Hunt for the Wilderpeople – Ricky wicket

Full transcript of Hunt for the Wilderpeople – Ricky wicket.

0:00KT: Haeremae everybody. Welcome to the fourth and final course in our Reference Degustation. A month long celebration of tantalizing Taika Waititi tastetations. All I'll have left after this are Oti's tastetations, and I am not complaining. This is our second Reference Degustation. We covered Miyazaki Masterpieces. Howl was our fiftieth episode. Super amazing. We've made it to our hundredth review episode, which we will get into for the rest of the episode. We also charted on Apple Podcasts in New Zealand during this month long celebration, Oti.

0:40KT: Woo hoo. So we wanna say choice, we wanna say mint, and we wanna say, cuzzy.

0:47Oti: Yeah. Thank you, eggs.

0:51KT: Well, before scrambles me, let's continue on. Kia ora, friends and lovers, and welcome back to the For Your Reference podcast. You got your host, KT.

0:51Oti: And Oti.

0:51KT: Take a break from the relaxing sausage and decide between the holy door pill or the form filler pill. Wow. Yes, yes, yes. Grab your tinfoil hats, friends and lovers. This week of the weeks of our two year anniversary, we are covering Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Let's get on with the stats. This is another written and directed Taika Waititi film.

1:56KT: Like Jojo Rabbit, it was based on a novel. In this case, it was Wild Pork and Watercress written by Barry Crump, where you kind of see a little nod, a little reference, a little homage within the film. I think it was Psycho Sam, his car. Yes. It was released in January 2016 in the Sundance Film Festival. Boy completely smashed box office records in New Zealand, and it was really one upped by Hunt for the Wilderpeople. So I guess that's also a correlation with Miyazaki Masterpieces where we had Princess Mononoke winning

2:33KT: best film and then Spirited Away pretty much taking all the awards there. Yeah. We we do it big, friends and lovers. Come and sit on our Jupiter's cocks. Or I think as Oti has been enjoying this month, our Jupiter's Eggs. Yeah. The budget was estimated to be 2,500,000 US dollars. I think the final scenes is probably where a lot of the budget went. And a worldwide gross of $22,800,000.

3:05KT: In regards to the cast, what a sumptuous delicious cast. A little bit of salty, little bit of sweet. It is a delightful way to round off our Reference Degustation, Sam Neill, pretty much from our point of view, the introduction of Julian Dennison and Rima Te Wiata. If this is the first time that you have listened to For Your Reference, how dare you? You are already too late. I think you would have forfeited your reservation at this fucking point. But we had the first course of Thor: Ragnarok, the twenty ten Boy,

3:41KT: very spicy Muy Caliente in Jojo Rabbit, and now we are rounding off our tastetations with Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Take out your reusable scorecards because we will be covering common and recurring themes in Taika's filmography. But before we get to there, let's start off with first impressions, Oti. So this wasn't the first time we've watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople. And I guess even just to contextualize the Reference Degustation, how did you feel watching it the first time also now in the block of Taika tastetations?

4:13Oti: Oh man, I loved it the first time I watched this movie. It was in 2016. Yep. It was the hit of the office. Everyone was just talking about it. And when we did finally go and see it, I was not disappointed at all. You know, it was fun. It was what we all expect from Taika now, you know, especially having watched some of his stuff. It just felt like classic Taika and we knew what we were gonna get and just

4:44Oti: loved it loved every bit but then on the second watch going forward because we've watched it like three times now yeah my second watch was a bit different where I felt that the pacing sort of changed and I didn't realize that in the first one or at least for me. It felt like it slowed down a bit towards the end and maybe the high octane stuff just threw me off because that's not why I was there for the movie.

4:44KT: Interesting.

4:44Oti: Which was weird because it never registered

5:15Oti: the fast I'm watching it because I remember just feeling like, wow, this is fucking amazing. And I think then people were passing it off as bloody Aussie. So

5:15KT: What? Who?

5:15Oti: I don't know. I didn't know anything. I was the new kid in the in Australia, you know?

5:31KT: Oh, how do see on this Aussie film? Well, it's like the Pavlova. Right? Because I'm pretty sure it is originated from New Zealand, but a lot of Australians try to claim it. But

5:42Oti: yeah. I just felt that the pacing got a bit weird towards the end.

5:44KT: Or is it because you felt like you weren't going to get anything more out of it? But I'll take this over protagonist Tenet any day.

