Cinematic Concerns

Yasuo Fukuda.

MURDER VISITS "IT'S A MATCH"



VINNY TALKS: SHIA LABEOUF



JUDY 'JUST KIDDING' GRIMES



DEATH BY CHOCOLATE, PARTS I - III


3 AM PHONE CALL HILLARY-OBAMA


HERO SONG (Get to the punchline ...)

Well, after the political turmoil of the past week, and the disappointment that nothing dramatic happened today (Sept 16) ... okay, mostly it's coz I had a stressed-out work day, well, I thought I'd turn to Saturday Night Live for some humour.

Especially after the latest funny take on Sarah Palin by the dependable Tina Fey. Yes, it was inevitable.

SARAH PALIN AND HILLARY CLINTON


Here's more.


MEETING


STEVE CARELL IN THE JAPANESE OFFICE



NATALIE PORTMAN RAPS



JAR GLOVE



MATTHEW FOX AND "LOST" ELEVATOR TALK



SCARLETT JOHANSSON'S SUPER SWEET 16


The Famous DEAR SISTER PARODY



T-MOBILE AD ... WITH MICHAEL PHELPS



The Classic DICK IN A BOX WITH JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE



ELLEN PAGE IN THE MIRROR

That's it, folks.

Once all these sandiwara incidents have blown over - and they will, whether it's days after Sept 16 or a few more months from now, do keep that in mind people, as I'm sure the clear-headed among us will - I want to start figuring out how to dramatise the events leading up to Sept 16 or whenever it is that Pakatan Rakyat is taking over the government (assuming it does happen, on that day or soon after).

Well, to be honest no one knows exactly what will happen in the next few days, not even Anwar can be sure. Point is, whatever it is, we Malaysians will be looking back at these past few days in the future, with an eye to analyse it, find meaning to it, etc.

And I'm thinking of making a movie in vein of Stephen Frears' The Queen (screenplay by Peter Morgan). That movie started with a prologue about Tony Blair and his New Labour party coming into government, and then spends the rest of the movie detailing the 7 days after Princess Diana's death and the royal family's crisis, and then a short epilogue.

Which, I think, is the perfect story structure to use to tell the dying days of the BN government (again, assuming it happens). Let's face it, we don't know what will happen (the exact opposite could happen, for example), but let's say it happens according to Anwar's plan, just for instance. What will the movie be like?

Prologue: the March 8 Elections, a sort of montage sequence, introducing the characters. Then the 7 days leading up to the Sept 16 date, which will include the dramatic ISA arrests (or 7 weeks, so that we can include Anwar's arrest too? dunno whether that is important yet). Then a short epilogue, or just simple title cards explaining what has happened since then.

Criteria: the movie has to have a certain style, which I've seen ONLY in Western films, most especially in British filmmakers such as Paul Greengrass (United 93) and Gabriel Range (Death of a President: The Assassination of George Bush), which stresses a documentary, truthful feel to the storytelling, which I do not think has ever appeared in any Malaysian movie. (Many indie Malaysian movies do have a documentary approach thanks to the usage of home-video camcorders and long takes ... but boy are they artsy or symbolic/metaphorical, so they don't count.) I suspect a lot of Malaysian filmmakers wouldn't like that sort of style, or find fault with it. Anyway, that's the style I would adopt.

Other criteria: stick to the raw truth. No dramatisation to smoothen out the plot, as is common in Hollywood. (Or 1957: Hati Malaya or Leftenan Adnan - urgh ... - for that matter.) No bias to either side of the story. Very important.

More criteria: figure out later.

I dunno why, but I figured such a movie - assuming done well, certainly by no means guaranteed - is an easy (and more plausible than Puteri Gunung Ledang, for example) way to garner an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film ... at least to make the short list.

I've never come across this website pembelamelayu.com, but then I read from Marina Mahathir's latest post that a police report against both Khir Toyo and pembelamelayu.com have been lodged by Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, Kota Raja MP and also a PAS central committee member, for distorting facts and alleging that Teresa Kok has said something seditious (which was ridiculous as she had never said anything of that sort, says Kok) which has now landed the poor woman in ISA prison.

So, interested in finding out what pembelamelayu.com says and how they think, I went to check out the website.

It's gone. The website's gone.

Go check it out to see what I mean.

Who are pembelamelayu.com? What do they think? What have they said?

Whatever it is, it seems very suspicious. Thankfully for us, Google does its Cached thing - please go check it out before the cache refreshes itself. In fact, click here to see what was there before. The last post seems to be on September 4th.

Some of the headline links there are very, very (and I mean very) odd. Unfortunately since the website is gone I can't actually access the links. Here are a few examples (from the Artikel Popular column):

Nurul Izzah dirogol 4 Perompak - 4 saksi nampak kejadian
Bahasa Politik: Pas sudah kalah
Berita Anwar di akhbar mingguan gereja Anglican United Kingdom
Kurang ajarnya DAP pada tulisan JAWI, Teresa Kok cuba hapuskan tulisan jawi
Bukti DAP adalah Kafir Harbi
PAS dan UMNO Mesti bersatu menghadapi DAP kafir harbi


Seriously, are these people Malaysians or not? Not real ones, for sure.

Cinematic Concerns is primarily a movie-centric blog, but I have to stand with the other real Malaysians now (as in, those who actually love the country and not the party or the government or personal wealth/power, and those who are colour-blind) in saying this.

This government is really asking for it.

Yes, the last few days have been quite a bit of sandiwara, no need to mention them one by one already - there are too many incidents to mention anyway. Thing is, those incidents are somewhat anticipated. It all boils down to Pakatan Rakyat making their moves on the Sept 16 date and the government feeling in the dark for the best way to deal with this, failing because they are using the most old-fashioned and predictable methods possible.

Then today they arrested Raja Petra Kamaruddin. Which is still expected. I mean, shocking and outrageous that it happened, but by no means unexpected of the government. Who clearly hate the man to the guts.

But then the next bit happens, which is what galls me to my entirety. They go and arrest Tan Hoon Cheng, the Sin Chew Daily reporter who was not being seditious, who was just doing her job. Sin Chew Daily has stood by her when accused by that worthless Ahmad guy, saying that the column reporting on the incident were only a few paragraphs long - implying: facts only, not opinion. Ahmad said what he said, so Tan wrote what she wrote.

And now she is arrested.

Let's lay this out - okay, I know it has been reported Teresa Kok has been arrested too ... again, fucking insensible of the government, but I like to stick to Tan for now.

The government has just socked a woman into the ISA. It bears repeating just so those who don't get it might this time: a woman. (Still don't get it? Okay, two words: political suicide.) A reporter. Who didn't break any laws. Didn't do anything unethical, for that matter.

Here is what I mean by the government asking for it.

If there were those of us who were wary of Pakatan Rakyat rising to power in the coming week, and there are some, hesitant because Anwar Ibrahim seemed to haughty ... now we pray that IT FUCKING HAPPENS.

If only to save Tan Hoon Cheng from a clear and definite injustice. That would have been reason enough.

This government isn't just digging its own grave. It is trying to speed up the process by blasting holes on the ground with grenades.