Malaysian film producers found themselves inadvertently quoting Dickens for much of last year. More local films were released than ever before (which would seem like the best of times); but this also means that there were more flops than ever before (and therefore, the worst of times).
For the first time in Malaysian history, more than 80 films were released in the commercial cinema circuit.
This is in stark contrast to the doldrums of the late 1970s and early 1980s. For many of those years, not even 10 films came out. They also tended to be pretty dire. The collapse of the studio system, bureaucratic indifference, and video piracy were some of the factors cited back then.
Now, there are still no vertically-integrated studios as in the days of Shaw Brothers and Cathay Keris in the Malay film industry of Singapore. But there are three big companies that dominate the output.
The busiest is Metrowealth (13 films last year); its owner David Teo, through shameless self-promotion in the media, symbolises the efficient, prolific hack.
But after Metrowealth lost its resident film director Ahmad Idham (there was some squabble or other), its track record has been spotty. In fact, four of its films failed to make RM1 million (US$340,000, the price-tag for a typical Malaysian film). Its biggest hit was the sequel Adnan Sempit 2 (RM6.8 million/ US$2.3 million), which combines two tried-and-tested genres: the rempit (illegal motorcycle racer) movie with slapstick comedy. It also had Malaysia’s most bankable star, Shaheizy Sam.
Last year, slightly more than half of the 80 or so local films failed to make RM1 million. For smaller producers or investors making their first film, this mean that they will not make a second. (Unless the rumours are true that a few of these new producers are actually laundering money. In which case, they may be happy with more flops.) The biggest money-maker of 2012 took everyone by surprise. Ah Beng The Movie: 3 Wishes was directed by former TV and straight-to-DVD helmer Silver Chung (who now seems to be known only as Silver), this broad comedy was released for the feel-good Chinese New Year season.
Significantly, it is the first time that a movie in Chinese languages has become the most successful of the year. Even a decade ago, the idea of a commercially profitable movie in anything but the majority Malay language would have seemed improbable.
The most interesting movie of the year was Bunohan, directed by Dain Iskandar Said. It’s actually his second feature. His first, Dukun (completed in 2007), was put in cold storage by its production company. Dukun was loosely inspired by the real-life bizarre case of a female witch doctor who murdered a politician. The family of the actual politician took offence about this movie and somehow persuaded the producers to never release it.
Bunohan had higher production values and was more ambitious in terms of content and structure than anything else last year.
About a feuding family in the northern state of Kelantan (the whole movie was in this dialect, necessitating even Malay subtitles for the mass audience), its oniric feel didn’t appeal to everyone (a professor at our biggest university actually complained that it was “more difficult to understand than Titanic”) but it caught the attention of the media and chattering classes. Bunohan also had a successful run in the festival circuit starting with Toronto 2011 and including Rotterdam 2012.
The most sprightly comedy (our most crowded genre) of the year wasn’t even shot in Malaysia. Istanbul Aku Datang (Istanbul Here I Come) was the fourth feature directed by Bernard Chauly and written by Rafidah Abdullah. Like the first two, it has pop and zing and carries a theme of female empowerment.
About a young woman caught between her fiance and an unexpected new guy when she visits the titular city, it also delivered solid buzz on social media, and generous box-office returns of US$1.2 million. It is the most successful film so far made by Red Films, a company that started out in, and continues to focus on, TV programmes that usually target the female demographic.
Two movies that banked on 1980s nostalgia flopped spectacularly. One was Zaiton Ceritaku (Zaiton, My Story), a biopic (a rare genre) of a sexy pop chanteuse from that decade whose career was cut short by an accident that left her mentally damaged. Another was Leftwings, which was inspired by accounts of rock bands from that era of tight jeans and big hair.
Both were made for relatively low budgets and didn’t have enough marketing muscle to make themselves known. The latter also has one of the most boring trailers ever made.
But 1980s nostalgia isn’t quite dead and buried. In early 2013, Mamat Khalid’s comedy Rock Oo was a hit. Interestingly, it dared to tack on a somewhat political coda reminding audiences of today that the rock music scene of that decade was curtailed when the government started using the musicians as convenient scapegoats for all manner of ills (ranging from drug addiction to Satanic worship).
This culminated in the humiliating moment when the Minister of Information cut the hair of local male singers live on TV as a sign that they had “repented” – this was the condition to allow their songs to be aired on the government-controlled airwaves again.
A director who doggedly works in a B-movie style, in terms of budget as well as genre choices, is M. Subash.
He apparently shoots his films in three days, something that I would have difficulty in believing if I didn’t know one of the three-man (yes, only three!) crew of one of his films. Last year he made a horror film in Chinese, You Believe in Ghost?, and an action/musical flick Vajram in Tamil. (He also makes films in Malay).
One of the few films made for a limited theatrical distribution is Relationship Status, an Americanstyle dramedy mainly in English was made about something more popular than any Malaysian movie: Facebook. Witty and well-acted, it’s a good sign that other types of local films can exist. Mention must also go to Ikal Mayang (2003) a compilation of 15 short films by women (many of the first-time directors are actresses) for International Women’s Day. The latter is a good example of how NGO-style grassroots activity can collaborate with production companies.
Two animated movies, Seefood and War of the Worlds: Goliath were made due to generous grants designed to promote animation and multimedia.
Both were in the English language to aim for that Holy Grail of some local film-makers: to break into the international market.
Both were not as successful, either critically or commercially, as the movie Geng (2009), the only local animation so far to have connected with a mass audience.
An overlooked 2012 movie is James Lee’s The Collector. An entertaining action-comedy-melodrama with hints of Stephen Chow, it didn’t attract an audience partly because of an unfortunate release date that clashed with the latest Jackie Chan film.
Another of his features, Claypot Curry, was initially banned in Malaysia because of cannibalism, which can apparently only be depicted if it’s in a foreign movie. It has now been re-edited enough to appease the censors, and is slated for a late 2013 release under the new English title A Woman’s Vengeance.
Those who follow the career of Reservoir Dogs alumni will be pleased to know that Michael Madsen actually starred in the Malaysian movie Prince of the City, directed by Julian Cheah, who as usual also acts and smirks and receives attention from female characters in his own films. Reports from the few who viewed it (it was one of the biggest flops of the year, at US$30,000) suggest that Tarantino’s debut would still have a much higher place in the American actor’s CV.
Amir Muhammad