After a long and exasperating stalemate, Malaysia’s film industry recorded, between 2010 and the first months of 2011, a series of breakthroughs which could lead to a redefinition of the state of affairs of the country’s commercial films.
Alongside the great commercial success of certain films — local productions broke the Guinness world record for box takings in the last year thanks to five box office hits, Ngangkung, Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah, Adnan Semp-It and, at the start of 2011, Khurafat and Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa — many count on the long-term repercussions of the revision of the tax system for films, which is awaiting approval starting from 2011. It is expected, in fact, that incentives for production will be in line with the takings: the films which generate profits up to two million ringgit (around US$656,000) will be entitled to a tax discount of 20%; with takings up to four million ringgit (US$1,310,000) the discount will be 10%, while for those with takings up to six million ringgit (US$1,970,000) it will be 5%; however the films whose box office takings exceed six million will not be entitled to tax discounts. This proposed reform has already received some harsh criticism: as the tax discounts should be applied in accordance with the aforementioned percentages on the entire takings (that is, a film that makes three million ringgit will not receive a discount equal to 20% for the first two million and 10% on the other million, but instead a tax discount of 10% on the entire takings). Some fear this will see a race to produce low quality films that remain within more favourable profit limits (with takings of two million ringgit the discount is in fact 400,000 ringgit, but on three million it is only 300,000).
Besides the results of this system, what is really new is that these incentives will be available for all locally-produced films, including those in Chinese. Up to now a double regime has existed which concedes the privileges of support for the production and tax allowances only for films in Malaysian, the only ones recognized as “local films” (filem tempatan). Malaysian productions in which the language is mainly Chinese, Indian or English, have been treated until now as foreign films.
This fundamental change of regime follows the commercial success of certain local films in Chinese and the public awareness campaign by the young Chinese videomaker Namewee who, through YouTube and Facebook, revealed the hypocrisies of “1 Malaysia’s” political rhetoric and made the system of linguistic discrimination, otherwise only known to the industry, known to all.
That a large audience exists for local commercial productions in Chinese has been proved by the unexpected success of two films released in the first half of 2010: Malaysia’s first Chinese film made for the Chinese New Year, Woohoo! by Chiu Keng Guan and the rock star Aniu’s debut film as a director, the wonderful Ice Kacang Puppy Love. Following the conventions of Hong Kong and Taiwanese comedies, but spicing them up with strictly local dialogues and characters, Chiu and Aniu’s films have responded to the demands of a public that until now has not responded enthusiastically to the albeit excellent low budget productions in Chinese of Malaysia’s digital new wave.
The success of Woohoo! and Ice Kacang Puppy Love therefore allowed Chiu to direct a new film for the 2011 Chinese New Year, Great Day. It encouraged a Singapore- Malaysia co-production also aimed at the Chinese New Year audience, Homecoming by Lee Thean-jeen, and invited certain new wave veterans into the mainstream film arena: the low budget paladin of intimism James Lee has become a prolific author of horror movies, both in Malaysian (Sini Ada Hantu) and in Chinese (Claypot Curry Killers). Woo Ming Jin, author of Woman on Fire Looks for Water and Tiger Factory co-directed with actor and director Pierre André the successful Malaysian Blair Witch Project, Seru.
But 2010 was an even better year for Malaysian language productions. Things got off to a great start: Adnan Semp-It, released in January 2011, by the prolific Ahmad Idham, broke all previous records for local films, bringing in 7.66 million ringgit (according to FINAS statistics based on 90% of the local market). The film is a romantic comedy which uses the very popular mat rempit theme, in other words bikers, who organize illegal races in the streets of Kuala Lumpur — and who inspired a successful series of local films.
But in November, beyond every expectation, Ngangkung by Ismail Bob Hasim, a horror comedy produced by Metrowealth, a company specialising in very successful low budget horror movies, made 8.18 million ringgit. Just two weeks’ after another parody of improbable local horror movies, Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah by Mamat Khalid, followed by the successful Zombi Kampung Pisang, not only beat the takings of the first chapter of the saga of the banana village, but made 7.90 million ringgit. This placed it in second place to Ngangkung as Malaysia’s most profitable film.
Furthermore, the first months of 2011 have confirmed the encouraging trend for films in Malaysian. Khurafat, by Syamsul Yusof, marked the return of pure horror, with takings of over eight million ringgit, surpassing Hantu Kak Limah for all time takings. Strangely listed as a filem tempatan, despite the fact that it was filmed in English (to better penetrate the international market), the very expensive Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (or The Malay Chronicles), a historical fantasy film by Yusry Adb Halim, took over six million after one month in theatres. It took fifth place in the league table of local films. That’s prestigious position, but certainly not prestigious enough to reclaim the very high costs of production and promotion.
Among the releases of recent months we have the curious nature of Malaysia’s first self-proclaimed gay film… Dalam Botol (… in a Bottle, the three dots at the beginning of the title stand for “anu”, the equivalent of “dick”) by Khir Rahman. Based on a true story, this production is the result of a law passed at the end of 2009 which finally allows the presentation of homosexual or transvestite characters in the local audio-visual sector — with one condition, of course!, that their chosen, “deviant” lifestyles are scourged or that they spontaneously repent for them at the end of the film. Strictly in accordance with these dictates, … Dalam Botol is unfortunately a very doubtful step forward for the gay community in a film industry and a culture which aren’t very progressive.
It is possible that the expansion of local business may guarantee good profits for the many films released in 2011. The national statistics relating to 2010 published by FINAS confirm that Malaysia is a country whose film industry is continuously growing. A few figures: by the end of 2010 there were 100 movie theatres in Malaysia, with a total of 571 screens and 110,424 seats, compared to 93 theatres (+7.53%), 485 screens (+17.73%) and 101,165 seats (+9.15%) in 2009. In 2010 there were 54.29 million viewers, compared to 44.13 million in 2009 (+23.02%); the derived takings increased from 403,30 million ringgit in 2009 to 518,16 in 2010 (+28.48%). But while in 2009 65.24% of viewers and 66.58% of the takings were in favour of films in English, in 2010 these figures decreased, respectively, to 60.55% and 62.01%. Not a big decrease but a significant one, since in parallel the “local” films went from 13.66% of viewers and 12.61% of the takings to 17.02% of the first and 15.78% of the second and the films in Chinese from 12.33% of viewers and 12.19% of the takings, respectively, to 14.77% and 14.48%. Even films in Indian — for which the market is more restricted — registered a significant increase. Taking into account that in 2010 the number of local films released was 38, compared to 27 in 2009 (+40.74%) and that in all they made 81.78 million ringgit compared to 50.84 million in 2009 (+60.86%) with average production costs that went from 1.5 million ringgit in 2009 to 1.23 million in 2010 (-18%) and average takings of 2.15 million ringgit in 2010 compared to 1.88 million in 2009 (+14.36%) it is clear to see that Malaysia’s film industry is in good stead.
Whether these hopeful signs will lead to a more positive outcome and whether the increased flow of resources will improve the average quality of the product, making it more appealing to the international market, is something that remains to be seen.
Paolo Bertolin