Today theSun highlighted a story I have done on an interesting
documentary Return to Nostalgia where a film maker and his team go to search
for one of the lost classic Malaysian made film Seruan Merdeka. Read the full
story here.
Headline: Quest for Reel History
By Bissme S
Some of our classic films have been lost to time.
In an effort to document this era of Malaysian cinematic history, award-winning
Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin (below) decided to go in search of one such
lost classic, the 1946 Seruan Merdeka (Cry for Freedom). Together with a team
from Greenlight Pictures, the film production company he founded in 2004, Woo’s
quest for that classic is captured in his documentary, Return to Nostalgia. The
one-hour documentary is being aired tomorrow at 7.30pm at Content Malaysia
Pitching Centre, Platinum Sentral, in Kuala Lumpur. Entrance is free.
“I have
always been fascinated by Malaysia’s cinematic history,” says Woo, whose
previous films have been screened at prestigious film festivals in Berlin,
Cannes and Venice.
“There
hasn’t been much written about Malaysian films before the 1960s. In fact, many
of these films are presumed lost.”
Woo got the
idea to do the documentary early last year. Production started in April and
took four months to complete.
“By delving
into this project, [my team and I learned] more about our country’s early
cinematic forays,” he says.
When asked why he chose to focus on this one film, Woo says: “Seruan
Merdeka was one of the first independentlyproduced films in the country. “I
discovered that the film faced many of the same trials and tribulations that I
am facing today as a filmmaker, and that struck a chord with me.”
He points out that 70 years after Seruan Merdeka was made, the
Malaysian film industry today is still struggling with the same issues that
were prevalent back then. Seruan Merdeka was the first Malaysian film made
after World War II. It was meant to resuscitate the local film industry, which
came to a halt during the war.
The film was produced by the Malayan Arts Production house, which was
established by businessman S.M.A.H. Christy, and directed by B.S. Rajhans.
Seruan Merdeka was also the first local film to employ a mixed-race cast of
Chinese and Malay actors, with Salleh Ghani, Rokiah Hanafi and Siti Tanjung
Perak as the leads.
The story takes place after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Lieutenant
Rashid and his friend, Leong, are prisoners of the Japanese. The two manage to
escape, but Leong is killed in the attempt. The Japanese begin a hunt for Rashid,
even capturing and torturing his family members to find out his whereabouts.
In
Woo’s documentary Return to Nostalgia, it showed how the team managed to get
its hands on a copy of the script, which was written in Jawi but was
disappointed to discover that the final page had been torn off. Undeterred, the
team members decided to put their copy of the script to good use. They
recruited actors like Ledil Putra and Jasmin Chin to enact certain scenes from
the film. The documentary also showed the team managing to track down Wan
Khazim Wan Din, who is possibly the last living individual to have seen the
original Seruan Merdeka on screen when it was first
The team travelled all the way to a small village up north to meet him
but discovered that he has been admitted to hospital. These were some of the
challenges the team faced in its quest for the film. Woo admits that one of the
biggest challenges was finding accurate information on the film itself
“Some of the books and articles written about Seruan Merdeka contain
factual errors, and that complicated matters.”
On the aim of the documentary, he says: “We wanted to make a
documentary that is both entertaining and informative. We hope it will raise
awareness on the historic aspect of Malaysian cinema, and also to promote our
cinematic heritage to the younger generation of filmmakers.” Return to
Nostalgia has been screened at the recent Busan International Film Festival in
October, as well as on South Korean television.
“We hope it can raise our cinematic profile in the world too,” he says.
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