*all photos taken from Crayon’s facebook page.
They designed two posters for this movie, one is the screening in Los Angeles, and one is for the Malaysia screening. Honestly speaking, I prefer the Los Angeles poster better compared to the Malaysian version, thus putting it up here.
I found out about this movie when I was doing most of my grocery shopping in Tesco Mutiara Damansara.
So once the movie came out in cinemas, I decided to watch it fast. I was torn in between European Union movies or this indie film.
I felt that the people behind this production didn’t do enough research to promote this film. Firstly, of all places Tesco? It is true many people do go to Tesco to do their shopping but do they realised that the people who go to Tesco are the families. Not everyone in Malaysia can appreciate indie films. If they really want to promote their film, they should promote in art and media schools because that is the place where students are taught on how to analyse media.
Secondly, what happened to the use of social media? Though Joshua Tapes is also an indie production, but they manage to spread the word out and they promote it to the right crowd.
Did you know that I was sitting in this huge cinema alone? It would be fine if it was the smaller cinema but I was in this huge cinema alone and it doesn’t help that Crayon the movie is classified as a malay movie and the first few trailers were the malay pontianak horror type. What the horror.
Not only that, Crayon posted on their facebook wall that GSC decided not to show anymore of their movies in all of their cinemas except for Mid Valley after a week because the response was so bad.
Overall, I like how they did colour correction to their film and how they really compose certain shots. At least they don’t overuse certain effects unlike a particular short film on 15 Malaysia. However at some parts they had some problems with the contrast in the title sequence. They brightened up the shots but they forgot the contrast of the text that is on top of the image.
I have to say that the movie started out promising but was kind of let down to how the whole story was developed.
What I like about the film:
1. The start of the story was interesting. The topic of Corporate of Social Responsibility (CSR) was brought up in a class.
2. Super idealistic. Ok, I cringe at certain idealistic parts but watching it reminds me of the late Yasmin Ahmad films. It reminds me on how she created a film which didn’t exactly please everyone but people still watch it because it is raw, and yet idealistic… Sometimes too much of idealism can feel a little ‘jelak’ but don’t you think that we have our own ideals, and we don’t try to achieve them or even have hope in them?
3. The jokes. Well, instead of your typical kiasu Singaporean bashing jokes, this one is bashes the Singaporean Malays. Oh, besides that, you have Adibah Noor as she is now the resident comedian of any films she acts in.
What I didn’t really like about the film
1. One chinese boy and one malay boy. Why does it look like it is ripped of from the late Yasmin Ahmad’s films? True, this story is about orphanage and corporation but it was not portrayed that way. Watch this only if you really miss the late Yasmin Ahmad a lot.
2. Not making use of an interesting concept. I’ve watched enough indie films and most of them have the same premises. Staring into space. The same scene for 15 minutes and it jerks to another scene. Knowing that person is stupid but still want to get involve with that person etc. Emo etc. I felt CSR is an interesting concept because not many indie film makers had venture into that area. At least Joshua Tapes has more originality.
3. Overused slapstick. Seriously, do we need to replay the scene many times where the malay gangsters acted like small kids?