A Critique to Whalerider

From the left: Paikea Aspirina (Keisha Castle-Hughes), Koro (Rawiri Paratene)   

         Can human beings ride on whales? Can a woman lead a tribe that has only had male chiefs before her? and Can you Really change someone that is living in the past? I am sure we would all like to know the answers to these questions, however the answer is not as simple as it seems. Hello everyone and today we will be reviewing the epic and sometimes nonsensical film of Whale rider. Let's get started

          In this film, one of the most dominant characters is of course, Koro, the grandfather of Paikea. It doesn't get anymore sadder when you are ridiculed for your existence during your birth. However, what was utter brilliance of the film was the fact that the movie portray an inner conflict between his paternalistic chief but caring and loving grandfather. The grandfather that would cycle with Paikea and stand up for her when she got teased was also the grandfather that exile her from the training grounds because of her gender. I think this was utter brilliance of the producers to have this inner conflict as it is highly relatable to real life. My father is someone who is paternalistic and this could be caused by his upbringing but despite his ambivalent sexism mindset, he still cares and love his daughters a lot.  I think the pivotal concept behind Koro's character is his blatant sexism that he portrays. Let me explain, he exhibit an attitude that Paikea is not fit to be the chief because she is inferior as she is female. Koro is a extreme example of a ambivalent sexist as he treat Paikea as weaker than men but at the same time protecting her and treat her well.

          At the beginning of the blog, i asked whether it was possible to change a person that has been living in the past. The answer is yes, possible. But incredibly difficult. As you clearly see in the film, Nicki Cara purposefully demonstrated that everyone tried everything humanly possible and i stress, HUMANLY possible. There is a need to have a scene of which Paikea actually rode on the whale to actually change the mind of Koro about Paikea being the tribal chief. One possible reason for this could be Koro's strong social identity as the village chief which is the social category a person belongs to. This could have explained why Koro moved away from being individualistic from a caring grandfather and to his social identity as the village chief. As such, it explains that it can be extremely difficult to change a person and sometimes might even need divine help.

        Another explanation of Koro's behaviour for me would me the deeply rooted gender roles of his ancestors. I am sure that by now we all would have known that Koro is part of a paternalistic tribe. Male and female have their own roles respectively. One evidence of this was the emotions portrayed in the film where males should portray emotions of entitlement (anger) and females should portray emotions of satisfaction (powerlesness). When Koro was training Hemi, Hemi latched out at Koro by hitting him with the Taiaha. Koro responsed positively by saying that anger is good. However, when Paikea demonstrated her resourceful in fixing the engine, Koro scolded Paikea saying its dangerous and this is not what you should do. I bet my fortune if Hemi was the one who done it, Koro would have praised him too.

       In the end, although this film's protagonist is Paikea, the most crucial character in making it what it is, is the archaic Koro. His extreme values makes the audience side with Paikea making him an extreme villain. At the end of the class, we were suppose to rate who we associated with and it came at no surprise that Koro was dead last. Thus, every great movie needs a great villain. Catch you next time!