The Rich Kids of Honolulu

***The Rich Kids of Honolulu*** is a 2007 Hawaiian teen comedy film written and directed by Annie Dunn, and starring Katy Wu, Ashlynn Niel, and Dunn. The film follows a teenage girl (Wu) who moves from a rural working-class town in Oahu to the affluent Kahala neighborhood of Honolulu after her family wins the lottery.

*The Rich Kids of Honolulu* premiered in Hawaii on 15 June 2007. It received praise from critics and audiences alike for its writing, directing, performances, and plot that can appeal to both teenagers and adults. It was a box office success both in Hawaii and abroad, grossing $14.6 million on a $750 thousand budget. The film has since been regarded as a cult classic in Hawaii.

## Plot

Sixteen-year-old Lena Wang (Katy Wu) resides with her parents in the working-class town of Nanakuli in rural Oahu. After her father decides to spend the last of their savings on lottery tickets, the family wins the jackpot, receiving a payout of $75 million. They decide to move out of Nanakuli and settle in the affluent Kahala neighborhood of Honolulu.

Lena enrolls in the fictional exclusive private school Kahala Day School (KDS) and befriends social outcasts Ronnie Paul (Cloe Candie), a punk anarchist, and Chris Hirono (Eddison Guevarra), a flamboyantly gay aspiring crooner. Ronnie and Chris educate Lena on the unofficial social hierarchy within KDS and teach them about the most popular clique in school – the Barbies, whom both Ronnie and Chris despise. The Barbies consist of Daniella Thomas (Briela Santiago), a ditzy but sweet girl who is the daughter of a wealthy elderly business executive and his mail-order bride from the Philippines; Nadia Jennings (Alia Mahelona), a neurotic and unstable gossiper who was adopted out of poverty by her wealthy humanitarian adoptive parents; and Courtney Christianson (Ashlynn Niel), the ruthless queen bee who is the daughter of wealthy Californian émigrés who "accidentally" conceived her after beginning their retirements in Hawaii. After Lena helps Daniella while finding her throwing up her lunch in the bathroom, Daniella invites her to have lunch with the group next day, and they befriend her. Upon telling Ronnie of the situation, Ronnie instructs Lena to continue hanging out with the group in order to spy on them for her.

While hanging out with the Barbies, Lena discovers the "Rag Mag," a scrapbook the group had put together the previous year that is filled with horrible rumors, secrets, and insults about other girls and some teachers at school. Upon telling Ronnie about the scrapbook, she devises a plan to get back at Courtney, although Lena is reluctant because she believes Courtney is actually a good friend. At a house party, Lena becomes introduced to Luke Williams, a student athlete and one of Courtney's ex-boyfriends. He reveals to Lena that Courtney broke up with him after she discovered he attended KDS on a scholarship and came from a working-class family with a single mother, before they hook up and Lena loses her virginity to him. The next morning, Lena decides that she must hide her family's economic situation from the Barbies in order to prevent herself from being removed from the group. After confessing her and Luke's drunken hook up to Nadia and Daniella, Nadia tells Courtney behind Lena's back, who tells her that she is not angered by their relationship, much to Lena's delight. However, Lena later witnesses Courtney kissing Luke, and they later get back together. This spurs Lena to fully commit to Ronnie's plan of ruining Courtney's life.

In order to continue seeing Luke one-on-one, Lena begins purposefully failing her English class, a subject she is actually gifted in, in order to employ him as her tutor. During their tutoring sessions, Lena flirts with Luke but is rebuked by him, due to his relationship with Courtney. She later reveals to him that Courtney is cheating on him, breaking up their relationship. Lena later discovers Nadia lied about her familial background and actually comes from a lower-class family, using that information to ruin her relationship with Courtney; she continues breaking apart the friend group after releasing texts Courtney sent to her accusing Daniella of being unintelligent and promiscuous. With Courtney now friendless and boyfriendless, Lena convinces Courtney to unknowingly begin a high-calorie diet that leads her to gain significant weight. With Courtney out of the picture, Lena emerges as the new leader of the Barbies and the most popular girl in school, unknowingly remaking herself in Courtney's image, becoming spiteful and superficial. Despite successfully completing Ronnie's plan, she abandons both her and Chris, and is rejected by Luke when he tells her that she has become a clone of Courtney.

When Courtney is made aware of Lena's trickery regarding her diet, she discovers her family's origins as poor laborers from rural Oahu, and attempts to win Nadia and Daniella back by exposing Lena's socioeconomic status, but is rebuked. Angered, Courtney spreads the contents of the Rag Mag throughout school, and inserts a fake segment about herself in order to avoid suspicion, blaming Lena, Nadia, and Daniella for its contents instead, being that they are the only girls in their class not included in the book. Lena's English teacher Ms. Eberhardt (Annie Dunn), whom Lena had defamed in the Rag Mag as a drug dealer, calls for an assembly in which the junior girls are to face the malicious treatment they give to each other by publicly apologizing. The plan sees success as numerous friendships are healed, but Ronnie ignores Ms. Eberhardt's instructions and instead confesses to scheming with Lena to ruin Courtney's life by breaking her up with Luke and turning Nadia and Daniella against her, drawing praise from the other students bullied by the Barbies, but creating tension between Lena and Luke, Nadia, Daniella, and Courtney. Pursued by an apologetic Lena, Courtney storms out of the school and is hit by a car, breaking her spine, and rumors spread that Lena had pushed her in front of the car.

Shunned by her peers and unable to confide in her parents, who have become obsessed with their newfound wealth, Lena takes full blame for the Rag Mag. She begins writing for the school newspaper, the club advised by Ms. Eberhardt, but is later told by her parents that they had spent all of their winnings within the year and will be forced to move back to Nanakuli. At the school junior prom, Courtney's new boyfriend Alex Nancy (Kyle Wolffe) is elected junior prom king, while Lena is elected junior prom queen. In an impromptu speech, Lena highlights the positive qualities of the other girls in her grade, and snaps her tiara into small pieces in order to award pieces to each of them. She reconciles with Ronnie, Chris, and Luke, and makes amends with the Barbies, before leaving Honolulu to return to Nanakuli.

In an epilogue, it is revealed that Lena returns to her previous life in Nanakuli, but continues her relationship with Luke as he plays soccer at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Courtney turns her aggression towards athletics, and joins the girls varsity volleyball team at KDS, while Nadia joins the school newspaper, under the leadership of Ms. Eberhardt, where she writes a weekly gossip column, and Daniella becomes a star in the school's theatre department. During a visit to Honolulu with Ronnie and Chris, Lena witnesses a younger group of girls who resemble the Barbies that have just begun their freshman year at KDS, and imagines them being hit by a car just like Courtney had.

## Cast

* Katy Wu as Lena Wang
* Ashlynn Niel as Courtney Christianson
* Annie Dunn as Ms. Eberhardt
* Cloe Candie as Ronnie Paul
* Eddison Guevarra as Chris Hirono
* Alia Mahelona as Nadia Jennings
* Briela Santiago as Daniella Thomas
* Bernie Constance as Luke Williams
* Daisy Shiba as Mrs. Wang
* Dave Takahara as Mr. Wang
* Kyle Wolffe as Alex Nancy