Whale Rider

Plot synopsis:
The film's plot follows the story of Paikea Apirana ("Pai"). The leader should be the first-born grandson – a direct patrilineal descendant of Paikea, the Whale Rider – he who rode on top of a whale (Tohora) from Hawaiki. Pai is originally born a twin, but her twin brother, as well as her mother, dies in childbirth. However, Pai is female and technically cannot inherit the leadership. While her grandfather, Koro, later forms an affectionate bond with his granddaughter, carrying her to school every day on his bicycle, he also condemns her and blames her for conflicts happening within the tribe.
At one point Paikea decides to live with her father because her grandfather is mistreating her. She finds that she cannot bear to leave the sea as the whale seems to be calling her back. Pai tells her father to turn the car back and returns home. After the death of his wife and overwhelming pressure from Koro, Pai's father refuses to assume traditional leadership; instead he moves to Germany to pursue a career as an artist. Pai herself is interested in the leadership, learning traditional songs and dances, but is given little encouragement by her grandfather. Pai feels that she can become the leader (although there's no precedent for a woman to do so), and is determined to succeed.
Koro leads a cultural school for the village boys, hoping to find a new leader. He teaches the boys to use a taiaha (fighting stick). This is traditionally reserved for males. However, Nanny tells Pai that her second son, Pai's uncle, had won a taiaha tournament in his youth while he was still slim, so Pai secretly learns from him. She also secretly follows Koro's lessons. One of the students, Hemi, is also sympathetic towards her.
Koro is enraged when he finds out, particularly when she wins her taiaha fight against Hemi. Koro's relationship with Pai erodes further when none of the boys succeed at the traditional task of recovering the rei puta (whale tooth) that he threw into the ocean – this mission would prove one of them worthy of becoming leader. With the loss of the rei puta, Koro in despair calls out the Ancient ones, the whales. In an attempt to help, Pai also calls out to them and they hear her call.
One day Pai finds the rei puta while swimming, signifying that she is the rightful leader. Pai, in an attempt to bridge the rift that has formed, invites Koro to be her guest of honour at a concert of Māori chants that her school is putting on. Unknown to all, she had won an inter-school speech contest with a touching dedication to Koro and the traditions of the village. However, Koro was late, and as he was walking to the school, he notices that numerous southern right whales are beached near Pai's home. The entire village attempts to coax and drag them back into the water, but all efforts prove unsuccessful; even a tractor does not help. Koro sees it as a sign of his failure and despairs further. He admonishes Pai against touching the largest whale because "she has done enough damage" with her presumption. Also, the largest whale traditionally belongs to the legendary Paikea.
When Koro walks away, Pai climbs onto the back of the largest whale at the location and coaxes it to re-enter the ocean. The whale leads the entire pod back into the sea; Pai submerges completely underwater, and the spectators wonder if she has drowned, but are relieved when she comes back above sea level. When she goes out to sea, Nanny shows Koro the whale tooth which Pai had previously recovered. When Pai is found and brought to the hospital, Koro declares her the leader and asks her forgiveness.
The film ends with Pai's father, grandparents, and uncle coming together to celebrate her status as the new leader, as the finished waka is hauled into the sea for its maiden voyage. In voiceover, Pai declares, "My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength."

Tags: dramatic, boring

Review:
Director Niki Caro has done wonders in bringing this story to the screen as it shows a different and much simple world than the rat race of our society and the horrible times we live in.The film presents a glimpse of the Maori society in New Zealand's North Island.
Having visited New Zealand, but not being very familiar with the Maori culture, this film was a refreshing way to learn some aspects of it.The story presented here has a lot to do with pride and tradition, which is a running theme among different cultural groups the world over.
Even though he loves the girl, he can't deviate in his narrow vision of the world he knows.Basically, it is a simple story very well told with a great performance by the child actress Keisha Castle-Hughes.
Compare it with the latest releases from Hollywood, and it's no wonder to arrive at the conclusion that stories like Whale Rider have such an universal appeal that  should be brought to the screen more often because of the positive way they show a society and its people at its best..
This is the story of a 12 year old Maori girl who knows that she is born to the destiny her grandfather believes died with her stillborn twin brother.
Whale Rider is a story of the quest for the new leader of an indigenous Maori tribe living on an island off the coast of New Zealand.
