Malaysian Studies Project

Newspaper Review on Films- Utusan Malaysia

December 2011

Group members Ainin Nurfarahim Hamdan Siti Nor Dahliawati Zulkefli Noor Afiqah Ahmad Rohaizreen Irdayu Mohd Radzi Jagaan Selladurai

Student ID 12318 12436 12405 12446 11543

Submission: 9th December 2011

Table of Content

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Chapter 1: Introduction

The history of Malaysian cinema has always been associated with the history of Malay films, either produced by the Shaw Brothers Studios during the Golden Era until the 70s, or by the Independent Malay producers in the past 3 decade, the stories have always been Malaycentric, in the Malay language, using Malay actors and directors, produced for the predominantly Malay audience. Based on collective observation, we have come to a conclusion that the film industry is much relate to the demographics of our country. The reason behind the immense production of Malay movies is simply because the majority ethnic race of our country is the Malay who consists of roughly 65% of the population. The Chinese and Indians have also developed movies and dramas using their mother tongue: Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil to fulfill the demands of the minority ethnicity; Chinese and Indian. In commendation, our film industry has also played a large role in collaborating all the three main ethnicitys culture, differences and language into producing films like Papadom and Nasi Lemak 2.0 in the spirit of 1Malaysia. This has fostered a closer bond with not only the various audiences, but also the film makers as well. To conduct our research, we have sourced articles from Utusan Malaysia for the period of one year from July 1st, 2010 until June 30th, 2011. Utusan Malaysia has been one of the oldest source of media and publication in Malaysia. We believe that Utusan Malaysia has not only the experience but also the archive of the Malaysian movie industry due to its long term existence. Utusan Malaysia is also easily accessible as the archive is available at the Ipoh archive. The research was conducted and the outcome of the research is that Malaysian generally prefers watching local horror movies compared to other genres.

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Statistic of Malaysian Movie based on Genre(Percentage)

4.2 8.3 41.7 8.3 12.5 16.7 8.3 Horror Comedy Action Romance Drama Documentary History

The statistic above shows the genre of movies for duration of one year based on our research. As can be observed from above pie chart, movies of Horror genre make up 44.4% of the film produced due to the acceptance of the audience. Starting with Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam by Suhaimi Baba, the Malaysian film arena has seen a very high acceptance and excellent reviews locally and internationally. This has brought about a surplus of directors and producers whom are interested to invest in Horror films, hence the domination of the genre in the industry. The lowest share of genre goes to romance. Based on simple economic theory of supply and demand, the preferred genre of films produced by our industry can be explained. Demand for romantic movies are low hence the low supply of movie from the said genre. Independent film makers and home movies are very much encourage by the professional film makers as it would be a base to look for new talents to emerge and increase the quality of our film industry. With the continuous evolution of technology, much more technologically savvy youths are inclined to film short stories or home-movies using a simple video camera and editing them using highly advanced software. This initiative of theirs is easily shared with the rest of the world via Youtube and Facebook, the two most viral networking sites in our era.

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The case study will discuss the current state of our local film industry and the films produced where we will be exploring the moral of the films and detailing the criticism by genre. In addition, a study on the effect of mediocrity syndrome in the film industry will also be carried out. Then measures that can be taken to improve the film industry by professionals and also the suggested measures from our group will be presented to conclude this study.

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Chapter 2: Malaysias Film Industry

