Review: Incredible Star Wars Fan Film Hoshino Explores Nature of the Force with Innovation

It starts, as these things do, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

There have been a plethora of amazing fan films set in the Star Wars universe. The commitment to not only supporting those filmmakers right to create their own stories set in this world but even supporting them through official contests and distribution from Lucasfilm certainly helps make that a reality. While many focus primarily on the action of the Star Wars universe, and rightfully so, Hoshino is a different kind of film. In this stunning seven-minute movie, we see the journey of a Jedi padawan as she comes to an understanding about the Force, about the nature of the lightsaber, and how both work as an extension of herself.

The film is absolutely outstanding on every level: direction, cinematography, writing, editing, acting, music, special effects, it’s all wonderful. Director Stephen Vitale, writer Eric Carrasco, VFX supervisor John Schick – it’s difficult to not just list the entire crew here, as they’ve turned in expert work. The practical effects with the lightsaber and actual Mynock puppets are a nice touch that make it feel more like Star Wars, too.

There’s more conversation and reflection in this film, which touches on common themes in the Star Wars universe right now like blindness, sight beyond sight (in the Force way, not the Thundercats way), than there is action, but it doesn’t suffer from that at all. Instead, the conversation and reflection build anticipation for action; it feels like it could very well be the pre-credits teaser scene of the first episode to an epic Star Wars tv series. Hopefully Carrasco, currently a writer on Supergirl on The CW, would be willing to make the jump if that particular dream came true. Setting it in a nebulous “Old Republic” timeline helps as well, giving them the opportunity to create totally new characters in Master Jaan-Xu (Tim McKernan), and Ko Hoshino (Anna Akana), and not worry about fitting it into any tight continuity. Interestingly, The Old Republic is a popular suggestion for a Star Wars TV show – almost like these guys knew that and wanted to plant some seeds…

They high quality of Star Wars fan films has been celebrated for years, but Hoshino brings it to a new level, and is sure to leave you wanting more of this character’s journey as she continues to explore the Force. Hopefully, if nothing else, Vitale, Carrasco and company will team up for a sequel in the near future.

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