The Whale Rider

The New Zealand drama, The Whale Rider, captures the story of a young girl who strived to earn the respect of her Grandfather, Koro. Paikea, the twelve-year-old girl shares her name with the leader who rode to shore on a whales back saving the Maori tribe. At birth Pai was born a twin but her brother never survived--this left Koro upset since he should have been the leader, a role that is meant for a man. The Maori culture was constantly brought out in the film, especially from Pai who strived to live up to her grandfather's expectations.

Pai tried to participate and watch as Koro taught the young Maori boys how to become leaders, yet she was the only one to bring back his whale tooth that was thrown into the sea for the young boys to retrieve, but all attempts were failed. Koro and Pai showed the true beauty of the culture through the land, schooling, and rituals such as praying and calling in the whales.

Camera movement

This shot is from Breaking Bad. The director uses a simple panning technique but the location of where the camera is panning is important. The panning stops and sets up the scene, once a phone conversation is over the camera moves towards Skyler and reveals another actor in the room with her that the viewer is unable to see from the specific panning.

The Road Home-Symbolism

The symbolism in this film was phenomenal. I focused on the symbolism of repair. When the new teacher came into the village Di was instantly drawn to him. As all the men worked on building the new school Di prepared her best meals in a blue and white pottery dish that she would bring down to all the workers to eat. When it was her families turn to finally host and feed the teacher she prepared her best meal and made sure to put it in that bowl hoping he would recognize it. Di's mother could sense the way she felt about him and told her not to try--he was out of her class. That night when Di found out the teacher was leaving and not coming back over for mushroom dumplings she packed up that bowl to chase him down to make sure he ate it. While she was running she fell and the bowl broke. It was symbolic to her heart breaking and he was really gone. Despite Di's mothers opinions she paid a lot of money to have the bowl fixed and put back together. The teacher also came back into Di's life making it whole again.