Film industry in Malaysia has started in early 90s. Since then it has flourished and grow to its current state. A study has been made by utilizing local newspaper- Utusan Malaysia from 1st July 2010 until 30th June 2011. It can be concluded that in one years time, 42% of the films produced by local producers are horror movies, while 25% are actions movies. Subsequently, 13% are comedy with 8% actions and romantic movies. The remaining 4% of the films produced are documentary films. As stated previously, the main genre produced during the research period was horror movies. For this study, ten out of twenty four films reviewed (Daly please confirm) were of horror/thriller genre. That said, horror films in Malaysia are inspired by the local belief in existence of supernatural. This is because in the olden days people used to seek the help of mystical creatures in their life. The films produced shows the consequences when one seeks for the help of spiritual creatures- in all case, bad consequences. These films are produced to educate the younger generation not to believe and resort to the use of black magic to aid their life. Our research has come to conclude that this genre has managed to attract the attention of audiences thus encouraged producers to produce more horror movie. One of the films reviewed for this study was the horror films is Senjakala. This film revolves around the use of saka in Malaysian society. Saka is a mythical creature that a person keeps for exchange of protection in life. There are rules to be adhered to in order for one to possess saka without problems. If the owner ignores and break the rules, there will be serious consequences. Being a protector for the owners generation of families, it is conveyed in the film that a saka can only be removed by performing complex ritual. If the saka is not removed, it has to be inherited after the original owner died. This film is simple and easy to understand. Several reviews done Utusan said that this film was too predictable and the actors did not play the role very well thus the elements of fear can be predicted.

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Another horror film produced earlier this year was Rasuk. Rasuk is a Malay word which means possess, more accurately when one is being possessed by the devil and lost control of ones body. This film revolves around the locals belief in superstition. In this film, the storyline shows what happened when a spirit which was trapped had been accidently released by a girl. This girl was then possessed by the spirit and later on learned that the land of the house that she stayed in was haunted. This is one of the examples of superstitious local beliefs. Subsequently, there are several types of mystical creatures in local beliefs. Locals believed that a toyol was a type of supernatural being that stole from other people for its owner. In the olden days, some believers kept toyol to earn quick money by asking toyol to steal money from villagers. Janin, a film was about toyol was made up of horror and emotional elements. Review in Utusan Malaysia proclaimed that this movie will be very moving even though the early part of this movie was scary. Another movie reviewed was about Malaysias own Karak highway. Karak is famous for its haunting stories and thus inspired the producer to turn it into a film. There were myths about this place that has been carried from generation to generations which acted as the base for this film. This motion picture had managed to satisfy the audiences expectation but the element of surprise could only be found in the beginning and the end of the movie, the rest of the time the storyline was deemed predictable. Review by Utusan Malaysia stated that the plot of this film could be worked on further and improved. This film also includes religion issue. It was stressed that if a person does not have a strong basis of religion, one would be easily distracted by evil spirits or even gets possessed. Sadly, this film also depicts how only when in difficulties, men remember god. Subsequently, Karak shows how powerful the Quranic verse is against evil spirits. Furthermore, we have reviewed the film Damping malam which was similar to Senjakala. Senjakala was about saka while damping malam was about damping. Damping is a supernatural being similar to Saka but damping is usually associated with wives that are afraid that their husband might get mistress or mistresses. This film shows how a successful businessmans wife who are always left alone resort to employing such creatures.

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Even though the wife was pampered with all the richness the husband could give, she felt insecure and afraid that her husband will fall in love with other women during business hours. Peer pressure was also one of the factors why the wife went to shaman and asks for pendamping. Without further discussion with the husband, the wife believed what her friend told her and because of that decided to take pendamping. Similar to saka, those who have pendamping has to obey certain rules that have been made in the agreement. Should they break any of the rules; the spirit will take its vengeance. In the middle of this movie, the shaman responsible for the bind between the wife and the creature suddenly died. The wife broke some rules which resulted in the anger of the spirit. The pendamping got angry and started to possess her daughter. The message from this film was that there will always be consequences when human being goes against the law of nature. In the movie Ngangkung, the film depicts how lottery is illegal for Muslim. Gambling is not good because people become addicted and the possibility to loss a huge amount of money is nig. Although it is against the religion, in Malay tradition, those who wish to win lottery will seek the help of mystical creatures to get the right number (4D toto) or to predict the winner (racing). As an exchange, men have to surrender something to the spirit. The purpose of this film is to give a lesson to those who like to play lottery. Along this movie, the producer shows the audience negative impact that could happen to those whom meddle with spiritual creatures and addicted to lottery. In Utusan Malaysia, some people debated whether this movie will give negative impact and somehow teach people how to contact spirit to seek for help in order to win lottery. In the first twenty minutes of this film, the process of seeking for help and buying lottery are shown but the rest of the movie show the consequences for those who play lottery and those who dare to meddle with mystical creatures. Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPFM) does not make any cut in this film, and thus confirmed that show this film is not offensive and is suitable for general viewing. Other than horror films, Malaysian enjoy watching action films; for example KL Gangster. KL Gangster is one of the action movie showing the element of gangsterism and also family. This film reflected upon how family is the basic element that molds an individuals

