Talofa! Tofa!

My sister and I put Samoan Wedding (New Zealand title Sione's Wedding) in our respective Netflix queues because we thought we might gain some insight into our new future brother-in-law's beginnings. (The other sister's fiance is both New Zealander and Samoan. But we're not getting all Margaret Mead. We know there's a huge difference between Western Samoan, New Zealand Samoan, and American Samoan cultures, accents, and history. And unlike Mead, we're not trusting just this source...)

Anyways, the film has been hailed as the first New Zealand Samoan comedy. Apparently it also holds New Zealand's record for opening weekend films, and is one of the country's highest-grossing films ever.

As "multiculti" films go, it follows the genre and typecasts pretty well. The mother who cooks good ol' soul food. The racial profiling by the cops. The white guy putting on the ghettoface, trying too hard to be a down-home bro. The character with both an Anglicized name and an "ethnic" name. The "ethnic" girl who sleeps with the "ethnic" guy who normally only sleeps with white girls. The too-neat ending, with the 'hood or community as the central nurturing identity factor.

Cheesy though these kinds of movies are, I enjoy them. In general, I think they're just crackball comedies that normalize perceptions of difference -- whether they're about ethnic, religious, or sexual minorites, or all three. Half the time, the serve the purpose of validating on-screen the social experiences for people whose partial realities are rarely portrayed outside of small ethnic film festivals or university cultural studies classes (American Adobo, Where's the Party Yaar?, Yellow, American Desi, The Debut, Touch of Pink, Saving Face). The other half of the time they're surprise hits (Bend It Like Beckham, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, East is East, Real Women Have Curves, Better Luck Tomorrow). I've tried to find common factors in why some of these films go mainstream so easily, but I can't find anything. It's a mystery.

This one was good, too. It had its funny moments. It had its corny moments. Must now consult with sister about new insight into kiwi accents and humor.