5:55Oti: Oh, yeah. I mean, it sounds better than Tenet. It's just weird that I felt that. Yeah. Even though the third watch, was like, yeah. Some scenes I would have definitely done away with because it didn't do anything for the movie in my opinion. And it just felt like it was prolonging the movie.

5:55KT: Interesting. Because it's not even that long really.

5:55Oti: It's not, which is weird.

5:55KT: Friends and Lovers, if you are familiar with our podcast,

6:18KT: during our Christmas episode is where we, in a numerical sense, distill how we feel about what we've covered for the year out of 10. And it'll be interesting to see what you rate Hunt for the Wilderpeople because rewatchability

6:33KT: is very important to you. It isn't to like I could watch something and never watch it again and it could be a 10. So I guess we'll see how it feels for you. Cause it's like if you had never watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople again, you would have had higher regard for it is what I'm hearing anyway.

6:33Oti: Yeah, for sure. We know rewatchability

6:50Oti: is one of my bedrock foundation.

6:53KT: Yeah, but I won't watch Friends with You so stop trying to watch it in my presence. How dare you? My first impressions, I loved it the first time we watched it. It's nice to see, as I mentioned, and I poured all of my KT's Crying Kinks greatest hits in our Boy episode. It's nice to see, like in Tongan we say Maoli, but Maori is usually how most people know how to pronounce it. But it's nice to see, even though I'm not Maoli, I'm Tongan and I'm in Australia, it's just nice to see

7:34KT: not only, you know, faces that look similar to mine, but even the humor of it all. I was giggle gaggling as soon as Korg came onto the screen in Thor: Ragnarok. So I was having a good time. And it's nice to be able to enjoy it. So it did kind of feel like one of the firsts of its kind. Yeah. And it wasn't like Oti mentioned early in the degustation DMX trauma all the way throughout, like Once Were Warriors, for example. It was nice to be able to enjoy.

8:05KT: I do feel that Hunt for the Wilderpeople is the perfect marriage between the Taika quirkisms that we've come to know him for and easily accessible cinema. I feel like we're getting to a point and I say we as a collective, we as in Polynesians and broader Pacific Islanders, we're getting to a point where we can have our stories or even, know, semblances of ourself on screen, but then you can also have Oti over here enjoy it as a goodie as well. Because, you know, we talk about Americanisms

8:44KT: and how we're well versed in it all around the world. And a lot of things don't even need to be explained anymore because we've watched and consumed so much American sort of media. And it's tasty to get to a point where we feel like we can enjoy that. Even though I feel like Young Rock has a long way to go, but those are some KT qualms for another day, but I absolutely love Hunt for the Wilderpeople. And like I said, it is a very good balance between something so personally insular in Boy

9:18KT: and something globally massive like Ragnarok, which came soon after this film. They were kind of, you know, worked in very close proximity. I love that these Venn diagrams can exist. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Definitely a perfect circle on Venn diagram if you if you in my opinion. I don't think I'll ever get to that point because population wise, we're not as big as other races. Right? One can dream. Alright.

9:47KT: You know what's very interesting, especially if you're listening back to back because Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are dropping on the same week. This is a very notable mood change, is it not, Oti? We felt washed over. I think we listened to Seabird by the Alessi brothers like a 100 times. It just washed over us and I really think it is tantalizing and it is great. And if you listen to the Jojo Rabbit episode, I feel like this is the ice cream without the parsnip cone. Mhmm.

10:20KT: Alright, well, let's get into common and recurring themes and then we can branch off into broader discussions in regards to the film. Shout out to our patrons that had a chance to contribute to the themes as well. So before we go into the actual themes, let's talk about the direction and the cinematography.

10:40Oti: Well, I think a lot of the things that at least in my first v, I loved every bit of it, you know. The cinematography is solid. We've come to expect that from Taika you know we talked about how he just captures the essence very well in Boy and I think he just brought it here in spades with added experience and all and it was just so beautiful to watch

10:40KT: It's effortless.

10:40Oti: Exactly exactly you'd get lost in the mountains with them and you'd feel everything.

11:09Oti: I think the pacing as I said the pacing was a bit of an issue for me on my second and third rewatch because I just felt towards the end that things just didn't gel or move as quickly as I thought it did which was a weird thing but generally I think pretty good you know, I can't really fault him in that regard in this movie.

