What is Movie to me?
Does movie reflect reality? No, not really. Although it does imitate people’s lives in some ways, it cannot represent reality. Instead, movies condense years-long lives to hours-long stories. Hence, I would say a movie is an essence rather than a mirror of life.
Few weeks ago, I read an article featuring the famous Hong Kong director, Wong Kar-Wai on Sin Chew Daily. The writer, Fabian Fom, impressed me with his sentence saying that we could always unexpectedly meet ourselves in movies. Movies give us the chance to find ourselves, to understand ourselves. On the other side, from the perspective of Charlotte Lim, a local director, movie is a diary recording her private stories. She believes that movies can reflect a director’s psychological mode at the moment of filming. But it also depends on how sincere and frank the director is when he or she is creating the film. “It goes with the flow,” said Charlotte.
Reality, a French film by Quentin Dupieux telling the overlapping
and interconnection between reality, fiction and dream.
Photo courtesy: IMDB.com
What is Local Movie to me?
To be frank, I did not have much interest in local movies. Just like many youngsters at my age, I prefer foreign blockbuster movies to local movies. Nonetheless, ever since I read a local movie magazine, Wu Ben, I found myself starting to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of local movies. Wu Ben did a very good job in raising my interest and concern on local filmmakers. Well, I may introduce the magazine in details in my future post. So, stay tuned. For now, let’s talk about my opinion as a local toward local movies.
1. Sociocultural elements are always emphasized
“In Malaysian movies, the multiracial culture is inevitably mixed together, forming a new colour. And this is the Rojak, Rojak is also a kind of beauty.” - Ray Tan, Production Designer of You Mean the World to Me
One of the main characteristics in local movies is the emphasis on our society and culture. It is common that you could find rojak language (code-switching) in Malaysian films. Also, local food is another popular element used by the filmmakers. For instance, nasi lemak is the main theme in the movie, Nasi Lemak 2.0 by Namewee. Besides the food, this film also featured local actors from multiple races, speaking lines in different languages. Another example is when the kopitiam (local cafe) culture portrayed the typical Malaysian Chinese’s daily lives in the movie, Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat! Tan Seng Kiat, the director of Shuttle Life, said in an interview that the meaning of his creative work is indivisible from the motherland, Malaysia. This led him to tell the struggle of the locals in his movie.
The movie, Nasi Lemak 2.0 by Namewee featured local actors from multiple races and portrayed our culture using the food, nasi lemak. Video courtesy: YouTube@Namewee
The kopitiam (local cafe) culture portrayed the typical
Malaysian Chinese’s daily lives in the movie, Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat!
Photo courtesy: cinema.com.my
Shuttle Life by Tan Seng Kiat portrayed lives of the locals using issues
such as frequent water disruption in Selangor.
Video Courtesy: YouTube@mm2 Entertainment Channel
2. Film technology is crucial
Few years ago, I held the opinion that Malaysian films have bad technology in cinematography and production. However, my perspective has changed gradually when I saw more and more emerging local films showing fantastic shooting skills and techniques with the help of technology. You could see how amazing the action movie, Polis Evo 2 is no matter in its visual or sound effects. The production team shows mature filmmaking techniques that is comparable with foreign movie production. More surprisingly, even our local students are also excellent in creating high-quality films. A short film, Melissa, was made by a group of final year students from Multimedia University, Johor. Despite their limited budget, the students did an extremely good job in playing with lightings in the film.
Polis Evo 2 directed by Joel Soh and Andre Chiew shows mature filmmaking techniques of local production. Video Courtesy: YouTube@Astro Shaw
Melissa was a film made by a group of final year students from Multimedia University, Johor. Video Courtesy: YouTube@Cineuphoric Pictures
In short, movie shows the colours of life and it colours our lives. We should always appreciate the beauty of movies and the efforts of filmmakers. We could see signs of great improvement in our local films. I would not advise you to support local films because I know you will one day support them when you discover how amazing they are.
References
Berra, J. (2017, November 10). Where to begin with Hou Hsiao-hsien. BFI. Retrieved 29
December, 2019, from https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/fast- track-fandom-where-start-hou-hsiao-hsien
Fom, F. (2019, November 24). If there is one more ferry ticket: Wang Kar-Wai. Sin Chew Daily, Feichang Renwu, p. 19.
Lee, A. (2018, October). He is walking on a tightrope: Movie director Tan Seng Kiat.
Wu Ben, 1, 34-43.
Lee, A. (2019, August). A movie meditator: Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true, Director Charlotte Lim. Wu Ben, 2, 12-27.
Yeap, J. (2018, October). It is not the only way to make films, but it is indeed a way to make films. Wu Ben, 1, 10-13.
Thanks for your comment, Po Wei. Agree with what you said. Foreign movies are obviously more advanced than local films with their well-developed technologies and their mature movie industry. However, there must be something unique in local films that we could not find in foreign films. Just like what you said, it is worth to be appreciated.
If you ask me, I prefer local movies or overseas movie? My answer is overseas movies. As they have a professional production team and technologies to produce a movie with awesome effects, wonderful audios and better acting skill from the actors, I think. However, from the local movies that you have introduced in your blog, some I have watched before and I like it! This may because local movies can create a better resonance with the familiar culture and language. Maybe I should change my mind to not worship and have blind faith in foreign things, there may be something worth to be appreciated from the local production.