Malaysia Should Promote Itself Internationally

This is the statement of argument between my friend and I with my friend being the "pro" arguer and me being the "cons" arguer. It's not that I don't want my beloved country to be known internationally, but we have to be realistic right now. The right question we should be asking ourselves is, does Malaysia deserve to be acknowledged internationally?

Our debate is mostly centred around the promotion of Malaysian films, along with other cultures and traditions. I don't think it is a problem to promote our cultures, I'm sure a lot of Malaysian travelers to other countries have already done that well. I remember Aslam who went to Japan to study "promoted" kain pelikat, and my another friend who went to United Kingdom cooks rendang for his White friends, and a lot more other instances. But when it comes to our films, I gagged.

Of all the Malaysian films in 2011 and 2012, which film can you show oh-so-proudly to the international audience? I can say Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa and KL Gangster to have achieved international standard, but others I doubt so. My friend in USM forced me to watch Hantu Bonceng and it was the worst cinema experience in my whole life. It was literally the worst film I have ever seen. The writing was all over the place, the characters were irritating, and although the title gave the impression that there would be a "bonceng" (passenger) ghost, but it appeared around only one-third of the film and the rest was just hillybilly-ness resulting from lazy writing and terrible comedic attempts throughout the film. But what surprises me is that it actually made profit 7 times more than the original budget. Perhaps there was Zizan in it. But all of people I knew who went out of the cinema would complain how bad the film is.

Not just Hantu Bonceng, the Malaysian films have tries so hard, but failed miserably, to combine horror and comedy, and many other just focused on horror. Seriously, why Malaysian writers like horror so much?? Nothing wrong with horror, but there are other genres you know. Films like "Alamak... Toyol!", "Rasuk", "Tolong, Awek Aku Pontianak," made me feel embarrassed to be a Malaysian.

What I am trying to say is, consider other possibilities in terms of genre, writing direction, and target audience when producing a film. Not all Malaysians like comedy and/or horror, especially the ones terrible written!