A decade after Sione’s Wedding 2: Unfinished Business, a new prequel introduces us to the characters when they were kids.

The lowdown

Duckrockers is a TV prequel to the 2006 film Sione’s Wedding. The brotherhood between the four Pacific teenage boys (Albert, Michael, Sefa and Stanley) shapes the series where we look at their coming of age in inner-city Auckland in 1984.

The first episode opens with the boys walking to their first free concert headlined by DD Smash. Four minutes in, a riot erupts, caused by the four boys. For the rest of the first episode, we’re taken through a journey of their anxiety of getting caught by the police, how their families would react, what alibis they would tell, romance blossoming and the formation of the group Duckrockers.

The good

Director (and one of the stars of Sione’s Wedding) Oscar Kightley said that he wanted to make sure the haircuts, clothes, slang and the setting accurately resembled the 80s, that it was crucial to get those markers of that time period as exact as possible. In that sense, he absolutely nailed it.

There were features that were true to the 80s such as wearing your jacket around your waist, large beer bottles, having a cigarette sitting behind the ear and bopping. Then there were markers that were classic Pacific references such as calling anyone named Paul “Bolo” which translates to “balls”, using the hot water cupboard as a storage room, Koko Sāmoa, parents referring to our friends as boyfriends or girlfriends and having your Sunday centred around church.

There’s a Sione’s Wedding Easter egg in Duckrockers where Mr-Know-It-All Albert’s father is played by Kightley, who played the same character all grown up in the movies.

The casting of Levi Nansen Ieremia-Seulu, Dallas Latogia Malo Halavaka, Duane Wichman Evans Jr and Augustino Nansen Ieremia-Seulu was well executed. Aiming to find Pasifika teenagers who simply need to be themselves was a risk worth taking. There are certain Pasifika mannerisms that are easily achievable by our own, which as a viewer, I appreciated because it felt authentic. The way Michael tells his four younger brothers to get out of his room reminded me of my upbringing living with a family of nine and struggling to have your own space. They were all such naturals to roles that were surely close to home.

The not-so-good

As relatable as the content was, the style of humour was necessarily antiquated. It was a formula that worked for Sione’s Wedding. The comebacks used in this series I heard so many times growing up, that I found myself not responding to hearing them now. Did the banter in Duckrockers reflect the time period? Definitely. Did I get comedic relief watching the scenes? Not as much as I would have liked.

The verdict

If you’re wanting to learn more about the way of life for Pasifika families living in Auckland in the 80s, you should definitely give Duckrockers a watch. It illustrates the complexities the community had during that time so accurately.

This is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.