11:09KT: Yeah. I really enjoyed the directing. I pretty much echo everything you say. It really brings the lushness

11:40KT: in regards to it. I do wanna bring up something that I feel like in the second watch, started to become a bit more cognizant of, you know, spoiler spoiler spoiler by the way, friends and lovers. But again, if this is the first time you're listening to our month long celebration, you're nasty and you like it like that. So there's a lot of talk about grief especially because we unexpectedly lose Bella and I definitely wanna give Bella the time and attention. So I'm not gonna go into too much detail here. But there is that physical

12:14KT: sort of survival that we have between Ricky Baker, and Pimp, and Hector. But I also feel like there's an emotional survival that's going on, which is beautifully symbolized in the nature sort of backdrop that they have. And they never really get to somewhere until they work through their shit. Yep. Until they get to that moment. And I don't wanna take from the delicious moment, but there is a time when they do honor Zag, but not Zig and

12:48KT: also Bella. And it it comes to it comes to a point after they've had complications, which you have in a great structure for a plot. Right? They go through complications. They come to an understanding. They have such a warmth about each other, and that's where the release is. Right? So I definitely saw the parallels between emotional survival, contrasting with their physical survival as well.

13:13Oti: Oh, very nice. Very nice pick up. And I do love, you know, in as much as the story the storytelling was kind of straightforward as in not complex or Tenet level, there's there's just an essence of we get morsels here and there where we get these emotions and we get these feelings and we get this vulnerable human,

13:39Oti: you know, connections and we can't just help but feel for the characters in the movie who I think did absolutely brilliantly. Ricky was amazing. I mean, now we know Sam Neill and Hector was just outstanding.

13:51KT: Can I just say during the panorama Pamela Anderson, Sam Neill's tweets, his wholesome tweets about his farm and his livestock and his life on the farm has really been giving me life? I'm not even kidding. Yeah. But Sam Neill is brilliant. You know, if if we're just looking at Australian and New Zealand audiences and screens, he is a darling. He is an international treasure and treasured he will continue to be. But yeah, I really enjoyed the directing. It's interesting you talk about the pacing and I'm sure we'll get to that when we talk about

14:32KT: storytelling. But generally, I love the directing of this film. I love the way it took us where it needed to take us. And obviously, there were going to be some, not necessarily off center, but there were some some moments that were to be expected. Taika as the priest and the sermon. Yeah. You're just waiting for the shoe to drop, weren't you? Yeah. Apparently he it was an act he actually went to a funeral and a priest was saying something very similar to that.

15:00Oti: But why was Jesus not in the second door?

15:04KT: He's he's sneaky like that, Jesus. Yeah. Oh, wow. I liked when he when he asked as well and Ricky said, vegetables? Not vegetables.

15:16Oti: They say there's never a wrong answer, but people get angry a lot of the time.

15:22KT: There's never wrong answers, only wrong people. So let's get into the themes. Let's talk about the tone. So usually, like we've mentioned, as we've said throughout the Reference Degustation, Taika is known for having a quirky or eccentric tone. Ben, our beloved from Filmbusters, mentions comedy as a way of dealing with harsh realities.

15:48Oti: Oh, yeah. It was it was definitely met. I think in Ricky trying to find his place Mhmm. And trying to deal with the grief of losing Bella. Same with Hector as well. Yeah.

16:01KT: I I agree that it was a, you know, quirky or eccentric sort of tone, but I don't necessarily agree with comedy as a way of dealing with harsh realities because like Polynesians, Pacific Islanders, we're very funny people just in general. Like our whole way of being is very funny. And I know I'm really doing this to wank myself off, but the bean flicking couches over there are a tea.

16:28Oti: Are you the George Clooney smug?

16:31KT: You know what keeps me you know what keeps me humble? The South Park smug episode and George Clooney's speech. I I did not resolve world poverty, unfortunately.

16:42Oti: Yeah. When you think you're smug enough, just just listen to a George Clooney speech.

16:49KT: But what I mean by that is, like, you can you can be a funny person, but you're not being funny or you're not using it as a way to deflect because a lot of the moments were very heartfelt, I would say, in this film as opposed to it being slapstick outright, you know, funny. I I don't think it was necessarily using comedy as a way to get out of the grief. I believe it's more trying to push through, trying to deal with the grief and there are

17:20KT: funny peculiar things that happen that are funny.

17:20Oti: Yeah. Definitely agree with your point there.

17:20KT: Alright. Well, let's move on to storytelling. Shout outs to our smoke and mirror patrons. Belonging. All of the films have a common thread of home and finding your place in it.

17:20Oti: Oh, definitely met. We have Ricky Baker who Ricky Baker.

