Film: Sell-Out! (Review)

For those who're rushing to the theatres...

This is a non-mainstream expectation genre film from Malaysia that aims to induce raw laughter in more than many ways you can ever imagine. It's half a musical that pokes fun at mainstream musicals, it's an independent film that mocks at the pretentious 'artsy-fartsy' independent arthouse film-making in the industry. This will be totally new to most, if not all, cinema audience and film buffs that will be sure to tickle your funny bone with both subtle and slapstick cheesy joke moments. If you're still undecided, it has already completed its run at several international film festivals (Venice International Film Festival, Taipei Golden Horse Festival and more) and more scheduled in the later part of this year.

For those who've spare time to read on...

What can I say, I went to this film not knowing what to expect from this Malaysian film being the first feature length project by Malaysian film-maker Yeo Joon Hoon. All I knew about it prior catching this film was the disappointment in X-MEN Origins: Wolverine (trust me, I knew and expected nothing from this film). Upon leaving the theatre, I was left astounded and confused as I really do not know what to say of this film. It was totally new to me and it felt really, really refreshing... in a positive way.

Sell-Out! ($311-0u7!) tells a tale of two employees and two CEOs of a Multinational Conglomerate (MNC), FONY. One is a dog art-show host, Rafflesia Pong (Rafflesia's the largest flower in the world, while Pong means "stink"), who challenged almost everything in favour of desperate fame and viewership ratings. The other employee is a low self-esteemed product engineer, Eric Tan (half-English), who gets his talented creative side of him challenged by his capitalist bosses.

The film endeavoured in a daring move of writing original songs with well-penned lyrics, to be injected into various parts of the film when the storytelling entered into the musical phase. This is considered a remarkable achievement, with all the songs created by the Director himself. The opening half of the film felt abstract, where the film commenced mocking at the independent arthouse film-making scene. However,the film slowly (but surely) gathered firm hold of control and steered the audience into where it wanted the audience to be by dishing out the elements one at a time. The first hint of this film's musical attribute came along when the CEOs met Eric to command him to derive some form of self-breaking down mechanism for his wonderful household invention: The 8-in-1 Super Soya Maker. Songs were not brushed up and played to our ears raw without much fanciful effects and editing, this played well especially when certain moving riffs were felt as I find myself reciprocating and relating to the feelings conveyed by the onscreen singing characters. It just felt... real and unpretentious.

Performance by the cast was exceptional, especially that of Rafflesia Pong (played by Jerrica Lai) and the two wicked-tongued CEOs (played by Kee Thuan Chye & Lim Teik Leong). In fact, the 2 CEOs offered such a great act, that I kept on watching the trailer online several times just to relish their best moments. It might be a love-hate affair watching the 2 of them nevertheless as their performance was so convincingly irritable. Not to forget the slapstick laugh-out-loud moments in the film that provides a constant blood gush in us to keep us interested and hooked. My personal favourite scene is the filming of the dying moments of a rich old man by Rafflesia Pong (you'll have to watch it for yourself).

There were some issues passively brought out within this film by Yeo Joon Han. Obviously, we have the capitalistic reality versus art & creativity topic. We were shown how difficult it really was to have art surviving in this cruel practical society, There was also the issue on money and wealth in the case of Eric Tan. There's also the 'ang-moh' stereotype that is ever present in the local community, where they are always conceived to be always better at everything (or at least something). We were also shown the level that we humans may be willing to stoop down to, when reality shows depict viewers SMSing to vote for the one who should die.

In all, there's a lot that this dark humoured film can offer you in the midst of the gradually heating blockbuster summer season. Let your mind go and allow it to roam around freely in this special film that promise to provide laughter in unique ways. Screw Wolverine, this is the one to salvage the disappointment induced by the beast-natured hero.