SINGAPORE, April 20 — A pro-marriage ad, which some say is a film rip-off, implies that singles should settle for second best
The new pro-marriage TV commercial featuring a widow talking affectionately about her late husband’s noisy body functions is generating a lot of hot air among netizens.
The commercial, which debuted earlier this month, has sparked mixed reactions to its message that, rather than wait for Mr or Ms Right, people can build imperfectly beautiful relationships.
It is not just its implied message of settling for second best that is getting attention. The commercial has also been slammed for plagiarism.
The advertisement by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) is set at a funeral.
The Indian widow of a Chinese man pays tribute to her husband in an unexpected fashion — she talks about his less than endearing habits such as snoring and farting in bed.
Some viewers have blasted it for not being original. They say it is a rip-off from a scene in the 1997 Oscar-winning movie, “Good Will Hunting”.
Indeed, the commercial’s director, Malaysia’s Yasmin Ahmad, admits she had drawn inspiration from that movie directed by Gus Van Sant, though the idea also came from her own life.
In the Hollywood movie, a man played by actor Robin Williams reminisces about his dead wife and her farting habit.
Her expulsion of gases once woke herself up from her sleep and, turning to him, she asked if that came from him. He admitted to it because he did not have the heart to tell her the truth.
He then goes on to share that imperfections are the “good stuff” in a relationship, and that no one is perfect, it is just a matter of whether you are perfect for each other.
In the local version, the actress tells a similar story of her husband being woken by his own habit of breaking wind.
The only difference is, she blames it on the dog. She does, however, give the same sermon about such imperfections being the important things in a relationship.
“I don’t get how nobody picked up that this whole speech is a rip-off from “Good Will Hunting”. It’s a blatant copy, except that Williams is talking about his wife farting,” netizen cousyrules wrote on the YouTube page that carries the video.
In a response to Straits Times’s queries, director Yasmin, 51, confesses: “The inspiration was drawn from a variety of sources, including my own family’s idiosyncrasies, such as my dad snoring like a buffalo as I lay on his chest as a child, my husband snoring like two buffaloes, and a relative who farts loudly in her sleep, sometimes so loudly that she would wake herself up.
“Certainly Robin Williams’s farting joke also had a part to play as it reminded me of that relative. Was the entire script for my ad from ‘Good Will Hunting’? No. Did I rephrase some words from the movie? Yes, I did.”
Unconcerned about the copycat accusations, she explains: “In advertisements, paraphrasing movies is as old as advertising itself. The only similarity was the farting part, but the entire ad rests on something else.”
Supporting her concept, MCYS’s director for communications and international relations, Richard Tan, says: “MCYS is aware that the TV commercial is a parody of the few words said by Williams in ‘Good Will Hunting’. The idea of breaking wind may be similar, but it is not a reproduction of the scene”.
The director has also received kudos on the same YouTube page.
Said one netizen, wenggor: “It doesn’t matter to me if this ad borrowed ideas from other films or sources. What matters is that it was masterfully put together, that Singapore ads can be classy and profound.”
The commercial is part of a campaign arising from a 2006 survey which showed that many respondents were waiting for suitable partners to get married. — The Straits Times
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