NOV 28 — I was at a book launch last week, for Amir Muhammad’s first actual book (i.e. one that he wrote, instead of edited) titled “Yasmin Ahmad’s Films”, mainly because I’m a fan of Yasmin Ahmad’s works but also partly to fulfil my kiasu need to get my hands on the book as early as possible, ha ha.
Watching the short film “Kak Min”, hearing a few people read excerpts from the book and also recounting their experiences with Yasmin, it was then that the realisation really sank in, that Yasmin really is no longer here with us, and that we’ve lost someone really special.
Films are something that I’ve always had a huge passion for, and unlike a lot of self-styled ‘enlightened’ Malaysians, I actually do keep an eye out on the state of Malaysian cinema. When I say I do ‘keep an eye out’ I meant that I actually go to the cinema to watch Malaysian films, from “KL Menjerit to Rempit” to “Cinta”, the “Senario” movies and beyond, even Malaysian ‘indie’ flicks.
No, I don’t watch everything (I don’t have money to burn, you know), but any time I think that a Malaysian film might have something interesting in it, or have the potential to be interesting, I’ll usually try to make time to go see it. More often than not I’ll be disappointed, but I guess hope is one of my strong suits.
A lot of my friends find it strange how I can yap endlessly about the transgressing yet spiritual nature of films by Lars Von Trier, how beautiful Chaplin and Capra films are, how inspiringly independent John Cassavetes is, how passionate and patriotic Samuel Fuller’s films are, the subtle genius of Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch, the over-the-top maestro Brian De Palma, the slyly skilful Hal Ashby, and yet I’m always excited to see some new Malaysian film they think is beneath them.
If those friends are fans of people like Kubrick, Coppola, Scorsese or lately people like Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze, my insistence on hoping to catch a Malaysian masterpiece in the cinema will draw even more blanks and gasps of disbelief. But almost everyone agrees on one thing, Yasmin Ahmad is a special case.
For some directors I always make it a point to try and catch their films like U-Wei Saari, Bade Azmi, Mamat Khalid, Kabir Bhatia, Afdlin Shauki, Aziz M Osman, Amir Muhammad and of course Yasmin Ahmad. But back to the main crust of this article. For me, Yasmin holds a special place in Malaysian cinema because of her consistent vision and style. Just one look at any of her films, and you sort of already know that it’s a Yasmin Ahmad film.
And for actually managing to reach out to the hearts and minds of ordinary, open-hearted Malaysians, it makes her place in Malaysian cinema even more special, for here is one cinema artist who can also draw good box-office takings. When the realisation set in that Yasmin’s no longer with us, I kept on wondering, what will happen to Malaysian cinema? How long do we have to wait for art and commerce to beautifully collide again the way they effortlessly did with Yasmin’s films?
That’s the thing when dealing with loss, sometimes we forget that there’s always hope. Right after that book launch, partly to avoid the rush hour traffic jam and partly because I did want to check it out, I went to see the film “Pisau Cukur”, directed by Bernard Chauly. His last film, “Gol & Gincu” was a well directed effort, but you feel the sense that something was missing. But this new one, well it is pretty special.
It is unfortunate that nowadays not that many people take comedy seriously. There was a time when a well-made comedy is considered an equal to a well-made drama, when a romantic comedy like “It Happened One Night” can and did actually scoop up all the major awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor & Best Actress) on Oscar night. Not anymore.
Despite the current pretentious mindset of only taking ‘serious’ things seriously, it is a measure of how misguided this mindset is, that the benchmark that they use to measure things is actually superficial. And it is quite unfortunate that a film as fine as “Pisau Cukur” is unleashed in the midst of this fickle mindset.
Yes, I know it’s only a romantic comedy (with a tossed in whodunit plot to make things more fun), with the kind of acting that some people might unthinkingly call ‘overacting’.
In other movies, they’d be right, but the shallowness of the characters in this movie, and the seemingly bad acting that comes with it is actually in keeping with the whole point of the film. Almost every character in the film is ‘acting’ like they’re someone else, so it is actually very clever, that whole juxtaposition of acting and bad acting.
Even the gradual romance that develops between the characters is handled well, even if you can see the possible romance coming the minute the characters pop up in the film. A light confection it might be, but it’s definitely not easy to make something like this.
If this was Hollywood in the 1940s, “Pisau Cukur” would’ve not only been a huge commercial hit, but a critical hit as well. It’s not yet Ernst Lubitsch or Preston Sturges, but it’s not too far behind, that’s for sure.
And seeing it just as I was pondering the future of Malaysian cinema after that sobering book launch, I found myself not only excited again, but it also made me look forward to seeing more new movies by young Malaysian directors. We might not have a Cannes Official Selection staple director yet, but did the Philippines and Thailand expect to have one of those in their ranks 10 years ago?
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