Did anyone else notice... - No. 2 (2006) Discussion

[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

Personally, i thought the casting was fine - ALL the actors were fantastic. Maybe you should have not worried about the casting and focussed on the acting?

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Mayb bcoz that distracted me i also didnt think the acting was that great. guess its just me.

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

fair enough. we're all entitled to our own opinion ;-)

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[–] Mincom 18 years ago

Were they unable to find any indigenous Fijians for this movie? Not slamming the effort but I'm just curious.

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Yea i dunno, that was kinda my point 2. i cant think of any in nz off da top of my head (actors i mean) but that doesnt mean they couldnt of found some.

"You can't deal with my infinite nature can you?"

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

How do we know the actors weren't part Fijian anyway?

And in response to finding Fijian actors -- What type of film industry does Fiji have?? They dont have one! And if they were to get indiginious Fijians they would have to fly over to Fiji and search for people [non-actors] to play the parts, which would take ages !!!

And personally, I couldnt tell the diff as to whether or not they were Fijian. They all did a fantastic job and the film was great and I didn't really think about that, and now that someone's said it it doesn't really matter to me because they all looked fijian anyway

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

coz im pretty sure they are all maori.... i could b wrong tho.
there are plenty of fijians in nz, and actors im sure i honestly dont think it wouldve been that hard.
i just found it distracting thats all.

"You can't deal with my infinite nature can you?"

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

Ok lol name some new zealand based fijian actors

i just honestly dont see how you could've found such a little thing like that so distracting. To be quite honest and i'm not meaning this in a racial sense but don't fijians and maori's pretty much look the same???

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

Yes, but how could you find it distracting??!! How could you go through the whole movie finding it distracting that a Maori is playing a Fijian? I guess you have a valid reason, cutinpaste, but it just seems so stupid that you found it distracting that maori's played Fijians in the movie. Actors do it all the time. It's what they're eant to do. Look at Memoirs of a Geisha. Chinese actors playing Japanese

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Just coz there arn't any well known fijian actors doesn't mean there aren't any around!

"Fijians are Melanesian and the cast of No. 2 were mostly Polynesians. For that reason I too found it distracting, simply because I could tell the difference and I grew up with best friend that is Fijian and I didn't get the Fijian flavour from the cast. Samoans, Maoris, and Cook Islander... chuck in a Black American and you have yourself a bunch of Scots playing an Irish story."

Exactly. I have alot of polynesian friends and therefore it was just obvious to me that they were not fijian. sum of the acting was ok and the story was good, altough it felt a bit incomplete in sum parts. and as i say i always like to support NZ film. It just felt like they went for people we would recognise instesd of people who may have been betta suited for the role which in the end hurt the movie in my opinion.

As for it happening all the time, that doesnt make it right. personally that is one of the reasons i havnt seen memoirs of a geisha, it is insulting to have the opinion that all asians look the same coz they really dont. plus i have a problem with any movie that has the characters talking in english (in a shoddy faux japanese accent at that) when they blatently wouldnt b, id much rather read subtitles and so would alot of people ive talked to. maybe they are aimed at average jo america who doesnt want to have to read when he goes to the movies but perhaps audiences should be gien a bit more credit.

"You can't deal with my infinite nature can you?"

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[–] Mincom 18 years ago

I agree with one of the earlier postings in that because of the differences in physical appearances it was obvious the cast was not made up of indigenious Fijians. Even though many Fijians have Polynesian blood(Tongan) because of their Melanesian ancestry they are typically darker than most Maoris or other Polynesians. This is especially evident when you are in the western part of Viti Levu( I spent time in Nadi about 8 years ago).

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

Personally, I think that you are all going into the little things which don't need going into [e.g the colour of their skin, the way they talk] because that is just too little too find distracting in a feature-length movie.

And also the younger generations of the family [e.g Soul, Tyson etc] weren't even born in Fiji. So this contributes to the reason they dont talk in a Fijian accent.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Why ask me things if you are just gonna ignore my answers? rude.

"You can't deal with my infinite nature can you?"

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

Since when wasn't it a raging success at the box office??? Its a nz movie, what, do you expect it to get just as much as King Kong?? Last I heard it had won an award at Sundance and was doing fine at the box office. [ and just another little note, you state "Im just trying to make sense of why its not doing so well". Basically, you're saying that you think it's not doing too well because they don't have an accent?

And those little things don't add up, because it's just a movie, and it's not expected to be COMPLETELY accurate. Look at every other *beep* movie that has the stupidest things in it, and you're complaining about a fantastic, realistic, moving, beautiful film and that they didn't sound "like fijians"

pathetic

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

I'm not getting my knickers in a twist, i'm just proving you wrong. According to how much it cost to film, it can be classed as a success. And with the success of WHale Rider, it will no doubt make a reasonable amount overseas.

