Tuesday, June 05, 2007

can u see me with my raised Jari Hantu? ...an open letter...


Dude,
The movie is such a fagfest that I have nightmares of them rather than the tiger. How can Zahim be the beau in the movie when he is as bent as a uri geller spoon? "Apa kurangnye aku?". Good grief! This line cracked us up and we were the only ones laughing in the cinema. I'm not homophobic (maybe a little) but I respect you if you choose to be gay. Heck, I'd even come out of the closet and admit that I am a lesbian.

Shuhaimi Baba has made me vow never to watch her films again. Why? She managed to mess things up with a batch of good actors. Again! Come on laa... The scenes with Jit, Kavita, Joanna, Zahim and Maya... overcooked! These are seasoned actors and they make the scenes look like a high school drama.

Individual performances were commendable. Azean was good. Even Maya was good (I'm biased cos she's a babe). Rusdi was amazing (he gets to hug Maya so many times that I wonder if his hetero self stood in attention during takes). Nanu, Liza, Riezman, Zaidi, Rashid were all good. Heck, everybody was good but why does the movie leave a bad taste in my mouth? It was definitely not the sambal petai I had at my in-law's before that.

When it comes to storytelling, what was she trying to achieve? Tell the audience about the 'Harimau Jadian' folklore or is it our society's inability to accept transsexuals? Ok, maybe she watered it down by saying Ari was a hermaphrodite so it wasn't his fault to begin with. But where are you taking this? The harimau can accept Ari so we the society should as well? Give me a break!

The folklore about Harimau Jadian is an exciting aspect of our Malay origins. Tahyul or khurafat, the fact remains it is practiced in this part of the world. What I wanted to see was more of its origin, its 'what why when how who'. Not everyone is familiar with the lores. You should exploit this more. TELL THE STORY!

What's up with the 5 years later bit where it is to celebrate an anniversary, a birthday, a graduation...? DANG! So convenient to pile everything up with a party scene. The movie needs to be tighter. Why have unnecessary scenes where a whole five seconds is dedicated to one person uttering 'Unh!'. What was Dang Suria doing in the movie? It's a mess!

Look, I am sure the budget for this movie is not like PGL but given the cast, the subject matter, why can't it be better? I'm not a film student but it is appalling to see good talent go to waste on very bad editing and screenplay. Maybe I should volunteer to be the director and put my creative talent to the test. Give me the budget, the script and the actors and I am willing to put a small wager that I can do better.

Keydam

PS : This blog was never meant to be a film review blog but I was so pissed off after being forced to watch this movie last night that I just had to vent my grievances to my friend at GBSB.