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Click to view our full Checklist this week- Catch the KL Slam Jam Rap Battle and B-Boy Challenge 2010
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ISSUE #137
Don't panic! This month, we present an abridged guide to your rights as a Malaysian citizen. Are makeshift gated communities legal? Do you have any rights in a street demonstration? Well, go find out!
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Tiger Woohoo! (Reviewed by Sebastian Ng)
Ask me for my opinion about local movies and you will hear me curse loudly. It's not that I don't value patriotism, it's just that watching bad movies is a poor excuse for jingoistic pride – there, I've said it.
Truly, there are few things more annoying than hearing someone say "must support Malaysian movie mah". And of course I'm not alone in this. Take this blogger (thatmoviebloggerfella.blogspot.com) whose movie reviews I frequent – he is the only film critic I know of who tirelessly goes for local movies and reviews them, and all those movies invariably end up sounding like a Form 5 student's homework that has been graded "D-" by a Std 3 teacher.
But then he gave Tiger Woohoo! a favourable rating. I had to pay attention.
Did I enjoy the movie? Not really. Was I impressed? Quite.
Let me explain. Tiger Woohoo! is very much geared towards a particular kind of audience: the mostly (though I daren't say exclusively) Chinese audience of variety shows and soap dramas from Astro Wah Lai Toi and similar channels – the way the story is told and the kind of jokes it contains reflects that. I'm not Tiger Woohoo!'s target audience, but I'm familiar enough with those shows that I can safely say: this movie really works for its intended audience.
What I'm impressed with is the technical craft. Not that it has a budding Judd Apatow or a Christopher Doyle wannabe at its helm – far from it – but I see that the crew have delivered:
- a non-flashy and non-artsy film that follows the rules of cinematography with none of the amateurish, student-film-like shot compositions;
- which, consequently, allows the editor a fighting chance at cutting the movie for plot and flow, instead of one-hand-tied-behind stuck at the level of editing just to save the movie;
- which has almost no sound problems that I can detect (a fairly miraculous achievement, believe you me);
- and which delivered dialogue that didn't make me want to stick my finger down my throat.
Happily, this film is a box office success and (for once) deserves it – I saw this in its third weekend, playing up to 7 shows a day, and it's still sold out. It's worth checking out, if only to renew one's hope that we are capable of technically sound commercial films.
(PS – I apologise for the cynicism and pessimism.)
Director Chiu Keng Guan Cast Jack Lim, Jason Yeoh, Royce Tan, Bernard Hiew Runtime 95 mins Opens 14 Jan
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Sebastian Ng studied filmmaking at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood, majoring in Directing and Sound Design. He currently works as a digital production coordinator for Rhythm & Hues Studios (Malaysia), and continues to fuel his passion for film by writing reviews and other ramblings for his blog, Cinematic Concerns.
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1 COMMENT
Hmm. I've only found movies by Grand Brilliance and KRU Studios worth watching.
Thanks for the review. Will check this one out soon.
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