Press Preview BULI BALIK!!!! A different animal from BPC!

let me tell you a little bit about myself and what i believe cinema can and should be.

I hate mediocrity. If i know i can do something well, i will move on to do other things. I challenge myself constantly.
I Love movies. I love to fantasize about the what ifs. But the type of movie which i really, truly adore are movies which are provokable, that disturbs ur emotional well being, that jogs u from ur calm and expect u to think and feel.

SEPET, GUBRA, La Haine (HATE), CINEMA PARADISO are very good examples of this. It is about important stories that needs to be told to shift people's paradigm.

WHAT is paradigm? Your knowledge + the things u have experienced in YOUR world during ur life, up till today. I don't pretend to know all, and i want every new experience i have to shift my paradigm because it means i am learning something new constantly. What i forsee as reality, you might see as something that cannot happen, because we have had different upbringings by people with differing sets of moral values..I come from a poor family but because i converse well in english people think GUA ANAK LORD (a lord's son), because in their world people who speak english well are all anak orang kaya. Another example would be, a slightly more matured married man with children might appreciate Cinderrela Man more than a single happy-go-lucky-never-had-to work-a-single-day-in-his-life-kind-of-fellow.

When directing a movie. I try to cater to two crowds - the simple minded folk and the slightly more sophisticated folks. This might not be the right thing to do and i'm sure a lot of independent directors (who shudder at the very mention of mainstream malay movies) despise the very idea of compromising their art for commercialism. I once tried to use that line on my car reposessor, needless to say.. I am now carless.

I believe in making movies that invite the urban and rural market to converge under one roof. That is why BULI and BAIK PUNYA CILOK have been doing fairly well in the cinemas i guess. Kalau nak gelak aje, dapat gelak. Tapi kalau pergi dengan minda terbuka dapat pengajaran.

At the press preview of BULI BALIK, i don't think i have ever experienced being this happy after a press preview EVER in my life. "WHY?"."Was it because everybody was happy about the movie and excited about it?" you may ask. The answer is yes and no.

Yes! because, besides seeing many teary-eyed people leaving the cinema, i managed to DEDICATE THIS FILM TO MY DEAR MOM (prior to it's showing), who is currently recovering from her bout with stroke and i believe, she is the greatest fighter in the world. She is my hero.

Yes! Secondly because, i had wanted BULI BALIK to be different, i wanted to go back to doing dramatic comedies in the vein of WOODY ALLEN, BARRY LEVINSON although i know my standard dengan diorang punya standard jauh lagi-la beb. SO straight away, my intention is for this film to be different from BPC, but not just for the sake of being different, but of the weight of the subject matter - BULLYING. I wanted people to have fun, but feel kacau after seeing the end of the film, to end it unconventionally. NOT LIKE A TYPICAL COMEDY ENDING.

My wife, in her blog has a very interesting perspective on this matter, which coincides with what i wanted to do, which is people should ask themseves why they feel the way they feel. Could it not have happened or were you not ready for it to happen. I saw many people who got it, but also a few others who were confused like little lambs coming out their mother's womb. Hee hee. surprised and confused with the movie's ending. I like that.


TO BLUQUBE : Everything i do in a film is based on realities of life that i have seen. Is there a logical explanation for a big gorilla to climb up the empire state building, being pumped full with bullets and then dropping to the ground AND NOBODY DIED EXCEPT FOR THE GORILLA (nobody else got squashed into a lempeng on one of the busiest streets in NEW YORK), then i think it is not too far fetched to believe that after the show has finished, the security guards who were formerly guarding the money and later carried the professor out of the hall - which meant that they had left the hall - and to assume that after sending the professor to the clinic, had probably gone off for a teh tarik or two or even deciding to catch the LIVERPOOL vs Tottenham game.


And Alhamdulillah... BAIK PUNYA CILOK telah setakat ini mengutip 2.46 miiion... congrats Tayangan UNGGUL!!!

AFDLIN