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social behavior. In this movie, it all changed when one of the family members got himself involved in group of gangsters and had been sent to jail for five year. As a result, his family has to pay back for all that he had done. This tragedy had changed the social manners of the family members as they no longer respect each other including their mother. Some people debated how this film can give Malaysian films industry a bad image because foreigners are starting to ask if Kuala Lumpur which was famous for its peace and harmony has problem of gangsterism. In response, the films producers retaliate saying that they are free to create art in order to express their creativity to enhance the film industry and avoid clich in Malaysian movies. One of the most talked about film in Utusan Malaysia early this year was Merong Mahawangsa. The film was adapted from Malay ancient literature- Merong Mahawangsa. According to Dr. Siti Hawa (Pancaindera, Mei 15, 2011) film producer has the right to change the original story to attract audience. It is not prohibited for the producers to change the original copy of the literature as an adaptation of that literature. As she studied the original literature, she mentioned that in the movie, it showed that the Chinese princess was married in the golden land while in the book it stated that the Chinese princess never left the country. From this film, it can be seen that the film industry has grown to another level and the young producers now are brave enough to try something new. Another film that is out of the norm was dalam botol. This is the first film in Malaysia to touch the most sensitive issue -transsexual gender. This film was one of the heavy issue films that had managed to be successfully shown in Malaysia early this year. The producer was brave enough to accept and defense his idea from societys critics. Film with drama genre has moderate number of audience but the producer was satisfied because now it has been proven that there are people who can accept her idea and she is determined to do another movie with this kind of theme. This film shows the frustration of a man who was in love with his partner. One day during their vacation his partner wishes that he become a woman. To fulfill his partner wish he started do undergo transgender surgeries in London which had left his partner without him for three months. When he got back, he found his partner in unstable state and they end up arguing
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for money and other things. The frustration and regret came when his partner started to leave him and his family resent him. The main lesson in this movie is to think wisely before doing any decision that could change your whole life. Discussing the options with your love one is important before doing any big decision so that there will be no regrets. Despite the fact that people said this film is too sensitive, LPFM has not make any cut for this movie which proves that this movie can be shown to all viewers. All the above mentioned films are some of the films that have been showing for the past year and had been reviewed by this group. All the films contained different massage and moral values. The objective of all the film producers is the same; which is to make a movie that depicts moral values and at the same time still entertaining for the audience. Malaysia film industry can still grow if the producers are willing to produce more heavy and meaningful film in the future.

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Chapter 3: Mediocrity Syndrome

Mediocrity - Syndrome in Society and in Local Film Industry According to Dictionary.com, mediocrity which is derived from the word mediocre brings two senses which are:i. ii. Ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding A person of second-rate ability or value

