Ka Mate: The Haka, the Legend explains the famous Ngati Toa haka, and today's RWC schedule.
TV
Rugby (Sky Sport 1, Sky 020, 3.15pm). Today’s RWC schedule kicks off (sorry) with Australia v Russia from Trafalgar Park, Nelson, at 3.15pm; then France v Tonga from Wellington at 5.45pm; and finally England v Scotland at Eden Park from 8.25pm. Maori TV screens the England v Scotland game from 11.00pm, and TV1 has highlights of all the pool games from 10.15pm. (Maori TV screens Australia v Russia tomorrow morning at 10.10am, followed by France v Tonga at 12.20pm.)
The Voice (TV2, 7.30pm) It’s the final! Excited? Nah, neither are we.
Ka Mate: The Haka, the Legend
Ka Mate: The Haka, the Legend (Maori, 8.00pm). There have been mass haka on the waterfront, flash haka on the street and, of course, All Blacks’ haka in the stadium. Thanks to the Rugby World Cup, never in New Zealand’s history have so many haka been done by … so many. Overseas visitors must think we’re a nation ready to whip off our shirts at the drop of a hat, so to speak – and the haka that everyone’s doing is Ka Mate. So it’s a good time to tell the story of Ka Mate. Get everyone up to speed. Which is what Ka Mate: The Haka, the Legend does exactly. Actor Jim Moriarty begins the story while fishing with his children, but the documentary soon moves into a bravura dramatisation of the story of Te Rauparaha, the Ngati Toa chief who hid from his pursuers in a food pit. Originally, the tribe lived around Kawhia in the Waikato, but constant battles with neighbouring tribes led Te Rauparaha to seek an alliance with Tuwharetoa. He ended up at Rotoaira, where he was hidden from the war party on his tail. After, as Te Rauparaha emerged from the pit, Ka Mate (“An upward step, another … the sun shines!”) was born. Skip forward, and Ka Mate crosses into the mainstream when it was performed by Sir James Carroll in 1901 during the visit to New Zealand of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. The 1905 Originals performed it on tour but it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that Ka Mate was performed by the All Blacks at home. At first it was, as sports commentator Keith Quinn puts it, “the Pakeha version”, but in the mid-80s Buck Shelford restored its proper meaning and status. The documentary describes the challenges that have been made to the haka on the field – and the challenge now to protect it: “We want the haka done properly,” says Ngati Toa’s Ariki Wi Neera, “so that it’s not abused by people anywhere.”
FILM
Until Proven Innocent (TV1, 8.30pm). Busy Peter Burger seems to have found his niche making TV dramas about real-life events in our history. His Bloodlines repeated a few weeks ago, and now we’re seeing this reconstruction of convicted rapist David Dougherty’s story again. Strong acting (Peter Elliott, Cohen Holloway, Jodie Rimmer) and a good sound script by Donna Malane and Paula Boock keep this humming along. (2009) 7 – Diana Balham
aimRenderAd(300, 250, '300X250','ContentRect','/POS=POS2'); if(!$.browser.msie){ ContentRect_frame = $("#ContentRect")[0]; ContentRect_frame.src = ContentRect_frame.src; }Wild Hogs (TV2, 8.30pm). A tragic mid-life crisis movie for John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H Macy. Most men work through this by scraping up the bucks for a sports car: these stars make a film about their pathetic attempts to be big men on bikes, but they expertly hit every cliché and retreaded joke in their path – and then set fire to a bar belonging to some real bikers. “Sometimes you’ve got to slap the bull” doesn’t mean what you think it does. In this film, it means … slapping a bull. (2007) 4 – Diana Balham
The Mummy Returns (TV3, 8.30pm). Part one of a weird Rachel Weisz double feature tonight: an action-adventure-horror third go-around that should also include “comedy”. It isn’t intentional, but what do you expect when your poor man’s Indiana Jones (Brendan Fraser) is trying to live quietly in London with his Egyptologist wife (Weisz) and son and along comes a crazed 3000-year-old corpse? And the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson)? Oh, come on. Way too much special effect and not nearly enough ordinary plot. (2001) 5 – Diana Balham
Boy (Maori, 9.00pm). It would be an unpatriotic act to dislike this film, which speaks so truly of our Kiwiness and our certainty that we can now celebrate it. Taika Waititi, who has quietly become a bit of a taonga, isn’t afraid to match side-splitting moments with achingly sad ones, scene for scene – he knows we’ll follow Boy’s story to the end. (If you didn’t, you’d miss the priceless mash-up of Poi E and Thriller with the closing credits.) Waititi, good as he is as bad dad Alamein, is almost upstaged by James Rolleston and Te Aho Eketone-Whitu as Boy and his little brother, Rocky. (2010) 9 – Diana Balham
Lethal Weapon (TV2, 10.30pm). Another name for Mel Gibson’s big gob. (1987) 7 – Diana Balham
The Constant Gardener (TV3, 11.35pm). Dammit. Don’t you wish Ralph Fiennes could get the girl sometimes? He’s veering close to English Patient territory here as he hunts for his wife’s killer in Kenya with that look of haunting intensity that makes you wonder if he was born a hauntingly intense baby. She (Rachel Weisz, again) has stepped into a hornet’s nest of corruption and cover-ups involving pharmaceuticals. Based on the novel by John le Carré, this is City of God director Fernando Meirelles’ first English-language film: a smart thriller in which the leads are particularly good (Weisz won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). Scary, and nothing to do with gardening. (2005) 8 – Diana Balham
RADIO
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Great American novelist and true gentleman James Lee Burke is back in the Hill seat this morning to talk about his new book Feast Day of Fools. It’s another typical volume in the Burke genre, described by one reviewer as “more drug-fuelled mayhem and murder from across the Mexican border”. Also this morning: Guardian journalist Luke Harding, who was the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent and has written Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia; Professor Peter Lineham, who will discuss rugby as New Zealand’s surrogate religion; Duncan Watts, principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, and who new book is Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer: How Common Sense Fails; Paul Brewer, who is an active supporter of the project to restore the historic Alexander Palace near St Petersburg in Russia, and will speak about that and the work of Anatoly Kuchumov; Whirimako Black plays favourites; and gardening with Kath Irvine. Info and audio here. – Diana Balham
Ghost Wave and Evil Twins Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). Law school dropout Matt Paul fronts Ghost Wave, an Auckland indie guitar four-piece whose greatest claim to fame thus far is losing their computers – with the masters of their debut recording – to burglars who did over their flat. But things are looking up and the second attempt at an EP has been described by Grant Smithies as “seven tracks of prime psychedelic punk-pop goodness”. After that, it’s Evil Twins: Aucklanders Lucy and Charlotte Stewart, who may or may not be twins, or evil. The “description” on their Facebook page reads: “freak in the street and a lady in the bed”. There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com. (The first part of this concert will be repeated on Radio New Zealand National today at 4.10pm and Friday at 8.06pm.) – Diana Balham
BBC Proms 2011 (Radio New Zealand Concert, 3.00pm). That mighty British tradition the Proms makes its stately way through the schedules again this week, beginning with a recital from the Royal Albert Hall in the Saturday Concert slot. It features the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with music director Manfred Honeck and pianist Hélène Grimaud. They’ll be playing works by Braunfels, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. There’s another BBC Proms concerts tonight at 8.00pm in Music Alive: Hooray for Hollywood is a celebration of the golden age of the film musical, featuring Annalene Beechey, Charles Castronovo, Matthew Ford, Sarah Fox, Caroline O’Connor, Clare Teal, the Maida Vale Singers and the John Wilson Orchestra. – Diana Balham
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