VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘Finding ‘Ohana’ Stars Kelly Hu & Kea Peahu Explain Why Hawaiians Love Spam!

Stars of the new Netflix family adventure movie Kelly Hu and Kea Peahu explain what Finding ‘Ohana really means.

The story follows siblings Pili and Ioane whose mother Leilani brings them to Oahu stay with their grandfather. The kids think the visit will just be a boring family vacation, but the stay quickly turns into a scavenger hunt for lost riches.

“I play the role of Pili,” Peahu told uInterview exclusively, “and she’s a very adventurous character. I think when she puts her mind to something she sticks to it. And this whole movie is basically a family friendly movie that’s full of adventure and you’ll see them learn more about their culture throughout the film.”

“And I play Pili’s mother Leilani,” said Hu, “who is trying to get her kids who have been living on the mainland all their lives to get back to Hawaii and get back to their culture and understand what ‘ohana really is about.”

“We got to film so much action scenes, but for me, one of my favorites was the water scenes,” Peahu said. “This was my first movie ever, and you know growing up I’ve always seen water scenes and I always wondered how it was to like film them, and being able to actually do it with a bunch of the cast it was a lot of fun.”

She said that she never felt like she was in danger filming the water scenes because of the great cast and crew.

“For the water scenes we actually filmed them in several different locations. There was a point where we went to like waterfalls to film them in Thailand, and then we filmed it on a handmade set. And one of the scenes we filmed, this was personally for me I feel like the most action I did, it was a 15 foot tank, and I was just swimming screaming for my brothers name.”

“For myself all I did was run around,” Hu said laughing, “I was going to say ‘No water scenes for me!'”

One other important detail in the movie: Spam.

“I don’t think you could make truly a Hawaiian film without Spam,” Hu said. “I mean it’s such a big part of our culture, I think we still have the highest consumption of Spam than any other state. Really Spam is part of Hawaiian, not just cuisine, but it’s part of our whole culture now.”

“When people watch this film I really hope one of the messages that it spreads is to really show them how important it is to take care of their ‘ohana.” Peahu said. “And that can be past blood. Blood or not, I feel like it can be anyone that you truly love and care about. I hope they see how important it is to really take care of one another and show your love and appreciation for others.

Hu agreed: “Right, and I think that the important point is that, you know, yes family is ‘ohana, but there is also a chosen ‘ohana, the people who you choose as family.”