And btw, you're telling me to get a grip, when you're the one agonizing over the fact that they didn't sound and look Fijian and it distracted you and you had a friend who was Fijian and she had an accent and had darker skin and all this *beep*

This is isn't meant to be a personal attack, cutinpaste

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Not u, da other guy.

"You can't deal with my infinite nature can you?"

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

what did i do?

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[–] pjisdaman 18 years ago

Just coz there arn't any well known fijian actors doesn't mean there aren't any around!

"Fijians are Melanesian and the cast of No. 2 were mostly Polynesians. For that reason I too found it distracting, simply because I could tell the difference and I grew up with best friend that is Fijian and I didn't get the Fijian flavour from the cast. Samoans, Maoris, and Cook Islander... chuck in a Black American and you have yourself a bunch of Scots playing an Irish story."

Exactly. I have alot of polynesian friends and therefore it was just obvious to me that they were not fijian. sum of the acting was ok and the story was good, altough it felt a bit incomplete in sum parts. and as i say i always like to support NZ film. It just felt like they went for people we would recognise instesd of people who may have been betta suited for the role which in the end hurt the movie in my opinion.

As for it happening all the time, that doesnt make it right. personally that is one of the reasons i havnt seen memoirs of a geisha, it is insulting to have the opinion that all asians look the same coz they really dont. plus i have a problem with any movie that has the characters talking in english (in a shoddy faux japanese accent at that) when they blatently wouldnt b, id much rather read subtitles and so would alot of people ive talked to. maybe they are aimed at average jo america who doesnt want to have to read when he goes to the movies but perhaps audiences should be gien a bit more credit.

[quote][i]"You can't deal with my infin

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Jazza654 18 years ago

umm vaguely i guess.

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[–] Mincom 18 years ago

I get confused for being a Fijian sometimes in SEQ(South-East Queensland) so in reference to dineshJ's comment there's somewhat of a resemblance(at least in my case)

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[–] vixinoz 17 years ago

Every race has thier own distinctive look, I grew up in south auckland,NZ and I could tell the difference between each race including Asians(malaysian, korean,chinese,vietnamese,thai etc). I did notice that I couldnt see a 'typical Fijian look' on NO.2 but I was so swept away with the story that I forgot about it completely, like once were warriors, the story was universal, it told the true story of many families. Now I live in Australia and I see mainly white faces but I am used to it now. I think you should find it harder to tell the difference between Irish, Scottish, Canadian, American by looking at them.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] smilin 17 years ago

I just saw this movie tonight with my 14 year old son (dad's out of town on business) and we both LOVED it! I got so wrapped up in the storyline....all the love and craziness within the family, exactly what families are most of the time....imperfect, you don't even have to like them all the time, but they're your family. I didn't grow up in New Zealand. I grew up in America, southern America as a matter of fact but this movie still struck chords of memory with me from my childhood, all the family reunions I was forced to go to ("0h MOM, don't make me go AGAIN") and now I'm thousands of miles away, most of my relatives are old and on their way out and I just wish I had a taste of it again, some of what I experienced that I could somehow make a part of my children's memory. Like John Mayer says, sometimes I'd like to just stop this train while everyone is still around, while everything is good.

Not sure why, but I was also struck by how cool it felt that Mt. Roskill is just around the corner from where I live in Titirangi! No movie ever got filmed around the corner from my house in the small town I grew up in! The actress that played the Danish Maria summed it up in the 'behind the scenes' bit...she said she was really struck by how much she understood, how many similarities the story had to her own life, even though she came from a different culture on the other side of the world. Same here, and that's about the only thing I miss really. I'm happy to be in NZ with the man of my dreams (a kiwi), my children love it but we consciously gave up the type of family get togethers and all the rest of it for all the good things in our life in New Zealand. My heart does occasionally ache for the extended family contact that I don't have here, when a movie reminds you of it especially. Focus on the good, I try to put it out of my mind. But on the other hand when I see familiar, day to day NZ sights onscreen - the furniture in the lounge and the plastic flystrips over the back door exactly like my mother in law here has...I do get a big lump in my throat. I couldn't bear to be anywhere else really. It's great to love two places.

In other words, I liked the movie enough that my mother has a birthday in about 10 days and if I can find a DVD that will be sure to play in the states, I'd love to send it as part of her birthday present (any suggestions?). She was one of 10 children and my dad was one of 5, so you can imagine the chaos! Versions of all of my relatives were in No.2!

Like some of the other posts, I noticed that, or at least I felt pretty sure that most of the actors were Maori, and of course I know Ruby Dee is black. As many of us in NZ have been to Fiji, I didn't really hear a Fijian accent but I just let it go and enjoyed the movie. Case in point: Nicole Kidman certainly didn't have a North Carolina accent in the movie Cold Mountain, nor did Rene Zellweger or Jude Law...an Aussie, a Texan and a Brit in a movie about North Carolina....with contrived accents sounding like a cross between The Dukes of Hazzard and Gone With the Wind! LOL!~How would I know about the accent? Because I'm from North Carolina....but I still LOVED the movie. Maybe sometimes we just need a reminder of how important family is, they are the only people in the world that share our history. Our family has known us all our lives. (duh!) It takes time to create a history. When you leave everything you've ever known behind (by choice, and a happy one at that) you still have to have the "first" Christmas, first Easter, first birthday, first summer, winter in your new home...and try to keep alive the traditions you grew up with...4th of July, Thanksgiving and all that. Enjoy the movie and embrace it for the message it is sending. Embrace your family, love them..."warts and all" as they say. Bula~!

