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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.
DPA
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