The title Red White and Brass says it all for its target audience – the people of, and from, the island kingdom of Tonga. The flag of Tonga, the rest of us discovered, is entirely made up of the colours red and white.
The brass is connected to another event well-known to all true Tongans – when their rugby team took on the world in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Photo: Supplied
Red White and Brass is the brainchild of Nua Finau, based on, as they say, real-life events.
Originally Nua’s intention was to create a totally fictional feelgood comedy, until he was persuaded that the story of how he blagged his way into free tickets to the Tonga-France match was hilarious enough.
The two leads are Maka – a star-making performance by first-timer JP Foliaki as a lovable chancer with a million schemes – and his cousin Veni – Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, a long way from his role in TV series The Panthers.
Here he plays a middle-class chap out of touch with his Tongan heritage.
Having tried and failed to get tickets to the match, Maka has a bright idea – to claim he leads a marching brass band, and thus wangle a starring role in the Wellington City Council opening entertainment show.
The brass band, needless to say, is totally fictional. And Maka also needs to get permission from his clergyman father.
One thing non-Tongans learn quickly in Red white and Brass is how much young Tongans are under the thumb of Dad and Mum – in this case both played by Nua Finau’s own parents.
He says that the reason he brought in director Damon Fepulea’i was because they wouldn’t take directions from him.
So now Maka has to put together a brass band in just four weeks.
Now I saw the Wellington premiere of Red White and Brass at an enthusiastically full Embassy Theatre. Everyone had the world’s greatest time, they were dressed to the nines, they opened the screening with a prayer and a hymn that made everyone else’s hair stand on end.
What I’m saying is that nobody was remotely fussed about plausibility - the idea that a dozen beginners could not only learn marching moves in a month, but learn to play trumpets, trombones, snare drums and tubas from scratch.
To Finau’s credit, he put a bit of thought into this. He adds a couple of actual musicians into the mix – including cousin Veni, who’d kept his trumpeting skills a bit quiet at the start.
He also contrives a master class at the local school, run by – why not? – children’s TV favourite Suzi Cato.
I know the opening caption assured me that the story of Red White and Brass really did happen – in fact at the end of the screening we were regaled by the actual brass band themselves – but I found it hard to believe it happened quite like this.
No matter. The story weaves its way through triumphs and adversities until it reaches the undeniably true punchline, one known by every Tongan rugby fan – the men in red’s fairytale ending.
The film’s major strength is its good nature. It may be aimed predominantly at a Tongan family audience, but it’s smart enough to appeal to families in general.
I suspect the oldest and youngest members of the family trip to Red White and Brass will enjoy it most.
