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Malaysian filmmakers move into global spotlight

DPA

Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), July 5 (DPA) Sometimes it seems that nations emerge from nowhere on the global filmmaking stage. So is the case with Malaysia as a new wave of directors emerges across Southeast Asia to create their own distinctive brand of filmmaking.

Often overshadowed by the giants of the Asian movie game - China, South Korea, India and Japan - Malaysia has gone over the last few years from being barely a recognisable dot on the world cinema map to gaining the increasing attention of leading international film festivals.

"The point is that Southeast Asian films are really quite happening," said Philip Cheah, director of the Singapore Film Festival, which this year marks its 20th anniversary.



 

"You are just seeing the tip of the iceberg," he said with filmmaking also taking off in nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand as the digital revolution has helped to lower movie production costs.

"That has been the sea change," said Cheah, who was speaking at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic.

The result is likely to be a mushrooming of film festivals across Southeast Asia, in countries such as the Philippines and Thailand.

Indeed, as this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival shows that Malaysia's new generation of directors have grown more self-assured and have something to say about their nation's cultural diversity and the changes under way in Asia.

In both director Ho Yuhang's startling "Rain Dogs" ("Tai Yang Yue") and Tan Chui's remarkable debut film "Love Conquers All" ("Mo Shi Mo Wang"), which were showcased as part of this year's Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the main characters head for the big city (in this case the capital Kuala Lumpur) from the provinces in search of something new in their lives.

But there is a dark undertone to both movies as Tung in "Rain Dogs" and Ah Peng in "Love Conquers All" find themselves drawn almost helplessly towards the deceit and perils that can engulf people's lives in large metropolises.

After arriving in Kuala Lumpur to work in her aunt's food stall, Chinese-Malay Ah Peng suddenly finds herself pursued by a young man called John.

Ah Peng's daily life appears simple and mundane enough. But the muffled background noise and hum of city life Tan Chui uses in her film seems to indicate that John might be part of another world.

Much like the way her young cousin's pen pal signs his name, John is a mystery man, who suddenly disappears to Singapore and Ah Peng finds herself facing a fate that awaits many young women around the world making the move to big cities.

Woo Ming Jin's "Elephant and The Sea" takes on life in a seaside Malaysian village thrown off course by sudden changes in the world that surrounds it. All three directors are in their thirties.

However, the real achievement of Malaysia's new band of filmmakers, which also includes directors such as James Lee and Amir Muhammad, is that they are making their films against some fairly tough odds.

With scant official financial support, their movies are made on shoestring budgets, as a result giving an almost makeshift style to Malaysia's new film business; directors for one film might be the producer for another movie while the scriptwriter might double as a sound engineer.

Indeed, while China's film industry grapples with criticism of its big budget blockbusters, Indian independent movie makers battle to break through the Bollywood mould and South Korea's film business finds itself at a crossroads, Malaysian directors have set about creating their own distinctive brand of filmmaking.

In fact, Malaysia has a film industry dating back to the 1930s with many considering the so-called golden age of movie making in the nation spanning a 20-year period from the end of the World War II to the 1960s.

But helped along by the energy and intensity of its new local moviemakers, the Malaysian film industry is now managing to churn out about 15 feature films a year.

Adding to the industry's new found fortunes, one of the leading figures in Asian cinema, Taiwan-based Tsai Ming Liang returned to his native Malaysia to make one of his latest movies "I Don't Want to Sleep Here Anymore", which was released last year.

Moreover, while many of the early post-war Malaysian movies tended to focus on the majority Malay population, films like "I Don't Want to Sleep Here Anymore" touch on the nation's sometimes uneasy ethnic divisions.

What is more, with many of Malaysia's new breed of directors being of ethnic Chinese background, some of the nation's more recent films have looked at life from the point of view of the country's large Chinese population, which along with the Indian community make up the vast part of the nation's ethnic mix.
 

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IANS