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Thursday, June 05, 2008

Hello 'SEPI' from Bangkok.






I am really excited about this thursday for it is the opening of Kabir Bahtia's movie SEPI. Honestly, i feel its been a while since we have had a malaysian cinema experience which takes us through the range of the human experience. I cannot be in KL right now as i am finishing my movie Los dan Faun and will not be back until sunday but i hope this movie is watched by all the family as it will make us appreciate the ones we love more. I know it is a tall claim but i believe this is really good malaysian film and everbody should go watch it. KUDOS to Media Prima and grand brilliance for taking the big risk of doing a dramatic film again.

What i feel about the movie busines......is that we are heading towards the right direction but we must be steadfast. We are starting to make better films but the problem is that we are in a catch 22. Because a lot of malaysians speak english, like it or not, we are competing with the giant hollywood machinery. the question is how the hell do we do that?

Besides having some great filmmakers, countries like thailand, korea, japan and Indonesia have a thriving film industry because the majority of their population are non english speaking and they rely on local content for entertainment. Even most big hollywood releases are dubbed into their language in order to make big money. When more people watch their local films, filmmakers get bigger budgets to make better quality films with bigger themes and cast, we don't get that because our people are divided by language and not everybody takes the bahasa malaysia as a bahasa kebangsaan seriously. We even have so many MALAYS who even proudly exclaim that "I don't watch malay movies!!!". True that is your preference, but that attitude is also like saying that nothing good can ever be done by my countrymen...so i will not give them the time of day.

So what happens when someone with limited funds, especially after the oil price hike, has to choose between The incredible hulk and Apa kata hati? or Sepi and Hancock?. What happens is, we lose everytime. why? because the mass mentality is why should i pay 10 bucks for a 1.5 million ringgit movie when i can watch a 120 million dollar film. For your information, a big hollywood film in malaysia can make up to 13 million ringgit, where a local film makes on average 2.5 million ringgit.

Can we compete? I believe we can, other asian countries have done it, but we have to find our thing. Our edge. our identity.

Our films need an identity, something that will make us standout for being us rather than a cheap immitation of a hollywood production. The industry really just kick started itself about a decade ago after a long hiatus and we are on the road to getting to that identity. A new consciousness a new conscience. To get something that will make a german watching a movie on a flight to dubai say to the filipino stewardess on qatar airways "do you have any malaysian films?"

As filmmakers and producers however, we cannot just make films for the sole reason of making money. we must make better films that has a conscience too. Something that is commercial, tells a good story and makes the viewer feels something about himself or his surrounding. It is our responsibility. Business people mostly don't believe in that, so the government needs to help through this trying time by acknowledging the arts as being as important as being any other professional and not a kerja main-main. Imagine life without art, without culture... i'm sad to say that our society is heading that way. Because we are all starting to subscribe to a new god ...MONEY.

I watch most of the malay films that come out and i admit, some of them are pretty bad... but to be fair, some of them are decent bordering on great. I make the effort because i care about the industry and the country, and in the off chance there is a gem in our midst. There are some interesting filmmakers coming through to the mainstream ranks from the indie scene and this i feel will make the industry stronger.

Hollywood has also proven to us over time that, big budget does not always translate to good movies. Even some of the big budgeted hollywoods film i have watched over the years, end up in the "what the f#*k?" category BUT because their marketing budget is humongus, and they understand emotional marketing and how to get under our mind and our skin, the news about their movie being released is imprinted into our minds. while our film get "dah keluar ke filem tu?" response.

Making a movie is only half the battle. many producers don't understand that, most producers don't have the funds to realize the other half. we still have a lot to learn but we must and will persevere to make malaysian movies great... for what we do is important. we need to learn more, we need to be more professional and we need to not compromise too much.

Think about it. give malaysian movies a chance....i believe there is something there for all of us.



our lives is an occasion! let's rise to it.

power to the people
afdlin shauki

Photos are courtesy of Grand Brilliance.

216 comments:

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nisa.zaidan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
joe_oo7 said...

Ruang keterbukaan yg semakin lebar memberikan lebih kepuasan dalam berkarya.. tapi jangan lupa.. Batas-batas yg semakin kabur bakal menyesatkan kita. Sama-sama beringat dan gunakan kesempatan dengan akal. Selamat berkarya. Sepi sy dah tengok dan sy rasa berbaloi bayar tiket masuk wayang.

