Beyond the Reef

My review was written in May 1981 after a Times Square screening: "Beyond the Reef" is the sort of guileless juvenile romance popular on screen in the 1950s. Its pretty island and sea visuals have a lulling quality, but even as escapist entertainment the picture is too modest for today's sensation-seeking audiences.

Fable has a young boy (Joseph Ka'ne) growing up with a pet shark in a remote lagoon. When his old father-figure friend Manidu (Oliverio Maciel DIaz) dies, the man's spirit lives on in the body of the shark according to an island legend.

Fully grown (brother Dayton Ka'ne taking over the role), the boy is reunited with his childhood sweetheart Diana (Maren Jensen), a Polynesian-American who has been off to school in the States. While duo's romance blossoms in the idyllic surroundings, Ka'ne dives for the fabled black pearls in his lagoon, protected by the grown killer tiger shark called Manidu after its human spirit.

Despite some bloody shark attacks, film lacks any sort of dramatic drive, with the main conflict a meek subplot involving Diana's mercenary brother who is out to get the pearls and despoil the island with lucrative Japanese hotel development. Supernatural element of the spirit transfer is played for laughs as the shark (superbly trained) goes through various antics.

Though lensed in 1979 around the time of Columbia's "The Blue Lagoon" and possessing two handsome young protagonists in love, "Reef" missed the opportunities at scripting stage to tap the youth audience turned out by the Brooke Shields-starrer. What emerges is merely pleasant filler, destined to play better on the tube than theatrically.

Tech credits are variable, with Ramon Bravo's underwater photography hitting the mark. Post-synched sound gives cast neutral American accents, adding to intelligibility but making the picture needlessly remote.

Dayton Ka'ne (seen in "Hurricane") and Maren Jansen (latter adapting well to the native environment after scoring in television's "Battlestar Galactica") are appealing as the young lovers while cute and chubby Kathleen Swan delivers needed comic relief as Jensen's U. S. tourist pal.

This movie was terrible. It came on TV a few months ago and my girlfriend and I watched it because we were really, really bored. We kept watching it in hopes that it would become more interesting or more exciting. Never happened. This is precisely the kind of movie that should have been made fun of (and may have for all I know) on that show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" that used to come on the Sci-Fi channel. It was a show where this guy was a prisoner on a spaceship and his punishment was having to watch horrible movies all the time. He and his robot buddies sit down and you get to hear their wisecracking commentary the whole time. This would have been perfect for that.

The acting was awful and uninspired. The story was stupid. The screenplay was dull and boring. That pretty much sums it up.

This is not an action movie. It is about life and priorities and the atmosphere of living in the islands. The simplicity of life and what is important and what is not. The filming and acting could have been done better maybe. It's very simple. But it takes you to a life on the island time and simplicity.

I saw this movie when I was 8 years old and I still remember it like yesterday. I have searched high and low for this movie and hopefully it will be available soon. Anyway, this movie is very touching and dramatic. I cried every time I watched it. This movie is a MUST to see and own! You will not regret it. :)