Filmmakers Anonymous, at Indiescene Cafe (29th of December 2006)
Since my return from Perth more than three weeks ago, I've been stuck in limbo, like a Wong Kar Wai character perpetually stuck in a stagnant state of existence whilst the rest of the world blurs by like the flitting of a hummingbird's wings. While taking my (absolutely needed) rest after months of working on my last short film, Girl Disconnected, my filmmaking endeavours were put on hold, just so I can figure out what the local filmmaking scene is like. In Perth, I got to know how things work, how to contact actors, composers, production houses, etc. Over here, I feel like a helpless foreigner.
Then I heard about the Filmmakers Anonymous via the Malaysian Cinema mailing list last week, an interesting event where short films would be screened at the much-talked about Indie Scene Cafe (a cafe meant to promote, ah, the indie scene, be it films, art, music and literature) on the 29th of December 2006, with the filmmakers available for a Q & A session with the audiences, where everyone gets to socialize, interact and share their love for films.
So I went, bringing a DVD copy of my own short film, Girl Disconnected with me just so it could be screened during future sessions. Last night's event was the very first session they had, but I was surprised by the amount of people who went, considering the rain, and the time of the year. Nearly thirty plus people were there, much more than the seminar organized by Sin Chew Jit Poh (the country's leading Chinese newspaper) that had award-winning directors James Lee and Tan Chui Mui speaking to my dad (a film critic) last July, I wonder whether it had to do with the lack of interest from the Chinese-speaking community? Or some marketing blunder by Sin Chew?
Despite being a regular for such events in Perth (like the Sony Tropfest, which I wrote about here, or the Artrage, where I went to see Drawing Restraint 9 with Justin) I've personally never attended anything like that before in Malaysia, so I was somewhat intrigued, although my initial expectations were tainted by the numerous horror stories my other aspiring filmmaker/ film buff friends like Han, Chewxy, Sebastian had told me after attending some short film screenings of their own over here...
"Er, we saw this film, where, ah, we saw this girl, sitting in her room, doing nothing for ten minutes. Then ah, it turned out that there's this pages-long psychoanalysis thingie given to us by the filmmakers telling us what it was supposed to mean. It's totally, like, arty."
"Very slooooooooow! Boring, man! We were made to watch paint dry, no, I meant that literally! Watching paint dry, it seemed, was meant to symbolize the slow evolution of mankind, where blah blah blah. Our inability to understand the film meant that we were too uncultured and slow to appreciate fine art and life's deeper meaning."
"Watching some of the winners of the Astro Chinese Short Film competition made me want to commit seppuku!"
All right, most of what they said were fictional, made up by my own excessive imaginations. But basically, neither of them seemed to have really pleasant experiences at the short film screenings, so I myself became rather apprehensive too. Wondering whether I've been so long numbed by Hollywood explosions and the smell of popcorn that anything less compromising would fly over my oversized head completely.
To my surprise, and unbridled joy, that didn't happen during last night's screening. The ten short films, entirely different from one other, were stuff that, in my opinion, deserved more awareness from the public, not just locally, but internationally, because they were screaming to tell us all how complex the local filmmaking scene actually is.
Malaysian films, apparently, are not defined only by the stuff that are shown in cinemas, or on television, or those that are currently gaining international acclaim by winning awards at foreign film festivals. That's just a part of it. There's still more waiting to be discovered, screaming for an audience, for wider acceptance.
Now, I'll list out the films that were shown, and also provide some brief thoughts of my own in BOLD.
1. Fairuz Sulaiman: WHERE IS MY INDIE ROCK DARLING (3mins/color/music/2006)
A film about the ever continuing search for reason and purpose in life.
Fairuz Sulaiman is a videographer involved in experimental video performances, theatre productions, video installations and productions. He lectures part time in video making in a local art college.
Strange, the description here sounds different from the film I actually saw during the screening but if it is, then I can say that I like the merging of music and surrealistic images in this experimental video. It's short, but it's nice to look at. I can't really say much about this cos' this was the first film shown and I wasn't really prepared to ah, pay too much attention.
