Life of Pi

Life of Pi (2012)

9 questions

(6 votes)

Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma, Tabu, Adil Hussain

Genres: Adventure, Drama

Question: When the hyena first showed up in the lifeboat, Pi was like "Hari?" or something similar. I've never read the novel. Is the hyena's name actually Hari? I mean, did Pi use to call the hyena Hari back at the zoo? Like Richard Parker for the Bengal tiger and Orange Juice for the orangutan.

Bunch Son

Question: What are we supposed to believe at the end of the film? Or is it deliberately left ambiguous? My mum had this theory that Pi made up the animal story to escape the reality of his ordeal. What do you think about the ending?

Answer: It's completely up to the viewer to decide. There's no right or wrong answer.

Question: The tiger ate a full zebra, hyena, monkey, and tones of fish. So where is all its crap?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: Being as how there was a ready supply of water in which to rinse his hands, I'm certain Pi was simply throwing it overboard.

Phixius

Question: Why does the tiger keep trying to kill Pi? It has 3 other dead animals to feed on. The monkey and the hyena were fresh kills, the hyena killing the monkey then the tiger killing it, and the zebra killed the night before. With all that fresh meat, why attack Pi?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: From the Tiger's perspective, Pi is competition for territory (the boat) and may try to steal his food.

Phixius

Question: On the DVD in wide screen, when the flying fish bombard the boat, bigger fish are after them. the bigger fish come out of the normal film area into the black bars above and below movie. How and why did the film makers do this?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: This movie makes a lot of meta-commentary on the medium of digital film; the question of whether Pi's story is real or not mirrors the fact that most of his story is visualized with a green-screen and CGI. The fish leaping "off the screen" plays along with the reality vs. film theme. Plus, they did it because they could, and because it looked cool in 3D.

Chosen answer: It isn't exactly clear. Four days out into the Pacific, some noise, possibly an explosion, wakes Pi in the middle of the night. Pi goes out in the midst of a severe storm to explore what happened. Some have suggested that, at this point, he inadvertently leaves a water tight door open which allows storm water to enter the lower levels.

kuffpah

Question: When Pi finds the island, he begins eating some root like stuff. What exactly is that?

Quantom X

Chosen answer: It is never really defined. It is just presumed to be some sort of tubular seaweed or algae which ultimately will consume (either literally or allegorically) he who consumes it.

kuffpah

Question: What does Pi mean when he says "there was no question"?

Answer: He means that he is so hungry and thirsty, there is no other option than to create an opening to the tiger's den to access supplies.

Sierra1

Question: At the hospital, Pi says "I thought he was going to hit me again but Mother started pounding on him with her fists, screaming, "Monster, monster!" She yelled at me to go to the raft." Then, he says some words, like "Ni bbola!" It's probably Hindi. What does this mean?

Bunch Son

Answer: His mother speaks Tamil, and I think she said "Nee poda", which I think means get lost, go away, or something like that.

Sierra1

Factual error: On the isolated island, the meerkats stood up and see Richard Parker and then Richard happily eats some of them while the others watch. Meerkats would run away when they sense, hear or see a nearby predator.

Thumpback

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The reason for this is explained in the book. It's because the island is so peaceful they have no reason to fear predators.

More mistakes in Life of Pi

Santosh Patel: You think tiger is your friend, he is an animal, not a playmate.
Pi Patel: Animals have souls... I have seen it in their eyes.

More quotes from Life of Pi

Trivia: Rhythm and Hues won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for this film. It was their third Oscar. But ironically, the company had to declare bankruptcy and lay-off half their staff just a few months before they won. And when the company was brought up during an acceptance speech for the film, the microphone was cut off. This led to widespread demonstrations and protests against the film and director Ang Lee by effects artists, as they are often marginalized, overworked and underpaid by studios.

TedStixon

More trivia for Life of Pi

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