused into the film that reminds of watching skateboarding videos.

Skate videos always had a certain visual look to them. Particlarly in the the late 90’s and throughout the last decade. I’m tempted to believe that it has something to do with shooting stuff on high end DV cameras set to cinema mode. I can’t place my finger on it, but its thrilling nonetheless.

The grain in the interview segments is distinctly and different than your typical Key/Fill lighting setup and textures seem a bit more crushed. The stuff that really pops out to me is the modern day interview footage of Christian, it instantly reminds of a couple of Girl and a few DC videos.

But I digress.

The template for these kind of movies is the Jay Adams segment from Dogtown. Its comprised of a short history of the brilliant and tortured athletic genius in question, a round table of stories about his shenanigans, a group of old buddies and currently respectable legends talking about how great so and so was and then…boom. It all went down the shitter and its a tragedy because he was such and inspiration to everyone.

This template was also applied (to lesser effect) in what can be seen as a sister film to Rising Son, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator. Stoked kind of takes a true crime approach to things and its distance from its subject matter, while understandable, causes the film to suffer. There’s no connection to Gator and the tragedy play more like an E:True Hollywood story. Which is a shame.

This doesn’t apply to Rising Son. There’s so much love in it that it’s shocking. The first 40 minutes are stunning. The footage of Hosoi speaks for itself. The guy was a miracle. Everything he did seemed like magic and to see him on a board was truly awe inspiring. Add to this hotbed of imagery and charisma some tunes by The Ramones, Fugazi, and other fantastic bands and you’ve got a recipe for radness.

Stuffed to the brim with skateboarding legends like Jay Adams, Eric Koston, Danny Way, Jason Lee and of course the obligatory Tony Hawk interview. But its the interviews with his closest friends and family that get you. Interviews with Hosoi and his father are among the most revelatory pieces of cinema in the whole film. They’re short and sweet and touch you deeply. They’re precious little gems that glow out at you. These bits reinforce how Hosoi came to be and really help you understand what Hosoi was. You connect with him, in such simple little ways.

This is crucial to the film, so much of what makes Rising Son work is Hosoi’s charisma. You see it in the eyes of his friends. The man is a legend. His life force carries the first 40 minutes of the movie. He’s invincible.

Then the ride is over and things go downhill for Hosoi. The last 20-25 minutes of the movie aren’t that great. Its not that you don’t want to see Hosoi fail, its that the filmmakers have so much love for Hosoi that to depict his downfall seems like it hurts them too much. To my eye they give him a little tough love and pull a few punches.

Which is okay for me, but its when the movie stops being a documentary and becomes a group of friends getting together to make a film about a guy that they really love and respect.

In a lot of way I really admire and respect that. I’m a big fan of having a stake in what you’re making. It so much better than being “even-handed”. I think it was Errol Morris who said that even-handed filmmaking just means you don’t have an opinion about what you’re talking about.

The guys who made Rising Son know that they love Chritian Hosoi, and they want you to love him too. That’s a great thing.