Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Kiwi film 'Seone's Wedding' starts soon




Has this got to Fiji yet? It starts next Saturday in Australia yet there's almost nothing on the web about it. It sounds like the same kind of characters as the cartoon series bro'Town, about five Polynesian lads in Auckland, Vale, Valea, Sione, Mck and Jeff da Maori. The animated TV series was screamingly funny but oh so very politically incorrect!

Kia ora (or thank you) for making films and TV programs like this! Since hitting the screens on New Zealand’s TV3 in September 2004, bro’Town has been a great talking point. It has copped lots of flak. If you listen carefully to the script it is gross and offensive, but Islanders perhaps just like to laugh at themselves eh!

We have a couple of videos of bro'Town with four stories from the series and some of our visitors did not understand the jokes, others thought the program ridiculous, others were a bit horrified by the racist and crude remarks. It was shown in Fiji and how it got past the censor I do not know.

Update July 14

We saw 'Seone's Wedding' today and it was lots of fun, music, sentiment, Samoan culture - well, kind of - predictable plot, expressive foul language which was a bit overdone. I wonder what the reaction was when it was -if - screened in Apia? The rascals in the film were not your ideal respectful Samoan lads, but it turned out alright in the end.

Nice to see a film set in Auckland. We've been there and it is a lovely city. The film rating? About 2 and a half stars for some people, nothing like the magic of 'Whalerider' but it's not meant to be.

7 comments:

Ms. Vakaivosavosa said...

We saw Sione's wedding here in March. Was a good laugh. Bro Town wasn't shown at the cinemas here but went straight to DVD. Another NZ film No.2, written and directed by Toa Fraser (half Fijian-Kiwi and co-writer of River Queen) starts here tomorrow. I went to the premier last week. Its good to see films coming out of NZ with Pacific-Islander content and actors/writers. You must also get the DVD of Malaga, a local production at the Civic Center 3 nights last week and if you get a chance to see Vula (by Nina Nawalowalo). Malaga is a truly Pacific musical written by Igelese Ete and many of us who attended were inspired by it and wowed by the talent of the USP Students. Vula premiered in 2001 in NZ and has run at the Sydney Opera House and all over the world, truly amazing. The Pacific is blessed with so much talent.

Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

The film, Sione's Wedding starts in Geelong today but we are too busy to go - Peceli is packing to fly to Fiji this weekend and we've been op-shopping to find lots of gifts and clothes to give away.
There was an article about the movie in today's Age which wasn't very positive. The critic reckons it's a bit folksy. Guess they didn't get the jokes.
W.

Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

The Geelong Advertiser gave the film 3 and a half stars. It's competing at present with big films like Superman Returns and the new Pirates fo the Carribean film, etc. There were only four people in the theatre when we went at 12.30 p.m. yesterday. Peceli and I had a good laugh anyway and I tried to ignore the gross language.
W.

Pandabonium said...

Some of those characters look disturbingly like imported American "culture". Arg.

Anonymous said...

Hi i'm a kiwi and i just thought i'd let you know that it's spelt 'Sione's wedding', and that bro'town is a TV series, so it was never shown at the cinema...

Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

Okay Anonymous, but that's how it's sometimes spelt such as on the pirated video we got from a Maori guy! Yeah, bro-town, we've got that on video too. They did show it on Fiji TV and I'm sure the censor didn't notice the rude parts in it! I thought it was very funny.
w.

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