The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Malaysian cinema in 2012

Posted: 04 Jan 2013 04:19 PM PST

JAN 5 — I'm a positive guy. So when it was announced last year that more than 70 Malaysian films will be shown in local cinemas through the Skim Wajib Tayang, I took the glass half-full position that the increase is quantity might bring about an increase in quality in local films. How wrong I was.

2012 was quite simply an awful year for Malaysian film. I missed only nine out of the 40-plus Malaysian films screened in 2011 but my diligence in trying to watch as many local films as possible has been sorely tested by the appalling quality of most of the films on offer in 2012. I must have missed at least 20 of the local films screened last year.

If before this I only gave up on films made by Assoc Prof Abd Razak Mohaideen, then this year has seen me add a few other names to that list — Ahmad Idham, MIG Films (I now pick and choose only the ones that might not be so bad just to preserve my sanity), Outloud Studios (clearly a pretender to the MIG Films throne) and Afdlin Shauki (on "sudden death probation" thanks to his double whammy of awful films for Ismail Holdings, Berani Punya Budak and Pontianak vs Orang Minyak).

But let's talk about the Good first. Despite all the doom and gloom, the brightest ray of light for the local film industry this year was without a doubt Bunohan. Having secured home video distribution with Universal Pictures in several territories in Europe and Australasia, the film secured an even bigger coup by being picked up for US distribution by Oscilloscope Films, the company founded by the late Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, and distributor of last year's Oscar contender We Need To Talk About Kevin and other high-profile indie/arthouse titles like The Messenger, Meek's Cutoff, Exit Through The Gift Shop and more.

Other admirable local films his year include the indie Relationship Status, a Sundance-type movie ripe for a US remake. Then there's the gritty grime of Chow Kit, the surprisingly sweet and honest 3 Temujanji from MIG Films, KRU Studio's best film yet in 29 Februari, which is sort of a mash-up between Forrest Gump and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, but told as a sad and operatic musical, and two romantic dramas that came out at the tail end of the year — the rom-com Istanbul Aku Datang from Red Films and Lagenda Budak Setan 2: Katerina, a melodrama that works much better than the first instalment.

The Bad comes in the form of the countless gangster movies, usually in the form straight up action movies or action comedies, all produced in the wake of the success of KL Gangster (when will we ever learn that repeating a successful formula is NOT a guarantee for success?) with titles that range from Bini-Biniku Gangster to Jiwa Taiko (more Jiwang Taiko if you ask me) to Hantu Gangster. Talking with people in the film industry, I was informed that we should brace ourselves for even more of these gangster movies in 2013, all already produced and waiting for screening slots under the Skim Wajib Tayang.

The remnants of the horror comedy trend, all produced in the wake of the success of Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah (and to some extent Ngangkung and Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak), were still there, thanks to films like Hantu Dalam Botol Kicap, Satu Malam Kubur Berasap, Jangan Pandang-Pandang and Pontianak vs Orang Minyak (I felt like walking out of the cinema when I saw these, no mean feat considering I've never done that before in my life).

And there seems to be no end to "comedies" being made starring Angah and Along from Raja Lawak, none of which I've found even remotely funny so far. Still, I should just thank my lucky stars that "comedies" or "romantic comedies" starring the similarly unfunny Zalif Sidek have showed signs of slowing down or drying up.

Now comes the Ugly, an honour that last year belonged to films like Datin Ghairah and especially Abuya, a film so bad that it becomes great fun just to talk and think about it. Regretfully, it will only live in the minds of the few who managed to catch it during its run in local cinemas as a DVD release is still nowhere to be seen. If there's a DVD distributor reading this, please do us all a favour and pick Abuya up for a home video release for this could be Malaysia's very own so-bad-it's-good cult favourite a la The Room.

This year that honour belongs to Leftwings, a film so amateurishly bad in almost every aspect that it becomes sort of fun thinking and talking about it afterwards. But a bigger stinker comes in the form of Adik Manja Returns, a movie that can only be described with one word — embarrassing. I can't seem to think of any precedent, but just imagine that one hot male lecturer or teacher in college that all the girls seem to be in love with suddenly back from retirement to teach at the same college (hockey hair intact!) and still thinking that the young girls still fancy him. See it for yourself and cringe.

Never one to end things on a negative note, I'd like to point out two outstanding short films that I saw this year. One is called Eskep, a minimalist and mostly dialogue-free short film by Fasyali Fadzly that kind of reminds me of the pleasures that can be found in "slow cinema".

