mamakk!!!

I know this video must have made its round in the blogosphere, but it’s real funny…lol

Swifty wrote:

A video of the Filmmakers Anonymous held at Indiescene Cafe on the 29th of December, 2006, along with my thoughts on the short films filmed there, and my plea to Malaysian audiences to help save the country’s indie filmmaking industry by participating in such events.

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Swifty wrote:

A video from Comic Fiesta 2006 held on the 17th of December. Shot by my sister
(who participated), and edited by me. I’m submitting it here due to the recent
Mamakk entry about Malaysians and the comics scene. Hope it is of your
interest.

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[pic source]

In terms of successes in the comics/manga scene, we still need to catch up with the Malaysians. Tan Eng Huat, our northern cousin, has already found his break over in USA with DC Comics too. He found success illustrating a re-launched Doom Patrol, and moved on to do the A-list characters such as Batman (BATMAN: JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT). You can argue that it might not be the best Batman mini-series, but nevertheless, it’s still Batman. And imitation is the best flattery, other artists are following Eng Huat’s manga-like style. Neil Googe’s artwork on Wildstorm’s “Welcome to Tranquility” (written by Gail Simone, who did the Singapore arc in “Birds of Prey”) appears to be influenced by Eng Huat’s line work.

It appears that in the comics/manga scene, the Malaysians are a bound ahead of the Singaporeans. In the 90s, some artists from Malaysia has already broken into the Hong Kong comics scene. Wee Tian Beng was a promising manga artist who made his debut during that decade, but his work didn’t manage to make much impact where it matters. Then again, ‘Celestial Zone‘ managed to survive commercially for more than a decade. And pictures from the recently concluded Comics Fiesta also suggest that the Malaysians are a nose ahead of us in the standard of cosplay.

It appears that the local doujin circles would rather participate in Malaysia’s comics convention than to feel under-appreciated at home. Apparently otakus/fanboys over in Malaysia are more supportive of homegrown produce. Malaysia has already gotten it’s local comics anthology, “JOM“, featuring works by their local artists. Not that there’s none in Singapore - there’s “W.I.T.C.H.” a shojo-kei manga from Chuang-Yi. A US-based publisher Century Comics came up with a tradepaperback collecting the works of Southeast Asian comics artists under the title of “Singapore’s Greatest Comics“. It’s excusable that I don’t dig W.I.T.C.H. since it’s girly stuff. But I would just read “Singapore’s Greatest Comics” if I see it at the library.

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Swifty wrote:

As I sat through the film, I grew increasingly satisfied that the earlier predictions I made in Suanie’s car were correct. This film would be a slice-of-life film, and for me, the film’s biggest appeal was its accurate depiction of Malaysian everyday life. The streetside mamak stalls (Indian restaurants opened for 24 hours), the ‘economical rice’ stall (a 20+ Chinese dishes were displayed for customers to choose for their rice), the guy who would interrupt you in a restaurant to sell you lottery tickets, the pasar malams (the night markets where lots of stalls were set up to sell cheap wares, clothings, food etc.), a Chinese family sitting together watching soap opera, a mom helping her young daughter with her homework.

It was Kuala Lumpur of the 80s, before the advent of mobile phones, computers and Internet, when all distant phone calls were made through public phones, and a young girl would check her mailbox everyday for a letter from a pen pal. Portrayed for what it really is, without being romanticized at all for Movieland.

My review of ‘Love Conquers All’, an independent Malaysian Chinese film by female director Tan Chui Mui that won an award at the Pusan Film Festival. Went to the preview, thanks to Suanie, yesterday. Support local films!

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