A MALAYSIAN ROJAK

by Amir Muhammad

Rojak, a type of spicy salad, is a popular Malaysian dish that consists of seemingly incongruous elements. Although sometimes use as a term of racist abuse for someone of mixed parentage, it's more often celebrated as a symbol of the multicultural heritage and reality of Malaysia.

The tourist ads will tell you that the three main races (Malay, Chinese, Indians) live in perfect harmony. Of course the reality is more complex; too often, minority voices are stifled, while the twin threats of capitalist ubiquity and religious obscurantism present unappealing visions of forced homogeniety.

The three features and three shorts from Malaysia are a good type of rojak (I hope).

Yasmin Ahmad's RABUN shows an elderly couple still very much in love; there are subtle allusions to the urban-rural disparity and racial prejudice in this warm and wise work. James Lee's ROOM TO LET reminds many of the work of Tsai Ming-Liang. This deliberately paced drama of youthful ennui is accentuated by witty flourishes, such as the scene in which two young men rhapsodise over the Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers (the tallest phallic symbols in the world) without Lee's camera showing us this grandiose sight. Ho Yuhang's MIN, where an adopted girl looks for her birth mother, has all the makings of an old-fashioned melodrama, but is stripped down to a a modernist, daringly elliptical work that teases you to fill in the blanks.

My short FRIDAY is set during one afternoon at the National Mosque, while R. Daven's MY FATHER AND HIS CELLULOID transports us to an Indian plantation. Rounding this off with a regional perspective is Ho Yuhang again with his Cambodia-shot CLASSROOMS.

Many languages, colours and textures are evident in these new works. Whether or not rojak has export potential is for you to decide.