Whale Rider (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Whale Rider (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Pai is a very special character that has a lot to offer
Summary: 5 Stars
I hate to call this a great family movie because of the connotations that term has acquired. This is a very fine film for adults, kids, and teenagers. Some make a great deal out of the "girl power" or feminist aspects of the story. I don't see that as much as I see "people power". The hero of the story is a heroine. She happens to be a girl in a dying male dominated Maori. Her being a female excludes her - but it could have been anything that made her an outsider. And this otherness blinds the grandfather to all her magnificent qualities. And the blindness creates more hurt and loneliness than should be borne by anyone. The young girl, Pai, has such strength that her ache is not a burden so much as it is a furnace that heats her passion for the sacred in her culture. She will not stop or quit. She cannot be discouraged by the hurt and pain in her life because she has never known anything else. She demands her own place and her own life not be defeating anyone else, but by simply taking her own place without asking permission. She becomes a source of strength and uplift for everyone else.Pai's is a quiet determination. She cannot be dominated, but she doesn't destroy that which rejects her. She ignores that which rejects her while embracing and nourishing herself on the Maori legends. She is just a magnificent person and the actress who plays her is superb. Well, the whole cast is superb. You will want to watch it with your whole family because of the strength of this child and the way it handles family pain. It can spark some wonderful discussions.
The photography is beautiful and adds to the poetry and mystery of the story. It is worth watching many times.
Movie Review: One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen
Summary: 5 Stars
It's always a pleasure to recommend a good film and Whale Rider is more than just good, you will be moved to laugh and weep, to grieve and exult, and it will stay in your heart forever. It will certainly stay in mine.
When his canoe capsized a thousand years ago, Paikea escaped death by riding to shore on the back of a whale. On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people honour this great ancestor and the Whangara chiefs are accepted as Paikea's direct descendants.
Pai believes she is destined to be the new chief but her grandfather Koro knows he must choose a male heir. Although a thousand years of tradition and a deep love for her grandfather battle in the 11 year old Pai, she must fight to fulfill her destiny.
The mythic whale rider, ancient symbol of Maori spirituality and connection to Nature, also brings that destiny and Pai's spirit is drawn throughout the film to these great creatures. There is a magnificent scene with beached whales where Pai greets one in Maori fashion, passing breath through her nose to symbolise the passing of her spirit in the breath of life. The extraordinary Keisha Castle-Hughes as Pai truly does breathe life into every scene with a commanding vitality and astonishing power. The story is elegantly told with Maori music and rituals bridging the spoken dialogue (mostly in English, some in Maori with subtitles).
This is a story of family relationships, of torn loyalties, of generational conflict, of love and rejection, of hope and a lesson in acceptance. It's also a gripping mystical fable and simply one of the most beautiful films I have seen in my entire life
Movie Review: one of the year's best
Summary: 5 Stars
A film by Niki CaroThis 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) cliché 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.
Movie Review: The Whales Will Decide
Summary: 5 Stars
Maori mythology comes to life in the form of Pai, granddaughter of the tribal chief. Tradition demands the next chief be a grandson, but Pai's twin brother and Mother died during childbirth. Left to live with her Grandparents Pai tries to prove her worthiness to her Grandfather but he insists his successor must be a male.
The Maori claim to be descendants of the legendary Paikea who came to New Zealand riding on the back of a whale. This coastal, fishing community has maintained their close spiritual tie with whales for over a thousand years, their mutual destinies forever linked.
When Koro (Pai's grandfather) decides to gather together all the young males of the tribe and teach them the "old ways" in the hopes of finding the next chief Pai tries to join the group but, is rudely dismissed by Koro. In desperation she cries out to the whales, asking for their assistance in her quest for acceptance.
Now it is up to the whales to decide who's to be the "chosen one." A massive herd answers her plea by grounding themselves on the beach. The whole community unite in an attempt to save these sacred giants, seeing their impending deaths as an apocalyptic omen for the Maori people. All their efforts fail and hope is lost until Pai realizes the moment of truth has finally arrived.
What a beautiful, poetic movie. Keisha Castle-Hughes is brilliant as Pai as is the whole cast. It might be a little slow for younger children, but overall a wonderful experience for a family to watch together. Buy this DVD, you'll come away with something new with each viewing.
Movie Review: One of the Best Movies I've Seen
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm in the process of moving and packed up and shipped off all my DVDs. Except for one. I wanted to rewatch this- and it was even more moving the 2nd time around.
Cinematography is wow. The acting by all characters moving. The writing, the storyline...I cried. Niki Caro takes us through the emerging culture of the Maori, struggling to keep the old ways, as nearly every culture today does, yet in the midst of technological change, and the import of Western values. And perhaps not all those values are bad... In no way is the culture of the Maori denigrated in this- rather the opposite, it is revealed in new ways to the outside world, as something valuable and worthy to be followed. But it is also evolving, emerging, as is every culture, in every time.
It is Keisha who makes this movie work most of all. She is cute without being pretentious- she is honest and open in her acting, and so creates a character that desires goodness, and yet on terms of what is right for her soul, not necessarily what is dictated for her. She is an Idealist NF dealing with an often absent Artisan SP father and a very strong Guardian SJ grandfather. Her world is controlled by the Guardians, and she seeks to break free, and bring freedom, as an authentic Idealist.
Benefits to the DVD: Cut scenes were really great, especially the dinner scene, though I'm still trying to figure out why the scenes were cut. And the section on some of the cultural background of the Maori people was very enlightening.