The Things We Watch

Cinema were once regarded as 'den of evil' for their gloomy and dark situations watchers are engaged in. But things changed, now, positive message can be spread through the dark rooms of cinemas.

I have to admit, I watched Avatar a little bit too late, precisely 16days after its release. There was a saying that film rolls had began to get loose the along the many times it’s been played. Assuming the firm rolls were loaded 5 times a day, I watched Avatar, presumably on the 80^th roll, which come to think of it, must be pretty suck. Yet, watching Avatar is nothing short of amazing.

Lately there have been strings of failure/lukewarm responses towards movie involving big budged, star driven, big name directors or 3d intensive movie. Zack Snyder failed to fascinate me with Watchmen after shining in 300. Inglorious Basterds never appeal or making it into some of Tarantinos’ greatest classics despite the director admission that this project took him years of delay, so to say, in order for it to fester, I mean develop. But, Avatar is a leap forward. James Cameron took the death leap venturing into new filmmaking technologies and with a total budget of 400million dollar to make the film. Industry analysts were eager if such super-ambitious film would tremble and shook the realm of filmscape.

James Cameron is like a seasonal sensation. Initially he does robot assassins from the future, then deep water beings, semi-documentary love-epic Titanic, He isn’t a champion of particular sub-genre, until today this director had made two of the biggest budget film in my lifetime, each outranking the other. First, the iconic Titanic, the love story between Jack and Rose on a destined-to-sink behemoth named you-know-what. Secondly, The Avatar, an alien civilization which ride six-legged horses with an uplink made through their ponytail infused with living fiber optics. I couldn’t help thinking telling my kids “when I was your age, these are the big-bombs of Hollywood”

Even, in the event of Avatar failure, Hollywood seems to have endless resources to develop sometimes reckless, unsellable, feeble and crappy titles. Alien versus Predator (both), Alvin and Chipmunks, Garfield are some of those lame films that can be dejected straight away into junkbin. Yet, they have sequel made for them which fared no less better or degraded from chronic to critically fatal. Hollywood either had an attitude of not learning from the past or hoping to do phoenix-rising stunt out of bombed-out film ashes. Or perhaps, the existence of elaborate Jewish propaganda apparatus within the Hollywood circles to make youngsters sway from their studies? Yipes!

On the local front

In Malaysia, the debut of Upin&Ipin Pengembaraan is a giant leap in local film industry. For the first time Malaysian began to open their sleepy eyes on the homefront creative industry. It fared off good with collection reaching approximately RM6 million, while the highest collection of 2009 were handed to ghastly mystic ethereal title: Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak at 6.1million. A record breaking collection which can eclipse several times Yasmin Ahmad Talentime collection of measly 0.6million. Afdlin Shaukis’ Papadom raked approximately 3.5million. But like Hollywood, we are engulfed in syndromes of making movies that are easily understandable where good triumph over evil naturally in a linear style.

There is never heavy substance injected into film plot which producers/director would risked their films becoming titles only available in archive somewhere in old government building blocks of Kuala Lumpur. Films like U Wei Shaaris ‘Buai Laju-laju’ (starring Betty Benafe and Eman Manan) and ‘Isteri, Perempuan dan …’ are mere study subjects for cinematography students when these are close/true reflections of life and social occurrence of Malaysia. TV serials are obsessed with teen wearing bright tights and fringe involved in family business that has millions in asset values around the globe. Don’t matter whether its shipping business, car sales, stock holdings, poultry or construction (any business that only involves filming within office compound), they all ended up in power struggle and infighting usually involving a single hot babe in the middle of crisis. Not until Jelatang came and dragged me in. With a strong cast, the series covered a subject which challenges the directors to create something original without reference from Hollywood: Sumbang Mahram (close proximity)

Surely, anybody can argue that Hollywood had released plenty takes on close proximity. Hollywood may made it into a comedy, where stepfather-daughter sex romp were done through curi-curi tulang. To avoid the knowledge of the mother. Hell, Hollywood can possibly portray the mother as a psychotic killing machine which overtime gathers momentum into murdering both stepfather and daughter before a heroic cop came and shot her in the arm. But jelatang took a path where a Muslim family with a Malay background which emphasizes on secrecy and decency. The close proximity festered amongst the family (involving daughter played by Intan Ladyana and younger-beefier stepfather played by Fezrul Khan ), a rebellious brother, a patient mother and concerned ex-husband accompanied with jealous new-wife. This all adds up. A problem ‘proportionalized’ according to local social scenario. Series ended with mother willingly accepting daughter’s sin with intention to quarantine the problem out of people knowledge. The mother is never ready for another divorce. The installment of this series is very highly anticipated.

Back in the days jabatan penapisan lifted sanction on ghost/mystic themed film, I was beleaguered thinking if jabatan would also lifted sanction against stories that would depict corruption/misused power among authorities. The Hindustan had long depicted rotan wielding cops becoming jaguh kampong and blackmailed villagers for protection money. This indeed a true reflection of Indian caste-based rampant corruption artistically ported inside their movies without cuts or whatsoever fear of foreign investors being chased off. Its relaxing to know that the film censorship board over there may regards this as creative freedom rather than feeling guilty as it would ‘tarnish’ the image of somebody/someone. Relax! The government had given their assurance that they do their job with upmost transparency, why fear fictuous movie on corruption?

Instead, jabatan agama had been ashamed. Their leniency had led to many ghost/mystic stories being made and released into theatres. All under the pretext of ‘watch and learn’. Earlier into these movies remarks were made that the shown movie was mend for pengajaran purpose, telling anyone who owns/petted a ghost shall receive a punishment akin to the movie. While the true driving force behind almost endless release of ghost/mystic film were not to educate people, but the cash load it brings. Upin&Ipin were just lucky to play with children power of persuasion. If not, the entire top ten film gross in Malaysia will surely owned by a bunch of ghost versus ustaz duel movies. This all translated to cari makan.

Above all, I strongly supported the linearization of our local movie industry. Our directors can prove their movies can become the alternatives to the many Hollywood titles that arrived to our shores. Our citizen is rich enough, even mat rempits can take their girlfriends for movie treat each weekends, if properly spend, can avoid the flux of our money to other country instead thrive the local cinema market. Added with relaxation on rulings and censorship, our creative industry is a bright furred bird never mends to be caged.