The 11-year-old first-time actor Keisha Castle-Hughes gives the most astonishing performance by a child that I have ever witnessed, and lifts the movie from being just plain good to a profoundly moving experience.
The main character is a young girl named Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) who is the grand-daughter of the chief of a Maori tribe in New Zealand.
The film is set in modern day and we see the girl Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) as a 12 year old who knows that her twin brother that died was suppose to be the future chief.
The film is beautiful to look at and even though its not a big budget movie the story and images make this an unforgettable viewing experience.
It's at this point the film literally becomes a simple story, as a young girl goes about trying to convince her awful grandfather that she is to lead the village.
The actors who played the grand parents are exceptional particularly the stubborn grandfather who's demands Pai keep away from all male activities (The grandfather's insistence to teach a young group of boys in a special school how to be chiefs, and Pai's insistence to learn without her gradfather's knowledge provides most of the light humour in the film).
This is one of the most moving, beautiful and powerful films I have seen in years.Screenplay author and director Niki Caro faithfully translated Witi Ihimaera's novel of the same name, a poignant and sometimes sad but ultimately uplifting story of New Zealand Maoris seeking, with the leadership of a difficult, stubborn and often harsh elder to sustain their peoples' values and customs.Australia and New Zealand are both encountering, in politics and in culture (and often the two are inextricably linked), their shared heritage of white oppression of native peoples.
This is one of the most moving, beautiful and powerful films I have seen in years.Screenplay author and director Niki Caro faithfully translated Witi Ihimaera's novel of the same name, a poignant and sometimes sad but ultimately uplifting story of New Zealand Maoris seeking, with the leadership of a difficult, stubborn and often harsh elder to sustain their peoples' values and customs.Australia and New Zealand are both encountering, in politics and in culture (and often the two are inextricably linked), their shared heritage of white oppression of native peoples.
The object was to bleach the blackness out of Australia and the horrors of this incarnation of cultural and anthropological genocide are on full display in that film."Whale Rider" takes a different and, in the end, perhaps a more powerful approach.
The object was to bleach the blackness out of Australia and the horrors of this incarnation of cultural and anthropological genocide are on full display in that film."Whale Rider" takes a different and, in the end, perhaps a more powerful approach.
Pai's close relationship with her grandmother, a woman living a life universally recognizable to Americans, provides warmth and support and do some of her other relationships.The story unfolds seamlessly with Maori music and rituals bridging the spoken dialogue (mostly in English, some in Maori with subtitles).Partly a straight tale, partly a gripping mystical fable, "Whale Rider" never becomes saccharine.The music and Maori songs complement but do not compete with the dialogue, a welcome change from many movies today.
Pai's close relationship with her grandmother, a woman living a life universally recognizable to Americans, provides warmth and support and do some of her other relationships.The story unfolds seamlessly with Maori music and rituals bridging the spoken dialogue (mostly in English, some in Maori with subtitles).Partly a straight tale, partly a gripping mystical fable, "Whale Rider" never becomes saccharine.The music and Maori songs complement but do not compete with the dialogue, a welcome change from many movies today.
It is this one work of his that the Maori community accepts as being most representative of their culture, and the novel that became the backbone for the screenplay for the film Whale Rider (co-written by Witi Ihimaera and director Niki Caro).
He left word that someday another great whale rider would be born to lead the Maori people.The film begins with a scene in a hospital of a young woman giving birth to twins.
In a summer of Hulks and Terminators, one might have to search the multiplex for Whale Rider  but believe me, the search is worth the effort.Whale Rider is a film about the coming of age of a 12 year old New Zealand girl and her struggle for acceptance of her father, grandfather and tribe which just happens to be looking for a new leader.The movie opens with the birth of Pai (played wonderfully by Keisha Castle-Hughes) and the resulting death of her mother and twin brother.
But fear not, we soon learn that Pai has been found alive and is in hospital where she later regains her strength and takes command as the true leader of the tribe.Whale Rider is directed by Niki Caro, a fellow New Zealander that shoots the film like a veteran.
Her emotional scene in which she recites a poem to her absent grandfather is probably the most heartfelt moment filmed this year.Whale Rider received standing ovations at the Toronto Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and it is no wonder.
This film had the entire audience enraptured with the adventures and struggles of its 11 year old heroine Pai (very convincingly played by novice actress Keisha Castle-Hughes).
