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.