Laugh at ourselves, once in a while?

Lelaki Harapan Dunia (2014)
Written & Directed by: Low Seng Tat

It has a long time since satires were made in this country. There was a time, in retrospect, after watching all those P. Ramlee's movies, when most of us used to laugh at ourselves whilst admitting that we are not perfect. Somehow, our the years we have changed. Perhaps due to inferiority complexes or fear of losing out and be steamrolled into submission by the others, somewhere along the way, we tend to take offence at everything when others comment on our follies and shortcomings.

This movie is a brainchild of a product of our own Multimedia University and has a string of accolades to its belt. It, however, stirred the emotions of some writers who consider themselves the upholders of anything pertaining to Malayness! What more when the story was penned and directed by someone, not from the diaspora! Especially so, when this satirical offering not only re-created the aura and ambience of a Malay village but re-lived the dynamics of a typical kampong, the hierarchy, politics, the feudalistic mindset, the patriarchal environment and the herd mentality.

What it shows is only specific to a kampong but rather at human nature on the whole. It ridicules the corruption and their belief in black magic, the mystic and ghosts.

Pak Awang plans to present an old debilitated house as a wedding gift to his daughter. Apparently, this 'moving house' (angkat rumah) is an age-old Malay tradition of recycling old house. The whole villagers would collectively lift the house to a new location to be refurbished.

The villagers, albeit being wary on offending the spirits of the old house, reluctantly oblige.

At the same time, Hari Raya Korban is around the corner and a politician is there to donate a camel to the villagers for sacrificial reasons. We later learn that the price of the animal is hugely inflated, taking a swipe at the government! The children take a liking to the camel and even gives him a name. Learning that he would be sacrificed, the children let him loose. Someone's cows also go missing. A villager's daughter develops spontaneous bruising.

Somebody suggested that it could be due to disturbed spirits of the house that created all the misfortunes. A shaman was brought in who suggested that it could the work of the mythical 'orang minyak'!

To complicate matters, a Nigerian illegal immigrant finds refuge in the old house, oblivious to everyone except to an elderly villager who happens to be blind. Pak Awang gets angry with the villagers for abandoning his project. He seeks revenge by masquerading as the orang minyak himself! Knowing that the intruder would attack the female occupants, the men in the village decided collectively to cross dress! This gives the hint of homosexuality amongst the villagers.

Detractors of this movie express their dissatisfaction in the lack of female presence in the story, but the Malay world had always been a male dominated one, a patriarchal one, at least in public. They take offence at the depiction (or ridicule) of the practice of sacrifice during Korban, where the children question the need for sacrificial animal and the depiction of blood splatter to the curious villager onlookers who shield themselves with umbrellas who the actual slaughter happens.

On a personal note, I found the film quite refreshing quite different from the usual non-cerebral unfunny offerings with recycled stereotyped jokes that are churned out by most Malaysian filmmakers!