Premise line: When a carefree young Hawaiian becomes a crown prince after his father kills his uncle, he begins training for the kingship, only to discover his power hungry brother wants to continue the family tradition. Life gets complicated when crops begin to fail and their father has both of them marry a beautiful cousin to re-establish the usurped bloodline. He must pass dangerous kingship tests designed by his brother, overcome his sexual jealousy, and use his new skills to bring the land back to life – Blood Red Rain: The Rebellion.
Act One
Sequence 1: Ordinary World, Meet the Family
1. In an opening image, Pono (po-no), a happy-go-lucky, athletic Hawaiian surfer dude, is running toward us (and away from the Hill of the Jealousy, Pu’u o Kahua) through an early developmental stage of the Kohala Field System, a large garden that feeds the people of Hawaii island in the 17th century. Pono is popular and farmers along his route (who look thin and hungry) stop work to cheer him on.
2. As he enters a coastal village, he grabs Lani (LAW-nee), his childhood sweetheart (stakes character/love interest) and the beautiful granddaughter of the king, and playfully picks her up dives into the surf. Lani is used to getting what she wants and right now she wants to marry Pono and have babies. Lani’s chaperoning aunties are upset by the unsupervised interaction. (Pono is sheltered, naïve, unambitious, not serious. Lani is spoiled, impatient.)
3. Pono’s father, Keawe (kay-AH-vay) plots with other chiefs to kill the king, Keawe’s brother. Keawe convinces his supporters (landless chiefs) he can ramp up food production faster than his brother. Kanaloa (KAH-nah-low-ah), who is Pono’s older half brother and Keawe’s favorite, organizes the assassination.
4. When Pono asks his favorite uncle, the king, for permission to marry Lani, he is told to wait until the king determines whether a political marriage to another noble will be necessary first. He asks Pono if he can afford a wife.
5. Pono seeks career advice from a wizard who tells Pono to become proficient at wrangling (debate and riddling) (the third act solution) and who mysteriously calls Pono “my prince.” The wizard states the theme of the story, a restatement of the Hawaii State Motto: The life of the land is preserved in righteousness, which means the lands will be brought to life again only when all things are correct and proper (pono). (Pono wants to be wealthy enough to marry Lani.)
6. Pono tours an armory with his aunty and expresses his reluctance to become a warrior. (Pono wants to be an athlete and rejects the warrior role, disappointing his father.) The auntie that raised him is show to have two husbands.
7. The progression of the New Year’s Festival (Makahiki) is detailed in a montage: an overseer collects the annual tribute; the Makahiki god is assembled and decorated; the nobles and commoners are dressed in their best; everywhere the cries of people drunk on kava can be heard; at nightfall, nobles and commoners go to bathe together in the ocean and an orgy occurs; the king greets the Makahiki god with ritual tears as the god begins a clockwise circuit of the island; at each district boundary, boxing, wrestling, sledding, rolling stones (maika), foot races and other game are played; hula dancing occurs; Pono wins a race.
8. In the inciting incident/catalyst, without warning Pono, as the king is ritualistically bathing at the end of the festival, Keawe has the king killed and usurps the throne, just as his father (Pono’s grandfather, Umi) killed his brother to usurp the throne. (Pono is “out of the loop,” not respected by his father.)
Sequence 2: The Dramatic Question
9. Commoners and noblemen wail and some knock out a tooth in sorrow. Pono and Lani are devastated and bewildered. As a peaceful guy, Pono does not seek revenge. Kea (KAY-ah), a little person, Pono’s half brother and coach, rebels against the dysfunctional family around them and leaves the court.
10. Keawe’s consolidates his power and his warriors kill a district chief loyal to the old king, whose body is places in an underground oven and cooked. The bones of the chief are put in a basket with the bones of the other previous district chiefs.
11. The dead King’s son is surrounded by beautiful women and food. He is too fat to even move and is apparently accepting the loss of the crown. Keawe feels he is not a threat.
12. Keawe is a womanizer and as the new king he gathers all the beautiful women in the kingdom for his pleasure. He is shown playing the Hawaiian version of “spin the bottle” to select his mate for the night. He has children with low ranking women, angering the nobility.
13. The trade winds fail, reducing the rainfall on and output of the field system, making matters worse. The people are unsatisfied.
14. As the people grumble, Keawe’s health fails as does the health of the island.
15. Naïve Pono is warned by Kea and his high-ranking mother, at a woman’s temple (heiau) in Waimea that she founded, that his marrying Lani would put him in a lethal (fratricidal) competition with Kanaloa (keep this a secret: and his younger brother, Umio) (OO-me-o) for the kingship.
