My younger brother and a couple of his friends entered the Kami Anak Malaysia video contest, which was held by Tourism Malaysia and the Ministry of Education. His group from SMK Putrajaya Precinct 9 (2) won the 2nd prize (it was the third place actually).
The grand prize (1st place) was won by SMK Sultanah Asma, a premier non-SBP all-girls boarding school from Alor Setar. I told my brother earlier on, that there is no way that his group can beat a boarding school in these competitions.
It’s not necessarily because of they produce better quality entries. It’s just the way the system work.
I went to a premier boarding school too, so I know full well how it goes. Against a boarding school, especially a famous one, a public school has almost no chance of winning. The world is unfair, like.
This is because the ministry prefers the boarding school to win. By winning, it’s a solid proof that the boarding school system works, and the ministry is doing a good job. Can you imagine how shoddy the ministry’s image will be if a public school can easily beat an elite school?
In any case, I am proud of his work and his steadfast effort to prove me wrong. Well, he did win an iPod Shuffle.
He said he wanted to make more films as he gets older. So, I’ll give him a start by putting his winning entry here:
When the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry announced a new ruling banning local filmmakers from showing Mat Rempit and men in women’s clothes in their productions, film producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman was among those badly hit. Her currently-produced film about transsexuals, Anu Dalam Botol (literally Dick in the Bottle) has already racked a decent cost of RM100,000 (around USD28,300) before the ruling, which will go to waste if it couldn’t be shown.
Raja Azmi is known for being controversial—I can feel her spunk when she talks about censorship, the industry and her love of the limelight in today’s The Sun.
Since one of the reasons why the government imposed this draconian ruling is to fight immoral activities linked to groups of Mat Rempit and cross-dressers, Raja Azmi reasoned that:
I hate it when people say movies can encourage people to become Mat Rempit and transsexuals. Do you think movies can change people’s lives so drastically? Why do we have this mentality that if we made a movie about Mat Rempit the whole of Malaysia will become Mat Rempit. Movie-makers depict what is out there.
Frankly, I am not aware about the comparison of Malaysian films with Iran, but she raised a good point:
People ask why we don’t make movies like those by Iranian filmmakers about good people, good Muslims and innocent children. Their films have been winning awards. But do these people think there are no drug addicts in Iran, no rapists, no murderers. Of course there are no Mat Rempit because I hardly see motorbikes in Iran. But there are a lot of gays in Iran and there are a lot of “bad” men who seduce women. And Iran never made movies like that. But these things still exist in Iran. Can you can explain that?
I share her sentiments on sex, and wish more people will not only feel the same way, but are brave enough to come out with it. When accused of being a “sex maniac”, she retorted:
I believe sex maniacs are people who think about sex all the time and have many sexual partners. I am not like that. I believe that in life, you should have sex, religion and love. Your life is incomplete without these elements. You must be able to discuss these issues openly.
Sex is a creative part in a human being. There is a lot of creativity in sex. My husband and I discuss openly about sex. Every married couple should do that.
However, the best part about her is her unwillingness to kiss ass. She had this to say about our film industry:
We have too many rules.We are eager to ban this and ban that. There should be some form of censorship. (But) Too much censorship curbs our creativity.
She also claimed that the industry does not have an united front, incapable to demand more showings of local films in theatres, and furthermore:
The recent ban on movies depicting Mat Rempit and transsexuals proves that we are not united. Some film-makers do not care about the ban because they do not make this kind of movies. So they have nothing to lose and they will not speak up for producers affected by this ruling.
When asked about the reason the public do not prefer Malaysian films, she answered simply:
Our movies are of inferior quality compared to foreign films.
Way to say it, sister.
Besides producing the doomed Anu Dalam Botol, Raja Azmi is currently working on Karkuma, a novel about an epic war story between humans and demons. Awesome.
