Malay film industry

Yesterday I was watching a malay movie called CUCI at cinema. Starring Hans Isaac, AC Mizal, Awie, and Afdlin Shauki. It was a good comedy, and I kinda excited watching the first few minutes of the movie, not because Hans was in there, but because I was going to watch something relaxing and enjoying. I have been working like a dog for the past weeks. Working late night till 4am including Saturdays and Sundays is not really something what people call “life”. Seriously, I have lost it all since the first day I joined an audit firm. So watching CUCI is something I considered tussling-for-life. Nothing so great about the movie, but there was nothing apalling about it. No harm in watching it. Sadly, there are majority of Malaysians have a negative perception in watching malay films. Why? Because they are made in Malaysia. I always wonder why Malaysians think local made is nowhere near imported goods. Is not that I don’t go for Prada shoes or Christian Dior handbags, or Braun Buffel’s purse but I am not scared to admit that I have a number of Padini shoes and Soda shirts also some Vincci bags. I am not going to deny that I have watched “Baik Punya Cilok”, Cicakman and some other malay films. I mean, why should I be afraid of being condemned by some stupid Malaysians who thinks highly of people other than their own. “I would never pay to watch malay movies at cinema”. Hmm..let’s just think of that one phrase. If you don’t pay to watch, how do you expect malay film industry is going to expand when they have no supporters from their own people? How do you possibly think that they are going to survive and produce better films, if you don’t support them? If you don’t pay to watch, they wont get their returns, and how do you think they can find money to produce an improved film? How can they go international if their film is not even accepted locally?

Honestly in my opinion, I agree that malay movies have yet to produce anything like first class Hollywood movies. However, I think that we are moving towards that direction because we have witnessed hi-tech superhero movies, frightening horror and traumatic serial killer movies as well as high class comedy films entering box office and some parts of overseas market. Of course we cannot compare “Cicakman” with “Spiderman”, or “Trauma” with “Saw” or “Jangan Pandang Belakang with “Exorcist” but moving forward, I believe that we are able to be at par with international movies, we should be able to enter more overseas market I know we are getting there and it does not matter even if it takes 20 more years to realize it. The film producers have played their parts in the industry. More than 10 years ago, low class malay love story films being produced such as “Sembilu 1,2,3,4,5,6….”, “Ringgit Kasorga”, “Maria Mariana” and many more. Why these films were classified as low class? I think the dialogs were too boring and mostly artificial. They didn’t really portray reality of life. “Perlukah aku lakukan semua ini?”, “Sanggup kah kau hidup semati dengan ku?” and blablabla…what the hell!! We don’t talk like that in real life. However, in the recent years, they have come out with good dialogs incorporating bahasa melayu pasar and some English. That is a starting point of something. That’s how we talk. They just have to improve their production and marketing strategy. The public on the other hand, have got to play their role in ensuring our film industry accomplishes its goal. I believe that Malaysian film producers do value our critics and feedbacks. We can’t comment if we don’t watch, and they can’t improve, if you don’t criticize.
Malaysian Film industry will never go far as we claim it to be if we don’t show support. “Support the local or there will never be one”.