Hidayah Admar said...

bro, this is my favourite Malay movie.

Damn ! I love all the soundtracks !

:$ :$

Rockaholic said...

Bro, aku baru jer layan citer SEPI nih smalam. Inilah cerita kedua yang aku layan sepanjang 2 tahun aku stay kat Jepun. Thumbsup bro. Citer ni besttttttttt...
Citer melayu macam ni laa yang ada kualiti tak mcm citer melayu yang lain. Sekali lagi Tahniah....

Juliana Saidy said...

xprnh jemu. dn ntah knp sntiasa ada air mata brgenang bila tgk film ni. huhuhu.....

Zat Asyraff said...

one cool movie.. long awaited for a malay movie to be this good.. bravo afdlin.. all your movies are sure watch for me..

Yang Benar, Kakak Perkara Rawak said...

cite ni besssssss sgt..
nak2 part tepung tumpah like snow tuh..
waaaaaaa...

LANN said...

2 THUMBS UP, BRO. I LOVE TIZ SEPI

Iventwhinecryhere said...

hi. i just watched the movie since it was so hard to find it online cause im residing in states. i must say the ending of the movie was amazing it was a really unexpected ending! good job!! kudos to you!

apiz said...

i almost cried mse tgk sepi tepi akak yg dtg dgn laki die...

nadinezuharra said...

time saye tengok 'sepi' ni saye kt bangkok gak..eheheh..emm,rindunye kt m'sia..sape kate cite m'sia tak best..?ade yg sampai leh wat kite nangih n terharu tau.. emm,anyway..congrats for abg afdlin coz menjadikan ending sepi tu ade gak membuatkan saye tersenyumm..:) take care bro..!

Aizan Suhaira said...

Wow.. 200+ comments on this entry alone. Anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and add another one for your collection.

I used to detest Malaysian movies. I find the acting really bad, the plot unbelievably lame and the quality extremely poor.

The only malay movies I watched were those with P. Ramlee in it. I still think P. Ramlee rocks.

But then the new generation of film makers came along. That includes you and Yasmin Ahmad. And I start falling in love with Malaysian movies again.

As long as there are people like you and Yasmin Ahmad in our local movie industry, there is still hope for the future of Malaysian movies.

Kipidap! You guys are doing an excellent job.

P/S I especially loved Sumo-lah. Almost peed in my pants for laughing so hard. My mom loved it too.

Anonymous said...

me n my hubby ngok citer nie penuh dgn khusyuk sekali... bergenang airmata yg ditahan.. tak payah nak tunggu if the story line kena ngan our xperience ke tak.. comfom plus gurantee mesti melelh nyer airmata.. nak nak part kereta sufi kena hentam while marya stuck inside da car.. mcm nak jatuh jantung .. kudos to u abg Afdlin!! walaupun cerita nie dah lama ditayangkan but i can never forget the lines... we just love ur acting and ur filmz...!! Tahniah sekali lagik..

Anonymous said...

the best malay film dat i ever seen..
congrates!

Rv Husin said...

memang confirm dah kena sumpah dgn Mr. Afdlin S.

AIDIL FIQH said...

Aku baru aje tengok filem 'SEPI' yang lu lakunkan sama vanida E n Nasya A, aku suka tengoklah lu mainkan watak tu, hebat gua rasa acting lu dalam filem sepi, Lu memang versatile lah, dalam character yang lu bawa dlm SEPI sbg ADAM tu, siapa sangka orang gemuk tak boleh tackle perempuan cantik? Dah tu digilai 2 awek cantik pula. Bagus lah Lu bawakan watak tu, hebat... Tahniah untuk lu AFDLIN kerana berjaya membawakan peranan yang sedemikian. Gua yakin jika pengarah hebat mana sekalipun jika pelakun tak dapat bawakan watak tu, filem mesti hancur lah BEB, tahniah. Lu bukan saja hebat sebagai seorang COMEDIAN malah juga boleh melakunkan watak yang sedemikian. Tahniah dari peminat lu yang badan aku pun lebih kurang sama dengan lu. Hahahaha. Terus sukses Brother AFDLIN

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