What do you think of the Malaysian film industry and government censors? Do you agree with Raja Azmi? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
That will be my one-word summary of how Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was. It’s not enough if you just want to watch giant robots brawling, apparently you must also let yourself subjected to godawful humour, gratuitous perving and a senseless story to get the most out of this film.
I tweeted my initial review, now it’s time for an in-depth spoiler-full dissection. Wait, no, I won’t. There are already two of the most AWESOMEREVIEWS about it already.
So I’m just gonna go for an incoherent and almost profanity-laced rant.
Autobots
The new Autobots suffered the most from character development. Sideswipe had the opportunity to be the ninja of the group, but we only get to see him in action with those shiny blades once in the beginning. Am I the only one who looked at those double blades and wheel legs and remembered this?
Arcee is now a disembodied presence controlling 3 bikes, who got killed as fast as Bay could. I don’t get why there had to be THREE bikes in the first place, but at least in the comics they used to be different Autobots (the blue one was called Chromia). Jolt was only in because GM wanted to promote Chevy Volt, which is a shame, because he had so much potential. You can never go wrong with taser hands!
Skids and Mudflaps looked like retarded hillbillies that act like ghetto brothers. Everybody with a sane mind knows how much we don’t need another Jar Jar Binks, but I guess kids love these moronic heroes, huh? After all, every kid aspire to be morons. I won’t elaborate much on the racial undertones, but I’d say here that I love them more when they were that clunky ice cream truck.
Ironhide and Ratchet? Meh, nothing much. They’re only here because they were in the first one. Bumblebee! I felt like crying when I saw him crying, not because I can relate to him, but because I couldn’t bear seeing him lowered down to be the emo and clingy sidekick to Sam.
Optimus Prime however, is the reason why you SHOULD watch this movie. He’s the quintessential hero, not just the leader and war general, but this time the super-operative, the spear-point of Autobot strike force. I remembered my jaw dropping when I saw him transform in the first movie, and the sight is still as magnificent this time.
Decepticons
Megatron and Starscream were fucking BORING. There, I’ve said it. The Fallen looks like a rejected Giger sculpture that would serve better as Jonathan Davis’ mic-stand. Grindor was a Blackout knock-off—did he have to choose the SAME form?
Sideways appeared for a few seconds before getting killed. How much did Audi pay for that, actually?
Scorponok: see Ironhide and Ratchet.
I FUCKING hate The Doctor. Actually, I hate SMALL TRANSFORMERS. Like, what the fuck, man? Transformers = BIG ROBOTS. That includes you too, Wheelie. And those who laughed your ass off when Wheelie was leg-humping Mikaela, I fucking hate you all as well.
Soundwave is probably my favourite Decepticon in this film. Sure, he looked stupid in the satellite form (I think that’s his only form), like a limbless paraplegic floating in the darkness of space, but his form at least serve some purpose. Launching Ravage as a missile is as close as we can get to cassette tapes.
Devastator, in one word, was AWESOME. You almost certainly can never go wrong with such scale, but it was disappointing that he wasn’t utilised more. He was sucking some sand, then climbing the pyramid like bloody King Kong, then boom! One railgun attack and there he goes. Adding to that, I don’t know what the fucking justification is for having Demolishor as a different, unicycle version of Scavenger, or the multiple clones of Rampage, Long Haul and Mixmaster. I’ll say this: Devastator was cool, his components (Mixmaster, Scavenger, Long Haul, Rampage, Scrapper, Hightower and Overload) are all cool, their individual robot modes was cool…How could you fuck that up, man?
Old geezer Jetfire was amusing, I can almost relate to the crankiness, parachute-farts and all. The concept of Optimus Prime combining with him was definitely interesting (just like Powerlinxing in Armada), sadly, Jetfire had to die while Prime used his spare parts like he just found it in the recycle bin.
It was very brave of the writers to utilise the doomed Pretender concept, but I think it’s just another excuse for having a girl robot, ala-Cameron from Sarah Connor Chronicles. The ride was fun while it lasted, which was right until the part where a tentacle comes out of her bum, coming straight after the upskirt panty shot.
