Malaysian Shorts

As of late I have frequented the kakiseni.com website, being a lover of the fine arts and wanting to be in it and all... Anyways i noticed that there is this event called 'Malaysian Shorts' being held last night at, of all places, MY college so i figured, I'll go for it. Why not? Its free after all.

The event held all in all 10 short films that was made by Malaysians and the finale of the evening was the RM500k winner of the BMW Shorties competition so i guess it should be fine. At the end if the night, the audience were supposed to vote for their top 3 favourites films and then...well i dunno if there were any gifts or prizes for the directors but i guess its the satisfaction of knowing that your hard work of making the short film was appreciated by the people should be sufficient enough. Anyways I could give a review of every film that i saw that night but then that'll be too long so i figured I'll just review the 3 that i voted as favourites.

The night opens with a promise that its going to be a good one when they showed this film called 'HELLO GOODBYE'. Its basically just POV shots movement of a train coming from the same track, the same point of origin, but travelling in different directions, one forward and the other backwards. Although in the synopsis it says that film was inspired by the song 'Parallel Lines' by the King of Convenience but to me, it seemed like it was speaking to me not through the words of 'Parallel Lines' but actually the profound poem by Robert Frost- The Road Not Taken. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveller long I stood and look down as far as I could, To where it bent in the undergrowth." And is the same here, instead of two roads we have two trains, 2stories to tell, but only one way to travel.

The second fav of mine was WESTBOUND which I'm sure was a crowd fav as well. The story was about a man who ran out of Diesel and got stranded by Karak Highway and come nightfall, a stranger came out from the woods offering help. This is a cinematic take at Malaysian urban legend and its a really good one too. I don't want to give too much of it away but lets just say that the 18mins of the movie was a highly entertaining one and was visually tasteful as well.

The last movie i voted for was, perhaps on a certain level was because of bias. It was KONGSI DALAM GELAP (Men in Darkness) by Melissa Saila. For those of you who doesn't know, Melissa was huge actress in Malaysia back in the 90ties as i was growing up. I used to think that she was very pretty and i think my bro used to have a thing for her as well. Anyways, she have left the screen and stage a long time ago but now trying to make a come-back as a film maker. Her short film was a thought provoking one. Its a mockery towards the government, towards humanity and towards the hierarchy that man have created where there are three types of people in the world that you cannot messed with and that the one in Power, the ones who are Rich and the ones who are In Lust. Its deep with a moral undertone but the main reason why I voted was because it was Melissa Saila.

I voted mine but i did not stay through discussion with the directors or to find out who won as the favourite. It was running late and i still have pending assignment and class to go to on the next day. I guess i just have to find out who's the winner is from Mr.Zan himself seeing he was there as well... and oh by the way, most people who was there to watch the movies are all this so called 'artsy' ppl with scarves around their necks in the middle of a frickin tropical country. What the hell is up with that? And they're damn snobbish as well, kept on giving me dirty looks. I realise that i stuck out like a sore thumb but honestly just coz I'm interested in the fine arts doesn't mean i have to start acting like a poser and where a frickin scarf around my neck when its already hot outside.