Meanwhile, the word syndrome means pattern of symptoms that characterize or indicate a particular social condition. Therefore, to be exact, mediocrity syndrome is a pattern of symptoms which is shown by a particular social group which practice ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not excellent. The societies nowadays prefer to practice mediocrity which makes that adverse invasion of creating a declining condition of the population that impedes further development of the society. Group of people whom practices mediocrity will tend to be only followers instead of leaders, has low ability and willingness to create changes in life that makes them a monotonous and unimaginative people. They prefer to be that way as they wish to avoid complexity and endure simplicity in their living routines. It is believed that the syndrome had diffused in our Malaysian society as Malaysian people these days have anomalous preference towards plain entertainment that is enjoyable and satisfying yet eventually, demolishing high standard of Malaysian culture in the society. This invasion obviously harms the significance of Malaysian people and also, affecting the quality of a true Malaysian. According to S.M Zakir, the Secretary of National Writers Association (PENA), in his article entitled Sindrom Mediocrity dalam Sastera which has been published in Sastera section of Mingguan Malaysia dated 26th September 2010, he stated that, Malay films nowadays are illustrating how mediocrity had demolished our value, quality and mentality that
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supposedly exist in us as our true national identity. Yet, on the contrary, Malay films are full of mediocre ideas, unsophisticated ingredients and cheap sort of artworks which can be considered as low quality films. Moreover, throughout the recent two decades, apparently there are no films that are outstanding enough can be found in Malay films including the box-office ones. Malay films happened to be classified as low class films because of mediocrity which has been practiced by both film-makers and local spectators. These days, local film-makers prefer to produce simpler storyline for their movies which does not require them to brainstorm critically to produce a film. For them, straightforward plot will make everything much easier, starting from the directing part, acting, and also the preparation of equipment for the film. Besides, most film producers have a preference to produce light-content film as they have a mentality that their spectators will not favor films with weightier concept and elements. Hence, this is also the reason why mediocrity is still being practiced in the industry. Furthermore, the industry is most run by non-creative people who are only there to make money. Thus, with their domination in the industry, they will let the ordinariness remain as long as they get their money without considering whether the films they produced are of great quality. In addition to that, by producing such mediocre films as most of Malay films these days, the film-makers are indirectly lowering the standard and credibility of actors and actresses in our country. This is because, with plain storyline, those casts are not really challenged to carry their characters for the movie and surely it will lead to ordinariness of the movie itself. Supposedly, for a great movie, it will change their casts to suit the story and not vice versa. On the other hand, from spectators point of view, as they are continuously fed with such mediocre films, eventually they will accept the norm without any concern to improve the achievements of the industry to a better stage. Therefore, those statements beforehand prove that both Malaysian film-makers and local spectators are leaning towards the society of mediocrity and are unconcern to produce weightier and better films for the industry. This is also because the producers themselves are unenthusiastic enough to come up with more sophisticated and creative idea of artworks.

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Those film makers are alleged to take initiatives to further develop the industry by producing more significant and remarkable films. Bearing the goal of improving Malaysias film industry in mind, they will definitely promote high value and standard of the industry to the global level. Additionally, by unrewarding those mediocrities and improving to be a better society, repossession of values, cultures and identities of a real Malaysian will possibly come to realization. In conclusion, above all, the excellence of film industry in Malaysia will be achieved if mediocrity is not being rewarded in the society to any further extent and those film-makers should be more futuristic in generating better work arts. Besides, numerous improvements can be performed in order to ensure our film industry is attaining global standard of achievements.

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Chapter 4: Improvement
Nowadays, local film industry has move towards new perspective and varies in its genre; not limited to romantic, comedy, comedy romantic and horror. The Malaysian film industry may not be as prominent as Hollywood because of Hollywoods sheer size, but our film industry always tries to improve and get itself leveled with international standards. For an example, one of Malaysias film producer, the late Yasmin Ahmad had produced and directed Gubra, Sepet, Muallaf and Mukhsin. These four movies had been viewed and accepted on the international level. She was one that never failed to deliver, touching upon different social issues that Malaysians face. Despite a few hiccups and threats of censorship, Yasmin Ahmad and many other local directors have remained defiant and continue to produce film after film. In addition, well known directors such as Yusry A.Halim and Syamsul Yusof have led our film industry towards new perspective and dimension. Movies such as Merong Mahawangsa and Vikingdom by Yusry A.Halim have shown great potential and received numerous positive feedbacks from audiences. Adaptation based on novel can be widened since a lot of great ideas can be brought forward. Thus, high quality literature should not be taken for granted. It is also an easy and practical way to expose the audiences with the history of our Archipelago. In Malaysia, National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) aims to promote the production of movies which are of higher standards. It is said that if more filmmakers, distributors and executives conversed their more publicly in both the art and the business, the bar for Malaysian film industry would be lifted higher. (Ayien please edit further)