Director and screenplay writer Niki Caro ably brings this family oriented tale to life and hits all the right notes and makes all the correct pay-offs in every plot strand (no matter how slight).The story is a battle of wills between the tradition bound village elder Koro (solidly played by Rawiri Paratene) and his own grand-daughter Pai. Koro is seeking a new chief among the first-born sons of his village to inspire their tribe in its present day struggles in 21st century New Zealand.
A really fine film about a young girl challenging the patriarchal traditions handed down from generation to generation among her New Zealander people.Keisha Castle-Hughes gives an astonishingly mature performance as the young girl and won a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her work, the youngest person ever to be nominated in the lead category.
The film is sweet and heartwarming without being sticky or maudlin, and it's filled with local color about a culture I know very little about.Castle-Hughes' tour de force scene is a monologue to her father delivered during a school pageant.
Also, his curmudgeonly manner makes him a man who cannot see through his gender blindness to even consider the possibility that his granddaughter, Pai, could be the leader his people are looking for.Keisha Castle-Hughes is outstanding as Paikea.
He also deftly avoids the trap of so many films of this ilk of telling you the same thing over and over again.This is highly recommended viewing  a feel-good movie that is very painful in parts, an uplifting movie that can be a real head jam and a solid, worthwhile entertainment to while away an hour or two of our precious lives.My only criticism would be of the fashionably naturalistic audio mix that only really works on radio plays and only then if used sparingly.
I think that the movie `Whale Rider' is a really great movie because it does not only introduces a whole new culture and a different way of living but also tells about the hopes, believes and loves of people in a very different way.
The movie really makes you to believe that all the things are real.In addition, the main actor Pai, really acts great, very good for her age and experience.
This film, based on a book by the first Maori author to have a work published in North America, is a fictional fable that shows one way in which such an essential change to the fundamental structure of their traditional culture might take place.This may not sound like the basis for an enjoyable film for a Western family audience, but the host of best film awards it has received does convey some sense of the extent to which it is a very exceptional movie.
Keisha Castle-Hughes was 12 years old when this was filmed and it won her the youngest ever Best Actress nomination.
Both films are equally astonishing in their own ways.Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is a girl who survives the deaths of both her mother and twin brother during childbirth.
While the family grieves, Paikea's grandfather, Koro, suffers an additional loss, for Paikea's twin brother was the expected male heir to the family's noble line of prophets, who descended from a legendary "Whale Rider." The rest of the film deals with the complicated family dynamic between Paikea, Koro, and Paikea's father, Porourangi, who resents Koro's old-fashioned ways and flees to Germany to pursue a career as an artist.
Paikea comes to realize the importance of her family's legacy, and struggles to achieve it while also striving for the affection and acceptance of her grandfather.The driving force behind "Whale Rider" is a brilliant performance by first-time actress Keisha Castle-Hughes as Paikea.
If such scenes were left in, they would be too blatant; the subtlety makes the movie all the more appealing.Subtlety is also present in the foreshadowing, low-level commentary on the role of contemporary industrial society versus the preserving the ways of the ancient ones.Whale Rider isn't perfect.
Whale Rider is no action movie; it is film about people struggling with their own pasts, their limitations, foibles, desires, and destinies.
This cooperation between whale and human is an intriguing undercurrent that secretly animates the story, most effectively portrayed by the mystical and dreamy "destiny" music that is subtly reminiscent of whale songs, music that resonates in the heart of the granddaughter of the chief, and in the watchful awareness of the whales who can recognize in their two-legged soul-mates revitalizing power without the prejudice of human limitations.At the time of the movie, this group of Maori is in bad shape, looking and acting much like Native Americans vegetating on the reservation here in our own country.
For the boy who would be chief."This New Zealand coming of age film about a young girl from the Whangara tribe struggling to find her place in this traditionally patriarch society, opens with tragedy.
The story almost has a fairytale quality to it, but it does have a lot to say about sexism and keeping up with past customs in a modern world.At the time of its release, Whale Rider, was received with a lot of praise from audiences at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals and it also received an Academy Award nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes' lead performance who at the time was the youngest actress to be nominated in that category.
Rating: 7.5/10Today I had the pleasure of seeing the highly recommended New Zealand film, Whale Rider.
