She's lived her whole life in KL by the unspoken rules of being a good Malay daughter.
He doesn't give a fuck what people think.
She wished she didn't have to give a fuck what people think.
He's a writer.
She's a musician.
They're both dreamers.
And they're both in love.
A film by Khairil M. Bahar
Now, before you start, let me make one thing abundantly clear: this movie has been in my head ever since I got back. I am in no way whatsoever trying to ride on the recent success of Yasmin Ahmad's 'Sepet'. I've been trying to write it for ages but it just wasn't working. My main character, Jo, wasn't coming to life, and the girl was incrediblyone dimensional.
Then, sometime last week, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I remembered someone I'd only met twice, a girl by the name of Nazneen. Something about her face and attitude stuck the first time I met her. The second time I met her was when her band, 'Sofa Sessions', was playing at Paul's Place, and I was amazed by her voice.
Last week, at some point in the middle of the night whilst driving, I suddenly remembered her and thought to myself, "holy shit, that's what I'm missing". By the time I got home I had the entire movie planned out in my head as well as the characters and started writing the scenes and character synopsis down as detailed as I possibly could.
Even in England, I had the idea of writing a story about a very westernized Malay guy. More and more Malay kids are either living or going overseas to study and they pick up an entirely new culture, open-minded and completely uncensored. Then they come back, and it's almost like 'Nam vets coming back from the war. They don't know how to adjust, and nine times out of ten something dreadful happens. These kids are the future of Malaysia, and they're confused as fuck.
What kept holding me back before was the fact that I kept trying to tell the story purely from the westernized guy's point of view, maybe turning it into some Taxi Driver kinda thing. But it didn't work. He had no drive and no reason.
Back in England I wrote a play based on Alice in Wonderland, except set in a halls of residence in a university. Writing something completely from a female characters point of view was a refreshing experience. I also discovered that whilst the females could understand Alice, the guys could at least sympathise for her. I wanted my male character in the movie I was writing to be cynical and brash. Very tough to sympathise with. An innocent young girl? Hmmm...
It also allowed me to tell two stories in one: the story of the westernized guy trying to come to terms with the fact he's in Malaysia and the girl brought up her whole life in Malaysia trying to break out of her restrictions.
No, it's nothing like Sepet.
I actually just saw the first half of 'Sepet' on VCD. The female lead is a wonderful actress. At first I didn't think she was as cute as everyone claimed, but when she was standing up to the 'celup' I was won over completely. The movie's alright so far, but it's definitely of the Sofia Copolla/Wong Kar Wai camp of filmmaking. Just like her award winning TVC's, her Malaysia is rustic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and naturally beautiful.
There's no way I'm filming my movie like that. Yasmin filmed her movie in Ipoh. Mine is set in KL and I have no patience in trying to beautify my city. I'm not saying KL isn't beautiful, but you don't walk out to beautifully cinematographed streets everyday.
I want to show the dirt and grime. The stench of Alam Flora trucks driving past. The endless honks of traffic jams. The litter on the streets and remains of car crashes strewn across the highway. The rich and glamorous are manipulative and thick. The young, hopeful dreamers are on a sure-path to doom. And the adults don't want to know.
Thankfully, Nazneen has agreed, and the show's going on. I just need to round up the rest of the cast and try and get permission to shoot in the key places I want to shoot. Hopefully this movie gets made. I really fucking hope this movie gets made. I feel like my life is on those 70 pages, moments I've lived, moments I wish I lived, it's all there, hidden between the lines.
I'll be meeting up with Nazneen at her place on Tuesday. She's having a BBQ in response to Liverpool's win over Juventus. The movie's also set predominantly in Starbucks (for I wrote it there for the past week, and it's not as noisy as a mamak) and KLue magazine plays a part in it too, so I'm gonna have to work out some deal with them. If not, I'm gonna have to rewrite those scenes, and it's a lot of scenes.
I'm also gonna have to do some test runs on some of the filming techniques I want to use. I want the sound to be recorded a lot clearer than 'Nicotine', and I'll be cutting and flipping scenes like a madman in the editing room, so I want to see if any of the crazy ideas in my head will work. Plus, I need to see what Nazneen's strengths and weaknesses are, acting wise. Then, it's a matter of casting the rest of the movie (where the fuck am I going to find the adult characters) and convince them all to be in this crazy project for the total sum of nothing.
Groovy.
*CELUP - derogatory Malay term for Malaysian's who act white. 'Celup' means dipped, as if to say the Malay guy's been dipped in white chocolate. Us Asian's and our weird-ass terms.
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