GUBRA
by
TV Smith
24/04/06
During Gubra,
a close-up shot of pig innards appeared on
screen. The tudung-clad woman next to me shuddered
and half-covered her eyes. Hey! Yasmin
Ahmad may be on to something here,
I thought. Welcome to the new Malay horror
film genre.
Much as I like new wave Muhibbah-ism,
some scenes (such as the aforementioned) were
unnecessary, I felt. There is already too
much gratuitous sex and/or violence in movies.
Now, there's gratuitous taboo for fragile
Malaysians. There were a few such moments
in Gubra that came off as either too contrived
or unbelievable.
Like the bilal petting the dog. Or
that nauseous scene where Alan and Orked feign
disgust about a Malaysia populated by only
one race of people. Orked declared (in a fit)
that cheating is endemic among Malay husbands.
Really? (Almost) every husband in Malaysia
cheats; circumcised or otherwise.
Orked finds comfort in a wooden Chinese fellow.
So what do suffering wives in homogeneous
societies do? Of course Yasmin knew that.
Gubra required Yasmin's bold new signature.
Otherwise, it would have been another warm
fuzzy Petronas commercial.
This outing is deliciously dark and layered.
Taboo subjects are tackled wickedly. The ubiquitous
Rumah Tumpangan, Malay hookers, Chinese
pimps. Her honest observations of Malaysian
society riled a lot of people. Like that abusive
bigot on the RTM
talk show tonight. By his own admission,
he has only read the review. WTF?!
Hassan Muthalib you rock, by the way. You
were the only person on the panel who understood
a film is, a film. To devote prime time on
TV (and in Parliament) debating whether the
two films threaten cultural values is a testimony
of the sorry state of our nation. Yasmin,
will you make a film on the crooked bridge
or ear squats, please?
I doubt Yasmin even has an agenda to begin
with. She makes a movie and like every other
before her, hope to recover her investment,
make a little profit, win some awards. She
tells her story in the way she sees it. She
sells it better than those old horses making
gerak movies.
She engaged some bloggers and whipped them
into a frothy orgasm. It is a powerful new
marketing medium which she cleverly utilized.
Heaven forbid, if Gubra has a social message,
it would be preaching to the converted. Those
zealots are getting their knickers into a
twist for nothing.
When
Pink
Pau and I cornered Thor
Kah Hoong and asked how his character
suddenly recovered at the end of the movie,
he quipped “Yasmin's a miracle worker”
Indeed! Now, I'm thinking, Gubra may be
the best satire on our society's growing
intolerance.
See also:
SEPET
(A Review) - TV Smith
Sepet
& Gubra: Pencemar Budaya? - Meesh
Adakah
Sepet dan Gubra pencemar budaya? - Nizam
Zakaria
FORUM:
Pencemar Kepala Hotak - Kakicucuklangit
Apa
Apa Dengan Sepet & Gubra
- Muteaudio
©
2006 TV SMITH
Link to this article: http://www.tvsmith.net.my/duasen/240406_gubra.html
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