Senario Lagi

On a green-blue planet where Hollywood rules, one might not notice a small budget movie like 'Kandahar' from Afghanistan exists until it came to the shores of U.K., but it was one of the lucky ones. Small budget, plenty of flaws, PLENTY but it made international because of the current issues. What about this movie called 'Senario Lagi'? What about it? For a movie that came from a country that has so many to offer in every film making technical department (for over fifty years the Malaysian film industry has undergone so many turbulence, 'good movie but rots in the marketing section', unlike the Bollywood movies, how stereotype and square they may be and how flawful they are in the technics, they still got attention from the western media especially in the U.K. and the U.S.of A! Not that Malaysia doesn't have beautiful babe-actresses, they do! For example Deanna Yusuff of 'Anna and the King' fame or Erma Fatimah and many, many more. May I remind you that Michelle Yeoh of Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame is very much a Malaysian!), I must say 'not bad, not too bad". 'Senario Lagi' (English: Senario Again?) a sequel to 'Senario - The Movie' was based on a concept created by some creative team from a TV station in the country. The name 'Senario' (English: Scenario) was given after a multi-talented group of five men won a competition sponsored by the TV station, they immediately became part of the station 'in-house' production (this was also part of a plan to reduce budget from flowing out during the recession in 1997). They have their own TV series which called... 'Senario' and had span for almost five years and boy, they were hit! That had brought them to grace the silver screen with their first movie ever called 'Senario: The Movie' in 1999 and now with 'Senario Lagi' both directed by the Malaysian very own Spielberg: Aziz M. Osman and he made both movies big hit all-time, well... domestically but not, I repeat NOT overseas! Why? Hmmmmmm.... But what do I think of the movie? Trust me I was laughing until I had to blow into the popcorn box to revive back my breathing system! Overall I had fun with this movie. Really. This movie could go to the distance and the gang along with the director, they could make a huge contribution to the global film industry (Hollywood that is), just to break the orthodox of film-making; good example before M. Night Shymalan brought us 'The Sixth Sense', Hollywood's horror or thriller movies were boring, it was the same thing if it's not Freddy then Jason or Damien but Shymalan gave us something to think and talk about. So what are you Hollywood monguls waiting for? Give these hidden talented guys a chance to prove like what Ang Lee, John Woo or James Wong had proven. Say 'Aaaaaa'...

Before I give my comments on this movie I'd like to inform you guys that I have seen this movie in its origin country when I was there and that I have no what-so-ever intention to watch it 'cuz there was no good English-spoken movie on at that time of my visit to Penang. I was bored of wave surfing and sun bathing so I decided to let my hair loose (for ONCE) and be adventurous and to brave myself to watch a local movie and and I must say I succeeded! What I didn't know was (I know this may sound stupid but here goes), this movie is listed on this site! Astonishing? Maybe not to you but for me YES! First and foremost there was no English subtitles when I watched this movie and I really don't know what it's all about. The only thing I know was that it had a very funny, MAD Magazine version looking poster and it triggered my mind that this was a comedy movie. It was! I may not know what they're saying but it had all the body-talking language all over the screen like a Harold Lloyd's movie. Fun? Yes, I had fun watching them making fools of themselves. Remember this is a slapstick movie, you see. There were plenty of twist and turn in the plot until I'd to ask myself 'where's the plot?!?!" But the fun are all there. Now this, every time I visit the Blockbuster Video, I'd head down to the world cinema section, I mean a good movie like that should deserved to be on the rack of that section, right? But after a year... no. It hadn't come here yet or it will never. Bummer!

To look back and remember a movie seen 3 years ago is usually futile. Unless the event is memorable (this is almost always unconnected to the movie itself), the reaction would mostly be, 'Oh yeah, I saw that one, hmm, pretty good I think,' Well, this movie always brings tears to my eyes, and head shaking out of sheer incredulousness every time someone mentions it. The plot, characters, camerawork, all mundane factors combined was overtaken by the pared down hilarity of the script. The plot, far from a contender of the swiss watch precision category, begins with a purchase of a new car by a family man, and his holiday trip with the car brings all of manners of urban wildlife to the front, from a weaselly car thief to a hilariously dazed immigrant.

Peppering the whole movie with famous (and semi famous) local celebrities was a stroke of genius, inducing pleasant bouts of 'Hey, isn't that.." between gusts of belly laughter. Each scene, a thread away from unraveling into utter nonsense is brought into the picture not only to tickle the funny bone, but to whack it numb. One of the scenes, involving 2 characters and a misplaced bottle, brought the house down to the extent that you could not hear the dialouge. You just had to be there.

The director is never too full of himself, even injecting a little fourth wall pulling by all the characters to wonder, 'what the hell is going on?'. Genius aside, the movie was a funhouse with all the baggage thrown overboard and any sentiments flattened with a slick steamroller. Low brow it may be, but you just can't beat something that actually makes you fall off your chair. Literally.