17:43Oti: Who is struggling to find where he belongs, you know. And when he finally thinks that he's got in a home, in Bella, she passes away and then this creates another conflict where he has to run away before he gets put back into the home. Yeah. No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind. Fucking love Rachel House. There's your Rachel House bingo friends and lovers. Oh,

18:07KT: yeah. Absolutely. What I love about this film and, you know, I kind of mentioned it as an honorary theme in our Jojo Rabbit episode where we weren't rage wanking each other in that episode. I talked about an honorary theme of Taika is displaying the emotional weight without taking you all the way there. And I think that's quite true to, you know, they allude to, you know, adult men taking advantage of younger children. And we hear that with, think her name was Amber, you know, with Ricky's friend. And then there's a very cute

18:44KT: very cute, I guess if you wanna call it slapstick, that's probably the closest you would get in this film of the three hunters. Shout outs to Walker. Just like you mentioned on Australians trying to claim Hunt for the Wilderpeople as well as Pavlova, we try to claim Stan Walker. He was an Australian Idol as well.

19:06Oti: He could claim Mel Gibson as well.

19:06KT: Oh no.

19:06Oti: And it come as a package.

19:11KT: Just tie me up, you can do whatever you want to me, Oti. But there's definitely a very carefully crafted way that Taika, you know, lays out these stories. And I feel like pacing was great in this. And, you know, we don't know everything about Ricky. We just know he's a troubled kid. That montage of him

19:33KT: destroying property and tagging and and then burning things and throwing them off bridges. It was very funny, but it was funny to me because I know many kids or at least when I was a kid that were like that.

19:33Oti: Yeah. Yourself included,

19:33KT: How dare you? I'm a Jamie Foxx Law Abiding Citizen. Remember how dare you? Oh, wow. But like we didn't know everything, but we knew enough. And then it wasn't until he met with Kahu later that he actually shared his life really. And

20:04KT: the painful struggle that he had trying to reconcile what it was like not having parents. Right? So I feel like the pacing was very dutiful and it was great. And it really comes back to our smoke and mirror pals talking about belonging. Obviously, Ricky is at the epicenter of this film, but like you mentioned, you know, Hec was going through a heck of a lot. I hate myself for that. You have editing powers, please take that out. I wouldn't. And you know, he's also going through

20:38KT: some shit as well that he's trying to work through. And I don't know, actually, this is a quick question. When Hec and Ricky are out in the bush, Ricky talks about, is this where the sky meets the water? I think it is. Right?

20:56KT: And then, Hec kind of just brushes it off and says that she was kind of like an outcast misfit like the rest of us. Do you think that's true? Because I kind of wanted to believe that Bella did have her own people and her own sense of community and she wanted to go back there. Yeah.

21:11Oti: Didn't take it like that. I think it was just a matter of get Ricky to just shut up and move on sort of thing. He was very old man Logan about it. Yeah. Yeah.

21:11KT: Also the dynamic in this film, I think the reason why I love it so much is that I can recognize it even on this podcast because Oti really was Sam Neill and I was trying to explain to him how skux works and what skux means. Do you know to this day?

21:36Oti: Someone cool down with the beat, hippity hop hop. Yeah.

21:41KT: You kind of lost it. Why did that seem like Morgan Freeman was trying to Oh wow. Down to the beat, hippity hop hop. Jesus Christ. But everyone was really trying to find their place in the world except for Paula, and she was trying to put you in your place. Yeah. That was very different. I also mentioned throughout the episodes that an honorary theme, if we could impart some more, was film references. Because in Boy, we have ET, you even mentioned the quote that was at the start of the film in Boy, and Terminator

22:18Oti: makes a lot of you also saw Sarah Connor in the first Terminator before she could do pull ups. And

22:28KT: we are very partial to film references, Friends and Lovers. But yeah, it was nice to have that sort of levity, right? And at times where you don't even expect it as well. Let's move on to the characters. We have Childlike Wonder. So Julio, our lovely Julio from the Contrarians podcast talks about precocious kids and our delightful Ben from Filmbusters talks about the lovable fool. Do you think any of those were met?

22:52Oti: As the story progresses, we get to learn more about Ricky and the shit he's gone through. Yeah. You know, in as much as he portrays himself as this kid who's aloof of most things and is just troubled,

23:11Oti: he's been through some mature shit. Yeah. You know? Like a friend, Amber, he sat on that and you could you don't even know how that affects a kid. Like Yeah. It's exactly like we were saying in the Boy episode.

23:24KT: Like when you're a kid, you don't know that you're going through shit that you don't even know that you

23:30Oti: aren't equipped to handle yet. Oh, For sure. For sure. So I think Ricky Baker takes it for me. Yeah. At least you. He held on to

23:40KT: his innocence. He held on to his sense of hope, which diminishes as you grow into adulthood. But he held on to that sense of hope, but he also had a grappling of the way the world works as And I think that was bolstered in the way Paula left no child behind as well.

