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Lana Nordin: "Kemaruk dengan tetek aku ni ada lah..."
Airis Yasmin: "Susah cakap dengan perempuan macam kamu ni lah." |
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| What about the rest of the cast? |
At a glance:
Remember
Chloë Sevigny bein HIV-fucked on a livin room couch in
Larry Clark's seminal
Kids (1995)? A lot of
dispute as to the creative origins behind this piecemeal Primeworks film, so you'd think this was a movie to really boast about. Immediately recallin the urban grime from the awesome
Songlap (2011), I thought
Chow Kit (2012) would be a respectable addition to the canon of new crime films from Malaysia - you know, those featurin cash-strapped anti-heroes who are poised to die sad, unpopular endings. On that count,
Chow Kit succeeds twice - it's actually two flimsily related stories, bridged only by a disconnected token character or two. The first half, a second directorial run-out for
Hooperz (2010) helmer
Rosihan Zain a.k.a
Dhojee, is about a group of Malay kids whose parents are either drug addicts or prostitutes. The second half, by
Brando Lee, is about a strugglin Chinese ex-con whose newfound girlfriend's virginity is about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder by her uneducated ex-whore mum.
Bad news on the doorstep:
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| Malaysia's answer to Larry Clark's Kids (1995)? |
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Remember Sudirman's Chow Kit Road lyrics:
"Ada yang cuti mata..." |
The concept's coherence really is superficial and the two-part idea comes off more like a desperate damage control manouevre, written in to save both movies rather than a layered crime drama that was intentionally halved. Although this isn't the case, the final product is dodgy at best. Nevertheless, the Malay first half had more goin for it than the Chinese second, simply because the children were easier to root for, despite both halves havin their fair share of bad actors with lousy lines, not to mention puzzlin character arcs. Truth be told, besides the erroneous approach in coachin them, the kids are unfortunately poor actors, even pack leader
Izzam Syafiq who tried the hardest. Superfluous roles in Chow Kit include Yasmin Hani as a seller of krim pengetat faraj and various cure-all batin medicine, Beto Qusyairy as a pointless sidekick gangster, Hairie Othman as an unexplained, pencil-pushin welfare officer and Dira Abu Zahar as a sympathetic retired whore far too removed from the main story. Too many loose ends, too little real emotion. There were plenty of chances in the movie to make a strong connection between the characters and the interestin, nasty, slummy things they do but none were taken. Perhaps, only Namron, playin a druggie dad who gets his kids to steal shoes from the mosque, made a difference with his role. For the Chinese story, it's simply too generic to be memorable, although lead actor Mers Sia managed some presence.
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| Chen Puie Heng & Dira Abu Zahar |
Perennial wonderment:
How many Malaysians today actually know that Chow Kit - Kuala Lumpur's seediest spot in bygone days - is named after the tin miner and municipality councillor Loke Chow Kit? T'was a stampin ground where the characters played by
Razib Salimin and
Chen Puie Heng (the only credible ones next to
Namron) could believably call home.
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| Lana Nordin downblouse. Thank you, Sarawak. |
Reminds me of:
When I see aimless Malay kids who aren't the menacin type, I always think of the kid with Sudirman in Kami (1982).
Watch out for:
Lana Nordin's monster tits. When I first heard about her bein cast in
Chow Kit,
I tweeted about how they should put them to good cinematic use. How odd to watch this movie a few years later, and to see the filmmakers obligin, with a full downblouse close-up on beads of sweat drippin down the sweet, swollen breasts of the endowed Kuching-born actress often dubbed Malaysia's
Pamela Anderson. For the record, she actually acted well. Her most compellin, self-affirmin line was:
"Kau ingat kita tinggal di mana? Taman Melawati? Taman Tun? Kalau dia tak tengok tetek saya, dia tengok tetek betina lain." Real classy.
Catch her next in
Ponti V Omi and
Lagenda Budak Setan 2.
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| Mers Sia & Beto Qusyairy |
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Like thatmoviebloggerfella, I too commend Chow Kit (2012) for havin its "heart in the right place", despite an abundance of bum notes that contributed to the ignominy of it postin less than half a million ringgit across 71 screens. How can a movie with two rape scenes be so underhit? I'm certainly not among the kindly few who call it better than Anak Halal (2008), let alone Malaysia's own City Of God (2002). A definitive Malaysian streets movie remains unmade.★★
Bonus material:
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Yasmin Hani pretends she doesn't use bedroom boosters in Chow Kit (2012).
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| Namron as the druggie dad made a difference. |
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