The film Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a comedy that was published in 2016. Directed by Taika David Waititi, it tells a story about a chubby boy called Ricky who grows up in the Children Welfare but chooses to seek an adventurous life with Hector—an old man with no literacy, through which it gives full expression to conflicts between the stable legal systems and procedures and human desire for freedom deep inside. Actually, it is a wide-spread contradictory social issue that haunts almost every countries.When procedural coldness meets human nature, how the things evolve draws people’s concerns.

Ricky Baker is a naughty boy who was left by his parents when he is little. He has to live in the Children Welfare whose slogan is “no child is left behind”. Under a strict, monotonous system that all staff in the Children Welfare have to observe, Ricky appears unbecoming for his misconducts of stealing, making damages to public goods and defying rules and regulations. He is a complete trouble-maker in the Children Welfare.

Besides a long list of his rebelling acts, he simultaneously is a sympathetic child who has been adopted but abandoned repeatedly by many families, which is in a way attributable to his rebellious personalities. He always pretends to be courageous and bold but actually he is afraid of many things like blood and wild boars. He tries to disguise himself as a villain. When he comes to a foster family, consisting of Bela and Hector, living in a mountain, he found warmth and happiness. Unfortunately, Bela’s unexpected death breaks their tranquil life. The management in the Children Welfare just neglects Ricky’s will to stay with Hector but insists in taking him away. Due to a series of misunderstandings, Hector and Ricky are trapped in a forest to flee from the search of the welfare organization and polices.

The film’s characters comprise of two sides: one is Hector and Ricky who are regarded as “wild, rebellious and uncivilized” but actually full of love and human nature; the other is police and the Children Welfare who are thought as justice but actually lack real humanities. The conflict between the two sides, which is brought out by the whole film, reflects a social concerning issue: what will happen when legal procedures meet humanities?

The analysis of techniques in Hunt for the Wilderpeople can be conducted from three perspectives: plots, framing in nature and shooting details.

First, through the use of funny plots, Hunt for the Wilderpeople humorously brings out how Hector and Ricky are incompatible with coldness and rigidity from the outside world. This is also a technique to build up nice impression and good feelings for the two main characters in audiences’ minds and simultaneously to deprecate the worldly realistic world. All the humorous scenarios make the film more dramatic and attractive.

In addition, some characters’ real personalities run poles apart from their identities, which can be seen as both a kind of dramatic contrast and irony. For example, a priest on stage makes unscrupulous jokes regardless of how emphatically miserable his audience are, which alludes to hypocrisy in the real world; after Bela unexpectedly dies, managers from the Children Welfare complacently insists on taking Ricky away in order to settle him in a better and more positioned foster family, but they pay no attention to Ricky’s wills and feelings; Ricky, a naive and naughty child, and Hector, an old, silent man who just lost his beloved wife, are groundlessly put a label of “wanted criminals” on, which draws nationwide attention. All these plots function as ironies to the worldly, materialistic outside world. They commit no sins or crimes, but are under the outside’s hunting. Such plot arrangement denounces darkness in the real world and makes the film full of ironic, thought-evoking hues. What is brought out is not only the hardships Hector and Ricky encounter but realistic darkness in contrast to human nature.

Besides, most of the film is shot in natural forests and mountains as settings. Hector and Ricky’s rebellious decision to stay away from the outside, procedural world is echoed by the beautiful natural scenery shot in the film: New Zealand’s remarkable, vast view itself is a rebellion against worldly realities. It is consistent with Hector and Ricky’s pursuit of freedom and humanities, and is a symbol of pure, innocent human nature. The general colour tone of this film is green due to natural scenery recorded in it.

It is worth mentioning that many details deserve to be thought over. Ricky is always dressed in red, making him easily catch audience’s eyes in the background of natural green. Red indicates his vigor and implies his pursuit of warmth deep inside.

The theme of Hunt for the Wilderpeople is to show the desire for humanities and freedom and denounce the box formed by social system and procedures those with unspoken evil, selfish intentions would take advantage of. It raises thought-provoking social problems: when pure human nature is boxed by social system or procedures, what can we do? And how to improve such procedures to meet a balance between humanities and procedures?

Actually such social issue has been long in the attention of people, as evidenced by numerous academic articles or literary works that focus on the conflict. A number of scholars and experts, from the professional perspective of social science, conduct analyses on the balance of social justice and human liberty. Ackerman emphasized the justice of power relations and acknowledged the importance of public questioning, which functions as a part of democracy in a liberal society. Ackerman’s opinion, in a way, interprets what the fictional social system lacks in Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

In this film, judicial procedures and power wielders, represented by managers in the Children Welfare and police, turn a blind eye to the true wills of Ricky and other children, but rigidly abide with adoptive procedures and try to force him to leave his foster father Hector who has built up deep affections with the orphan boy. Such “blindness” can be defined as a neglect of public questioning, which is embodied by Hector and Ricky’s rejection and run in the jungle. Ackerman’s argument about social justice in a liberal society in the essence outlines how procedures go well with humanities that, more or less, can be expressed by public calls.

