Other Halves

Other Halves is a romance about two people who meet in a psychiatric hospital — a middle-aged Pākehā woman, whose decaying marriage has brought her low, and a disaffected young Polynesian criminal. The film was Kiwi-born actor Lisa Harrow’s (Nancy Astor, Shaker Run) first local role in 16 years. Harrow praised her co-star, 16-year-old Niuean Mark Pilisi, as one of the best actors she had worked with. British critic David Robinson argued that Other Halves felt like the unbelievable "wish-dream" of a middle-class female. He may have been unaware that Sue McCauley's original novel was inspired by the person she later married.

I am getting the impression that a lot of New Zealand women feel very strongly about Sue McCauley's book . . .  Liz learns to fulfill her needs and herself, she learns who she is in this film. She learns in a most unconventional way with this boy, Tug, whose sense of directness and honesty, whose stance against the world is a very aggressive "I'll do it my way." She tempers that in him, but he also allows her to see that she's capable of doing that herself.

– Lisa Harrow on her character of Liz, Onfilm, June 1984, page 11 (volume 1, issue 4)

Key Cast & Crew

Sue McCauley

Writer, Original Author

Mark Pilisi

As: Tug

Lisa Harrow

As: Liz

John Laing

Director

Leon Narbey

Cinematographer

Tony Manning

Colourist