23:59KT: Yeah, I don't think there are any precocious kids in this film. How about the lovable fool? Because I feel like we we learned to love and we I think not not to say this is a bad thing from a writing point of view, but I felt like we knew we were going to love Hec. Yeah. Even though he was really gruff, he was gonna be like the tsundere, but not truly. Yes, I'm a weeb, come and fucking fight me with Kunai knives.

24:23Oti: Yeah, I think Ricky fits the bill for lovable fool.

24:23KT: But he's no fool.

24:23Oti: I know he's not a fool, but he's kind of okay.

24:23KT: So you're saying it doesn't get met here?

24:33Oti: I thought I think it it's sort of halfway through right down the middle. I think it's sort of precocious. And I know you don't agree, but I do feel based on my example that he is. I think it's sort of meh. I think Ricky is slightly precocious. He's gone through a lot of shit and any other person probably would have been weighted down by the troubles of what they faced and he finds ways to just

25:02Oti: move along and to all just, you know, take it by the chin and just push through.

25:02KT: I think I know who the lovable fool is. The three hunters

25:12KT: and they all had a third of a brain that's why I said the lovable fool because they all people won. Did he push you in prickles? Wow. We're going to lose all of our Kiwi and Maori listeners. Alright. Let's move on. Another character usually in Taika's filmography is having a father son dynamic.

25:38Oti: Ricky and Hec. Tick tick. Mhmm. We definitely know Hec is going to be that father figure for Ricky. Yeah. And despite his, you know, his best efforts to push him away, he did care, you know. Oh yeah.

25:51KT: It's just he didn't wanna allow himself to care because it hurts so much. Exactly. It's not hurt so good. Yeah. So it's definitely met a 100%. And I guess kind of going back to the way that Hec's character is structured, it's completely the opposite of my qualms with Valkyrie and Thor: Ragnarok because with Valkyrie, we knew she was going to join the crew and she was going to be best pals with all of them, but there continued to be a back and forth about will she, won't she, right?

26:24KT: So even though we knew that Hec was going to become, you know, that familial tie to Ricky, we still enjoyed the journey getting there. Oh, for sure. So I guess that's an interesting sort of how characters are structured and how we build that emotional bond between the characters as well. But, you know, a lot of the time, you know, as I learned from Supernanny, as my parents made me watch Supernanny and say, why can't I have those kids on the TV? Why do I have you instead?

26:57Oti: Well, the kids of Supernanny who act up all the time.

26:57KT: No. Like at the end. At

27:02KT: the end when they're behaving, like children need structure and sometimes depending on the child, they enjoy structure. Unfortunately, Ricky was was born into a situation that didn't allow him to thrive in any way. And as much as, you know, child services are important, it does kind of become a numbers game. And unfortunately, it's usually the first sort of department aside from the arts that get their budgets cut and be expected to do more than they were even doing with a reasonable budget. So it's not necessarily

27:40KT: to poo poo child services, but it obviously wasn't an ideal situation for him and many other kids as well. And he just wanted to find his way into the world and they're very contrasting components in regards to their dynamic because Ricky was so ready to experience the world, but he had been through so much. And Hec, contrastingly also had been through a lot, but he's like, no, I've had enough. I don't wanna feel I don't wanna be any happier if it means I can lose someone again. Yeah.

28:14KT: So I really love the reciprocity between the two of them. Let's move on to another character in Taika's filmography. He usually makes a cameo.

28:14Oti: Yeah. He was the priest in this, wasn't he?

28:14KT: He was. I think that was really I think of all things, that's the most cameo. Yeah. Because in the other films he kind of plays a lot A little character. Great character. Alame, if you're welcome. Let's move on to the next sort of character courtesy of Ben. Hello again. Real people as fantasy figures.

28:48Oti: No,

28:49KT: I don't think so. Well, unless it's fantasizing about Sam Neill as a Pavlova because he's a delicious being, I don't think this is met at all. Don't worry about my web history friends and lovers, it's private. Let's get into some general discussion in regards to the film. I'm going to guess you're going to say Ricky, where do you wanna start? Let's go for Ricky. So we've kind of already touched on, you know, Ricky's journey throughout the film.

