[kamus]

Can anyone recommend some New Zealand movies (not LOTR please :roll: ) that either show a good contemporary "slice of life" in NZ or at least have a good location shots of urban areas. We've seen lots of NZ scenery (spectacular! :clap) but not a lot of city shots.

We've seen and enjoyed "Heavenly Creatures", "Whale Riders" "The Piano" (OK-didn't really like that one so much) and a good film whose title I can't remember about a teacher helping some wacky asylum inmates to put on an opera (I think)- I don't think it was "Lunatic's Ball" but I could be wrong.

Thanks!

[Radders]

Don't forget Once were warriers! and it's sequel, but both show a very dark side of 70's 80's auckland.

Are you able to get the soap Shortland st over there??

[Diny]

For a good insight into the part of NZ life that the travel books don't tell you about, have a look at Once Were Warriors and the sequal film What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted.

I'm sure there's a certain degree of poetic license been applied to these movies (as in all movies) but they are good - really good !!!

They are 2 films about the gangs in Auckland (heck - now I've said that I'm wondering if it was set in Wellington) - anyway - gangs in the city. A really good story line running through.

Ladies - although he plays the part of a complete * in the film, the lead character 'Jake The Mus' (as in muscle) is DROP DEAD WONDERFUL !!!

Diny

[Diny]

Snap Radders ......... great minds think alike.

[Radders]

Make me some eggs girl!

[mattford]

You could try out Peter Jackson's "Meet the Feebles"

not sure how close that really is to NZ life though..

I seem to remember that "Braindead" had a few shots of Wellington suburbs. Before the zombies get loose that is.. This is the film with the infamous "lawnmower death" scene in it!

Okay I should add that neither of these films is suitable for young kids.. :booby

[Radders]

The last samuri was shot near new plymouth, but again, it's scenery that you see.

[SteveR]

Peter Jacksons 'Bad Taste' is a bit of a classic, the name is quite apt though. you have been warned!

[Pakeha Boy]

Kiefer Suherland has just finished fiiming "The River Queen" up in the Waikato somewhere, apparently set during the Maori wars arond 1860.
Probably be full of scenery though.
"Utu" was an absolute cracker of a movie back in the 80s', hard to find a copy of it now though.

[goldwheels]

The last I heard about the river queen is that is was stopped half way through production. This was a couple of months ago though, so did Kiefer Sutherland come back and finish it off?

I saw once we were warriors, and what becomes otf the broken hearted when we were already in NZ, it certainly shows the other side to NZ, but don't let this put you off.

[Pakeha Boy]

I dunno Goldwheels, I heard they were filming and just made the presumption they'd finished?
Hope they finished it, sounded like a good yarn.

[kamus]

My wife and I just saw "Once Were Warriors"
What a cheery pick-me-up that turned out to be! :eek
Truly grim and upsetting, though the main part of the story could have been set anywhere.
A few questions regarding NZ (gotta start using Aotearoa more) occurred to me:
1. Is there a big problem with people taking advantage of, what I gather to be, a fairly generous welfare program.
2. Have the Maori gangs evolved, in the manner predicted by the director, towards greater incorporation of cultural symbols, tattoos etc?
3. Are there really two classes of Maori: the former slaves, and some sort of aristocratic class?
4. Do youth welfare programs utilize Maori traditions as a form of therapy as depicted in the film?
5. Is the sequel as grim as the original?

It certainly was powerful and we had to stop the film at one point to gather the resolve to go on. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it albeit with a strong warning of upsetting content.

Thanks for steering us to it.

[Diny]

I can only answer question 5.

The sequal wasn't as grusome, although it had it's fair share of 'nastyness'.

What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted is a good film but it didn't have the same impact as Once Were Warriors.

Diny

[Stu]

Warriors was a pretty close shot at life for the poor urban maori. They really are pretty disposessed. 2 classes of maori? definitely. Until mid last century there were entire maraes/settlements that were entirely prison/slave maraes.(pron: Mahh-rye) One is just down the road from my farm. It was in these places that captured prisoners from raiding parties, other slaves, criminals etc were put. They were not allowed out of hte settlements on pain of being eaten (yes, cannibalism), indeed, they were mainly used as a self-sustaining food bank for the more upper caste maori of the area. Because they could not marry outside that particular marae, there was a LOT of in breeding... the waharoa marae is quite a collection of the lame and the halt, even today.
Oh, you never hear any of THAT side of maori culture mentioned these days! oh dearie me no! (political revisionism).