2. Chi Too: WHILE YOU ARE EATING (2006/Digital/4 mins)
A double dinner date goes 'boink' in the night.
Chi Too makes films for fun, love, and activism. His films have travelled to various film festivals around the world. He one day hopes he can travel the world like his films do. Previously made films include 'Out Of The Closet', 'Just Pretend', 'The Chinese Dilemma', 'Goodbye Luang Phabang', 'Paradise Bus', and many more. Visit his blog.
Two couples (?) having dinner, peaceful music of 'Girl From Ipanema' playing in background, a dude and a chick excused themselves from dinner table, the other two resumed eating, loud sounds of, ah, lovemaking were heard from beneath the table. Pretty out there.
3. Crystal Woo and Sidney Tan: IT'S NOT ABOUT EVERYTHING, IT'S ABOUT EVERYTHING (2006/ 14 mins)
A short film about Yee May who finds herself caught between two men and turns to unconventional means to solve her dilemma.
Director's Profile
Crystal Woo and Sidney Tan have collaborated on various projects that include short experimental video works, comics, and films. Sidney Tan draws & designs for a living, and Crystal Woo art directs and writes for a living. Together, they are fascinated by pictures in the head…ideas in space…and stories floating everywhere.
Festivals
Gold Prize Winner for Malaysian Video Awards 2005 (Experimental Video Category)
Not sure whether the title listed on the Filmmakers Anonymous is accurate, I remembered it was It's Not About Everything, It's About Anything, or was it It's Not About Anything, It's About Everything? I like this film for its tongue-in-cheek and stylishness, very nice postproduction work, I like the colour grading and the blurry surrealistic (seem to use the word a lot) effect here. Very wonderful use of music. Yee May's method involved time-traveling, it's pretty nuts. Ending's a hoot. :D
4. Tony Pietra: MY MIND (2006/ 5 mins)
A promotional music video for the first single from MANGO OVERHEAT, the latest album by Malaysian electro/new wave/dance-rock artist Rabbit. Made on a shoestring budget but given the treatment of an MTV-caliber product, the video is an eclectic post-modern homage to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, classic film noir, 1980's futurism, Stephen Chow, and anything else you'd care to point out.
Tony Pietra is a former TV commercial editor. He now works as a film director with FYI Creative (a collective of aspiring filmmakers). His showreel includes some PSA's and TVC's, music videos (for local artists Pete Teo, Rabbit, and Shelley Leong), and independent short films (WRATH: CURSE OF THE KERIS). He has won a few awards, such as a Bronze for Best Editing (a TV station promo directed by Yasmin Ahmad)
at the 2002 Malaysian Video Awards, and two Cyberjaya Digital Video Competition awards for Best Documentary (YOU GOT A LIFE, YOU GOTTA EAT) and Best Short Film: Drama (SEEING THINGS) in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
Very... VERY cool music video that had everyone bursting into giggles by its silly coolness. Come on, a homage of Clockwork Orange and Kungfu Hustle, what else do I have to say? Just watch the music video below yourself and tell me what you think. The rabbit ears won by the band members were similar to the one worn by Grace in my film, Girl Disconnected. I think Justin will like this.
My Mind - Rabbit
5. Mien Lor: MY CONFESSION – THE PICTURE DIARY (2005/10 mins/silent)
The filmmaker's picture diary reveals her innermost thoughts on the politics of space and desires.
Mien Lor is a full time activist who makes film for expression, for exploration and for air. She believes that filmmaking is at once personal and political. She produces documentaries and social films for www.komas.org and organizes the only human rights film festival in Malaysia www.freedomfilmfest.komas.org.
