Malaysian filmmakers: you really need to start making faster-paced films. But more on that a bit later.I had a hunch that I would like Talentime more than her previous films - on the surface, it seems like a commercial film, or at least, it'll be the most commercial film she's done to date. Having seen it, well, it's not quite - it still feels very strongly like a Yasmin Ahmad film, with the drawn-out way the scenes play out, several of the scenes seemingly bearing no relation to the rest of the story, purposefully anti-stereotypical characters (as in, their backgrounds don't match what we expect of them) as well as unconventional families, one or two surreal scenes that make us go 'huh?', sparse cinematography, and such subtly hidden themes that I don't know what the movie's about. (I can picture Pn Yasmin saying, "It means what you want it to mean lah." Or something similar.) In short, no, it's not that commercial - fear not, it's not as terrible as our independent films!
This being so, I'm surprised that I saw this film at the THX screen at GSC 1 Utama - i.e. the largest possible screen they have. Did the distributors really think the film will do that well? There's probably a reason behind the scenes which I don't know about. Anyway, there were just 4 of us in the cinema at the time; granted, it was Friday morning.
Now to the film. The best thing the film had going for it are the songs, many of them composed by Pete Teo. Now, to set expectations. While the movie is called Talentime, it's not about the talent competition at all, so there are barely any scenes depicting the competition. Most of it is focused on the everyday lives of the students taking part in it and their families, with the talent competition oddly having little significance to what goes on in their lives. As such, most of the songs heard in the film is explicit - as in, played over scenes rather than part of the talentime. Anyway, those songs are nice. They should be selling a soundtrack CD, if they haven't done so already.
To the acting. No one stands out in particular, but overall the acting ranges from adequate to not bad at all. (I just can't stand the pauses the actors like to leave in between their lines. I don't see what the pauses add to the beats. Perhaps 5% of screen time could be saved if the actors didn't leave such pauses between lines. This goes for other Malaysian films as well.)
One of the selling points of the film (Yasmin Ahmad isn't exactly a household name, though she's steadily making her way there) is Jaclyn Victor's debut, even though she plays a secondary character. Well, like most other characters in the film, she didn't have to do much, but she definitely shows potential in acting. It was quite a while in before I realised which character she was playing, and she remains grounded in the role so that I see the character rather than the actor.
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The guys. Mixed results - I saw a still of Hon Kahoe in one of the newspaper promos and thought he had a certain charisma, just looking at the face. He's the weakest of the bunch though - he plays angry in the film but it felt false ... like he's emoting anger. Maybe next time. Mohd Syafie Naswip, who popularly played Mukhsin two Yasmin films ago, did okay - he was a little bit wooden when not singing but audiences will swoon anyway. (Yasmin was right though, very good job on lip synching.) He also has an emotional scene which is as well handled as anything we're likely to see from Malaysian films at this point - thankfully underplayed. The third boy, who's deaf and dumb, is played by Mahesh Jugal Kishor and I thought his performance was the best - aided by the fact that he didn't speak at all (oft-quoted but rarely applied screenwriting tip: LESS DIALOGUE MAKES BETTER MOVIES) but managed to convey the simple sincerity of the character with his face.Adibah Noor is perfectly casted as the headmistress - mildly steely, her reactions mirror perfectly what we the audience think about the talentime performances. This is a very different role from the other ones she did in Sepet and Gubra. And Azean Irdawaty simply sucks sympathy out from the audience, almost effortlessly, considering she's just lying on the hospital bed.
Now on to the story. Stories, rather - there isn't just one. And they're all interconnected, though not contrived. Some fared better than others. The romance between Mahesh and Melur is perhaps the best one: the chemistry is there, and it is quite a charming budding romance, and the obstacles weren't contrived. Unlike that movie about dancing. The story of Mahesh's family and the hidden contradictions they eventually have to deal with is also pretty strong, in the sense that the drama is genuine. The weird man on the wheelchair with the sick mother is my least favourite - I wish that was left out of the film, just seemed pointless and abstract. Melur's family is just odd, and at any case there isn't much of a story there (that I could see anyway).