But the undoubted highlight is a short film called Kasturi by Ridhwan Saidi, a prolific novelist in the Malay indie book publishing scene with titles like Amerika, Mautopia and Stereo Genmai (and whose short story I adapted for my debut short film), which displays astonishing confidence in his willingness to do a phantasmagoric film (a bit like The Red Shoes by Powell & Pressburger or the films of Emir Kusturica) and quite some talent to be able to pull it off very well indeed. Undoubtedly a name to look out for. Just remember, you heard it here first!

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

In support of Reading

Posted: 04 Jan 2013 03:51 PM PST

JAN 5 — If you're looking for a "second team" to follow in the English Premier League, or wondering who you should support in the battle against relegation, may I point you in the direction of Reading.

Firstly, I should admit personal bias. I spent 11 years working in the communications team at Reading, between 1998 and 2009, and enjoyed some wonderful times. So my arguments in favour of the Royals are naturally somewhat one-sided — but I believe they are also fair.

There is a lot to admire in the way that Reading run their business. By spending their money prudently and focusing on long-term investments rather than short-term fixes, they attempt to manage the balance between ambition and realism in a manner that is increasingly rare in modern professional football.

Their approach sets an example for responsible, sustainable financial management that few other clubs attempt to emulate — if every club acted like Reading, there would be no need for UEFA to introduce their convoluted Financial Fair Play regulations.

The driving force behind Reading's stable financial approach is the club's long-serving chairman and former owner John Madejski, who has always been determined to balance the books without sacrificing the ambition of establishing his club amongst the Premier League elite.

Madejski is exactly the kind of club owner that every fan should wish for. He is a local man who was born and grew up in Reading, made his fortune after starting a business in the town (the Auto Trader series of car sales magazines, later encompassing the Malaysian Motor Trader) and has lived in the area practically all his life.

He took over ownership of Reading in 1990 — before the gravy train of the Premier League had even been invented — with the altruistic ambition of rescuing his local club from financial difficulties, building them a new state-of-the-art stadium and setting them up for a sustainable long-term future.

That's all quite a contrast from the speculative, exploitative and often absent moneymen from overseas who have come to dominate Premier League ownership in the last few years — unlike the Glazers (Manchester United), Roman Abramovich (Chelsea), Sheikh Mansour (Manchester City) and John Henry (Liverpool), the only thing that's foreign about Madejski is his misleadingly Polish surname.

Of course, this doesn't mean we should descend into narrow-minded parochialism and assume that local equals good and foreign equals bad. Just because Madejski is from Reading doesn't necessarily mean that he's an ideal owner for Reading Football Club; but it does mean that he's far more likely to feel a genuine attachment to his club and its community, and that much has been proven over his many years at the helm.

Reading fans were given cause for concern last year when Madejski sold the club to Russian businessman Anton Zingarevich. Was everything that Madejski, and consequently the club, had stood for about to be thrown out of the window by a new owner?

Fortunately not — not yet, at least. Madejski always insisted that he would only sell his club to the right person, and he seems to have found his man with Zingarevich, who does at least possess some affinity to his new acquisition having spent part of his childhood living in Reading.

Although it's early days, Zingarevich has so far stayed true to the philosophy of long-term sustainability instilled by Madejski. That has been best illustrated by the faith shown by Zingarevich in the manager who led Reading to promotion last season, Brian McDermott.

As the new man in charge with no personal link to existing club employees, it would have been easy for Zingarevich to panic at the first sign of trouble, fire McDermott and replace him with an appointment of his own.

Admirably, he's not done that. Despite Reading's troubling start to the season which has seen them collect just two victories and 13 points from their opening 21 games, Zingarevich has so far stayed loyal to the hard-working, softly spoken McDermott, with barely any suggestion that a managerial change is under consideration.

And that's quite right because Reading's problem is not their manager, but their lack of genuine quality throughout the squad. Sad to say it, but the current Reading squad is just not good enough to survive in the Premier League (even though their collective mental attitude and commitment to hard work cannot be faulted).

Tackling that problem, of course, is no straightforward task. Although McDermott and his staff are fully aware of the need to improve the quality of the squad, doing so is a costly business that would leave the club badly exposed in financial terms if they ended up suffering relegation.

Maintaining the cost of a Premier League squad in the Championship does not fit in with Reading's philosophy, and so they find themselves in a Catch-22 situation: spend a fortune on new players and risk being lumbered with an unsustainably expensive squad in the Championship, or stick with the existing squad which will almost certainly get relegated.

And therein lies the inescapable problem of Reading's approach. Admirable though it may be to spend within your means, it's probably unrealistic to expect lasting success under those terms. Modern football does not work like that.

However, we should will them to succeed because it would be nice if more clubs were like Reading. They deserve admiration and they deserve success. Sadly, I'm not sure they're going to get it.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 5 Januari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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