Subtleties in Mat Superhero and Tak Dong Cheng

Being a diehard My Sassy Girl fan, I joined a fan created facebook group that discusses the movie. One of the wall posts lists down all the little subtleties and hidden messages of the movie. So I came up with a list too...heheheh. Me and Jas enjoy putting these little things into our movies cause...well, we enjoy it. Private joke and to those who want to take notice.

Subtleties in Mat Superhero

1) The colour of Jas's shirt went from bright and colourful at the beginning of the story, to dark and black. It is to show that his intentions were sincere and true at the start but became misguided at the end of Mat Superhero.

2) The end scene of our lead actress talking on the phone and talking about her failed engagement is actually the first scene of Mat Superhero. It happens before she leaves the house to commit suicide. It explains the reason why she wants to commit suicide and the conflict she faces between her Faith and succumbing to her emotions.

3) 3 different types of bags were used in the bag-snatching scene. We had to re-shoot that scene on another day because the original chase scene was too short. We forgot that the handbag belonged to the actress. So we had to improvise. One of the bags is my GS500 camera bag. hehehe.

4) The guy in red where Jas saved a gurl using the Singapore map is Farid. He is my good fren and the Farid character in TDC is based on him. In the end, our lovable Yazid Jalil pulled off a better performance.

5) The shoe that Jas threw at the gurl near the end of Mat Superhero is the same shoe that was used in the scene where Jas helped a tudung gurl replace her broken shoe. We want to show the crap things Jas keeps in his bag throughout MS. hahaha.

Subtleties in Tak Dong Cheng

1) Fitting the theme of multi-culturalness (is this even a word...), Yazid's lion dance costume has a batik design. It shows that a fusion between 2 cultures is possible.

2) Khai's (Jas's onscreen girlfriend) original character is suppose to wear the Muslim headscarf. Her character is strong in Malay culture but contradicts herself by showing that she has been influenced by Western media. For example, she talks about strong malay roots but enjoys eating pasta with a fork. She talks about Malay roots when she is mixed Indian blood. Even though her character is of a supporting role, we feel it has a deep history and background and can be elaborated further if a longer version of Tak Dong Cheng is made.

3) Yazid went to two sessions of lion dance practice while Gab wasnt able to attend due to his busy schedule. We used a body double for Gab during the lion dance stunts. Gab is actually an actor with no lion dance experience.

4) The sticker on the toy lion head that Yazid and Jas were holding says Sewel Road. Sewel is actually the title of a story me and Jas wanted to make before TDC. We postponed it cause there were lots of loose ends. We also wanted to fit in Mat Superhero's sequel in Sewel but couldnt find the right formula. Sewel is a malay word for crazy. The story is about a gurl who has an imaginary fren and how she tries to decide whether she should cure her sickness or accept it cause she is happy being with her imaginary fren.

First post in 2009 and a future project

My goodness, it is February 2009 already?!? How time flies. 2008 has been a good year, and prospects of 2009 looks exciting. What have I done other than my job? Played soccer to stay fit and joined this facebook society called Singapore Malay Film Society founded by Isnor. Fun stuff. I made lots of new friends, got involved in short films (and learning more stuff than ever about production), and was even interviewed on tv (my malay sucks. speaking 100% malay on tv was really tough. All thanks to the producer and crew for being so patient).

2008 has been very generous to TDC. It won audience favourite in best of First Takes 2008 and hopefully, its success will allow me and my smartmat Films team to embark on a more ambitious project we have in mind for 2009. I am excited because I got to know this wonderful director, Adrianna (a.k.a Nat). She is Isnor's friend and she made her first short film titled 'Videotape' last year. It was about a man having an alter ego. The story shows how he suffers from/embraces/understands/realises his sickness... at the expense of those around him of course. Though a bit artsy for mainstream audience (personally, i liked the story. I did, especially, enjoy the bed scene in the first few minutes. *wink*), Nat enjoys portraying an individual's inner self conflicts. In other words, deep. More impressively, the poetic narrations in the story is created by her. I like this sort of self conflict and deep thoughts in a story because it challenges the audience's minds. Rather this than brainless harold n kumar stories (i love harold and kumar but i feel that audience should sometimes watch 'stimulating' movies once in a while... mmm...there's a movie called Doubt coming soon that looks interesting. Wonder if I can trick someone into watching it with me... And there's the curious case of Benjamin Button. If it is compared to Forrest Gump, it must be good...Ok, I'm going off topic...).

So yes! I am excited that Nat is on board in our next project along with me and Jasmin (Farid's best friend in Tak Dong Cheng). She will add a whole new dimension to our story. At first, we had two stories in mind; one was feasible, achieveable and can be completed by 2009, the other is more ambitious but we love the storyline. We settled for what we loved of course. hehehe. We have already decided on the title: 'My First Lipstick'. It is a love story between a gurl and a guy (duh). The special thing about it is, just like Nat's short film, our gurl in lipstick has bipolar (a sort of split personality disorder). At the moment, I am still writing the story treatment. We welcome anyone who wants to help out in our journey :)

Join Singapore Malay Film Society: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16987756594

Oh, I want to share my first 24-hour-no-rest-but-very-fun shoot experience but I'll keep it for another post.