Malaysian Movies

Right now yours truly am (or is it ‘are’?) feeling dead tired and exhausted. And the redundancy in the previous sentence shows how I am unable to think straight.

But I still have several hours of waiting to do as my CPU cycle goes 100% for 4 hours

So i’ll just make a random post to fill my time. You see, my job requires me to have my right hand at the mouse, my left hand at the keyboard and my eyes glued to the monitor. If both my hands working the keyboard, then anybody would know I’m not doing my work.

Last Saturday was a friend of mine’s wedding day. Then I had a very interesting chat with another friend of mine, about our movie industry. I still haven’t got any clue as to why our movie industry sucks. Money? That’s my first bet. But then there’s still multi-million films that’s only suitable to be shown on TV during Raya.

However, no matter how hard these movies (as Kak Chris named in her hubby’s blog “D Grade Movies”) were criticised (did i spell it right?), they still make money out of it. People still go and watch. and most of the times, they drag someone else to watch it too.

Then we came to a conclusion. Malaysian’s mentality on Malay movies are still not developed enough. They still are entertained by silly slapstic jokes. Those are not jokes, those are clowning around. Wearing oversized or undersized clothing with striking colour (or color), tripping on banana peels, overacting, and lots more. I felt treated as a 7 years old kid (human, not goat) when watching these kind of movies. Or maybe we really want to be treated that way? Maybe its just a way for us ‘adults’ to become children again. As for me, I doubt it.

Come to think of it, maybe here’s how they got blockbuster ticket collection. Lets say there’s a crappy movie called “Sembelit 3”. It grossed out at RM1 million. That would mean 100,000 tickets were sold, assuming each ticket is priced at RM10.

Now the fun part. On average, only one third really meant to see the movie. At most, half of it. why, you may ask. Lets name the 1/3 group as Group 1, another 1/3 as Group 2 and the rest, Group 3. Group 2 are usually the partner (spouse, couple or escorting friend(s)). So Group 1 wants to watch Sembelit 3, because it stars some hunk from local music band. But there’s no fun watching it alone, so Group 1 will drag Group 2 with him/her. so Group 2 had to watch, either supported by Group 1, uses own money, or had to support Group 1(if Group 2 is the boyfriend of Group 1).

Group 3, is simply those who were tricked into watching Sembelit 3, either by Group 1, by reviews in magazines and papers, or the trailers.

There ARE good, thought provoking movies in Malaysia, but not many have the simplicity and fun factor that Hollywood movies have. We want to be entertained, not to be bored to death. but at the same time we do not want to be treated as kindergarden kids. To present something both intelligent and fun is hard, but that’s a challenge we have to face and conquer. As of we, I meant by both the filmmakers and moviegoers alike.

A point to ponder: Why does most telemovie have much better story, and production as compared to most Malay movies?

This Tuesday I’m going to Baik Punya Cilok’s Press Preview. As much as I’m Afdlin Shauki’s fan, I really hoped that this movie would be as entertaining as Buli. No more Anak Mami kind of jokes, no more Gerak Khas kind of unrealism. Just simple movies, that don’t belong to the Recycle Bin.