(Article/photo by Yang Tingting)

You never know just how much you can acquire from a single movie!

That’s the realization I reached after spending one hour exploring the wealth of online information about the New Zealand film ‘Boy,’ which was presented on 11 April 2013 at the 3^rd SSDPP Thursday Cultural Movie Night. Be it the billboard No.1 soundtrack Poi E from the movie, or the engrossing anecdotes of the film director, the famous Taika Waititi, and so on so forth, I was struck by the culturally rich milieu surrounding the film. This sense of an opulent aesthetic also seemed to be shared by many of the more than 30 participants in attendance that night, who collectively guffawed and at turns cringed throughout the film.

The film ‘Boy’ unfolds with the father of the film’s main character, Boy (Alamein), turning up in his life out of the blue. Boy, just as any boy, was prone to idolize his father as a ‘samurai’ warrior, ‘moon dancing’ icon and all-purpose hero. However, Boy’s fantasies had to be called to a halt when he was confronted with the stark reality of who his father actually was; a person rife with foibles, weaknesses and flaws.

Even if one failed to connect all of the dots between the unemployment, poverty, imprisonment, drug use, broken family, and emotional loss that conspired to undermine the “potential” of Boy and the family - which is understandable as all of which were depicted in the movie in a deceivingly light-hearted way - it was hard not to have felt and echoed with the complex emotions Boy experienced. What’s amazing is that even as he confronted his audience with such a bleak reality, the film’s director TaikaWaititi, managed to make the movie entertaining to watch, which is achieved through drawing remarkably natural performances from the young actors, as well as the unpredictable comic timing and troubled likability Waititi himself displayed through his portrayal of Boy’s father.

Upcoming Thursday Cultural Movie Nights

Fernando de Miguel fromMexico will presents"Herod's Law". 

Be ready to absorb more knowledge and information about Mexico and prepare yourself with more questions to the movie presenter through checking the film on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod's_Law.


Time: 6:30-8:30pm, 25 April 2013 (Thursday)

Location: Room 2026, New Main Building (New Library Building)

* The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.

As always, SSDPP welcomes your participation, as a participant or a movie presenter.