29:20KT: I do like that unlike Boy, he does have a name and he has a bit more of a backstory to him. Even though I love both films, it was nice to get to know him a little bit better. It really works to the juxtaposition of him being a city kid and being taken to a more rural sort of area. Oh, yeah. Right? He's got it looks very similar to Bape. Actually, was Bape big in Kenya?

29:47Oti: Nah, it wasn't big. If he wasn't Fafu, FUBU, Sean John, what else? Dickies?

29:57Oti: Nah, that didn't cross.

29:57KT: Oh, Dickies was big for islanders.

29:57Oti: Oh, was it?

29:57KT: Yeah.

29:57Oti: Oh, man. I don't even know what a Dickie is.

29:57KT: Neither do I, but we bought the counterfeit kind because my parents didn't like the way it said Dickies. Oh, wow. We also couldn't afford it, but that's a story for another date. Or just go and listen to the Boy. Just go and listen to the Boy episode, Friends and Lovers. But in any case, it provides a great juxtaposition between,

30:25KT: you know, Ricky fending for himself in the city and coming into the embracing arms of rural area with Bella as well as Hec. Going through his journey,

30:36Oti: continuously just felt really sorry for him and sad for him, you know. And

30:42Oti: even at the end when he was going full rampage and driving the car off, you know. In a blaze of glory. In a blaze of glory. You don't even know what the bloody hell is in the necks of the fence, you know. It could be a cliff for all they knew. Yeah. But we went full on because I think looking back to his life, there's nothing really good to go back to. So, man, that was some tough shit to deal with, especially for a kid. I love this character.

31:06Oti: And I think out of the four movies we've covered for Taika, I think he's my favorite.

31:11KT: Really? Yeah. Over Boy? Over Rocky and Boy? Oh, you're talking about main Yeah. Main character. You're talking about John David Washington protagonist. This is gonna date very well for people that love Tenet. Shots fired, Oti. No. I I definitely

31:35KT: agree with what you're saying, but I don't think that he was my favorite. I think Boy was my favorite.

31:35Oti: Yeah. And I get it because you resonated with Boy up to, you know not even up to a degree in it. You all full circle.

31:35KT: Mate, I I matriculated

31:50KT: like the Cullens in Twilight. That's how many degrees I had there. Yeah. I wanna talk a little bit about, we we kind of touched on Amber, but I wanna talk a little bit about that. Because I think the way it's brought up in the scene is Hec is having a hard time grieving and Ricky as a child, very nonchalantly, very indifferent without any sort of intensity says, you need to process it. Yeah. It's not healthy and you need to process it. And that's where he goes into the example about his friend, Amber,

32:25KT: about he would she would say things about the man and then she just no one ever saw her again. Yeah. True. It's fucking heartbreaking. Again, it goes back to the honorary theme of feeling the emotional weight, but not taking us all the way there. Even though you didn't necessarily like the shoe imagery in Jojo Rabbit.

32:46Oti: It's not that I didn't like it, I just didn't appreciate the messaging. Alright. Semantics. Right?

32:55KT: Enroll to our FYR curriculum for semantics one zero one with Oti. Mhmm. The syntax are dope and lit. Wow. In JavaScript as well. If you're not horny for tech, you can log off now. But I I just love how beautifully it was done. You know, again, I give the example of the three hunters and how it's supposed to be played for a comical effect even with Psycho Sam later when he says that he's a pedo.

33:28KT: You know, it's it's it's the tonality of it all. Yeah. Where it's it it is very reverent and it's taken seriously, but there are also moments where, like, in Inbetweeners you have Pedo Kennedy. Oh, but Ricky was absolutely solid. He pretty much, you know, was in every scene, notably so, or at least they were working towards him. And I just love that he was everyone was orbiting around his character. Oh, yeah. For sure. I feel like we've spoken a lot about Hec, but feel free to pepper that in in our Reference Degustation

34:08KT: if you feel the need. I wanna focus a bit on Bella. I feel like Bella's kind of that maternal sort of friend or person that you would have in your innermost circles. It also adds a very sad layer onto her existence because as much as we can see even further on in the film, I think it does confirm that Bella didn't have a home, so to speak, because

34:36KT: because at that point, Hec had had that realization and he had had that change of heart. If Bella did have a home, they would have taken her there. Right? So that just adds a very sad layer on her existence. But the fact that she's she's one of those people where even if she was hurting inside, she still wants other people to feel that that even reprieve, even that, you know, that moment of joy.