Anyhow, these Maori had no "mana" at all in general maori society, and most of hte worst criminal families are from these areas... no pride in themselves etc, it is a really sad self-perpetuating circle.

Higher caste Maori are much less likely to wind up like those in Warriors. These days they are in the Unis, work etc, same as anyone else. Sister-in-law is a prime example, manager of local Bank, etc etc.

Anyhow, other NZ movies? Try Sleeping Dogs. That was a good one with lotsa NZ town stuff in it, but very VERY dated these days! Indeed no longer relevant at all really.

Why don't you contact TVNZ, see if you can get some copies of more recent TV series on tape? Now that would be something that really could give you some useful viewing.

cheers,
Stu.

[kamus]

Great post Stu- when I wrote "slave class" somehow I pictured them as slaves of the British (I guess everyone was in a way)- somehow it didn't occur to me that they would be slaves kept by the other Maori!
It just shows that no-one has cornered the market on injustice to one's fellow man and there seems to be plenty of suffering to go around.

In an odd way, seeing the movie, as repellent as it was, made me feel better about moving to NZ. It put a real face on a real place and reminded me that no-one has solved the problems we face as human beings. I think all too often, my wife and I and many others on this forum too, I'll bet, tend to idealize NZ, concentrating on it's many real positives and not getting a balanced picture. I began to be suspicious as to how it all seemed in my own imagination, until I saw the movie. Reality check please!

"Once Were Warriors" probably focusses too primarily on the negative to provide balance within itself , but obviously we need such filmmakers, writers, social workers and the people themselves to remind us that there is more to our lives than constructing an impervious shield against the real world consisting of a good paying job, a house in the'burbs, 2.5 kids, a reliable car and a couple of holidays per year etc.

One of the things that distresses me about living in America, is just how monumentally oblivious Americans are to the world around around them and to the suffering their greed and the policies of their government create. People only seem to take notice of events outside their little cocoon if their tax bill was higher than last year or the price of petrol jumps a few cents.

From the movie, at got the sense, at least that although NZ may have an imperfect system (as all governments do) and welfare can create it's own big problems but there was at least some sense of trying to do something about it- that's not a feeling one gets from the US government: welfare is a very bad word as are any socialist ideals. For many Americans they have been brought up to believe that socialism = communism = evil = anti-American and there is no detectable sense of compassion in general society or in government.

I would be happy to trade that maddening insensitivity for the, at the very least, incremental improvement that NZ seems to promise.

Didn't mean to go off on another rant.:uhoh

Thanks again for your post!

-Dave

[miep]

Hi,

Other recent NZ movies are Fracture http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/display_film.php?film_id=37
and Tongan ninja http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/display_film.php?film_id=34
Fracture is based on a book by Maurice Gee, "world famous in NZ" author (worth reading !) and is set in Wellington. Acting not so great but some lovely shots of welly. Tongan Ninja was screened at the film festival recently and is also set in Welly and very funny. Also some great shots of the pretty but windy city. Might be hard getting hold of because I don't think they have found a distributor yet.
River queen is set to restart this week I think after filming beeing halted due to illness of one of the leads.

On an entirely different note, Dave, I personally don't think welfare is over the top here (but then I'm dutch :D ) I don't think a lot of people will agree with me. There is a lot of shouting going on by a lot of ill informed people, notably opposition politicians, about the "tremendous" misuse of all kinds of benefits. This shouting is never accompanied by any insightfull information so I have yet to be convinced.

Cheers, Miep

[jesselyn]

hi miep,

welcome to the forum :D

jes :angel

[miep]

Thanks Jes.

I've been lurking for a while and am very impressed with the level of debate and the quality of the writing in this forum. :nice1

Another kiwi film that we saw on tv a while ago:
http://www.nzfilm.co.nz/display_film.php?film_id=455

Its set in Dunedin and quite funny.

Miep

[feeble]

Nobody mentioned Stickmen yet.
Movie in the genre of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, worth a look :nice1

[Bushpig]

Good bye Pork Pie. Its an ole movie now. But shows a lot of New Zealand

[Diny]

Blooming 'eck Bushpig, I totally forgot Good Bye Pork Pie.

I saw that a million years ago !!

Diny

[goldwheels]

Been on the news today that the River Queen has recommenced filming. They stopped about 8 weeks ago due to the main star having the flu. They recon another 8 weeks and the film will be done.

[AliJax]

Was'nt there a 2003 flic Whale Rider, about maori family, where the next in line was a young girl and the father didnt approve her heading the family?

Situated in Northland.

[Diny]

Sure was Ali - a damn fine movie too (it was mentioned at the beginning of this thread).

Diny