When it comes to systematic procedures people take for granted, the concepts of “social justice” and “law and order” naturally stand out, as procedures or formalities serve as a systematic infrastructure or guarantee for them. Addams believed juster social conditions were always driven by two groups: one was called “the charitable” who appeared to show “pity for the poor” (68); and the other one was “the radicals” who seemed to be so irritable that they always felt unsatisfying about social realities out of “hatred of injustice”.

The film Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s main characters can be seen as what Addams called as “radicals” who harbor disdain against the outside hegemony and arbitrary systems and desire to seek freedom and humanitarian spirit in Nature. However, the true contributors to just social conditions—Hector and Ricky—are under hunt of police and the Children Welfare who usually show an image of “the charitable” in front of the public. When the “charitable” hunt for the “radical”, a dramatic, ironic effect is brought out and alludes to an abnormal, ridiculous social phenomenon: so-called procedural protection for human rights turns out to demolish human nature.

In this connection, the disfunction of procedural protection can be attributed to power-based safety nets instead of people-oriented safety nets. Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler believed social protection emerged as a critical response to the “safety nets” discourse of the late 1980s and early 1990s. From this it can be seen that social protection originally emerged for the poor and weak in the name of “rights-based” and “sustainable livelihood”. But what Hunt for the Wilderpeople shows is inconsistent with the true mission of social protection.

In the film, the Children Welfare, as a welfare organization, is power-oriented and procedure-based regardless of children’s true desires. Public welfare procedures should have been a favorable place for the poor and weak, but in the film, they have become a tool power wielders use to realize their selfish intentions. As a matter of fact, social justice is not cold or icy; contrarily, as Theoharis pointed out, it is humanitarian and built up on the basis of respect, care, recognition, and empathy. It should be flexible and adjustable to immediately meet people’s changing needs.

The fact that corrupted, rigid procedures arbitrarily decide a person’s destiny can be attributed to power abuse of officials and unreasonable distribution of power resources. If power resources are too concentrated, it would lead to arbitration or even dictatorship. In the film, the female director of the Children Welfare, who is also the biggest boss in the film, is endowed with excessive power.

Without supervision or counterpart positions, she seems to be a dictator. No one has the right to change her decisions and all subordinates lack courage and their own wills. It is obvious that Ricky’s destiny is left in her hand rather than a fair, improved system. In this sense, personal intention of the manager has replaced procedural justice. Astley and Sachdeva believed the abuse of power is highly possible owing to hierarchical authority, resource control, and network centrality.

Besides that, the female director appears dominant so that all her subordinates seem weak and vulnerable in front of her. This reflects a common phenomenon: the less powerful easily feel frustrated and less dignified when meeting superiors. Nord delved into the relationship between self-esteem and power in organizations; similarly, Lukes believed that power-wielders’ wills, expectations and beliefs would affect subordinates’ well-being. All these can be found in the film. In this sense, we can see that not only humanities of poor children like Ricky are cracked down, but subordinates in the welfare organization are victims too.

Organizational procedures and arbitrary superiors undoubtedly cut down on their happiness and potential. As a consequence, human nature, represented by spiritual liberty and initiative, is severely struck. More people are victim to rigid, arbitrary procedures. From an all-round perspective of the overall society, only a small portion of people, like the female director of the Children Welfare, are vested interests, but a majority of the whole population are at the disadvantage.

So, how to address the conflicts between procedures and humanities? First of all, it is worth noting that procedures are innocent in that they are originally created for a more efficient, rule-based system that goes a long way to everyone; what is to be blame is unreasonable power distribution and abuse of power. More communities, organizations and positions need to be established to limit runaway rights of management. For Hunt for the Wilderpeople, if the female director of the Children Welfare can be supervised and her power can be limited, the tragedy of Ricky would be avoided.

Second, procedure and policy makers should be sensitive and responsive to people’s livelihood by paying attention to not only their substantial living conditions but their spiritual needs. Psychological organizations for special groups like orphans and the disabled should be built up and cooperate with welfare organizations in order to give special groups more humanitarian care. In the film, after Bela dies, Ricky should not be taken away immediately but needs to have psychological tests or interviews. Whether he is to be taken away from Hector is dependent on his own decision, not the managers’.

In conclusion, conflicts between procedures and humanities are common. Although it is a long-lasting problem, it is totally controllable through removing abuse of power and setting up resilient adjustments of procedures. The spiritual-level and humanitarian consideration is progress in social system.