35:00Oti: The fact that she died, I think within the first five, ten minutes of her being introduced in the screen,

35:11KT: I was like, the first time I watched it, I was like, Jesus, really? But I think they established the bond quite early because we talk a lot about if you're going to kill a character off, like a main secondary sort of character off for emotional payoff, make it worth it. And I really felt like her her death was really the catalyst that, you know,

35:32KT: especially the dynamic between Hec and Ricky. If if she had lived, probably don't have gotten that close. No. Yeah, absolutely not. It definitely brought a closeness to them. I just love the moments that she had with Ricky. It's like without an instruction booklet, without, you know, professional advice, she just knew how to interact with Ricky. Yeah. Even the first night when he tries to run away and she makes a comment saying, you made it all of 200 meters. They show how close the house was from where he ran away. There's a very cute,

36:13KT: you know, back and forth between Ricky and Bella about, oh, are you gonna run away today? Just make sure you come back before dinner. It's so lovely because she gives him the space. She allows him to be himself and be able to vent out the the screaming at the sky frustrations he has at the world. But he also knows that he's got a loving place to go back to. Oh, yeah. I also love the recurring imagery that they had of the hot water bottle.

36:40KT: Oh, yeah. I feel like the first time I watched it, I cried when he put it over the campfire and it exploded because that was really a meaningful sort of souvenir that he had between himself and also Bella. It was such a beautiful tender moment. And, you know, Sam Neill really drew out the emotions in the moment where he discovers her at the clothesline.

37:06Oti: Oh, definitely.

37:07KT: And you can see the heartbreak with Ricky looking on and seeing what's happening and knowing what that's going to mean for him. So we talked about unnecessary love stories in Jojo Rabbit. How did you feel about, not necessarily a a full to fruition love story, but there was the back and forth between Ricky and Kahu?

37:33Oti: I didn't see it as a love story, did you?

37:35KT: He was imagining her as a chocolate bar.

37:39Oti: I'd forgotten about that. I think my eyes have lost an affinity for such things in movies now. It was we it was weird because I think one of the things that I love the back and forth that they had. Yeah. You know, and the fact that she didn't really judge. No.

37:39KT: Did you enjoy her original song?

37:39Oti: Oh, wouldn't?

38:00KT: I remember when she started singing the song and then out of nowhere, the dad started joining in. And I said, whenever a guitar is playing, there's a random Maori joining in the background. Because I felt because he was not within the shot yet. So it was kind of out of the blue. Speaking of, Kahu's dad is fucking amazing. Him asking to take a selfie with Ricky and then asking Kahu to take a selfie. And she's like, it's not a selfie then you dumb.

38:35KT: And then he was pretending that he captured Ricky and then pretending that Ricky captured him. Just beautiful, lovely spirit. I don't think he was a fool but if if that will classify, then he also gets lovable fool as well. No. Because then at the end of it, they do take Ricky Ricky in. Ricky They and

38:54Oti: do.

38:55KT: They do. I wanna talk a bit about Paula and Andy. Shout out to Oscar Knightley who plays Andy, by the way. Total legend. Total legend in New Zealand and in everywhere else in even in my household.

39:09Oti: Something happened here, but I don't know what.

39:15KT: I don't even know why you're laughing because that's literally you.

39:20Oti: Wow.

39:20KT: You you you pollute you pollute the air with useless words. How did that help any situation? You're worse than Captain Obvious in South Park.

39:32Oti: Wow.

39:34KT: South Park is making a lot of references today.

39:34Oti: I think you meant Captain Hindsight.

39:34KT: Well, you can fuck off. How about that?

39:41Oti: That dynamic is ridiculous Yeah. To say the least. I think Paula sort of portrays how awesome child services are. It's all about numbers. It's all about leave no child behind. You get some policy and you inflict it without any sort of concern for the kid. It's just numbers on a book and that's what you care about. Yeah. And, you know, was portrayed in a sort of comedic way. So a lot of these things weren't clear up until when she went on a TV interview.

40:14Oti: And then the uncles are like, but Ricky's out there. He's lost. Yes. Leave your child behind. You know, it's it's it's just about it's all just about bureaucracy and people pushing it and just not even caring about the kids or how they grew up and be positive members in society.

40:33KT: Yeah. Because she'll use the phrase no child left behind but when the reporters were questioning her, she was saying that he knows what he's doing. He's a bad egg. Right? And I talked about this in the Boy episode but you know, beyond the quirky cutesy sort of interviews with Taika, there are also some very real interviews with Taika where he talks about wanting to put a spotlight and put a focus on, you know, child poverty and the suicide rates being the highest in New Zealand

41:10KT: for Maori kids, right? And he also talks about, when you're young, there's so many possibilities, you do creative writing, there are arts, you know, Haikus even are in here. Ricky also makes a reference to Kingy being a dick and Kingy is a reference to the Boy film, if you've also seen that as well. You know, Taika talks about when you turn age 11, it becomes very binary. It's about maths, it's about science, which is fine, but then it kind of stifles for a lot of people, the ability to decompress

41:49KT: from the harsh realities of the world. Being able to channel your pain through creativity. It's all about, you have to do this to get a good job and not necessarily about how you are as a person and how you fit in this world.