The editing was perplexing - there were occasions where we jump out of a scene into another seemingly unrelated scene, then jumped back to continue the first one. This happens a lot in the first half of the film, and the problem with this is that for the first half of the film we don't know what is the purpose of any of the individual scenes, or many of them anyway. You see, in this first half, Pn Yasmin chose to show us new characters without explaining their relationship with one or other of the characters, and it was hard to care about them coz we don't know who they are, and the scenes themselves don't offer much that is interesting (often just people talking about something, then other people talking about something else). Their significance emerges later in the second half; I remembered that there were a number of times that I felt, "oh, right, this is why we saw that scene earlier", but it seems like pointless labour because I don't see how it adds anything to the experience of watching the film other than 'making the audience think a little'.
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When I say the film doesn't focus on the talentime itself - other than the fact that in Melur's subplot a lot of what happens is motivated by the rehearsals she does - I mean that, you get to the talentime itself and it's the last ten minutes of the film. While I get that the talentime isn't the point (and that was made perfectly clear, btw, I wasn't caring about who wins), I would expect the characters' story to resolve itself properly ... but I suppose I tend to forget that that doesn't happen a lot in Pn Yasmin's movies. We see characters moving towards a resolution ... and we end. It's not enough, because it is ambivalently unsatisfying.From Wikipedia:
Yasmin also mentioned that the idea behind Talentime: That as humans, we have to go through a lot of pain and some measure of suffering before we can reach greater heights.
Well, now that she mentions it, I can see it there ... barely. But if it wasn't mentioned, I can't see it. Perhaps some people would say to that (perhaps Pn Yasmin herself), why is it so necessary to understand the 'meaning' in the film? Because the story by itself didn't engage me. (It's just me. There will be lots of audience members, certainly her fans, who sees things that I don't see. Although there are moments where I recognise that, "yowza, here's where people are supposed to cry", and I look around to see whether anyone is, gleefully. Sorry, just can't help it.) If not meaning, then give me spectacle. I need at least one of those two things in a film I watch; emotional involvement depends on having at least one of them.
Another thing that bothered me a little were the contrivances - the most obvious being the unnecessary contrivance (though oddly the teachers thought it naturally necessary) to have students who own motorbikes fetch (or in proper English, 'to pick up') the talentime finalists from their homes for the rehearsals. This, of course, functions to allow one subplot to happen - and by the way, we never see any other talentime finalist perusing this motorbike service. And the hall rehearsals - it didn't seem to serve a purpose for the finalists (shouldn't they be doing it at home?), though again it serves the plot. Some people will say it doesn't matter - suspension of disbelief, never hear before ah? - but, well, it took me out of the film. (Didn't help that the movie was slow enough that my head was analysing this and that.)
So, to my point that our films need to start moving faster. Okay, I know it's a very Malaysian (and strictly Malaysian) reaction to immediately go to the other extreme in retort, saying, "what, you want us to do like Hollywood movies like Transformers with MTV style editing ah?" No, because often those movies move too fast. Especially Hollywood animation films. The key is to understand the speed at which the audience picks up stimuli (exposition, spectacle, emotion) from any given scene, process it and relate to what has come before - and, of course, it is different for different audiences and different from one minute of the film to the next. I don't mean it's something scientific you need to calculate, I just mean the director and editor needed to have a feel for this kind of thing as it relates to the audience. (Arthouse films are another matter.)
The most glaring problem I see in most Malaysian films is this inability to gauge when an audience knows or feels something. (Have no fear, it's not like Hollywood gets it perfect either. But then, they're also not wrong in 100% of their movies ... which is the case with Malaysia.) I'll take a very obvious example: in Kinta, we see a dramatic fight scene, which wasn't interesting to begin with, play out again later IN ITS ENTIRETY, and then AGAIN in an abbreviated form. It doesn't take some film critic to see that that is stupid - your average Malaysian audience member, who never studied a day of filmmaking, knew that that's just wrong! In short, watch out for redundancies, and also for moments where you leave the audience hanging because there ain't enough information (this one isn't bad, until you botch it up by not resolving it later, or resolving it unsatisfyingly so the audience felt like the momentary confusion wasn't worth it).
Okay.
