The Letdown

After many weeks, I've finally got the chance to see Yasmin Ahmad's Sepet last night. Okay, it revolves around two lovebirds, Orked (Sharifah Amani) and Jason/Ah Loong (Ng Choo Seong) in their 'instant-noodle' romance that prolonged (or was it over?) 'till they (possibly) tie the knot. I do have a somewhat high hopes for this movie since it’s the uncut VCD version and Yasmin is the kind of director that is mea culpa. Her work on Rabun was awe-inspiring. But it seems the hopes were dashed the moment the credits roll.

Apart from all the praises and awards this movie received, in my opinion, it's disappointingly; empty. Yasmin's idea of love-at-first-sight is way too awkward as it seems like it only took 2 seconds for Orked to fall in love with Jason/Ah Loong. The biggest flaw of the movie was that everything was too sudden. Rushed unnecessarily. Absolutely no room for character growth. I was beginning to think that the more I see the movie, the more it resembles an attempt to emulate Teck Tan's Spinning Gasing. If that seems the case, too bad, it's a complete failure then. If both were to be compared, Teck Tan has it all. Hands down.

There are a handful of comedic moments courtesy of Harith Iskandar, Ida Nerina and Adibah Noor. Thankfully it was not overdone, but executed sufficiently for comic relief. The movie's ending is the kind of ending that you would've seen in Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation. Only difference is, you wouldn't appreciate being 'lost' as much as that. Amir said that there was a newspaper write out about why was the ending is such a wanker. Apparently, it has to be the way it is since that's the only way for the movie to make the final cut under LPFM's rusted, out-of-age censor knife.

This is much unexpected of me. Giving negative criticism to a local indie-cum-mainstream movie. I'm appalled as well that what I've seen last night was a bodywork of Yasmin Ahmad. I never though a director of her credible could be a letdown.

Hopefully her next movie won't be titled Buta.