A film by Niki Caro
This movie opens in a hospital. A Maori woman is giving birth to twins. The grandfather of the children has been waiting for the birth of a child to be the new chief of the tribe. Two children are born: one male, one female. The male child dies along with the mother. The grandfather is disappointed and already starts on his son to find a new wife so that the son can have another male child. The son rebels and runs away from his family. The baby girl that the grandfather resented is left in his care. We skip forward enough years to get us into the present and the baby girl has grown into a young girl (early teenage years, perhaps) named Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes).
With the tribe needing a chief, and Pai not being a boy, Pai s grandfather decides to train the tribe s youth in the old ways, in the hopes that one of them will grow to be the next chief. Pai is the closest to living the old ways as any of the children of the tribe, but the little problem of her being a girl keeps coming up. She is forbidden to train with the boys, but practices on her own. The movie is mostly the conflict between Pai and her grandfather and how she fits into the tribe. We all know how this movie has to end, but there is little (or no) clich in the journey Whale Rider takes us on. The movie succeeds on the strength of young Keisha Castle-Hughes performance. With a theme that suggests the movie will be nothing more than yet another uplifting story filled with emotion and cheese, Whale Rider turns out to be one of the year s best (and I say this with confidence) as it rises above the cheese-potential and succeeds as a powerful film.
This movie opens in a hospital. A Maori woman is giving birth to twins. The grandfather of the children has been waiting for the birth of a child to be the new chief of the tribe. Two children are born: one male, one female. The male child dies along with the mother. The grandfather is disappointed and already starts on his son to find a new wife so that the son can have another male child. The son rebels and runs away from his family. The baby girl that the grandfather resented is left in his care. We skip forward enough years to get us into the present and the baby girl has grown into a young girl (early teenage years, perhaps) named Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes).
With the tribe needing a chief, and Pai not being a boy, Pai s grandfather decides to train the tribe s youth in the old ways, in the hopes that one of them will grow to be the next chief. Pai is the closest to living the old ways as any of the children of the tribe, but the little problem of her being a girl keeps coming up. She is forbidden to train with the boys, but practices on her own. The movie is mostly the conflict between Pai and her grandfather and how she fits into the tribe. We all know how this movie has to end, but there is little (or no) clich in the journey Whale Rider takes us on. The movie succeeds on the strength of young Keisha Castle-Hughes performance. With a theme that suggests the movie will be nothing more than yet another uplifting story filled with emotion and cheese, Whale Rider turns out to be one of the year s best (and I say this with confidence) as it rises above the cheese-potential and succeeds as a powerful film.
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I agree that this is a pretty good movie. We watched it and A Mighty Wind. Both were good movies.
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I very much enjoyed it too Pug.
Would be interested to know how you handled the N.Z. accent.
Would be interested to know how you handled the N.Z. accent.
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I enjoyed this movie. Did you catch the kitchen scene where they keep the camera on the wall hanging that said New Zealand so you could figure out where the film takes place?
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