KING KENUTU
Mālō e lava mai.
Welcome.
Mālō e lelei! Hello!
My name is Tuituiohu.
King Kenutu Company inspires us to move past our own limitations -- relying on our creativity, intuition, and courage in order to shape our imagination into something tangible for the next generation to start from.
My mission is to highlight the stories of our Tongan culture and bring them to life, starting with the greatest love story of all time -- Princess Hina & the Eel.
The Greatest Love Story of the South Pacific
At 31, I took my three little kids to the public library for story time.
One of the storytellers, a Japanese woman, got up and told the story of the Samurai crab. Prompted to tell my story, I told the creation legend of the coconut tree. Many listeners came up afterwards in awe of that story. It reminded me of the first time I heard it as a kid in Tonga listening to my Aunt Moana, the greatest storyteller I ever encountered.
As I went home, I couldn't let go of the story. I thought about making it tangible for my kids to hold on to -- a physical book. Like anything else, I learned first-hand. I set up a photoshoot in our small cramped room with my niece and nephew as Hina and her son. I sourced a local artist to sketch the characters and a local publisher to publish copies. I even created an Amazon page back in December 1997, way before the giant we know today.
25 years later, I'm still passionate in telling the greatest love story of all time. This time as a movie.