Festivals
The IIC IAWRT Asian Womens' Film Festival 2006, India
Avant garde experimental stuff. We see footages of a girl saying random stuff accompanied by text from diary entries. Footages were used for illustration or juxtaposition. There was a scene that said 'I ran naked at the fields when I was young', unfortunately, all we had was a silhouette of a naked woman. Darn. Yes, the film's totally silent, but pretty meditative. Mien Lor's one of the people behind the Filmmakers Anonymous, and was also involved in the production of many short films screened that night. Yes, she's totally active.
6. Amy Lim: MY NEW HOME (2006/11 mins)
Coming from a Chinese-only background, a family from Kampar moves to a multi-racial environment in urban Kuala Lumpur. With each family member reacting differently to their new surroundings, the story challenges the social interpretation of our society today.
Amy loves colors, movements, and adventure. She starts off as an
editor, and now gets her hands dirty in the real production. She has
worked on a few short documentaries and tv programmes. Currently she designs, edits and explores.
Like many people at the place, my first response when seeing the first scene was... "WHAT THE... THAT'S JAMES LEE PLAYING THE DAD!!!" Photo of me and acclaimed director James Lee can be viewed here. His sheer display of dramatic acting skills boggled my mind. But to correct the summary a little, this film is about a Chinese family of three moving to an Indian environment. The dad had to do this for work, the mom was uneasy, the little daughter was happy. Uneasy racial tensions that still exist in contemporary Malaysian society is displayed here. Effective short film.
7. Margaret Bong: TUDTU (2006/15 mins)
This is a story of a young, vulnerable Kelabit boy from the Bario. Raised in a salt making family, the film shares his life and his world that is still filled with innocence as well as his struggles towards the Kelabit Culture.
Margaret Bong, born 1981, has a Degree in Cinematography from Malaysia University Sarawak (UNIMAS) and a Diploma in Broadcasting. The filmmaker has been involved as director, writer and producer for the following films: Tudtu (short documentary), Lie Beneath (short fiction) and Red Drawing (short fiction).
This unflinching documentary is very educational as it shows us a culture unknown to most living in the modern world. The sight of a boy, barely more than ten years old, smoking (pot), playing truant, getting expelled while needing to aid his poor family in salt making can be pretty disturbing. Makes you realize that despite how much our country's developing, there are still certain areas that demand some attention. This documentary has to be seen by more.
8. Nadia Hamzah and Wan Muhammad Tamlikha: AN AFTERNOON WITH THE HIJJABED (2005/8 mins)
A mockumentary revolving around five different Malaysian women who vastly differ in character, but share one common trait, all of them don the 'tudung' Moslem veil. As they sit over tea one fine afternoon, they ponder upon thoughts and consequences of wearing the veil.
Initially classmates for a production class in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya Malaysia, Wan Muhammad Tamlikha and Nadiah Hamzah started collaborating on creative independent projects since 2004. From music videos they slowly progressed into making films. 'An Afternoon with The Hijjabed' is their second combined effort under on.par pictures, their unofficial filmmaking collective.
A major crowd-pleaser that seemed to be quite an Internet hit. Very funny and witty. Five women, each of their personality's exaggerated into manic levels reveal the truth concerning hijjabed Moslem women. Pay attention to badass-looking cigarette-smoking chick, she's Nadiah Hamzah, the co-director. I couldn't stop giggling. Watch it, it will blow your mind.
on.par pictures' An Afternoon With The Hijjabed
9. Rajan Paramesran: RAINY DAYS (2006/14 mins)
This story is inspired by an true event. It highlights a labor case in 1973 that on the surface appeared to be a straightforward one. One rubber tapper, who is guaranteed a minimum of 24 days pay by the law, was short changed by 7 days by his employer. He filed an action with labor court and subsequently won. But the management appealed that decision in the High Court in 1974. For some reasons, judgment was not delivered until twenty years later in 1994. In the meantime, the rubber tapper and his lawyer had died and the estate sold. A true demonstration of justice delayed is justice denied. And the sum in contention: RM22.40 (US$6.20)
Rajan Paramesan is currently a business writer and assistant editor for a newspaper as well as a researcher for a business program on television. Rainy Days is his second short film.
