One thing sure of modern society today is that films play a big part in it; they raise awareness of issues that weren't mentioned much before, they bring endless entertainment to the public, they bring stories from one place in the world to another place in the world and so much more. But even with film doing so much for us, do we really understand films? The two dominant categories of film today are none other than Hollywood films and World Cinema. Hollywood films of course are known as the cinema of the United States of America and are currently the most successful type of films there are. World Cinema on the contrary refers to any high quality films that are made outside of Hollywood, such as Malaysia, Korea and Japan. The main difference in success between Hollywood films and World Cinema is that Hollywood caters to the masses and World Cinema usually caters to the niche audiences. Hollywood creates its films in a way that they want as many people possible to be interested in them, meaning that if the film had a true story behind it, it would be over dramatized or had its story twisted and turned. Films like Captain Philips (2013) and The Conjuring (2013) are both Hollywood films based on true stories, but as you watch the films you can tell which situations could have happened for real and which situations had no possible chance to be real at all. World Cinema on the other hand does not aim to be the best in the film industry. World Cinema tends to implement culture into their films, showing the world what its like to live where the filmmaker lives or what its like to have the problems their people have. Films such as Sepet (2005) and Spirited Away (2001) showcase the cultures and styles of their countries pretty well.
Another difference between Hollywood films and World Cinema is their style of edits. Let's take the genre of action movies as an example. Hollywood loves using fast cuts and quick pacing in their action films, often giving us scenes that make our hearts race and keeping us at the edge of our seats. A few example of this would like films like Fast & Furious (2009) and Mission Impossible (1996). The editing style of World Cinema films on the other hand tend to focus more on the storyline, regardless whether its coming to a fight scene, chase scene or any other type of scene that would have turned really intense if it were a Hollywood film. Even with fight scenes or what not, we're still able to follow up with what's currently happening in the story of the film. Films such as Along With The Gods (2017) and Ip Man (2008) showcase the point really well. But even if it seems that World Cinema tells stories better than Hollywood films, the later still manages to be more successful, telling us that the general audience much prefer to have their heart race and be on the edge of their seats rather than be told a story with greater context. Regardless of Hollywood films being more successful, I believe that World Cinema does a better job at addressing the world about a certain issue in culture or society.
A type of issue we often see in the world today is racial matters. The issue of race might be subtle in some countries, but in others they're such a major problem that the people of the country are actually split apart. Malaysia for an example is a country that has quite a few problems with race. Even though Malaysia is a diverse multi cultural country, the people are sometimes split apart by decisions they didn't even make for themselves. An instance of this could be seen from the education systems of Malaysia. There may be Chinese schools, Tamil schools and Malay schools in Malaysia that split the races apart, but doesn't that mean that the National schools of Malaysia should unify the students who choose to study there? This isn't the case for Malaysia. Even at stages as early as Form 1, students are already split apart based on their social backgrounds. Malay students are bound to take Islamic Education as a core subject while everyone else is forced to take Moral Education as a core subject. (Menon, U. K. 2015. ESPACT) Some may argue that this is an issue of religion and not race, but the problem is that all Malays in Malaysia are considered Muslim. This already splits apart the main race of Malaysia and the rest of them into 2 separate groups. Another issue about race found in Malaysia is the racial preferences. There is a certain inequality to the races in Malaysia and a specific race is often given benefits over the others. The Bumiputeras of Malaysia, also known as the Malays, are many times given advantages to things others usually have none to, such as being on priority lists when entering certain colleges, getting discounts when buying properties, and having certain land reserved for them. (Karim, E. 2015. Quora) This issue is actually quite a unique one as some of the Bumiputeras themselves find these advantages given to them to be unnecessary and would rather be treated equally with the rest of the people of Malaysia. A good solution to racial issues that many other countries have done is applying racial discrimination laws, something that Malaysia has yet to sign. Back in 2017, the former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had written a reply in Parliament that highlighted where laws about racism or discrimination have not had any plans to be introduced. The reason being that the government feels that there isn't a need for it and that Malaysia's unity is in a good and controlled state. (Iszak, R. 2018. KOMAS) Having racial discrimination laws have helped many other countries such as Australia and Britain to deal with the issue of race. Another possible reason to why government refuses to sign the racial discrimination law could be because the Malays would lose their power or statuses in the country, such as the Sultans and higher positions in the government, but this is just a theory.
