Local movies do not receive much attention from the public, as compared with the foreign blockbuster movies which always bring a mile-long queue at cinemas. According to the cinema admission report by FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia), the total admission of local films in 2018 was only 13.21 million ringgit compared with English films admission which reached 51.76 million ringgit. It seems like Malaysian movie production is still an infant toddling in front of the giants. If truth be told, you may be surprised that our local movie industry has developed for more than 85 years, about 30 years older than our country! The very first local movie is Leila Majnun directed by B.S. Rajhans in 1933, a Malay feature film shot in Malaya and Singapore. Despite our years-long development, what are the main problems that lead to the stunted growth of local movie industry? I will write three posts telling you the three main issues that from my opinion are the problems of local movie industry. Here we go, the first issue:
Separation along ethnic lines
Malays do not watch Chinese and Indian movies; just like how Chinese do not watch Malay and Indian movies. Jacky Yeap, the founder of a local movie magazine, Wu Ben, raised this issue in his article. This is also shown in the result of my survey regarding locals’ opinions on Malaysian films. Although most of the locals can understand languages of other races, they do not show interest to watch movies in languages other than their mother tongue. And even though there are multiple languages in subtitles, local movies are still unable to attract multiracial audience. Chiu Keng Guan, the director of The Journey, discussed the issue saying that the top of the list among local Chinese are movies from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Mainland China; the second choice will be English films, but almost never be Malay films. The same scenario occurs among Indian movie viewers.
“Malays do not watch Chinese and Indian movies; just like how Chinese do not watch Malay and Indian movies.” - Malaysian movie magazine, Wu Ben
Separation along ethnic lines does not only happen among audience. In terms of filmmakers, there are differentiation and isolation between local Indian art workers and art workers from other races. Shanjhey Kumar Perumal, the director of Jagat said that local Indian filmmakers are deeply influenced by the South Indian movie industry, causing them finding it difficult to figure out the empathy and relevance in the local multiple-elemental art circle.
The movies, The Mermaid and Bigil. The locals including Chinese and Indians prefer foreign movies produced in their mother tongue.
Photos courtesy: Tencent.com & Bigil The Movie
How can we produce a film that can attract multiracial audience? Well, The Journey directed by Chiu would be an outstanding example. As one of the top-grossing local films, the box office of The Journey achieved RM17 billion. In an interview by movie researchers, Chiu mentioned that there are only a total of 3 million ethnic Chinese in our country and it is impossible for them to reach the 17 million in box-office earnings. In other words, he meant that this film successfully attracted a substantial number of audience from other races.
What makes the success of this film? Movie researchers revealed that The Journey’s key to success is it demonstrates “the nature of the ideological struggles of multicultural nationalism in the Malaysian context” and “the negotiation of the colonial legacies of racialization”. Hassan Abdul Muthalib, a local filmmaker and film critic, also attributed the success of the film to the production team’s honesty and sincerity in making the films. As the director, Chiu did not purposely emphasised or exaggerated the multicultural element of our society. Instead, through his lens. he told the locals’ lives as how they were in reality. And this is what that can touch the audience’s heart.
The Journey successfully attracted multiracial audience because it demonstrated multicultural nationalism in the Malaysian context in sincere and honest way.
Video courtesy: YouTube@mm2 Entertainment Channel
In short, the separation along ethnic lines splits the local film industry into parts. To overcome this obstacle, local filmmakers have to demonstrate multicultural nationalism in the Malaysian context. A film can gather all races if it is produced with honesty and sincerity. If a film over-emphasise the cultural elements, it is unable to represent the real lives of locals. Therefore, the film will be unable to touch the audience.
Do you agree with me? Whether it is a Yes or a NO, you are welcomed to leave your thoughts in the comment board below. Let’s take this as a platform for us to exchange our points of view. In my next article, I will discuss the second problem which is the overuse of local cultural elements in movies.
References
Changsong, W., & Yiming, C. (2017). The ideological struggle of multicultural nationalism: Cultural identity in the 2014 Malaysian top-grossing movie The Journey. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 33).
FINAS. (2019, April 3). Data of cinema admission by language. Retrieved October 20,
2019, from https://www.finas.gov.my/en/industry-information/cinema-admission-
by-language/
Lim, H. L. (2019, August). Malaysia’s independent screening space: Shades of light that
appears slowly. Wu Ben, 2, 45-51.
Millet, R. (2006). Singapore cinema. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet.
Yeap, J. (2019, August). The local director Mansor Puteh and the movie “SEMAN”. Wu Ben, 2, 8-11.
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