2-6-2-5

I am sure some of you would have known this already.

As I was having a steamy SMS exchange with a hot stranger I know from the IRC texting using predictive text, I realised that the subject title spells A-N-A-L and C-O-C-K *giggles*

I know, I know, I am such a schoolboy sometimes.

Anyway, I saw this advert for a movie from a Malaysian film-maker Tsai Ming Liang, called I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, which has been banned in Malaysia because it shows Malaysia in "a bad light".

It's always so disappointing the so many Malaysians are famous elsewhere but not in their country of birth, that their work are not recognised and appreciated.

It's so ironic that Malaysian works and films are shown in Singapore instead, deemed our arch-rival and competitor.

Back to the film. The storyline goes that:
After being attacked and robbed in Kuala Lumpur, the homeless Hsiao Kang is taken in by some Bangladeshi workers. One of them, Rawang, lets Hsiao Kang sleep beside him on an old mattress he has found. As he nurses Hsiao Kang’s wounded body, he feels calm and contented. Is it because of the mattress or because of Hsiao Kang?

Chyi, who waits tables in a small coffee shop, is also nursing someone: her lady boss’s paralysed son. Chyi hates her life. When she happens to meet Hsiao Kang, her body fills with lustful desires. However, her difficulty in finding a place to have sex with him brings home to her just how little freedom she has.

As Hsiao Kang slowly recovers, he finds himself caught between Rawang and Chyi, pleading for attention like a stray cat but equally capable of fluttering away as free as a moth. Chyi’s lady boss also develops lustful feelings for Hsiao Kang, finding that he resembles her paralysed son...

Meanwhile a heavy haze envelops the city that is so humid that it reeks of the sweat of its multi-ethnic population. These men and women and the old mattress lose their way in the haze, but perhaps find each other …

Whoo! How interesting. Slightly gay-themed some more.

The so-called trailer is below. The song is just so beautiful and haunting.



I so can't wait to watch it next week. It is in Mandarin, but there are English subtitles, so that's a plus ;P

Edited:

Apparently, I was wrong. Found out that it might be screened in Malaysia after all.

Taken from here:

Despite Tsai having been careful about how he portrayed the character of his Muslim actor, Norman Atun, and the edits they made specially for the Malaysian release, somehow the censors still took offence with the film.

The censorship board's reasons were that Malaysia was depicted negatively in the film, with beggars and immigrants populating Kuala Lumpur and the hazardous haze (caused by open burning) enveloping the city. They said Malaysians were also portrayed as cold and heartless. It is Visit Malaysia Year 2007 after all, so they felt it wasn't appropriate for the film to be shown.

An appeal was quickly made against the ban and just a couple of days ago, the appeals committee of the censorship board finally said yes to the film's release ... but with a few conditions.

The film will only get a limited release in arthouse cinemas, while five cuts are to be made. The cuts involve scenes where actor Lee Kang-sheng's bare buttocks can be seen, Norman is cleaning Lee as he lies injured and clad only in his underwear, Norman washes his underwear, Lee and actress Chen Shiang-chyi are kissing and where radio reports of open burning can be heard in the background.

Producer Tee said they were happy that the appeal was successful, but worried about the five cuts. He said they would make another appeal against those cuts. Meanwhile, Tsai voiced his concern as well, stating that he could not see how a story about love and compassion could be seen by the censors as something negative. He also said he is still trying to make up his mind whether to accept those conditions put forth by the censors.

Love conquers all

Malaysian film makers have been making themselves known at various international film fest. A number of them have won awards, with the more prominent being Yasmin Ahmad, James Lee and Amir Muhammad.

The question is, has anyone seen their films? The only notable ones are Sepet and Gubra by Yasmin. The other one, which was banned this year merely because of a sensitive word in Lelaki Komunis Terakhir by Amir.

Even if Yasmin's films were shown and loved by local audiences, other people in higher up places weren't. Or even so-called colleagues in the same industry.