41:49Oti: Story of my life, man.

41:49KT: Okay. Oti Direction. But I I really very much appreciated that. And I would say, particularly in regards to this film, you don't really take anything too seriously. Like, though Rachel House is brilliant and she's playing Paula exactly the way she needs to be played,

42:28KT: She is very hard edged and she like you said, very bureaucratic, but at the same time, it kind of feels like it's being turned that way. Like the dial is being turned up for a comedic effect. Oh, yeah. Definitely. It's not necessarily a

42:43Oti: But it still passes on the message of how how society or at least how these institutions view the kids, you know?

42:46KT: True. No. I I agree. But that's exactly what I'm saying. Without going all the way there, we can still resonate with the key messaging that is being laid out in this film. There's also some very cute sort of commentary that happens throughout the film where Paula is asking for, you know, extra backup and she's asking for Andy's weapon. And he's like, I don't have my taser. And they talk like, it was a cute it was a cute sort of

43:21KT: commentary on how New Zealand is very effective with its police force even without a strong presence of guns. And then also very later in the film, they do the classic Miranda rights or at least Paula tries to, you know, do the Miranda rights. But first of all, she's not a cop and second of all, they don't do that in New Zealand. So there there are a lot of, you know, moments of levity in regards to Paula and Andy as well that was definitely most welcome.

43:51KT: Speaking of moments of levity, I just want to I don't know if we end on, but I wanna talk about Psycho Sam.

43:58Oti: We all have that one friend, don't we? Yeah.

44:02KT: Hopefully, not too close in your circles, but yeah. But he did have a point. Please don't look at me as Psycho KT, but he did have a point. You do always need to fill in a form.

44:02Oti: You do?

44:02KT: Can I just say, without saying I'm superior than all of you, I've actually cleared my whole inbox, including the promotion section in Google? Wow. Can you fucking believe that? It was wild.

44:30Oti: You have so much time in your hands.

44:34KT: My next step now is to now that I've read them all, not like physically. I don't have a Oti Prince trying to send me money over an email. The next thing I need to do is start unsubscribing from shit that I don't even know that I signed up to two, three years ago. Mhmm. So that's my next step. But I definitely resonated with Psycho Sam and maybe I shouldn't say that. My bush does move in mysterious ways though. Oh, clearly.

45:08Oti: Oh wow. He yeah. He he provided some levity in this. I love the scenes, know. I felt like I've had those conversations a couple of times with different people and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you do you.

45:25KT: Alright, friends and lovers. We have come to the end of our second annual Reference Degustation, a month long celebration of tantalizing Taika Waititi tastetations.

45:39Oti: Tastetations indeed.

45:40KT: And what a scrumptious time it is friends and lovers. It's also our hundredth review episode as well. We've made it. We've absolutely made it. Thank you so much everyone for tuning in. We very much love and appreciate. And we sploosh at your altar wherever we can. Usually this is where we go into For Your Reference, but because this is a set menu, our recommendations are Thor: Ragnarok. Boy, last time you said not Jojo Rabbit, do you still stand by that?

45:40Oti: Yeah. I think you can at least listen to the episode if you have no intention of watching it.

46:17KT: And then also Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Thank you so much friends and lovers. We fucking love you guys so much. The next episode we'll be inserting into your feed holes are the second annual Splooshies Awards. This is also a very tasty time, a very timely tasty reminder for you to go and check out our first annual Splooshies Awards if you wanna get a tasting platter of what it is like. We have already recorded the Splooshies Awards episode and it is nasty.

46:58KT: But we we got some very surprising winners. So make sure you guys are subscribed if you haven't already. Thank you so much to our patrons for contributing, not only in our Reference Degustation, not just in our Christmas, but also for our Splooshies Awards. You know who's Splooshies eye alter at?

46:58Oti: Whose?

46:58KT: Twitter and Instagram @ForYourRefPod. Write us an email at hello@fyrpodcast.com. We're also on Tastetations podcast if you like to leave a rating and review. And we'll see you guys at the Splooshies.

47:33Oti: See you.