I have never complained when they changed Optimus from a Freightliner to a Peterbilt, but can someone tell me why the fuck do they have to mess with something sweet like this:
I don’t know what it is about the Malaysian entertainment industry, but only in right-wing Mingguan Malaysia’s entertainment spread can you find a column that judges a movie not on its own merit, but on the hero’s background.
A few months back, a paranoid article on Superman being a Jewish propaganda was circulated in Malay papers. This week, this paper crucified John Connor from Terminator Salvation for being born out of wedlock.
The article (in Malay) starts by detailing that John Connor was the son of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, born out of wedlock. John Connor is therefore, in definition, a bastard. It goes on by conveniently describing his childhood as nothing but a mix of video games and drugs. Somehow, this bastard goes on to be a messiah and saves mankind from destruction.
A bastard as the saviour of mankind does not sit well with the writer, I guess.
Another example given was in Kingdom of Heaven where another bastard grew up to be the kind-hearted and brave leader of Christian Palestinians. “What’s wrong with being a bastard?”, the article asked sarcastically. “A bastard is just the same as others: he can be virtuous, purposeful, scholarly and overall an excellent person”.
Exactly, no need to be sarcastic. That IS the truth.
You can go on by padding the rest of the article on how the Western media is glamorising fornication, but it’s not going to make the article more relevant to the movie industry. Where do we get off by judging others with our standard? We hated it when the Westerners do so to us, but here we are hypocritically doing the same.
You want to say that how deviant and blasphemous Hollywood is for elevating a bastard to a hero? You want to play it that way?
Let’s take a look at the Malaysian movie industry for the past decade.
Almost all comedies had morons as heroes, because apparently Malaysians can’t “get” smart comedies. ALL Senario movies featured insufferable dunces. ALL movies starring Saiful Apek had a certified retard dimwit as the hero.
Bohsia (the full title is misleading, it should be called just Bohsia) had floozies who fuck for money and cheap status from those said hoons.
Look me in the eye and tell me how these unsavoury characters are any better than a child who didn’t have any say being born out of wedlock!
Those crass movies sold. Quite extravagantly, if I might add. Because you know what? We don’t really fucking care if our heroes are idiots or hoons or sluts or bastards.
If you ask me, compared to seeing those abominable rempits and bohsias on screen pretending to be heroes like monkeys in suits, give me my bastard hero anytime.
Before we start, let’s get the disclaimers over with. Yes, there WILL be spoilers. Furthermore, I will be writing as a massive fan of Alan Moore, who’ve read Watchmen countless times and eagerly anticipated the movie adaptation since it was announced. Lastly, as you may have realised—yes, I am a bloody snob.
First of all, if you were planning on chilling out, watching an action-packed, slightly funny superhero movie with lovable heroes, hot chicks and despicable villains…do yourself a favour: don’t pick Watchmen. I think Punisher: War Zone is still showing at some theatres. The trailers and movie posters might show a group of buff guys and a girl in costumes, but don’t be fooled.
It will not make you laugh like Iron Man. It will not leave you breathless, at least not like The Dark Knight did. Hell, it doesn’t even have a supervillain.
Watchmen is full of superheroes talking to each other, usually while they’re not in costume. It is very low on action and might leave you yawning, that is if you are still not leaving the theatres for the whole two and a half hours.
This is because the original comic, ladies and gentlemen, is not just a graphic novel, it’s a masterpiece. There’s a reason why geeks all over the world were creaming their pants for the film.
You might have heard about how the graphic novel has so many layers about it, and how each panel is meticulously detailed. Ask those who have professed their love for the graphic novel, I’m sure most of them read it a couple of times, and that was just to get the whole story.
Unless you’re prepared to open your minds to the concepts of banned vigilantes, Cold War, Nixonian America, the savage nature of humankind, quantum physics the and reign of Supermen (and a lot more), you might be wondering what is with all the fuss regarding Watchmen?