16. On his deathbed, Keawe sees the error of his ways and names Lani as the next queen. He appoints Kanaloa as reagent until Lani is old enough to rule with Pono. An evil schemer to the end, Keawe directs both his highest ranking son, Pono, and his oldest son, Kanaloa, to marry Lani, thereby keeping both his sons in bloodline. Pono accepts from Keawe the offer of the kingship but prudently (from the perspective of self-preservation) asks Keawe for time to learn the skills of warfare before marrying Lani (over her objections to the delay) and taking charge of the kingdom. Keawe agrees and sends Pono off to be trained by Kea, who is an expert at Hawaiian hand-to-hand fighting moves (lua). (Recognizing the danger, Pono makes a commitment to prepare for his destiny as the future king. This is the first turning point.)
Act Two
Sequence 3: Training to Earn the Kingship
17. Over the next year, Pono trains for his future job. Pono arrives at a Hawaiian fighting school. (Pono realizes how hard that job is and how difficult and dangerous his life will be.)
18. A montage of training sessions is presented. In addition to warfare skills, he learns about food production.
19. During Pono’s training, Kanaloa befriends the angry and lonely Lani who is kept in isolation until Pono can return and marry her.
20. Kanaloa seduces Lani.
21. When his training is complete, Pono returns to claim his wife and the throne, but first has to pass tests designed by the queen’s regent, Kanaloa, which almost kill him.
Sequence 4: The Kingship Tests
22. In the boxing contest, Pono is beat up by Kanaloa, but is deemed to have passed the test.
23. In the spear dodging test, Lono dodges a single spear thrown at him by Lanaloa. Pono then dodges 4 spears thrown at him simultaneously by four warriors.
24. On the beach, Pono then dodges 30 and then 80 spears thrown at him simultaneously.
25. Pono wins a riddling contest with a man whose house is surrounded with a wall made of the bones of his previous competitors. (Pono rises to the occasion and avoids being killed by his brother.)
26. Act two midpoint: Pono passes the tests (barely), takes Lani as his wife, and becomes king.
27. The trade winds return, and with them the fog-drip irrigation water needed by the crops. Pono decides it is time to make babies. (Pono is “on top of the world”. He feels confident and everything appears to be going his way.)
Sequence 5: Let’s Try That Again
28. Lani tearfully admits to Pono that she was seduced by Kanaloa while Pono was away in training and that she has already had a male child with him. Pono is angry, but as the higher-ranking husband, Pono decides to have children with Lani, thereby ramping up the same competition for the throne that his family has faced for generations.
29. The traditional white tapa tent is set up, surrounded by praying priests. Pono and Lani enter and try to get Lani pregnant. When he attempts to escape, Pono is shown being dragged back into the tent by Lani who really wants this to work.
30. The first attempt ends in failure. Lani is teased by the other women, one of which Lani knocks out.
31. In a montage, several attempts at impregnating Lani end in failure and Pono gets very frustrated.
32. Pono’s brothers regroup and try to get rid of Pono.
33. Kanaloa again tries to seduce Lani.
34. When that does not work, Kanaloa sets up a situation which makes it appears like Lani has a lover (which might indeed be the case, we will never know for sure). Lani’s surfing teacher, and alleged lover, is introduced.
35. Pono and Kanaloa are supervising the clearing of the Waimea forest and construction of ditches to irrigate the crops that will be grown there (to increase food production)
36. Pono is disappointed in Lani’s not being faithful and is confused by Lani’s possibly having yet another lover.
Sequence 6: It Gets Worse
37. When he thinks he overhears Lani’s lover calling to her, Pono’s sexual jealousy gets the best of him. He hits Lani on the head with a stone Hawaiian checkers board and believes he has killed her. (Pono is angry and violent, maybe for the first time.) Pono is remorseful and contemplates suicide.
38. Lani is alive. She is told that Hea was calling to another Lani.
39. Pono travels alone to the island/kingdom of Oahu, wallowing in regret and mourning his loss.
40. Pono’s brothers hear of the incident and all but Kea raise a rebellion.
41. Lani returns to Hawaii and learns of the rebellion from her mother.
40. Pono gambles with the King of Oahu.
41. Pono is seduced by a chiefess who is on her way to Hawaii to get married. He moves through his jealousy.
42. Lani finds Pono on Oahu and chants his name chant to him. Amazed she is not dead and convinced that she still loves him and that he is the right person to lead his kingdom, they return to Hawaii to put down the rebellion with Kea as their only ally.
Act Three
Sequence 7: Surprise!
43. Pono uses his debating skills to convince some of the Hawaii island chiefs to fight on his side, because he is the correct person to be in charge. Kea acts as Pono’s general.
44. Pono and Kea lose an initial battle, pre-arranged and fought in a typical Hawaiian battle formation.
45. Pono’s side finally prevails.
46. Pono’s mettle is again tested when Lani asks him not to kill Kanaloa, the father of her child.
47. When the war appears to be won, Pono’s younger brother, Umio, who would inherit the throne if Pono died, tries to kill Pono, but fails, as Pono dodges the spear. This time it is Pono’s mother who pleads for the life of her younger son.
Sequence 8: Happy Ending
48. In the final image, Pono is seen walking through a much larger version of the Kohala Field System, this time toward The Hill of the Jealousy with his step son. The (now plumper) farmers cheer him again, this time as their leader.