How Good I Think The Film Is: 7/10
How Much I Liked The Film: 6.5/10
PS - Browsing through other Malaysians' blog comments on the film, clearly I'm out of touch with the masses. So there.
i don't know where you get the idea that "the faster a film, the better" or "less dialogue make a better film." you sound just like another of those pretentious idiots who go around quoting Sy Field and Robert McKee and whatnot (i shall not name those idiots).
the pace of a film depends on the story and the purpose of a scene; there is no fixed rule that faster is better. nothing to do with being "in relation to the audience". get it? and the problem with Malaysian films, especially the indies, is not pace. it's that their "style" is becoming monotonous.
"Arthouse films are another matter."
oh? and why is that? also, care to explain what an "arthouse film" is?
clearly you got something against Malaysian cinema, because all your complaints and arguments are generalised and completely off target. you don't even have a clear picture of what Malaysian cinema is.
Gosh, thought I didn't need to wait more than a day for one of these comments to pop up.
Okay, in life, very few statements are true across the board. I was generalising, as we must, because if we have to state something, and list down exceptions and examples of why that statement may not be true, then we wouldn't get anywhere. So yes, I was generalising. As we all do in blogs and blog comments. Don't be a hypocrite.
By saying that Malaysian films should have faster pacing, it doesn't mean by extension 'the faster the films, the better'. I was also talking about balance. It's just that, virtually all Malaysian films are too slow to react to the audience's thoughts. Now, I'm not saying there should be breathing space in the beats of a scene for an audience to think about what they are seeing, or to appreciate a certain something about the scene. For example, in Talentime, there's that nice bird's eye view of a scene of death and tragedy surrounded by neighbours with a slow pull-out. We lingered, and it feels like a good shot. What I really don't like, is the lingering which forces me to think or feel outside of the film. You know those moments, when you're sitting there waiting for the next thing to happen. Or you're shown something that has been mentioned before and you just want to say to it "okay, we get it ... get to the point".
I'm NOT saying that SOME scenes shouldn't linger. Your quip about 'the pace of a film depending on the story and the purpose of the scene' - totally.
I'm sorry if I sound like 'those pretentious idiots'. And btw, Robert McKee and Syd Field have great insight about screenwriting. Any filmmaker would do well to read their books. THAT, however, isn't a recommendation to make a formula out of them.
Sigh, 4 or 5 years since Pn Yasmin's blog started and we're still into this definition thing. Look, most people who talk about film have an idea what an 'arthouse film' means. Perhaps it differs from person to person, but there is an overlap point. I'll go ahead and define it, and then someone is gonna say, but that's not right, what about this.
Now, my point about arthouse films was that the relationship between the filmmakers and the audience is different from commercial films. Often, arthouse film directors either don't care what the audience thinks about their movie (they make their films to serve an artistic ideal, or to manifest something internal, etc etc), or they are aware of their niche audience.
I have got something against current Malaysian cinema, for the most part. I very, very rarely enjoy them (and those few times I do, it's always after lowered expectations). I want to enjoy Malaysian films.
'My complaints and arguments are generalised' because the Malaysian films I see really can be grouped together in clumps and described that way, with a few outliers lying here and there. Although non-studio directors and their fans will completely abhor that notion. Maybe they're right. But it doesn't feel that way.
That they're 'off target' - sorry, lemme tell you a secret. These so-called 'reviews' on my blog are mental dumps ... quite often they contain every single thought that comes through my mind in relation to the film that I feel is important to jot down for my future reference. These are useful for when I do my own thing in the future, and also for me to check back, and see whether my views have changed between now and then.
Specifically what do you mean when you said that I don't have a clear picture of what Malaysian cinema is? Perhaps it's helpful to state how you would describe Malaysian cinema? Be honest.
Good review. :)
Less dialogue would be a showcase for the actors since they'd need to convey everything via facial expressions and body language.
Would it make a better movie? I am not sure.
You got any movie in mind?
Well, generally I think an average Malay mainstream movie can seem miraculously better if they take out, say, 20% of their dialogue - especially the lines that simply state what we the audience already know or were already shown.
I would say they should replace it with better dialogue ... but then that's too much to expect, and also most audience members wouldn't care.
And yes, it will force the actors to use their facial and body expressions more. Perhaps they'll look kekok to begin with, but it's practice. Actors will get better.