I like the ambition of this film a lot. I like it when people attempt to do something historical cos' it's seldom seen. Unfortunately, I was slightly bothered by the dialogue of the film, which was dubbed in postproduction. I'm just pretty anal about things like that, after all, it's the same thing that affected my enjoyment of 'Curse of Golden Flower' last week. The case that inspired this film is pretty infuriating.
10. Umi Salwana Omar: WHERE ART THOU? (2004/1 min)
Based on a poem by Sufi philosopher, Jalaludin Rumi. The poem been translated into visual art by using metaphorical images.
24 year-old Umi is a final year student of Center for Advanced Design (CENFAD). Graduating in December, she is currently doing her internship at Motion Effects Studio. Her documentary Aunty Wahid won the Best Art Work in CENFAD and shown at Malaysian Documentary and Freedom Film Festival.
Let me quote the director's statement:
What does it mean to be different? Differences have been damned by segregation of race, religion and country. Differences have been divided us all. I think differences should be celebrated. Would it not be a boring world if we are all the same? Differences teach us that although we do things differently, we do it for the same purpose and reason. To celebrate life.
It's deep and life affirming. As for the film itself, ah, well, it went by pretty quickly, so when credits rolled, my reaction was a quick "WTF???". Basically, it's a poem accompanied by metaphorical images. Yeap.
(Image source: Filmmakers Anonymous)
Anyway, if you've watched the video I shot (... at the beginning of this entry), you're probably aware of the fact that the future of Filmmakers Anonymous might remain in question, they are still waiting for enough submissions so that another session can be held.
So, to make it sound simpler...
Enough submissions = My short film, Girl Disconnected, gets shown in the next session.
Not enough submissions = Well... my short film, Girl Disconnected, doesn't get shown. :D
But obviously, this really isn't about me, this is more about helping with the growth of our local filmmaking scene. After all, audiences and filmmakers do have a two-sided relationship, each needing the other to bloom, filmmakers having someone to make their movies for, and the quality of their works, what they can do, lie solely in the hands of the public (provided that they do not live in vacuums, which, of course, is a rarity). Of course, everyone needs an open-mind, it's all a balance, filmmakers crafting a film with audiences in mind isn't exactly a demeaning thing, it's not pandering, or conforming, or kowtowing, it's just sharing. Whilst audiences should be prepared to accept the fact that the local filmmakers will unlikely be aiming to emulate Hollywood or Hong Kong films completely even though these have long immersed themselves into our culture (along with, recently, Korean films) since we have vastly different cultures and backgrounds.
Korean cinema would never had succeeded without the support of its audiences. (of course, there's the massive support from the government too, but that's another story)
So, there you go. I'll end this entry with a quote of mine I used in an 'interview' with Monsterblog.
"I wish for a friendlier country to live in, where people are unafraid to chase their dreams and live lives the way they want to without fearing ridicule.
I also wish for the continual rise of Malaysian literature and films, where more people are unafraid to express their creativity. Yet more audiences who can accept this creativity too."
Happy new year.
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The majority of the video is shot at Zhouzhuang, which is a watertown known as the 'Venice in China' (or was it 'Venice in Shanghai'? Not sure...). The very same place Mission Impossible 3 was shot. Yeap, if you've seen the (very underrated) film, you'll recognize this place from the final scenes of it. That great long take where Tom Cruise was running through the place, pass the people and everything to find his wife (or was it to detonate a bomb? I can't remember...).
