A chilling romance

The mother of (not all) whitebait recently couriered over a glossy promotional guide to Perfect Strangers(2003), directed by Gaylene Preston, starring Sam Neill (he's a Kiwi you know) and Rachel Blake. Like most of the film and television he comments upon, your bloggeur feels it unnecessary to watch said media text before issuing an opinion. Key point of interest here is the film's setting: the wild and spectacular west coast (of the south island) landscape where the young bloggeur first began to yearn for the thrill of the urban. Little did whitebait realise that some of the excitements of city, as mentioned in the Perfect Strangers promotion piece (thank you Grey District Council), were already firmly embedded in the history of the Coast:

Hannahs' is... one of many "New Zealand firsts" that happened on the West Coast, including the first trans-Tasman flight to land in New Zealand, the first to taste Coca Cola, the first mining disaster, the first to reticulate electricity and the first mass murder [my emphasis]

Yes, no flies on us coasters. Incidently, the mass murder itself made a rather good film, Bad Blood(1981) in which one of whitebait's siblings expertly played a small role (but fails to get an entry in the credits - child exploitation was alive and well back then).

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Looking at that internet entry for Bad Blood is fascinating. It was directed by Mike Newell who is currently making the latest Harry Potter film. It had Aussie Jack Thompson in the lead role (one of his better turns I think). The credits also reveals the boom operator to be Lee Tamahori (dir. ofOnce Were Warriors).