Topic: Film Review: Whale Rider The Drama “Whale Rider” from 2002 plays in Whangara, New Zealand in the present time. It is directed by Nicki Caro and based a novel with the same name by Witi Ihimaera. The main Character Paikea is played by Keisha Castle-Hughes.
The film starts with the difficult birth of Paikea and her twin brother. Unfortunately her mother and her brother die so she´s the only descendent of her Maori father Porourangi , who should have become the next leader of his tribe. After Paikeas birth he leaves New Zealand and goes to Germany leaving his daughter at his fathers house, where Paikea raised. When she’s got older he returns and recognizes that the Maori don’t have good living conditions and that most of them don’t have a good future perspective so he wants to take Paikea with him to Europe. At first she wants to go with her father but then she changes her mind and stays at home with her grandparents Koro and Flowers. As Koro is looking for a new chief to lead the tribe, away from the bad future prospects, he starts a school to teach all the first born boys of the tribe, what they need to be a good leader, like religious spells and martial arts. Paikea ,as a girl, is not allowed to participate and so she begins to learn those things on her own or secretly with her uncle until Koro finds out, which makes him really angry. In a last test Koro wants do find out who the new leader wil be but the the boys fail. In his opinion this is Paikeas fault because she also learnt the sacred things, which were intended only for males. When Paikea wanted to apologise at a speech contest in her school, Koro doesn’t appear because he found alluvial whales on the beach. When the people return from the school in the evening , everybody tries to help getting the whales back into the water but the next day in the morning they become hopeless after failing to take the whale leader back into the ocean. But theres new hope when Paikea arrives to help. Can she rescue the whales? Conspicuously in the movie is the setting as you can see pretty much of the beautiful landscape in New Zealand . I also like the way the homes of the Maori look like because they show the frugal living conditions and financial problems they have to deal with. It fits with the story and draws attention to the troubles the Maori also have in reality. One aspect I also like is the representation of the Maori culture in the movie. It’s shown authentic and not cheesy at all, which makes the movie believable.
In my opinion the movie is quite good what concerns acting, directing, background music and the setting , but the ending is very predictable and that´s something I don’t really like so I would give the “Whale Rider” 7 out of 10 points. (509 words) FS
In general i agree with your review of the film "Whale Rider", I just wonder why didn't you give the ending of the film ?. I would actually rate the film a little better than you did 8/10 points, because first the film shows the culture of the Maori in an way more authentic way than pretty much any other film does. The way its shown there is actually possible even in the 21th century, not like some sort of bushmen who refuse to communicate with the modern world at all. Second the main actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who plays Paikea is doing a really good job at actually making you believe the role she's playing. Furthermore I think it's really hard to make unpredictable endings, not even the best rated films have those, so in my opinion this shouldn't be an real issue to an film like this.
Topic: Film Review: Whale Rider
ReplyDeleteThe Drama “Whale Rider” from 2002 plays in Whangara, New Zealand in the present time. It is directed by Nicki Caro and based a novel with the same name by Witi Ihimaera. The main Character Paikea is played by Keisha Castle-Hughes.
The film starts with the difficult birth of Paikea and her twin brother. Unfortunately her mother and her brother die so she´s the only descendent of her Maori father Porourangi , who should have become the next leader of his tribe. After Paikeas birth he leaves New Zealand and goes to Germany leaving his daughter at his fathers house, where Paikea raised.
When she’s got older he returns and recognizes that the Maori don’t have good living conditions and that most of them don’t have a good future perspective so he wants to take Paikea with him to Europe. At first she wants to go with her father but then she changes her mind and stays at home with her grandparents Koro and Flowers.
As Koro is looking for a new chief to lead the tribe, away from the bad future prospects, he starts a school to teach all the first born boys of the tribe, what they need to be a good leader, like religious spells and martial arts. Paikea ,as a girl, is not allowed to participate and so she begins to learn those things on her own or secretly with her uncle until Koro finds out, which makes him really angry.
In a last test Koro wants do find out who the new leader wil be but the the boys fail. In his opinion this is Paikeas fault because she also learnt the sacred things, which were intended only for males.
When Paikea wanted to apologise at a speech contest in her school, Koro doesn’t appear because he found alluvial whales on the beach. When the people return from the school in the evening , everybody tries to help getting the whales back into the water but the next day in the morning they become hopeless after failing to take the whale leader back into the ocean. But theres new hope when Paikea arrives to help. Can she rescue the whales?
Conspicuously in the movie is the setting as you can see pretty much of the beautiful landscape in New Zealand . I also like the way the homes of the Maori look like because they show the frugal living conditions and financial problems they have to deal with. It fits with the story and draws attention to the troubles the Maori also have in reality.
One aspect I also like is the representation of the Maori culture in the movie. It’s shown authentic and not cheesy at all, which makes the movie believable.
In my opinion the movie is quite good what concerns acting, directing, background music and the setting , but the ending is very predictable and that´s something I don’t really like so I would give the “Whale Rider” 7 out of 10 points.
(509 words)
FS
In general i agree with your review of the film "Whale Rider", I just wonder why didn't you give the ending of the film ?.
ReplyDeleteI would actually rate the film a little better than you did 8/10 points, because first the film shows the culture of the Maori in an way more authentic way than pretty much any other film does.
The way its shown there is actually possible even in the 21th century, not like some sort of bushmen who refuse to communicate with the modern world at all.
Second the main actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who plays Paikea is doing a really good job at actually making you believe the role she's playing.
Furthermore I think it's really hard to make unpredictable endings, not even the best rated films have those, so in my opinion this shouldn't be an real issue to an film like this.
(148 words)
MK