Kinks

"Kinks" is a hilarious look at inter cultural relationships with a sharp commentary about the influence of western media in eastern values. The mockumentary genre is a perfect fit to the theme of the TV reality show in which the movie's narrative develops. The constant tension between the cultures portrayed represented in the characters of two estranged daughters that grew up in different worlds is conveyed with great wit by the main actresses. Juliane Block not only co-writes and co-directs, but also stars as the western influenced sister that brings her morals (or lack thereof) to a country where "in-decency" can be punished by law by the "Ministry of Culture" in which the other sister, a native Malaysian works. In general this an enjoyable movie that wold give you an insight into what relationships between clashing cultural worlds could be if we'd only care about the humanity of the people.

In making Kinks the writer & film-makers have engaged on the somewhat challenging task of presenting a comedy based on the principle of multi-cultural issues. It uses as its basis the relationship of two sisters and builds its story from there. This is bold for a number of reasons and particularly as multi-cultural story-lines may inadvertently cause offence to some, but also because it is a comedy and may therefore to offending instead of amusing. The latter may be even more so in the context of this being an international release and having to cross borders. After all humour is not always understood over a wide geographical area, what may amuse an audience in one country can pass over in another. This movies deserves its stars perhaps for no other reason than having (in my view at least) having achieved the objectives discussed above. In addition it is an engaging and entertaining film that pulls at the heart strings: It has entertainment value on a number of levels, it is not just that it is funny. It offers an engaging story and it certainly worth watching