SIFF '09: SELL OUT! Review

I'm Machine Girl, and I will be covering South East Asian films, and other Asian films in general. As my debut review, here's one about the Malaysian film Sell Out!, which was screened in competition at the recently concluded Singapore International Film Festival. As I believe in the rule of K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid - so I will be writing in a barebones fashion. No frills, just the bare essentials.

Let's get this straight. I don't believe I've ever seen a reaction to a Malaysian film like the reaction of the SIFF audience to Sell Out!. "Riotous" is a huge understatement. They didn't just laugh. They literally stomped their feet and screamed. I'm not making this up. You know what's the sign of a good comedy that works a crowd really well? When, during the quieter, not-so-funny moments, there are coughs all around, people clearing their throats for the next round of gags. And that happened a lot with the crowd at the sold-out SIFF screening.

1. Sell Out! is quirky, weird, rather strange. For the first 15 minutes, you'd be forgiven for wondering what is really going on, even though you find yourself laughing uncontrollably at the jokes. The film seems to take its own sweet time to find comfortable footing, but it really does let loose from the get-go.

2. It basically has three main threads running through it, but those three threads seem to meld into one another at one time or another. The story concerns four people - Rafflesia Pong, a struggling host of a TV arts programme who's losing the ratings battle with her Eurasian rival; Eric Tan, an engineer who builds a super soybean machine but is underappreciated by his bosses; and two evil, elderly CEOs of FONY Corporation, for whom both Eric and Rafflesia work.

3. It's a story about the endless battle between art and commerce. One character fights to maintain his creativity and integrity while struggling to put food on his table, while the other thinks only of selling her soul for fame and fortune.

4. The gag that is the ignition to the proceedings is Rafflesia's arts programme segment, where she interviews an "indie filmmaker" whose films are boring because they supposedly reflect real life which is mundane. It's a hilarious jab at pretentious arty films and filmmakers and pretentious-sounding awards and festivals. When her arts show bombs with audiences, Rafflesia decides to go the reality show route, filming people in their dying moments.

5. Eric Tan's soybean machine is looked down upon by his bosses, the two CEOs. Aghast at how a "creative person" could have found his way into their conglomerate's payroll, the two CEOs decide to get an exorcist to exorcise the creative spirit in Eric.

6. Yes, it all sounds rightfully silly and absurd, but that's the charm of Sell Out!. It has an infectious energy about it, and a reckless tactic to getting laughs, throwing almost everything but the kitchen sink into its gag generator. Moments of pure genius get thrown in together with moments of cheap laughs and juvenile jokes. But somehow they all work wonderfully as a whole. Admittedly some sequences and gags seem thrown in for no other reason than to get laughs, and it's hard to see their relevance to the story.

7. The golden moment is when Rafflesia goes to film a dying rich man surrounded by his family. The comic timing is spot-on in this laugh-a-minute sequence.

8. Even though the film is largely in English with a small percentage of Cantonese, it's a very Malaysian film which smartly addresses a lot of what Malaysians experience on a day-to-day basis:

a. silly phone calls from people who just don't get it when you say "Wrong number" or "This person isn't here"
b. unscrupulous doctors out to make a quick buck and will diagnose you with anything even when you're not ill
c. the mentality that if she or he is Eurasian, she or he must be good at ... something
d. fights over taxis which can go to really ridiculous lengths
e. department store staff who are everywhere but don't seem to be around the moment you need one

9. Even though it's partly a musical where characters suddenly break into song, that aspect of the film is really self-aware of a musical's potential of becoming unbearably silly or maudlin, and so it even pokes fun at musicals. And the songs are incredibly catchy. You really wonder how director Yeo Joon Han did it, writing, directing and producing the film, while also composing the songs.

10. What really stands out about Sell Out! is the fact that it's maybe what we can call a "gritty comedy." The visual aesthetics, the lighting and overall mood is close to that of a horror movie. Dark shadows, ominous lighting and "dirty" interiors all add to the disturbing feel, while the offices of FONY Corporation is almost like a prison with its foreboding grey walls and sharp angles. There is a certain uneasiness hovering over everything, and I don't know if this was intentional, but it makes for a very strange aftertaste. But then again, it is after all a black comedy.

11. The film seeks to remind us that the world has lost sight of its emotional core, that the materialistic existence we all wallow in has made us into lazy, opportunistic lunatics, and that all it takes is a simple moment of reflection and a simple gesture to remind us that money isn't everything in life, and that we all can be much more. We complicate things ourselves, and we only need to stop and reflect upon the effort and soul behind every endeavour.

12. Sell Out! is the anthem for the underappreciated, and the creative soul that is increasingly losing its way in our modern world.