The child, named Kahu in honor of the whale rider, adores her great-grandfather, yet he ignores her, continually dismissing her when she tries to listen in on his lessons to the boys on tribal traditions. Hoping for a great-grandson to inherit his title, Koro Apirana is disgusted when the wife of Rawiri's older brother gives birth to a girl. After the narrative shifts to contemporary times, readers learn that this "whale rider" was Kahutia Te Rangi, founder of the Maori tribe whose chief is now Koro Apirana, grandfather of the 24-year-old narrator, Rawiri. A rather dense prologue tells of the long-ago appearance of a gigantic whale with "a swirling tattoo imprinted on the forehead" and a spear-throwing man riding on its back. Robin has not finished his review of this film.First published in 1987 in New Zealand-the author's homeland as well as the story's setting-this circuitous novel inspired a film of the same title, which is scheduled for U.S. The score, by Lisa Gerrard, occasionally references the music of whale calls. Caro very simplistically injects an air of mysticism into the story by cutting between Pai's chanting and horizon seeking with underwater shots of whales hovering beneath the surface of the sea, as if responding to her calls. The fact that there's never any doubt as to where the story is heading does make getting there a bit sluggish at times, but the characters are all richly drawn and the New Zealand locations striking. "Whale Rider's" effectiveness is mostly due to the fact that writer/director Caro keeps it from being a feminist screed and instead makes it a story about the young teaching the old. Unbeknownst to Pai, Koro was waylaid by the anguishing sight of whales beaching themselves. The film comes to a head when Pai, devastated by Koro's absence, gives a prize-winning speech about her love of her grandfather through tears. Pai's ability to get her people on the right path is demonstrated again when she influences a friend of her grandmother's to quit smoking. Grandmother Nanny Flowers (Vicky Haughton) sees a light in Pai that her husband is blind to and offhandedly mentions that her second son, Pai's Uncle Rawiri (Grant Roa) was a champion fighter and Pai's interest in learning renews Rawiri's self-esteem. As Koro teaches the local, giggling boys the warrior ways with a fighting stick (calling to mind Pat Morita in "The Karate Kid"), Pai peeks in through the window and follows along. Koro takes pride in Pai's practice of Whangara rites during school concerts, but when she takes a place in the front row of his 'chief' school and refuses to move to the back, Koro banishes her. He has already driven away his eldest son, Pai's father Porourangi (Cliff Curtis, "Collateral Damage"), who has become an ethnic artist in Europe rather than transforming into the mythic prophet his father hoped to find in him. But he changed his mind.' Koro obviously has deep affection for his granddaughter, who he bicycles to and from school each day, but he is a stubborn traditionalist. Think of "Whale Rider" as "Once Again Warriors." In voiceover narration, Pai let's us know that things will turn out alright in the end when she intones 'Koro wished that I had never been born. Niki Caro has created an antidote to the hopelessness of "Once Were Warriors" with this forward looking tale of hope and pride of ancestry. This New Zealand/German coproduction has scooped up the audience awards at film festivals from Toronto to Seattle.
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