Theater - TIGA

TIGA was a theater that was produced by scriptwriter with 3 scripts based on 3 objects. Tiga’s first edition will see Sharifah Aleysha presenting 3 new scripts based on three objects which are bed, chair and knife.

It is my last theater that I watched in this semester. I feel fresh about this theater because the story line is not related to other story even though the scriptwriter try to reflect the women’s emotion in today society.

BED
Bed was a first story to present in today’s theater. The story was talking about a young woman battles with the idea of possession in a relationship. In the beginning of story, the actress woke up from the bed and started to imagine she had a conversation with her boyfriend. She was trying to use different ways like expression and action to show the idea of possession in a relationship.

I felt a bit curious about some movement or action such as the actress walk along the edge of the bed and she used the sheet wrap around herself while standing on the bed. In previous time, I thought that walk along the edge of the bed was presenting the actress was doing the exercise while talking to her boyfriend. However, I have some idea about the movement and action through by Q&A section. She walked along the edge of bed and sheet wrap herself was trying to show she was struggling about the relationship and she was not allow her boyfriend betray her. Moreover, at the end of the story, even more of the women were struggling to accept or possession in a relationship, they need to learn tolerance between each other instead of conflict.

CHAIR

The second story – CHAIR was talking about a woman was trapped in her past. She was passed away long time ago, but she could not put down her and her mother’s past. CHAIR in this story was presented a place between heaven and hell. It is because the actress was very suffering in that area, she could not sit on the chair and always fell down from the chair. Moreover, she was always remembered her mother treat her very well and ask her to be what her mother expect. Sometimes, she would listen someone was calling her, but she could not see their face. Actually the person who called her was her mother, so that it caused her always suffering between heaven and hell. However, at the end of the story, finally she sat on the chair and to get peaceful. It is because maybe her mother was also passed away, so it was a way to release her suffered from that place.

KNIFE

KNIFE was a last story in this theater. It was about a woman discusses her sexuality in ways common but not so common to society. In this story, the actress used the way of making salad to present sex between men and women in this society such as cutting the vegetables, putting the salad sauce into the bowl and mix up everything in the bowl. She was trying to use all this material to show that before sex with your partner, you would pass through all this way just like making salad. Moreover, there was one important thing that you must do before you mix up the salad together. The important thing was wearing a pair of gloves, the gloves could not 100% to measure would not make your hand dirty. It was a same meaning that if you want to have a sex with your partner; condom could not 100% to prevent you to get a new life in your life. However, at the end of the story, the actress showed the gloves were broken means the condom were broken too, so the woman higher probability to get pregnant in her life. So, she felt very nervous about this kind of thing, but she realized that she could accept it in her life. The story showed normally women will think different aspect while this kind of thing happening in our lives.

SETTING

There are a few of experiments are created by the director, actresses and stage managers.

1. CHAIR – The director used the wood chair instead of others material chair to present the story is because of lighting can show different types of perspective. The lighting will affect the colour of the wood chair and it will show the time changes between past and present while the woman is trapped in a loop.
2. KNIFE – The actress sees and holds the knife with a sinister smile. It makes me to think that the story will be presented in how the knife can hurt someone, but it is not. The knife is only a supporting item in this story.
3. KNIFE – When the performance is going on, the actress invites a male audience to play the show with her which is preparing salad with a “SPECIAL” voice. It makes everyone laugh and suddenly I have an idea to know what the story will talk about.
4. KNIFE – The director asked the actress to wear a “tundung” to present the story. It is because he wants to test the audience perception in this story. Since it is a story to talk about sex and as a Malay should not present this kind of thing in open situation, so he try to test our perception about this.

In this theatre, there is not much catharsis to bring out. As a woman, I will plan to do some research about the women’s thinking in this society. For example, is all the women will yield in a relationship? Is all the women would accept sex and to get pregnant before married?