Insanity is: repeating the same action - over and over - yet expecting a different result.

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[–] Kockunge 15 years ago

the "danish" girl is from sweden. shes HOT!

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[–] acidack 17 years ago

There is a movie industry in Fiji, yes it maybe a very small one. However, the problem would be with the accent. I'm sure they would have been able to find Fijian actors in NZ, but it would have been a long process.

For those, that say they couldnt tell the difference.. lol.. Fijians are melanisians not polynesians. They look completely different.

The movie was .. sweet, but totally out of place, culturally, story-wise, acting, .. very amateruish. I didn't think Na Maria was played accurately at all. Fijians are not like that, let me tell you that.

BTW, I am from Fiji, so I was totally dissapointed that most of the movie did not really represent Fiji.

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[–] Paratene 17 years ago

I wasn't too worried about the different looks of the characters - I just assumed some of them would be mixed race, Fijian and white, or Maori, Samoan etc. The family might be Rotuman who are culturally close to their Polynesian neighbours Samoa and Tonga. Personally I think the movie could have been about any ethnic group - Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Irish etc.
Anyway, I thought it was a great movie and am surprised by its low rating. Mia Blake and Rene Naufahu were excellent and to me held the story together.

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[–] yumbo-1 17 years ago

I just watched the DVD.

I am in, was born, raised and live in Fiji.

I recommend the movie.

I grew up with the Fraser family from Lautoka.

I meet with 2 of them regularly - Kevin my classmate, and Walter, the registrar of USP.

As for authenticity, Toa's family I presume is part of the family who moved away early, and hang onto memories of days past, as evident in the play/movie.
The ONLY authentic pronunciation of actual FIJIAN came from Hibiscus singing the song.
Ruby Dee was ok on that part.
Some locals can't pronounce Fijian properly in any case if not their first language, or inclination.

Now, as for the local accent, NO ONE nailed it. Sure, the characters were not first generation, but if the families are close, the accents will stay, and it IS VERY DISTINCT.
Sure, most Fiji people who migrate either keep it, modify it, or TOTALLY lose it (embarrassingly - something we refer to as 'via via').

But as others have pointed out, it is quite relative - depends on who you're speaking to.

What Toa did include most are 'phrases' or colloquialisms. Not many though. Guess he's too far removed from Fiji, or the basis on which he wrote it.

Eg. Bernie Fraser, a famous All Black in the 80s(?) is not considered really Fijian. What's straneg now is the commercialising of Fijian links. The national 15s coach and captain sounding Australian - gimme a break! Worst culprit is the media, always emphasising ancestral links of those who have becoem somewhat famous.

If you didn't grow up in Fiji, you are NOT Fijian. SIMPLE. And it does NOT matter what race you are (which is another debate altogether).

Now, the music is kinda overused in the movie for my liking. And there are a few cliches of the movie kind.

What I did like was the opera piece, and the kids - now THEY looked as if they were from Fiji. As for Saul(?), he could pass for Rotuman, and was the only one who really behaved like a Fiji person, and was actually written that way.

Sure, the actors were pretty and all, lol...but Erasmus was just NOT Fiji like at all in appearance AND behaviour.

I can't recall the play coming to Fiji - anyone know?

As for Fiji actors, although non-existent, there is a lot of untapped talent here and I hope the Government grows a brain and develops it.

Kudos to the props department - not hard really. But unless I missed it, I've never seen a Fiji person use a flip-flop to clap along to a song, that was just dirty - prolly a Kiwi thing, EH? lol.

CHRIS CAINE - IMDVD, Suva. I also sit on the local Film Commission board, as a patriotic movie buff.

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[–] Mincom 17 years ago

"Fijians are Melanesians not Polynesians"...very true. I could understand confusing Fijians with Papuans, Kanaks(New Caledonia), Torres Strait islanders, etc but not Maori.

Happy one day, Pissed the next

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[–] toymit 11 years ago

Agree,I was about to post the same thing.None of them were of Fijian ancestry except for the director himself.They were all Polynesian and didnt even look Fijian,the funny thing is,the one who looked more Fijian was Afro-American.

They were all of Maori,Samoan,Tongan and Cook Islands descent.They shouldve got Nicole Whippy who stars in Nothing Trivial and Outrageous fortune,shes of Fijian ancestry but problem is, she looks like the rest of the cast ie,Polynesian.

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