actual gift). In the three novella-length works included here - 'A Portrait of Shunkin', 'The Bridge of Dreams', and 'A Blind Man's Tale', the stories' intrinsic deviance is couched in complex structures that allow for distance and ambiguity. "A Portrait of Shunkin" probably the best-written story here, and wisely sequenced as the first - is a third-person narrative recounted from primary sources, principle among them a biography of Shunkin - a beautiful blind samisen player - likely written by her pupil, servant, and lover Sasuke. As the narrator comes across a picture of Shunkin and other documents, he pieces together the story of Shunkin and Sasuke: their beginnings as master and servant, and the eventual progression, as Shunkin is horribly disfigured and Sasuke blinds himself so as not to lose his mental image of her beauty. Sasuke and Shunkin's relationship, despite its peculiarities, is probably the closest thing to conventional romantic love among all these stories: from then on, it's rough going. Case in point: 'The Bridge of Dreams." See for yourself:
the operative word being tales rather than short stories, more dependent on twist endings and corkscrew plots than any real character depth. Characterization is not really a strong point here - in fact, Tanizaki can hardly be said to build characters at all. The stories are less the psychological realism often expected of short fiction than they are the enactments of elaborate fantasies. This comes to the fore more in the shorter pieces, most of them written quite early in Tanizaki's career, the earliest ('The Tattooer") dating from 1910. That story is actually one of the more distinctive: it takes advantage of a historical setting like the others, but uses it even more to couch Tanizaki's characteristic concerns of decadence and gaudy beauty. In it, a cruel tattoo artist in the Tokugawa period enjoys tormenting clients with his needles, until he meets, or in fact, creates his match: a beautiful young woman with a hidden streak of evil. After tempting her with scrolls of Chinese princesses strolling among severed heads, the tattooer eventually drugs her and inscribes a tattoo of a giant spider on her back. As she awakens, the girl realizes her true nature, and promises to make the tattoo artist her first victim - much to his relief.
It's really more like a soap opera, but with really awesome production sets and lavish eye-popping costumes (lots of, ah, corset-clinched cleavage shots... film's 
The most expensive Chinese film to date (budgeted at US$45 million), 
There are no bad guys or good guys in the film, no one sympathetic to root for or unlikeable to root against, everything is presented in a detached manner for you to watch so that you can form opinions of your own, you'll either be drawn in (like you're drawn in by a train wreck) as you watch the characters become increasingly homicidal towards each other, or you'll be too bored by the lack of fighting to pay attention to the intrigue. It's an uncompromising film.
that film was tailor-made for his inexpressiveness) as he got to display more range of emotions. I'll take him over F4 anytime. Unfortunately, I personally think that a more experienced young actor, like, say, Nicholas Tse, in this role would've elevated the film to greater depths of emotions since Prince Jie, compared to all other characters, was supposed to be the most sympathetic one of all, just that he was never developed much due to his lack of screentime.
Yet here comes the problem with the film's promotional campaign, which was so focused on selling Tony Leung as a villain that whatever possible surprises I could've gotten from the film were ruined. But then, there really wasn't that many selling points in this film. Yet imagine how things would be like if Sixth Sense was promoted with 'Watch Bruce Willis as a GHOST who helps a little boy who sees dead people!" or Seven promoted with "Watch Kevin Spacey kill Gwyneth Paltrow and put her head into a box and send it to Brad Pitt so that Brad Pitt can kill Kevin to complete the seventh kill!" or Fight Club promoted with "Watch Brad Pitt play Edward Norton's imaginary alter ego!" or Empire Strikes Back with "Watch as we find out Darth Vader is Luke's father!!!"
The film might not have aimed itself as a suspenseful crime thriller like Infernal Affairs, or a popcorn fare like Infernal Affairs, since the tone and pacing are already set during the beginning of the film. Prior to an operation to arrest a serial rapist, Tony Leung's character, Hei, and Kaneshiro's Bong were involved in a rather lengthy, analogous discussion about girl problems and whiskey, so this is more likely a character study drama bent on investigating how people would change due to the irony and injustices they face in life. But whatever fascination I could get was diminished, nay, ruined when the film turned out to be so stale and lifeless.