The point I am trying to get is, if no Malaysian is going to support local films, who will? Definitely not the government. The film makers themselves can never dream of relying on the government for funds, unless the movie or script fits nicely into carefully defined and acceptable themes, which are those ubiquitously shown on TV on a Saturday night.

Anyway, I got the news from another blog and the original can be found here.

Malaysian-Chinese director major winner at Busan film festival

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) - A 28-year-old Malaysian-Chinese director was the big winner at the Pusan International Film Festival Friday, bagging an international movie critics' award and sharing the prize for best new Asian filmmaker.

Tan Chui Mui's "Love Conquers All," about a woman confused about her feelings after moving to a city, won the FIPRESCI prize awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics.

She also shared the New Currents award - given to best new Asian filmmaker - with China's Heng Yang, who directed "Betelnut," the story of Chinese youths who spend an aimless summer together.

At a news conference Friday, Oscar-winning Hungarian director Istvan Szabo, chairman of the New Currents jury, praised "Love Conquers All" as "a beautiful film using a known cinematic language but in a very, very nice way."

Szabo said the jury picked "Betelnut" for its "new cinematic value, great acting by all the cast, powerful pictures and beautiful silent moments."

Tan said she will use the US$30,000 cash prize to finance her company, Da Huang Pictures, which also produces movies by other directors.

"This is (a) very important film festival in Asia, and they set up a section for new directors. It's very rare," she said.

Tan said it's difficult to get government funding for Chinese-language films in Malaysia because the authorities there classify only movies that have 70 per cent or more of their script in the ethnic Malay language as Malaysian. Malaysia's population is dominated by ethnic Malays, but Chinese and Indians form significant minorities.

She said her next film will be about two middle-aged women.

"Love Conquers All" was backed by the Hubert Bals Fund of the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

In other awards, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema named South Korean director Roh Gyeong-tae's "The Last Dining Table" as best Korean feature film. The movie portrays the social isolation of lower-class families.

Meanwhile, festival director Kim Dong-ho announced that festival organizers will run a spinoff event in Los Angeles in spring 2007 that will focus on Korean and Asian films.

Kim also said the festival will set up its own TV channel, just as the Sundance film festival has done, which will air 50 films that have been shown in the Busan festival. In addition, South Korea's JoongAng Broadcasting Corp. will establish a 50 million Korean won (US$52,603) fund that will help Asian documentaries get airtime.

I don't think I need to point out which paragraph that is the most absurd thing to do in a logical and progressive society, but which has become acceptable and entrenched in our society.

Marginalised, anyone?

The sypnosis of the movie is here. The good news it that, it would be shown in Malaysia, most probably in GSC Midvalley and 1 Utama, beginning 21 December.

A love story. At first sight maybe a simple love story. About how blind a girl in love can be. Slowly but unavoidable the story will become less simple, will raise more questions without giving too many answers.

Main character - if not main victim - is Ah Peng (Coral Ong Li Whei). A common girl from Penang. She arrives in some outskirt of Kuala Lumpur to find work in the economy rice stall of her aunt. She is taken in by the family like an older daughter and shares a room with little sister Mei (Leong Jiun Jiun). In a way Mei is the main character - and certainly no victim - of her own love story with a mysterious pen pal. The indolent Ah Peng and the bright and lively Mei get along very well. Like real sisters.

Ah Peng has a boy friend in Penang. Regularly she makes her way to the public phones to make her ritual call. Fate has it that just there she attracts the attention of John (Stephen Chua Jyh Shyan). John shamelessly listens in on the conversations between Ah Peng and her boy friend and right there starts a relationship that has to be doomed. John even tells her - in the same shameless way - how to lure a girl into prostitution. But revealing this can not stop this fatal story.

Although certainly not a period film the movie renders homage to two disappearing tools of communication: the handwritten letters by Mei and the fixed to the ground public phone calls by Ah Peng. Soon this kind of phone booths and letter boxes will form a problem for the movie art departments.

Wishing my dear readers a Happy Deepavali and Selamat Hari Raya. Have a great long weekend, while I have to go back to work on Monday.