movie review 6

Whale Rider

The Plot

Whale rider tells a story about a young Maori girl who aspires to be a leader of her tribe. The story starts when Porourangi’s wife gives birth to a pair of beautiful fraternal twins (a son and a daughter). However, one of the babies (son) dies together with their mother due to complications. Hence leaving the daughter behind with his father. The girl is named Paikea Apirana (Pai) based on their ancestor's name. Koro, the grandfather and the leader of the tribe is so disappointed with the situation. He hopes that Paikea should die in replace of the grandson since following the tradition, the first born baby grandson should inherit the leadership. Koro is hoping for a grandson because their family is actually a direct descendent of Paikea- he who rode on the whale from Hawaiki, so Koro has a pressure to elect a new leader that will lead their tribe. Koro actually worries about the future of his tribe for his oldest son is not interested to lead the tribe and many of their youth are more interested to go out of the village and experience a modern world. The future of his tribe depends on the new leader yet no one is eligible and have a desire to lead.

Porourangi decides to leave the village and travel to the German leaving his daughter with her grandparents. Koro expresses his resentment towards Pai, however he could not help but to love his adorable granddaughter. He always fetches Pai from the school and together, they ride a bicycle to the home. As Koro becomes older he is desperate to find a new leader, however, Porourangi who is supposed to be the one whom he hopes to lead their tribe does not want the responsibility. Koro now need to teach a group of young kids and select one leader among them. At the same time, Pai feels that there is something that keeps calling her from the sea. For that, she has a desire to be a leader. Unfortunately, her desire is not approved by traditional custom that only allow man to be the leader. During the training, the boys’ group is taught a lot of lesson and skills by Koro. The final test that would determine the leader is to get the whale teeth necklace thrown by Koro to the sea. To his disappointment, no one manages to bring back the necklace, hence signalling there is no leader qualified to lead the tribe. As he is depressed, he calls out to the ancestor to help him through the crisis. At the same time, Pai also calls the ancestor. The ancestor hears her cries, thus answer her calls. Later, a group of whale suddenly stranded on the seashore. Everybody in the village help out to save the whales, unfortunately all of their efforts are wasted for nothing could help to put back all the whales to the sea again. Pai realizes that the whales actually answer to her calls, so she touches the biggest whale and the whale responded to her. She rides on the whale back and they submerge in the sea. While everybody thought Pai is drowning below the sea, Koro’s wife told him that it was Pai who found the necklace. Fortunately, Pai survives and is admitted to the hospital. From that event, Koro believes that she is the chosen one to lead the tribe and acknowledges her.

The characters

Pai

I would say her character is the most genuine and original character I have ever seen in any movie. Keisha Castle-Hughes succeed to portray Pai character so effortless. Pai is seen as a demure yet a strong and confident young girl. She perceived herself as an unwanted child and always tries to get Koro acknowledgement. However, she believes that her grandfather loves her so much even without him expressing his love. Pai also expresses her desire to become the leader despite of the obstacle that she will need to face in order to become one. I actually admire her character. Being separated with his father and mother at a very young age is not an excuse for her to behave inappropriately. Instead, she manages to break the stereotype that a problematic child comes from those with family or attachment issues. I would say her character is very resilient and wise at her young age. According to Horward, Martin, Berlin and Gunn (2010), most of the children who have family instability will have more tendency to develop the attachment and personality issues as well as causing trouble at school. However, Pai is nothing like that and has developed a good personality, is confident with her action and do well at her school. The hardship that she faces is the one that builds her strength and wise life perspective She manages to deal with his grandparent’s dual attitude toward her existence without developing any inferiority complex, attachment and personality issues, instead she embraces her grandfather resentment and disappointment while thinking that he still loves her as a family and is giving her unconditional love towards Koro. Dual attitudes refer to different evaluations towards the same object, people, and events (Wilson, Lindsey & Schooler, 2000). Referring to the definition, Koro love Pai so much but he is opposed to her desire to be the chief of their tribe, hence showing a cold attitude towards her.

 Further, I think she compensates the feeling of loss with her grandmother love and care for her to be able to develop such a strong and healthy character despite of her family issue. Not only that, she is determined to learn traditional custom by sneaking into Koro lessons at the school even when Koro prohibited her from learning the lesson simply because she is a girl. She also has this perspective where many people should learn their tradition so that many can be a leader without having to rely on one and absolute leader.Besides, almost every character in the movie is facing inner tensions, same goes to Pai. Her conflict happens when her father is back to the village and decided to bring her together with him to the Germany because he could not bear to see his child getting a bad treatment from Koro. Pai feeling discouraged by Koro cold action decides to go with her father, however she could not bear to leave the village as she could hear the sea calling for her.  

The scene

Truthfully, Pai makes me in tears. I could feel how she feels even though I could not relate to the context and culture portrays in the movie. I have seen a lot of crying scenes in other movie without any feelings attached to it. However, with Pai character I could not help myself from crying. The scene where she gives her speech after her school performance is dedicated to her grandfather and her people is so touching. I am so sad seeing her looking at the empty chair that is supposed to be Koro seat as he does not attend the ceremony. Focusing on Pai sincerity when she gives her speech alone make me in tears. Her way of delivering the line is so detailed with the tears that is endured and the restrained voice is just so perfectly delivered with no overdramatize effect. Her speech alone hit me so hard that I do not realize my tears is already flowing. I respect the actor for bringing such a genuine and raw emotion to the audience.

Themes

Firstly, leadership is the obvious theme in this movie. Leadership portrays by Koro is basically a conservative leadership that most traditional leaders hold. For example, a believe that only man can be a leader and only the strongest are qualified to lead. This traditional view however is no longer popular among many youth nowadays. Many young leaders have the perspective where the gender is no longer important as long as they have the quality to lead people. Besides, holding a conservative view of leadership might make people to be close minded and prejudice. For example, Koro is not prepared to accept that Pai has a desire to become a leader. Pai being a girl is a problem to Koro, hence he misses all the leadership qualities that Pai has. I could also sense that the responsibility that a leader holds is so great. Looking at how Koro is depressed after he fails to elect a new leader make me thinking that to shoulder a responsibility means that to carry the leader task forever.

Second, cognitive dissonance could be one of the themes in this movie. Cognitive dissonance refers to the situations where a person has a conflicting attitudes, beliefs/ideas. For example, Koro resents Pai, however as she is her granddaughter it is unpleasant for him to hate her. So to reduce the unpleasantness he just decides to lover her as she is. Not only has that, as a result of cognitive dissonance Koro decides to reduce his cognitive by reducing the importance of his dissonant. For example, Koro asks Porourangi to take away Pai from him and brings her to Germany because he does not want Pai to follow her desire to be a leader that is against the traditional custom.