As it turns out, Samoans in Hawai'i really are different than Samoans in New Zealand. Just ask two of the stars of the sleeper hit "Samoan Wedding."

"You guys are a whole lot happier," says Teuila Blakely, a New Zealand-born Samoan actress with family on O'ahu. "There's something about Hawai'i — the sun, the natural beauty, the people. We're a bit more stressed because (in New Zealand) it rains and it's cold all the time."

Oscar Kightley, who co-wrote and stars in the film, seconds that notion. He and Blakely spent a few days in Honolulu last month during the Hawaii International Film Festival screening of "Samoan Wedding."

"Hawai'i made me a nicer person," he says, laughing. "The mountains, the landscape, everything seems imbued with aloha. I've been back (in New Zealand) a week, and I'm still being nice to people."

Yet, if audience reactions here in Hawai'i during the film fest are any gauge, there is much about New Zealand's large Samoan population that is familiar, both to local Samoans and film buffs at large.

"Samoan Wedding," which opens tomorrow in Honolulu and Maui, follows the comic missteps and halting progress of four Samoan friends living in Auckland, New Zealand, home to the world's largest Polynesian population.

Spinning in a cycle of arrested development, the four mates — a womanizing bike courier, a drunk with a long-suffering girlfriend, a serial Internet dater and a shy office worker who can't seem to connect with the opposite sex — have gained a reputation for spoiling weddings with their adolescent behavior. When it comes time for the courier's brother to get married, the four find themselves banned from the celebration by the community's minister.

Their only hope of sharing the special day is for each to find an upstanding girlfriend to take with them.

The simple but amusing (and R-rated) premise is fleshed out with memorable performances by Kightley, Blakely and Blakely's "Naked Samoans" comedy troupe pals, Shimpal Lelisi, Robbie Magasiva and Iaheto Ah Hi.

For Kightley, who plays the romantically challenged Albert, the film is a rare opportunity to break the Hollywood stereotype of Samoans as muscled-up nightclub bouncers. By showcasing a range of personalities, Kightley says, he hopes foreign audiences will appreciate both the uniqueness of the Samoan experience in New Zealand and the similarities between Samoan culture and other cultures.

"This is a film that shows Polynesia as quite normal, with as many loves and losses as anywhere else," Kightley says.

Kightley was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand to live with relatives when he was 4. Over his 10-year career in comedy and television, he has drawn heavily from his cultural background. He and the rest of the Naked Samoans are mainstays of New Zealand television, particularly through their groundbreaking animated show "broTown."

Kightley wrote the script with James Griffin for South Pacific Pictures, which produced the groundbreaking 2002 film "Whale Rider."

"This is a huge step, because it's the first contemporary Samoan film," Kightley says. "It's part of an evolution.

"Other films have told indigenous stories, but this is about transplants who are not in Samoa but in New Zealand. It's similar to the way American film has told stories of Latinos in America, or the Indian population in London."

The first wave of Samoan immigration to New Zealand occurred in the 1970s, with Samoans arriving en masse to accept menial jobs. "Samoan Wedding" picks up the story from the perspective of second-generation Samoans straddling the cultural divide.

The film tracks its protagonists as they go from numbing office environments to urban dance clubs to the cramped spaces of their suburban rentals. Its characters work, party, laugh, fret, rally together, fall apart, love, argue and do all of the other things people do — and the effect is refreshing, to say the least.

"If you create characters that you love and care about, no matter what, people will respond to those universal human elements," Kightley says."The characters are absolutely composites of ourselves and all our boys and cousins and friends. It helps people connect to the film if they can recognize their father or brother or mate, and as actors, we can't help but put a lot of ourselves in it."

And while Kightley admits that he and his woebegone character Albert are similar in many ways, he has to add: "I'm much cooler and I dress better, and I'm not so hopeless with girls!"

The film was an instant success in New Zealand, recording the biggest opening weekend in the country's film history.

"It means so much to us in terms of it being one of the first Pacific-island films made in New Zealand," Blakely says. "We hoped people would relate to it, and they did."

Blakely, a half-Kiwi and half-Samoan actress, writer, musician and video disc jockey, plays Leilani, the loving but tough girlfriend of hearty partier Sefa (Lelisi). It's a role that walks a fine line in Samoan culture.

"On paper, she (Leilani) seems quite submissive and willing to put up with a lot from a partner who doesn't treat her so good," Blakely says.

"Pacific islanders have an incredible capacity to love, which we are taught from our mothers and grandmothers," she says. "They teach us that love is unconditional, but Leilani has a limit, and she won't allow herself to be a doormat. She shows both strength and vulnerability."

Blakely's grandmother lived in Hawai'i for 30 years before her death this year (Blakely also has two aunts and "a heap" of cousins in La'ie and Kahalu'u). And while Blakely regrets her grandmother didn't live to see her first feature-film role, she says, she is glad Hawai'i audiences have embraced "Samoan Wedding."

The film was a hit at HIFF, prompting a second screening. A sneak preview two weeks ago also drew a capacity crowd, including many from the Samoan community, who laughed and cheered loudly throughout.

"I'm honored to put a brick in the wall, so to speak, to contribute to the foundation of something that can only continue to grow," Blakely says. "There are so many talented Pacific islanders out there. This film is a celebration of that and a look forward."

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.