Experience of Traditional Dance Presentation

This is my first and also is the last presentation in this semester. In this presentation, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Dr Carmen and Miss Ezzati because they help us to accomplish our presentation. Before we started to do this assignment, Dr Carmen gave us a lot of help to us especially we faced the problem to decide the topic and she also suggest us the centre for the interview part.

It was my first time to be a leader to lead a group to accomplish the assignment and presentation. Even though it was a tough task for me, but I was very appreciate it. This was because I learn how to communicate with my group members and how to solve the problems when we were facing it.

After we decided the traditional dance, Joget, we started to do our search and practice it. Since there were various types of Joget, so we chose Joget Lodeh as our presentation dance. Joget Lodeh was introduced in Malay to the Malacca at the 16 century. It has a cheerful movement and it was a male and female pair dance. Besides that, I felt very happy when work together with my teammate especially we worked together and practiced together in the midnight. It was because we did not have the potential on dancing, so we need to pay more effort on it. Sometimes we will practice it until midnight even the movement was very simple, but we were trying to perform a perfect performance in front of everyone.

We planned to wear the traditional clothing to play a short drama story to bring out the meaning of traditional of Malaysia. It was a special presentation compared to previous. I was appreciated that we got all the clothing from Miss Ezzati the traditional clothes, Baju Kebaya and included Baju Melayu. Moreover, we created our own props such as “songkok” and fans for our presentation.

We had a lot of mistakes in our presentation especially dancing. However, we did not blame each other instead appreciate had an opportunities work with each other. I gained a lot of knowledge about our Malaysia traditional dance in this presentation. Other than that, I was also learn to manage a group of members such as separate the tasks and measure they were submitted their on time. Sometimes, we will have some conflict between each other, but we would not bring it to the next day and tried to settle it on time.

At the end, I am really appreciate I have a chance to touch on our Malaysia traditional art form since I have no idea about the Joget dance before. If as a Malaysian do not have the knowledge about our own traditional art form how does the art form pass to next generation and it will gradually disappear in our society?

Tutorial - Setting of Baling Talk

What is Catharsis?

Catharsis is a term uses in theatre. It is helping people to get a good feeling and release their bad emotion in life. Normally, there will have a happy ending in the theatre. For example, you are suffering in your life, but the happy ending of the theatre will help you release all suffers and you will have a new hope in your life.  

In the tutorial class, Dr. Carmen asked us a question which is “How does the catharsis in the Baling Talk?”

My answer is NO. Based on my idea, Chin Peng is not necessary exiled to somewhere else and does not return to Malaysia. Even though Chin Peng is a communist and he is unwilling to accept the condition that Tunku Abdul Rahman was given. It is because he believed that he can use his own way to win the independent from British government instead of surrender.

How does the space, acting, format of the Baling Talk?

Space: The performers play around the whole building such as upstairs and downstairs. It is because different place different interpretation about the storyline. For example, the setting of upstairs is presenting the intensity of the situation while they are discussing how to end the war. It is because the hot weather and the sound of tearing the paper from the wall to create the atmosphere. After that, we move to downstairs to enjoy other scene of the story. In the downstairs, we are changing our seat when end each of the scene. It is because different angle have different perception to interpret the meaning of story and the character. Other than that, changing our seat can be showed their discussion is happened in different day.

Acting: In Baling Talk performance, every performer has more than 1 character to perform. It is because they do not want to fix the character, maybe different character perform different style in the performance.

Format: Some of the performer will share their experience about the performance such as how to get the video of Chin Peng and explain the introduction to us. I think that they share their experience and explain the story us is because we can more understand their performance and to refresh our mind to enjoy the upcoming scene. 

Baling Talk

“Baling” was created by Five Arts Centre on 3 April 2016 (Sunday). Baling Talk is a special theatre compares to others theatre that I watched before. It is because Baling Talk is a documentary performance that reconstructs these historic negotiations between Tunku Abdul Rahman, David Marshall and Chin Peng.