Coming back to World Cinema and how it helps to address certain issues to the world, let's talk about one that exhibits its issues pretty well. The film I've chosen to represent this essay is the 2005 romance drama by the late Yasmin Ahmad, Sepet. The first instance where race is brought up in the film is when Orked and Lin are walking around in a market. We see a long shot of the market flooded with people as Orked and Lin are talking about their favorite film actors. Orked mentions that her favorite actor is Takeshi Kaneshiro, a Japanese actor, or otherwise an Asian actor. Lin denies that Takeshi is a good looking actor, but the moment this happens Orked points out that Lin's favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio. Orked states "Every woman, her daughter, and even her daughter's cat likes DiCaprio." It's a subtle hint to race worshipping, or a more in depth sense, white worshipping. White worshipping is a problem not just in our country, but in many other countries as well due to the fact that many people believe the "white" to be the best. I believe the subtext of this scene is that the opinion of race preferences is just one in many, because we hear the voice of one opinion, Orked's, but we see the hundreds of people at the market and the one opinion could be lost in the hundreds of other opinions. Another issue of race seen in the movie is shown later in the film in a scene with Mak and Kak Yam in their living room with somewhat disappointed expressions. We see a medium full shot of them sitting on a couch from a slight low angle as they talk about the grades of Orked and Jason. Mak says that Orked only scored 5A's for her exams, but got a scholarship. Kak Yam then replies that Jason scored 7A's and a shocked expression appears on Mak's face as she turns to Kak Yam. This tells us about the problems racial preference that is present in Malaysia. The scene gives us a perfect example about how a Bumiputera in Malaysia, Orked, is able to secure a scholarship with grades worse than a non-Bumiputera, Jason. I feel the subtext of the scene is that racial preferences is usually overseen by the authorities in power, shown by the low angle which makes the characters look like they're in power as they talk about the inequality. A faint implementation of racism is also shown in the film during a scene where Abah and Mak are awoken by a phone call. We see a medium close up shot of them lying in their bed as they chat about who the caller might be. They seem to be fine until Mak mentions that Orked is dating a Chinese boy and Abah starts feeling distressed. In this scene Abah is shirtless, and states that Chinese boy is the same as a Chinese dyke and is utterly concerned about Orked dating the boy. I feel like the subtext of this scene is that the way Abah is dressed contrasts his thoughts in the scene. Being shirtless gives me the impression of being open minded, but in this scene Abah is showcasing the opposite and does not seem to accept Orked being together with a Chinese boy. So maybe the hint Yasmin is giving is that people should be more neutral to the thought of different races and put an end to racism.
Yasmin Ahmad puts the spotlight on social issues in very unique ways. Sepet was anticipated to be a film that tells us about interracial issues, yet most of the film did not talk about it specifically and almost all instances of it was told in hidden meanings. Race plays a huge part in films since a long time ago and following the originality of a story could make or break the film. Take casting against race as an example, films like Tropic Thunder from 2008 and Ghost In The Shell from 2017 have caused people from all around the world to criticize the films just solely on their casts. Acts like these have been around since the early 1900's and tend to be over exaggerated, offensive and also vastly stereotypical. (The Global Citizen. 2017. Medium) Even with the film industry becoming more diverse day by day, there still seems to be a little problem with how important or how good a film can be solely based on race, have a look at the Oscar nominee percentages as an example. 93.8% of Oscar nominees to date are "white", 3.3% are "black", 1.7% of them are Hispanic and only 1.2% of nominees are Asians. (Abc NEWS. 2018. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science) Race should be what brings diversity to the world including films and everything else, but what seems to have happened now is that race has brought up more issues than it has done good.
Race isn't something we get to choose in life, along with many other things, so why are we always making problems out of something that we didn't get to decide for? We should be appreciating what films have done for us instead, like how films have brought people of all kinds together. Take the 2009 science fiction disaster film 2012 as an example. 2012 might be an odd example due to what the film is about, but I remember how people all over the world reacted to the "last day on Earth" as it grew closer. People were scared, but people were scared together. I remember being texted by people I've hardly talked to and seeing posts on social media about appreciating others on the night before the "last day on Earth". At that time nothing else mattered except being together, gender didn't matter, religion didn't matter, and race didn't matter. That's how much a film could impact the world, whether we decide to believe it is up to ourselves.