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Chapter 5: Conclusion
The future of our national film industry lies not only in the hands of its art directors, but also its society- the audience. As previously mentioned early in the report, mediocrity syndrome cant be taken lightly; producers and society alike must demand for a greater standard movies, then only improvement can be made and at the end of the day, result in a better quality of local films. From our study based on the reviews and articles written in Utusan Malaysia, Malaysian adores horror or thriller films which resulted in the production of quite a number of movies from that genre. From Ngangkung to Damping and Senjakala alike, these movies all told a similar message which is never get involve or seek help from supernatural beings. That said, although the storyline and plot was different, all the films manage to carry across its message successfully. The production of Merong Mahawangsa had brought the standard of local films to another level and had become the next benchmark to be surpassed. Although there were many reviews done in Utusan Malaysia, Merong Mahawangsa having four numbers of articles reviewed top the Bertih jagung section in Utusan Malaysia. Therefore, it can be concluded that Malaysians as a whole are intrigued and excited by the change that film producers can bring. The society can indeed be tempted with different genres as opposed to the norm- horror. It is our groups hope that more films like Estet which revolves around multiracial society and has the theme of unity would be produced by the local producers. This can not only nurture multiracial tolerance among citizen, but can also be used to show the world how special Malaysia is; how its people live in harmony despite the many types of races it is made up of. In a nutshell, Malaysias film industry is moving towards the international level and all hands must be on deck to help it along the way. Together, the National Writers Association (PENA), the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPFM), producers and directors must put their best work forward and bring the colours of our society onto the big screen. No matter how much
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a movie is criticize, film producers must always think of ways to improve their work and do not give up half way. As it is said in the cinematography business, The show MUST go on.

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Chapter 6: Reference
1. Abdullah, A. N. (2011, April 10). RM600,000 Sangat Tinggi. Utusan Malaysia,Pancaindera, p. 9. Ahmad, M. R. (2011, Jun 19). KL Gangster tonjol Keruntuhan Institusi Keluarga. Utusan Malaysia, Pancaindera, p. 20. Ahmad, M. R. (2011, Mei 15). Teknologi, Adaptasi dan Sastera Klasi. Utusan Malaysia, Pancaindera, p. 22. Dzulkifly, S. A. (2011, Januari 9). Buruknya Damping Makhluk Halus. Utusan Malaysia,Pancaindera, p. 25. Faizal, S. M. (2011, Februari 9). Di Sebalik Kemewahan. Utusan Malaysia,megahits, p. 22. Faizal, S. M. (2011, April 5). Karya Jujur Osman Ali. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 30. Faizal, S. M. (2011, Jun 6). Lagenda Karak Versi KRU. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 33. Faizal, S. M. (2011, April 19). Misteri Cinta dan Seram Senjakala. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 32. Itar, A. A. (2010, Disember 28). Potensi Filem Adaptasi. Utusan Malaysia, megafokus, p. 2. Itar, A. A. (2011 , Mei 11). Kaji Peranan FINAS. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 31. Itar, A. A. (2011, April 1). ... Dalam Botol bukan Eksperimen. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 30. Rahman, M. I. (2010, Ogos 5). Cinta Tragis Nur Amina berulang. Utusan Malaysia,megahits, p. 34. Syafaat, A. A. (2010, November 28). Cangkung untuk Untung. Utusan Malaysia,Pancaindera, p. 18. Zainooddin, N. A. (2011, Jun 27). Fouziah Gous Meracau. Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 32. Zakaria, N. M. (2010, November 13). Ngangkung tiada Pemotongan. Utusan Malaysia,WOW! Hiburan, p. 28.
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Zakariah, S. (2011, Januari 20). Cukup Sifat, tetapi... Utusan Malaysia, megahits, p. 28.

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