It is for all these reasons that a lot of people claim that the graphic novel is “unfilmable”, although the panels themselves are very cinematic. Alan Moore has never allowed any of his work to be adapted into film, and I for one have to agree with him.
Watchmen the movie is just like a mirror reflection of the graphic novel. It looks like it, but it’s just a shallow imitation.
Zack Snyder cut a lot of scenes out of the film, citing time constraints as the problem, but he did take a long time to start the story. The assassination of The Comedian was too long, and it was practically a duel between supermen. This has diluted the intrigue of a murdered old man, which was later revealed to be a legendary masked vigilante and government operative.
The worst crime Snyder could’ve done was leaving out Walter Kovacs’ first case, and butchering his transformation into Rorschach. Cuffing a psychopath and leaving him with a saw while his house was burning is horrifying in itself, but Snyder had to change it to crass violence.
Personally, I am disappointed that a lot of little details that make the story are left out, even though they won’t lengthen the film by one bit. Dumbing down Crimebusters to Watchmen. Rorschach measuring the wardrobe using a hanger. Laurie’s on-and-off smoking habit, and looking for the lighter button in Archie. Janey Slater’s wristwatch. The origin of Dr Manhattan’s symbol (that’s hydrogen atom, by the way). Sweet Chariot sugar cubes. The meaning of the name “Ozymandias”. The hoverbikes. The “Tandoori to go” quote. Lipstick mark on Sally’s framed photo. Burgers ‘n’ Borscht. Robert Redford (not Ronald Reagan!).
I’m sorry, that’s just the fanboy sentimentalism talking. Perhaps the DVD will be kinder to me.
The scene where Dr Manhattan is on Mars, recounting his past, is perhaps the hardest to translate onto film. Originally, it was presented as a series of non-linear events to document his perception of time. On film, it’s a mess as audience scrambled to decide which comes before which. He can see the future, and his prior knowledge of your actions is supposed to be frustrating and annoying. However, he announced the actions like he’s reading off a teleprompter, and Laurie doesn’t seem to be affected at all.
Perhaps I should’ve expected all this when Snyder was announced as the director. Just like in 300, his strength is only in translating visually, which is the only redeeming point in this film.
There’s a reason why the first preview way back then was of Rorschach. His is the strongest presence, and watching his mask fluidly transforming every time is just FUCKING AWESOME. Dr Manhattan is larger than life, if you can distract yourself from watching his dong and perfectly sculpted ass every so often. With a glow that beats even Edward Cullen, you can sort of make out the particles that construct him if looked close enough.
You have to agree that the casts all look the part. The Comedian with his bastardly sneer while lighting up his cigar with a motherfucking flamethrower. Nite Owl, an out-of-shape nervous man with boyish dreams. Ozymandias and Silk Spectre, so-so but fairly okay.
Carla Gugino: HOT.
All the places were lovingly constructed to look like they leapt straight out of the panels. For that at least, I owe Zack Snyder my gratitude. The newsstand on the corner in particular, with its owner and the comic-reading boy, is my favourite.
Well, in short, I find the Watchmen film completely missing the point of the original. It might be whored less than Moore’s other works—The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V For Vendetta, From Hell—but it’s still a travesty, although a pretty one at that.
A wildly hit-or-miss affair with the fans, it will probably be a miss with most of the casual viewers. I bet there will be many who will grumble for Nite Owl: the Batman rip-off, gratuitous sex scenes, slow pacing and too many flashbacks (well, there are SIX origin stories to be told).
Nonetheless, if you are still reading this review up until now, I strongly urge you to watch it. True, it might not be very fun, but it’s a decent movie, really.
And if you do find the movie interesting, please, please I beg you to read the original graphic novel. Your life will be better for it.
Update (07/03/2009): After that long rant, I do think Snyder did a commendable job of staying as faithful as he can to the original material. Just read this for a flavour of how worse it could’ve been.
When the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry announced
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