 Baling Talk is about a debate and shrewd political maneuvering of Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, Chief Minister of Singapore David Marshall and Chin Peng of the Communist Party of Malaya. They tried to end up the war when the revolutionary war known as the Malayan Emergency had been going on for seven years. They fought for independent with the British government in 1955. Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman asked Chin Peng surrender with a few of conditions. The conditions are Chin Peng them could have their own party, freedom and they had a choice to return their hometown but they need to surrender After surrender, all of them got the freedom but it was still under Malayan government controlled since Chin Peng was a communist. However, Chin Peng believed that they could fight for independent without any condition especially “surrender”. Through few times of the debate, in the end Chin Peng and Tunku Abdul Rahman did not reach consensus. After Malayan independent, Chin Peng exiled to somewhere else and did not return to Malaysia again.

I gained a lot of knowledge and more understand about Malaysia history through by this theatre. It is because I did not realize that the process of Malaysia fought for independent had this kind of debate and Chin Peng exiled to somewhere else. Even though I am very proud of Malaysia win for independent from the British government and we get more freedom than before, I am also very proud that Chin Peng his courage and persistence his individualism.

During the theatre performance, we are changing our seat from upstairs to the downstairs when we seat on the floor. The reason of change the seat is because the director tries to use this kind of way to present different angle have different interpretation about the meaning of story. Moreover, the setting of design was depended on the performers’ idea.

I am very appreciated to join this theatre because I would not join this kind of theatre before. It is because this theatre creates some interaction with audience instead of the performers performing on the stage.

FILM REVIEW - 4

Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah was created by Mamat Khalid on 2011. The story was about Husin has been working in Singapore for some time and decides to return to his hometown, Kampung Pisang. Upon returning, he feels that his neighbour Mak Limah is strange as she does not speak and sleep. After that he tells villagers at the Mamak stall that Mak Limah might be a ghost. Pak Abu decides they should investigate further but when they go to her house, she is already a rotting corpse! However, things get more interesting when the village is haunted by strange occurrences, despite the burial of Kak Limah.

The director presents some of the political situations of Malaysia in this film. For example:

1. The old leader wants to change the leader without hold the election. The young villagers disagree with it but they don’t have voice out their opinion. However, one of the villagers said that the way of old leader do is different from the young generation. So, we should pass out to the new generation to continue and serve the people.

2. In a scene, Hussein said that he want to bring along his fiancée to leave the village because he hoped the government would give him some subsidy when he was in the Banana Village but he didn’t get it. After he worked at Singapore, he became a supervisor. In this situation its means that government doesn’t care about the small village so the villager try to find a way to build up their economy.

3. The SGD currency rate is different with Malaysia ringgit. It will higher than Malaysia, so many people like to work at Singapore is part of the reason. As Hussein also has mentioned in the film, his salary is 2000 sin dollar so he can married with his fiancée. Nowadays, Malaysia ringgit is getting lower and economic is not good as past, so we have to think before we use the money.

What is the genre of this film?

It is a mix genre for this film. In this film, it includes fiction, comedy, horror and mystery. The director, Mamat Khalid used different genre to attract audiences instead of 1 genre. So that, it will be more interesting compare to others film.

How do you think about the development of commercial film in Malaysia?

We use history of Malaysian cinema to explain the development of commercial film in Malaysia.

Most of the P. Ramlee’s films do not portray Islamic rituals but focus on one’s characters and actions in 1929 - 1973. However, all the themes of films from late of 1940-60s were focused on royal transgressions, unrequired love, forced marriage or evil stepmother. Moreover, P.Ramlee’s first directional effort touched on social and economic divisions within the Malay community, a theme constantly returned to in his work.

After that, Merdeka studios produced 14 films in black and white and many of the films were unsuccessful. In 1964, Shaw Brothers bought over Merdeka Studios and renamed it as Merdeka Film Productions. However, today, it is the headquarters of the FINAS.

