JULY 18 — 2014 should have been a warning to most film producers out there. While a 2014 box office total of RM74.6 million from 81 films doesn’t seem so bad at first, when one takes into consideration that RM17.2 million of that comes from just one film, The Journey (Chiu, 2014), a total of RM57.4 million from 80 films does present a significant slump from the previous three years, especially the quite stunning numbers of 2011 (RM108.36 million from 42 films).
Those numbers should have sent the message that flooding the market with sub-par mainstream films, most of them cheaply and quickly made, is not the way to stop the downward trajectory of Malaysian films that started two or more years ago.
The crowds have thankfully now learned to stay away from a good majority of them, to the extent that there were five films that failed to even break RM30,000 at the box office and 11 that didn’t manage to ring in RM100,000 at the box office.
The unexpected silver lining from this was the surprising increase in quality of quite a few mainstream genre films, and a sudden increase in the number of films that don’t fall within the usual mainstream genre staples, especially towards the end of the year with films like Lelaki Harapan Dunia, Terbaik Dari Langit, Ophilia and the earlier release of Cuak.
With more than half of 2015 already gone, a box-office total of RM24.3 million from 41 films seems just about the same as the 2014 figures, as we’re almost exactly at the halfway mark in not only the amount of money collected (RM24.3 million compared with 2014's total of RM57.4 million, discounting the freak success of The Journey) but also the amount of films released (41 films compared with 2014’s total of 81 films).
Quality-wise it’s been rather depressing as there’s nothing outside the mainstream norm like last year’s Cuak or Terbaik Dari Langit so far, and we’re more than halfway through July already, although we can all look forward to Pekak later this year and maybe even Dain Said’s new film Interchange to make up for it.
As I wrote in my first quarter report earlier this year, this has been a year where horror films have really picked up the slack in the quality department. While not many of them have been big hits, with the exception of Villa Nabila (RM2.8 million) which was also the first hit of 2015, they’ve done surprisingly decent business for the most part with seven of them scoring more than RM400,000 at the box-office, some even nearing the RM1 million mark, which is really something in 2015’s scary age of plummeting box-office takings.
If 2014 had five films that failed to even break RM30,000 at the box-office, 2015 already has six films that failed to do the same, with four of them failing to even cross the RM10,000 mark. And what about that animated film Oh La La that reportedly cost RM4 million to make but only managed to collect RM36,607.40 at the box-office? Tough times indeed.
When we also take into account that the usually much fought over Hari Raya slot for local films goes to films with titles like Gangsterrock – Kasi Sengat and Suamiku Jatuh Dari Langit (which is the third movie this year with “Suamiku” in its title, not to mention the glut of local TV series also with “Suamiku” in their titles), one would probably be forgiven for not having too much hope.
In addition to the horror films I singled out like Sunti @Facebook, Villa Nabila and Jengka, the most interesting story of the first half of 2015 for Malaysian cinema is the continually evolving and curious case of M. Subash and the films released by his companies Genius Parade and RenBash.
I’ve been making a case for him as an unexpected auteur for a while now, particularly finding personal little touches and obsessive themes in his previous films, especially Misteri Bisikan Pontianak, which was more or less a call for tolerance and understanding of transgender people coated with horror elements.
Regularly coming up with at least two or three films per year in the past few years, the mysterious M. Subash is having a field day in 2015, with three films already released by June and not one of them crossing the RM100,000 mark. In fact, one of them was one of the four films that didn’t even manage to score RM10,000 at the box-office and another one managed only slightly more than RM10,000.
Quite how his business model is, we’ll probably never know, but I’m still thankful for the aesthetic adventure he’s been taking in his 2015 films, boldly incorporating a minimalist approach more common to arthouse films and quite rarely seen in Malaysian multiplexes.
The boldest of these experiments is Jendela, going bravely against the grain not only by the decision to make it a silent film, which makes it Malaysia’s first ever silent feature film, but also the even braver decision to have only ONE actor in it.
His earlier 2015 film Selfie Suara Kubur seems to be a dry run for Jendela, as it also concentrates on only one character, but with very minimal visits from other characters. While these are brave and commendable experiments, they’re not really successful ones as Subash’s by now trademark incorporation of social issues into his genre workouts can sometimes be a bit too heavy handed.
While his third 2015 film, the Chinese language Papa’s Shoe is similarly hampered by a heavy handed end title card underlining the social issue that Subash wants to highlight in the film, it’s undoubtedly the best of his 2015 output so far, and probably one of his overall best as well as it is a touching story of two young girls abandoned by their father.
Its minimalist, patient and observational visual style with plenty of beautifully framed static shots won't be out of place in a lot of second or third tier international film festivals. Will 2015 be the year of M. Subash? Judging from his prolific and promising work rate so far, I won’t discount that from happening just yet!
* This is a personal opinion of the columnist.
