Malaysia in 2018 was marked by a historic event for the country. The 14th general election led to the first change of government since the proclamation of independence by the federation in 1957. The victory of the “historic” opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) over the governing coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) was welcomed as a breath of fresh air, and it injected hope into the country. A campaign to combat the endemic corruption that had characterised the long tenure of former Prime Minister Najib Razak was especially well received. The fight against the entrenched status quo had an immediate impact on the film sector. The election took place in May, and the Anti-Corruption Commission was investigating the National Film Development Corporation or FINAS for misallocation of funds by June. The commission investigated the activities of FINAS, the state body that provides support to Malaysian film production, and the way it allocates resources. This resulted in the appointment of a new board of directors in November, which included consultants representing the film industry.
The trials and tribulations of FINAS resulted in a slowing down of its activities. The data on the development of the film sector in Malaysia, published regularly by the institution, was only partially updated for 2018. This prevents considerations from a global perspective on the state of the industry as in previous years. This should hopefully only be a temporary impasse, as it is thanks to the statistics published by FINAS that Malaysia’s industry was, and is, the only one in the whole of Southeast Asia where research can be carried out based on reliable data.
But FINAS did publish the data on box-office revenues for national productions released in 2018, and this provided some important points for reflection on the creative and commercial evolution of the local industry. The most striking fact is the doubling of the overall box office revenue on an annual basis for nationally produced films. In fact, the 59 films listed in 2017 totalled around 56.8 million ringgits (12.4 million euros or 13.9 million US dollars), while the 50 classified for 2018 earned 120.3 million ringgits (or 26.3 million euros or 29.4 million US dollars). It was a shot in the arm for local cinema, which was boosted by the jaw-dropping success of two films released in August.
The first was Hantu Kak Limah by Mamat Khalid, a new episode in the saga about zombies and ghosts that have been infesting the Banana Village since 2007, the year of production of Zombi Kampung Pisang. Mamat Khalid's film took a total of over 36 million ringgits (7.8 million euros or 8.8 million US dollars). That’s huge sum when you consider that the previous record was around 18 million ringgits, exactly half of the revenues generated by Hantu Kak Limah. But it was a record that did not last long: at the end of the month Munafik 2 by Syamsul Yusof was released, the sequel to 2016’s top horror earner, which raised the bar of the record to 37 million ringgits (about 8 million euros or 9 million US dollars). While these two titles razed all the previous box office records for domestic films, we should not underestimate the results generated in November by Polis Evo 2 by Joel Soh and Andre Chew, which had takings of almost 16 million ringgit (the original Polis Evo, holder of the overall box office record in 2015 totalled 17.7 million).
We should also add a September release to the list, Paskal: The Movie by Adrian Teh, which FINAS does not include in its annual figures. The film claimed third place in the all-time box-office list, with a total of about 30 million ringgits (6.5 million euros or 7.3 million US dollars).
The conclusions to be drawn from this data are quite striking. The Malay-speaking public has returned to support local films in large numbers, but the unprecedented success of a couple of films adds up to more than half of the total receipts for national productions. This outcome is in line with global trends, with a handful of titles staking a major claim on domestic markets, monopolising a more than substantial slice of the box-office takings. Malaysia, as elsewhere, follows the global trend for serialisation. The Malay-language production scene is dominated by sequels, and their success in 2018 suggests that in the coming months, new chapters of the most popular sagas will almost certainly join the production line.
The least encouraging corollary to this phenomenon is how little the local public seems to appreciate more original versions of genre films. A perfect example of this is the intense social thriller One Two Jaga by Nam Rom, which received its world preview at FEFF 2018. Released in September, it earned approximately 340,000 ringgit (74,000 euros or 83,000 US dollars). We’ll have to wait and see how the new Malaysian challenger, Motif by Nadiah Hamzah, a police drama with a female lead which is being previewed at FEFF this year, will do.
Paolo Bertolin