Today's female filmmaker comes to us from Down Under. Well, technically, she's a kiwi, but this New Zealander has shown off the down under of different women in her films. It's Niki Caro!
She directed the 2020 Disney film Mulan which definitely did not feature nudity, but we really appreciated looking at the ways in which star Liu Yifei stripped naked for a skinnydip. We didn't see much, but it was enough. It was such a big movie for this native New Zealander and it made me want to delve into her history to see how she got here.
She is best known for making the 2002 film Whale Rider which had no nudity in it, but she has done more adult work outside of that film. She comes to us from Wellington and made her way to film through art. She was originally interested in sculpture but became increasingly interested in making movies.
She started writing rough drafts of screenplays, mostly based on books she was reading and began her self-taught venture into film. She received no formal training whatsoever! She learned about life on set from delving into the world of marketing and working on a few commercial sets.
Her first and finest work was 1997's Memory Desire starring Yuri Kinugawa which comes to us out of New Zealand. It was actually made with the New Zealand tourism board and was meant to showcase New Zealand culture, but it sort of failed on that front. That doesn't mean it isn't a good movie. In fact, it means just the opposite, but her investors weren't thrilled. That being said, this movie has her best nudity!
Yuri Kinugawa stars as Sayo who married her hubby even though her parents were not happy about it. That's rarely a good sign. It turns out the parents had a reason to object. Her married life is not great and it gets worse, but the nudity gets better. We get to check out Yuri in the flesh several times from being naked with her hubby in the bedroom to her shaved bush as she gets out of bed.
Her 2009 film A Heavenly Vintage starred Vera Farmiga and was released in 2009. It followed a 19th-century French winemaker who wants to find the perfect vintage wind - thus the title. We were in search of the perfect skintage and we found it in Vera who shows her breasts.
Her co-star Keisha Castle-Hughes is also delightfully naked in two separate scenes. In one scene, she is being cuddled topless in bed. I another, she is joined by a series of other naked women to bathe outside. They are also with their kids, so it's not a hot scene, but at the very beginning of the scene, you only see the chicks sitting topless in the water so that's worth a peek.
She made The Zookeeper's Wife in 2017 which to the story of a Warsaw Zoo surviving through the German invasion of Poland in World War II. We got to invade Jessica Chastain's topless chest when she is naked under the covers. This film had mixed reviews, but we have only positive things to say about Miss Chest Stain.
Niki Caro is definitely not slowing down any time soon. This working mother of two has three projects in production at the moment including the films The Mother and Beautiful Ruins. Keep your eyes peeled for more from this visionary director!