FINAS is a response to the community’s appeal for government assistance to improve and develop the industry by various means including the provision of research and advisory services. FINAS stipulated that a company can only do two of three functions which mean production, distribution or exhibition in order to avoid monopoly by a certain party.

Other than that, government creates a film censorship law in Malaysia to regulate the production and exhibition of local and foreign films in post 1980. Government will ban some of the film that includes any communication topic about religious, culture and political. Moreover, filmmakers concerned with film as commentaries to socio-political issues. For example, the director used different ways to show the current political situation of Malaysia instead of present it directly in the film of Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah.

In my opinion, we suggest to provide subtitle in every film no matter it is a Malay, Indian or Chinese film. It is because audience will very hard to understand some of the message that character want to bring out. For example, Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah film without any subtitle, so the audiences are very hard to understand their conversation especially they speak very fast.

FILM REVIEW - 3

15 Malaysia is a 15 short film with sensitive social or political themes that characterized Malaysia such as corruption, freedom of expression, racism, Islamphobia and pedophilia. These 15 short films were created by 15 young filmmakers and Pete Teo. Other than that, the casting politicians and some artists in some of the film to made it fresh and different.  

The 1^st short film is Duit Kecil was created by Johan John at 11 September 2009. This film is reflecting the situation of 2007 to 2009. It is because Tun Mahathir took expansionary fiscal and monetary policy against recession; thus exacerbating the government bonds, corporate bonds and debt. Moreover, the price of crude oil tumbled; oil palm and rubber price are decreased to cause inflation in that period. For example, the Malay guy asks the prostitute to give back him the balance in order to take cab to back home. During exchange money, they have a short discussion to complaint the money rate, and the prices of everything are increased but the salary is remained. As we know that it is a period of inflation, but some of the people are trying to argue the price in certain thing instead of argue price with the thing that they are very desire on it.

2^nd film is Lollipop. It was created by Nam Ron at 15 September 2009.  In this film, it is talking about how they use the paedophile to reflect from the political side and it has happen in our country. What has happen in our society is actually reflect from the situation that they have met before. Lollipop film is not talking about revenge of what he had met when he was young but if we not experience something bad from our perfect lives, when we getting older we would repeat the thing that left in our lives and we will live it again but in different way. Just like the paedophile do the same thing toward the little girl. When the country becomes more prosperous, the more things that you will lost. It reflects the current social phenomenon, as the parent busy on their work to cover their living expenses, and they have to choose to let their children become independent.

3^rd short film is Meter. It was created by Benji Lim and Bahir Yeusuff on 9 September 2009. The casting will be Khairy Jamaluddin, Jason Lo, Namewee and Amber Chia. Nowadays, although everyone think they are supporting Malaysian, at the end they are supporting foreigner more than our people. For example, we are always saying that Malaysia brand is good quality in society but they decide to buy foreign brand instead of Malaysia brand. The director used football fans to reflect this problem in this film. It is because most of the Malaysia football fans are supporting foreign football team instead of Malaysia team.

Another social problem is about English language problem. In previous time, our government decided change the English language to Malay for all the textbooks. It was because the statistic shows that most of the people did not understand Bahasa English and the learning level dramatically decrease so they decide to change the language of learning for students. For example, the taxi driver asks everyone must learn how to speak proper English in our society because English is very useful in the world. But when the passenger speaks English to him and the taxi driver scold him back said you are Malay, so you must speak Bahasa Melayu. This represents that a typical Malaysian will always do “talk in one way but do different.”

Besides that, in this film also shows that party hopping also is an important issue in Malaysia. For example, the taxi driver said that if that particular party give people some benefits, then people will support that party. We can see from a scene in the video, the passenger from that taxi jump to another taxi because it’s a sexy and beautiful female taxi driver. Its means that where or who have the benefits that can fulfil your needs and you will try to become one of the members of them.