I started giggling when I saw the mating ritual at the beginning of the film, where Marilyn Monroe-like Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Elvis Presley-like Memphis (Hugh Jackman) won each other's hearts with their 'heart songs', it was an extravagant musical number, every other penguins joining in the choruses, flashy camera-work that seemed like something from Chicago or Moulin Rouge. Like Moulin Rouge, songs sung here are classic pop tunes that were reworked to fit this musical, but unlike Moulin Rouge, which I didn't even like that much, this film had me desperately wanting the original soundtrack. Hugh Jackman singing Heartbreak Hotel, Nicole Kidman singing Kiss (by Prince), Brittany Murphy singing Boogie Wonderland, and Robin Williams singing a SPANISH VERSION of Frank Sinatra's My Way. Holy crap! I never knew that... BRITTANY MURPHY could all sing so well!
There were many scenes that were so fabulous that they remained with me until even a day after I've seen it. It's impressive because to create strong lasting images is part of my own filmmaking style, it is my personal belief that filmmaking is visual storytelling, and the aesthetics are equally important as the story. What stuck with me? Male penguins huddled together to keep themselves warm against a massive blizzard, looking after their eggs while the females were off hunting, frolicking penguins careening down a snowy mountain, an avalanche behind them, young penguins diving into the sea for the very first time, seeking for fish, performing a beautifully choreographed dance routine underwater, the majestic elephant seals (one voiced by Steve Irwin, sadly a month before his untimely death) warning the penguins of their ominous plight, a graduation ceremony at night where penguins sang, dance and partied while the Aurora lit up the night sky, and some intensely thrilling chase scenes that involved lion seals and black whales that might scare some little kids. Yeah, the film was filled with non-stop wonders.
And that's what essentially happened: Sweetbox producer Geo loaned her backing tracks which had already been used on Sweetbox albums to fill out most of (miss)understood. See, that may be okay in context, but when I buy an Ayumi Hamasaki album, I'm expecting to hear Ayumi Hamasaki, not her covering a peripheral group I don't even care about. It's like buying a new Metallica record only to find out it's not actually a new Metallica record, but them covering shitty, old Blue Oyster Cult songs (okay...sadly...that one has happened too. Fuck you, 
The following trio of songs, 'It Was', 'Labyrinth' and 'JEWEL' move the album into a slower phase. The second is one of the album's two interludes, and provides a nice bridge to its second half. 'JEWEL' is pretty well your standard Hamasaki piano ballad, not bad by any stretch, if you're into that sort of thing. It sounds unexceptional to me, but then I've heard enough Hamasaki piano ballads to the point where this one doesn't sound like it does enough to distinguish itself (and, I'm sorry, but - JEWEL? What the hell? When is it cool for Ayu to steal song titles from 
Didn't like this when I first heard it as a single, and to be honest it's not a really great track, sounding like some kind of remix or alternate version of the earlier single 'Fairyland'. But it's got some nice floaty beats that are kind of cool. As a whole, it's pretty 'summery', not really standout but not bad either. But 'Kiss o' Kill' is immediately more interesting, mirroring the approach of 'Not Yet' with its sudden explosion of sound, although this one's even more driving and propulsive. The sequencing is interesting here: this song could easily have been the album opener, but has been placed instead as the penultimate track. Most albums have already faded out by this point, but Secret is still going strong, and 'kiss o' kill' is one of its best tracks. Really, how exciting is it to reach the end of an album and to find Ayu still pulling off surprising and exciting tracks like this? Sequencing can really make or break a disc, and Secret has some of the best-thought-out sequencing of any album I've heard all year. Fittingly enough, it closes with the title track, a ballad - and one I think is a lot better than 'JEWEL', the ballad-single here. 'Secret' is nicely understated, with a gently insistent Ayu chorus with some lovely singing, sending the album out on a prettified note. Note the nice contrasts working here, especially coming after 'Kiss o' Kill': as mentioned before, the dynamic shifts from track to track are great, never allowing a single groove to get monotonous. As soon as Secret is finished you immediately want to play it again, just to hear this muscular and air-tight album's arrangements from start to finish. No real skippable tracks; how rare is that?