The way I see it, you are someone who is an accountant at heart, desperately trying to grasp the mystery of cinema. I've seen this film, and nothing in your so-called "review" indicates you have the slightest inkling of what this film is about. And so you go around in circles, trying out different pseudo-intellectual arguments, drifting further and further away from the heart of the story.
No offence, mate. Just a casual observation from a passer-by. :)
I really want to like Yasmine Ahmad's films because they try to be different to the usual crap from Malaysia. But the films are soo middle class and pretentious. I would probably enjoy her films more if I wasn't Malaysian. Her films have such an idealised vision of Malaysia that I cannot see the truth in her films because I know what it's really like living in Malaysia. Someone who's never lived in Malaysia can probaly believe what they are seeing on screen because they don't know any better. I would probably enjoy her films more if I knew nothing about filmmaking and world cinema. Because to me it's to obvious when she's trying to be quirky, or controversial, or bittersweet that it seems so false. I respect what she's trying to do, but the problem is, I can SEE what she's trying to do(and not really succeeding).
Peace out.
Gee whizz... Rashdan knows about world cinema.... Rashdan really, really wants us to see that he can see....
I laughed and cried while watching this movie! I guess by Rashdan's definition, I'm a foreigner lah.
Nolah, just means that you guys are less demanding of the movies you see. Which, hey, is totally cool.
Also, I've found that people who really know a lot about world cinema, even if they don't brag about it, tend to be unbearable to be around. And this is coming from a film student who knows a fair bit about world cinema.
Ouch. I think I'm gonna cry. Didn't realize Yasmin's fans could be so cruel. Just airing out my own pompous opinions. I really wish I could be less demanding of the movies I watch, that way I could probably enjoy most Malaysian films and be a lot happier. Must be great to be entertained and moved by inane, unoriginal and mind-numbing films and TV. I haven't actually seen Talentime, and I'm really hoping that it's good. The same way I hope every Malaysian film I see is good. Buy 99% of the time I am disappointed. (now where did I put that DVD of Gila-Gila Cicakman Remaja 2 : Remaja Harder).
A FILM student who find being around people who know about world CINEMA unbearable? You sure? I was just about to invite you to my yacht filled with suggestible beautiful people. But if that's how you feel...
Rashdan, I'm on your side.
But yes, they are. I often don't understand what they're talking about, the beauty of this tiny insignificant thing, the poetry of that mundane aspect of life that is nevertheless beautiful, or something. How this brings up Ozu something something or Eisenstein that.
In comparison, I find it more comfortable hanging out with my Hollywood schoolmates, who, rather surprisingly, knew less about American cinema (let alone world cinema) than I do.
As for Pn Yasmin's fans, a large number of them (but not all of them) are just sycophants, in my opinion, and will defend anything she does to death. Anything. Yasmin can do no wrong.
Which is why it's surprising that Talentime didn't fare that well in the box office last week. Sure, my feelings towards the film was decidedly indifferent, but I'd still rather see the film do much, much better than *vomit vomit* Sayang You Can Dance!
I think I know the kind of people you're talking about.They could probably find the important social significance of a fly in my teh tarik.
You've made me really want to watch Sayang You Can Dance and see how bad it really is. The trailer made it look like a slow-motion kurang upaya version of Step Up.
Interesting review. Agree that Pn. Yasmin's fan being largely sychophants. She herself doesn't take to criticism lightly as well. Take this as an example, look out for her comment... http://www.arterimalaysia.com/2009/04/16/some-notes-on-talentime/
- Jo.
This movie shown in 1U GSC Cinema No.2, big cinema they screening, but only fill in half(Wed night). We are 6 bloggers watched together.
This is a good Malaysian movie, with Yasmin Ahmad's style - mix culture & race & touching (now add in Indian).
Some part of the movie, I think that's too over and sensational, same as my friends' feeling. Especially the ending, beh tahan.
for me, yasmin ahmad's films are all the same or rather similar. she is still stuck in the 70s. agree with you on irrelevant scenes, just like "sepet". many unneccessay scenes. yasmin's malay folks in her movies are just her own figments of imagination. look around or better still ask the malays. majority of the malays in malaysia don't act or behave like those in her movies. a title like "talentime" at this age and time, is out of syn.
i think that you suck totally in giving movie reviews
hey hollywood graduate, what's your email? rashdan, how was berlinale? - han too