Malaysia's new generation of filmmakers find their own voices

During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, The Jakarta Post film contributor, Paul F. Agusta, had the opportunity to meet with several important figures in Malaysian cinema. He is sharing what he learned about contemporary movements in Malaysian filmmaking in this third article of a series of three on the dynamic history and current creative state of moviemaking in our neighbor to the north.

With the increasing dichotomy of commercial viability versus social significance coloring Malaysian film production from the late 1980s onwards, a savvy and creative new generation of independent filmmakers began to emerge who wanted to set aside all the polemics and to just get on with making movies.

"It's hopeful, its chaotic, muddled, disorganized, but we are doing what we feel like we should do," said Ho Yuhang, the internationally acclaimed director of Min.

"Just do work-lah ...Don't waste time analyzing or cultivating trends," he exclaimed.

This is the spirit propelling the Malaysian independent filmmakers of today.

"Everybody is just excited to be making movies," declared advertising hotshot turned filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad, whose life story inspired Yuhang to make the groundbreaking Min.

Malaysia's directorial movers and shakers, most notably, Ho Yuhang, Yasmin Ahmad, Nam Ron, Amir Muhammad, and James Lee seem to be racing with each other to raise the bar just a little higher with each of their new films. This diverse group, with equally diverse approaches to storytelling, is beginning to make a home for Malaysian films on the world cinematic map.

In the case of Ho Yuhang, who is a master of measured mechanical, subtle, observational filmmaking, sets out not to entertain, but rather to engage his audiences in reflection on life.

"I deny people conventional viewing pleasures ... (with Min) I told my editor to not cut when he wanted to cut, but to add five seconds more. In this way, Min was intentionally disturbing," Ho explained.

He equates his detached observational cinematic style to that of a Discovery Channel documentary that steps back to watch an insect in its everyday routine.

He aims to "... expose sociopolitical issues through the day- to-day life of ordinary people. I find the banality of everyday life exciting."

"I believe that all you need is a simple premise, complexities can arise from there," said Ho Yuhang, who is winding up production for his latest film Sanctuary. He describes this endeavor as a "complex film that tells the story of a brother, a sister, and an old man ... it's a very open film, almost plotless, but it has something."

Yasmin Ahmad commented that, "Yuhang's brilliance lies in the fact that he is detached by choice. He does not pretend to understand the dilemmas of the characters, he just lets them play out."

Yasmin herself finds "poetry in the lives of the most ordinary of people." In her first film, Rabun, her second movie Sepet, and the screenplay she is currently writing Gubra, Yasmin, like Yuhang, takes a long, close look at life and living to inform the art of cinema and comment on social issues.

Hassan Muthalib, Malaysia's foremost film historian and theorist, said of Rabun that, "I do not for a moment believe that Rabun is only a story about Yasmin's parents as she has contended ... I consider Yasmin's statement a red herring, one that disguises her real subject. Like P. Ramlee, Yasmin is critical about her race ... she is showing them for what they really are. But also like P. Ramlee, she is soft and gentle in her criticism. This approach is what makes Rabun interesting.

"And the character of her parents is indeed interesting. Their worldview is exemplary. They have discovered the secret of living a life profound -- that life is too short to be little. In the words of Aristotle, 'Stories guide us as to how to live our lives'."

Unlike the works of Yuhang and Yasmin, Gedebe the feature film debut of Malaysian theater's enfant terrible, Nam Ron, is not based on an original screenplay, but rather is derived from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a story he uses to reflect recent political events in Malaysia.

According to Hassan Muthalib, Gedebe, which is set in Malaysia's contemporary underground music community, "Invites the audience to take a critical and objective stance in order to get a clear view of society the way it really is; ideologically and institutionally constructed."

"Gedebe sets forth the mentality of youth living in this post- modern age and how their actions eventually lead them to destruction," Hassan explained. He then cited well-respected producer and front-runner in Malaysian independent cinema, Rosihan Zain, better known as Dhojee, as being of the opinion that Gedebe is actually about Nam Ron's anxiety about major political events occurring in Malaysia.

Nam Ron has taken classic fiction and brought it home as a reflection of contemporary reality, whereas another young filmmaker, Amir Muhammad, who started out as a social satire columnist for various leading publications, including The New Straits Times, begins with reality and subtly injects elements of poetic license in his brilliantly crafted semi-documentary The Big Durian.

Amir, who is also noted for his short essay films on politically and socially sensitive issues, such as race and religion, is also responsible for Malaysia's first feature film shot on digital, Lips to Lips, a comedy produced by Dhojee and starring, among others, fellow independent film director James Lee.

James Lee, whose films include Snipers and the internationally acclaimed Room to Let challenges cinematic conventions even further. His sometimes seemingly heavy-handed experiments are probably the least accessible of contemporary Malaysian independent cinema. Strong visuals, deep semiotics, and non- traditional story telling methods mark his works.

With the momentum these dynamic independent filmmakers have going, this raising of the bar could one day rise over the tallest structures in the world, the KLCC Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.