Random ranting.

I miss him :(

I want to..

Write about my new Brooklyn shoebox,
jetlag,
my yet-to-be-written script,
Psyang my fourth housemate a.k.a the kitty who likes to sleep on keyboards,
and how malas I feel about starting school next week.

But mmm. Maybe tomorrow.

Because I needed to get this off my chest... (Susuk Review)

Nah, ni poster lama because I am lazy to look for the updated one.
Usually I won't really bother reviewing films that I've watched, because :
1) I am very, very biased and most of the times, beautiful cinematography clouds my judgments.
2) I am scared that I won't do these films much justice.

*SHEEPISHLY* I am a total fangirl when it comes to Amir Muhammad. He is almost 50% the reason why I'm even in film school all the way in New York, when I could have just been content with my copywriting job back in KL slaving away to become the next uh, Yasmin.. (pergh, KONON je ni, and that's a different story for another rainy day) But anyways. I remember reading Perforated Sheets in NST way back in 1999, writing him fan mail (about my silly ambition of writing a novel at 16) and following his progress into digital filmmaking (he did pioneer the method in Malaysia) asking question after question over teh o ais in Tupai Tupai (back in 2006, and for that I have Boyak to thank forever), listening intently over his talks about the infamous banned documentaries in Help (sampai sekarang tak dapat tengok lagi) and him recognizing me (the stalker girl) when I tagged along Brian (Yap) to watch that badly pixelated movie S'Kali (great attempt, but people should never be allowed to blow up video and pretend it'll look fine on a 35mm projector.. and never, never should Seven Collar T-Shirt's Faith ever be used so irrelevantly... such a crying SHAME I TELL YOU)

That is why, despite the boyfriend warning me again and again NOT to watch Susuk (since he'd been forced into working on some of the foley bits of it) I just HAD to go and see it for myself (after all, I've waited in extreme anticipation for almost two years for its release)

Susuk opens with an interesting dual-premise:
1) Suraya, a trainee nurse who is bored with her mundane, routine life wants to become a super star.
2) Suzana, a superstar will stop at nothing to stay on top (literally, too)

Because I'm too sleepy to actually write the entire synopsis, lets just say the whole film (clocking almost 2 hours) follows the stories of the two characters as each of them tries to fulfill their superficial desires - and are connected through the use of susuk. As Suraya rises to fame and goes through a metamorphosis (from a naive, wide-eyed, straight haired gullible trainee nurse to a Perempuan KL Rambut Karat), Suzana goes all crazy and hellbent on keeping her superstardomness by doing what Dukun Dewangga (Adlin Aman Ramlie, uncannily funny and eerily cryptic) tells her to (thus, turning into a black glove clad, long french manicured nailed whatever demon with a craving for human hearts, especially those of divas, pimps, prostitutes, and unsuspecting reality tv stars) Throughout the film we're fed with very random scenes (with annoying transitions from scene to scene, very much like Ugly Betty the tv series) The ending ties confusing bits and pieces together - albeit very, very loosely, turning Susuk into a decent watch, although until this moment I can't really say whether I loved it, or hated it.

*spoilers ahead* (not that anyone cares anyway, hah!)

Maybe I'm anti-progressive when it comes to plot structure and timelines (having been religiously abiding Syd Field's 3 act narrative structure... because it's the easiest and quickest way to finish a script when the time calls for it!) but I enjoyed Gaspar Noé's Irreversible and M.Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense (which, very much like Susuk,both open with the ending as the beginning, and the beginning as the ending) Susuk's muddled timeline was just tooo mind-boggling. Perhaps a lot was left in the cutting room floor that could have filled in the monstrous, riddling gaps. First, if Suzana was a transformation of Suraya, why on earth did Mastura (Suraya's housemate) tell Suraya (when asked if she wanted to follow her to the Mona/Rozana concert) that she had an interview to attend (in which she was hired as the personal assistant to Suzana) Unless, it was intended as a story within a story - as Suzana's story is told through Suraya, Suraya is Suzana's final clueless victim in her quest to complete the Susuk Keramat process... making it seem like Suraya, in the story, could have been another trainee nurse wanting to become a superstar.

Errr... ok, I'm totally confusing myself.

Another question would be, why the addition subplot of Suraya's sister and her abusive brother in law (Hairy-has-been-Othman)? I tell myself, although this didn't add much weight to the story, it was maybe necessary for Suraya's character to build her trust in Dukun Dewangga since he'd come to her rescue and save the day whenever Hairy-has-been-Othman threatened her, her housemates, her sister, niece and nephew. *PHEW* that was long. And I didn't even understand why Dukun Dewangga hooked up with a prostitute (at first I thought because they wanted to show that even a bomoh gets tired with his right hand after a while) until I read in some reviews online that he took the prostitute's appearance for Suraya's sort of reincarnation.

Despite the jumbled timeline, I understand if Amir Muhammad and Naeim Ghalili made this film with no intention of its audience taking it seriously. It's supposed to be an homage of sorts (to many, many films I've yet to watch, because embarrassingly, I have a very small film vocabulary for someone studying to become a filmmaker.. malu siot) with many satirical pokes at the current situation of the country (its power struggles, bedroom drama, hypocrisy and god-knows what else) but but but..

Whatever happened to just good storytelling?

Hmm.

That was long winded, and I'm not sure if I made much sense, but as I write this I'm still trying to figure the movie out. I guess that's what I hate the most about it - it's keeping me up at night, diligently searching for reviews and interviews so that the story becomes more crystal clear (because I hate feeling like a doofus whenever I don't understand movies)

Geram betul.

2 more days!

Honestly, I've had an amazing (unproductive) two months and a half of absolute nothingness.
Bliss.

And to think that it's all coming to an end in exactly two days just breaks my heart.
But then again, I don't think I can live like this forever.

This blog needs a revamp! And I've so many things to write about. But right now because procrastinating is my middle name, those will have to wait while I frantically back up my lifeline (my mbp yang dah pernah terjatuh from beg laptop murahan Target, monitor termasuk air, charger meletup dan sebagainya.. thank god this apple is hardy)