The last part of the film shows about the keris. When the Chinese guy on the taxi, the taxi driver is not communicate with him because Chinese is not have a good relationship with Malay during the operasi lalang, and how we know about it?  We can see from the keris which hang on the back mirror. Other than that, when the Chinese guy tell the taxi driver that the keris is beautiful, the taxi driver give him and ask him to give his friends as well. Maybe he wants to use the keris to remind the people about the operasi lalang in that time. Keris is refers to the saying of our current PM during the operasi lalang which means that “memandikan keris dengan darah Cina Malaysia”.

How do the filmmakers differ from the previous generation of filmmakers?

For this short film, the filmmakers used fifth voice to present the content different from the previous one. In post 1980 filmmakers concerned with film as commentaries to socio-political issues. Moreover, there have film censorship law in Malaysia regulates the production and exhibition of local and foreign films. The government can censor or ban films which infringing any religious, cultural and moral values of the Malaysia society, prior to public viewing.

 Is censorship still relevant today?

Yes. It is because to avoid racial conflict in Malaysia such as 13 May 1969. So, the government will censor or ban some of the film which waver the relationship between different racial. Some of the film maybe include includes content, but the filmmakers will try to use other ways to present the situation instead of directly. Not only this, government might censor the part which infringing any cultural, religious and moral values instead of censor or ban the film.

FILM REVIEW - 2

3 Abdul is a 1964 Malaysian comedy film directed by P. Ramlee. P. Ramlee is a director and scriptwriter of this film. He is also a main character as well. The film was released on 1964.

Synopsis

3 Abdul is based on a traditional Malay fable where two elder brothers, named Abdul Wahab and Abdul Wahib, conspire to cheat their youngest brother, Abdul Wahub out of his share of the inheritance left to them by their newly deceased father. Abdul Wahab and Abdul Wahib are soon tricked into marrying the daughters of greedy businessman Sadiq Segaraga, who cheats them out of their wealth and sells them into slavery. It's then up to Abdul Wahub to recover his family's fortune, rescue his brothers and teach everyone a lesson in honesty, filial piety and family loyalty. 

The way of P. Ramlee present the film

P. Ramlee is using different ways to present the story of sitcom to the audience such as narrator, characters, different setting in this film. The beginning of the story, there is a narrator leads the audience to know the story about. Moreover, the narrator also leads the audience to the new scene. In the story, the characters create some interaction with the audience as well. The narrator uses the friendly tone to talk about the story, Abdul Wahib asks for opinion about his sculpture. Other than that, all the characters speak very clearly with exaggerate body action and expression as well. It brings out the feature of the sitcom.

What is the setting of the film?

The settings of the film have their superior home, stable, shop, and the market of slaves. For example, they allocate his father’s properties. Ghasidah asks Abdul Wahub sleep in the stable with the horses. Sadiq Segaraga plan to cheat money from the 3 Abdul brothers. After that, Abdul Wahub’s 2 brothers and Sadiq Segaraga have been redeemed by the Abdul Wahub in the slaves market.

What do you think about P Ramlee?

P Ramlee is a very talented person because he is not only a film actor, he also is a director, singer, songwriter, composer, and producer. He has produce a lot of works. Due to his contribution to the entertainment field, he is consider as the Malay entertainment icon in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Sumatra.

What have you learn through this film?

I learned some moral value from this film that is we do not cheat other people to get the benefit from them. It is because karma will happen in our lives. For example, Sadiq Segaraga is trying to cheat Abdul Wahub properties, but his plan is unsuccessful. Not only this, he and his 2 daughters become a slave to be sold in the slaves market.

In my opinion about the film, I suggest to use different colour for the subtitle. It’s because the film colour is black and white, so the subtitle is not very clear for the audience to read. Other than that, the effect of Abdul Wahub met his father in his dream, the effect applies on his father is too bright. Therefore, without the subtitle, audience won’t know who he is. So, my suggestion is using colour correction to make the colour more darkness a bit.