Keisha Castle-Hughes did a great job as Pai. Rarely is a kid actor not annoying in a movie, she gave a memorable performance as Pai. She brings emotion to this film.
This wonderful film from New Zealand about a young Maori girl's struggle to be recognized as the head of her tribe, a tradition handed down only to boys, is remarkably free of sentimentality.
Far better are Rawiri Paratene as her harshly unforgiving grandfather and Vicky Haughton as the grandmother who encourages her dream.The film does not shy away from the harsh realities that Maori's face in their daily lives and even the mythical dimensions of the story, (the scenes with the whales), are treated realistically.
It's based on a novel written by Witi Ihimaera, and tells the story of Pai, a 12 year old girl who tries to be accepted by her own family as the Whale Rider, the tribal leader in a small maori village.
It is also a story about old traditions struggling their way through the very hectic 21st century.Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is born into a family that has been a family of leaders for centuries.
"Whale Rider" is a Family, Drama movie in which we watch the story of a girl who wants to persuade her destiny despite the rejection of her grandfather.
The direction which was made by Niki Caro was very interesting and gave us as her audience a different perspective of seeing some subjects and made us think more about them.Finally, I have to say that I didn't have high hopes about "Whale Rider" but it surprised me in a good way.
Pai's brother died after he was born, leaving her as the only descendant, and her grandfather does not want to change the tradition.This is one of the few movies that I've seen focusing on the Maoris' traditions, and likely the only one focusing on their mythology (the title is based on the story that their ancestor arrived in New Zealand on the back of a whale).
The film does a nice job in establishing a clear sense of what life is like in this small New Zealand village, seen from the perspective of a 12-year- old girl.
Whale Rider is a journey through culture, tradition, folklore, love and family.Acting was of such a great standard, it's hard to believe that such a young little actress could take on such a demanding role and have you totally mesmerised by her character.This film doesn't seem to have reached a wide enough audience and feel if it had it would be among many more 'top lists'..
The girl in question is a certain Paikea, played magnificently by Keisha Castle-Hughes; she narrates to us her fable-like story, the fact her mother and baby brother died at once during his birth shortly after she was born; destined to grow up alone with her father in a small, isolated coastal village in rural New Zealand with much anger and doubt raging around her for reasons that become evident.
Where the culture of those depicted within Whale Rider is most certainly of a stone wall nature and will not appear familiar to overseas audiences, Caro knows the tribal pastimes are merely there to compliment a story and is in actual fact more about the global thematics of girls Hughes' age not becoming disenchanted with life or those around them as things appear to be moving on ahead without care.
The editing and film score were great, but there were a few moments where it seemed the actors didn't quite seem believable, reminding me that I was watching a movie, instead of witnessing a story.
Keisha Castle-Hughes almost seems to KNOW the role she is playing, and the depth of her character is mystical.In the end, truth and fantasy conflict, and you really want to believe this film is true...
In a small Maori village in New Zealand, a young girl aims to prove herself worthy of being a chief, despite her grandfathers beliefs in traditional tribal gender divisions.An engrossing and touching experience, this film is very powerful with excellent acting by an unknown young talent, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who achieves a marvellous performance.
'Whale Rider' is the story of a young girl trying to fit into the traditions of her people.
Keisha Castle-Hughes is Pai, the young girl in question and 'Whale Rider' has great momentum in its climax as Pai puts her life on the line at the age of 13 in order to fulfill her destiny.
The glimpses of Maori life are amazing, and you can't help rooting hard for Castle-Hughes as she tries to become the new Whale Rider.
Whale Rider is not just a wonderful film about a young girl who attempts to overcome the prejudices against her in the male-dominated culture in which she lives, it is a metaphor for our time.
you'll probably think that a movie about an up and down relationship between a girl and her grandfather will eventually give up to the clichés, but believe me this film will let you:1- See the powerful new actress Keisha Castle-Hughes.
Whale Rider is the story of young girl named Pai, who is raised in the Whangara culture of her people.
Keisha Castle-Hughes, the girl who plays Pai in the movie, is phenomonal.
But New Zealand looks like a place that may make film-making great again.
Beyond the great story, this movie is excellent because it is beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted - especially by Keisha Castle-Hughes, who's acting is as good as it gets.
It is an indie film about a young Maori girl (a New Zealand tribe) that fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.