YOURSAY ''Tanda Putera' collected RM500,000 while ‘KL Zombi' racked in RM3 million in ticket sales over the same period.'

'Even Bond movie showed to empty cinema'

Vijay47: Dear Shuhaimi ‘Kubrick' Baba, I am glad that you are seeing the glass half-full and equating your movie to James Bond's ‘Skyfall'.

But perhaps some clarification. Like martini which may be stirred, one may also be shaken to discover that Bond films too may play to almost empty houses.

But with a difference - this would only happen at the tail end of the season after everybody and his brother or sister has already seen it. Not within the first few days as is the case in your Eastern epic film.

One would have thought that after all that swatch-buckling heroics and histrionics you were pulling, the faithful would have harkened to the call to save the face of the race. But even that did not happen.

Maybe, just maybe, this "race" thing no longer cuts the ice? Before your movie opened, you were cocky, when it bombed, you were begging for pity. Now you are back to your belligerent stance. With these mood swings, you are all set to come out with ‘Psycho 3'.

Odin: My fellow Malaysiakini reader, Vijay47, has said most of what I want to say. Here is an addition.

If those films mentioned have indeed attracted small audiences but the fact has not been blown out of proportions, there is another utterly simple reason why it has not - a reason Malaysia's female Cecil B De Mille and Richard Attenborough combined has clearly refused to admit.

And it is that those films have not been made with Malaysian taxpayers' money, neither have they portrayed a certain Malaysian community in a disgustingly dim light, and nor have they spun their stories to falsely incriminate certain parties in this country. We all know that.

Oriole: The lack of logic or common sense in this woman's statements show why this movie was such a colossal flop and why the Malaysian taxpayers have been taken for a ride on this venture.

I suppose she has to keep crying her wares publicly and shamelessly in order to milk more funds out of the government.

The only way they can do that is to keep showing this apology of a not-fiction, not-history movie to captive audiences in the civil service, the schools and universities.

JungleMonkey: Shuhaimi, please accept the fact that your movie sucked, and stop crying like a sore loser. You, as a director and an artist since you have claimed 'creative licence', should accept public criticism in order to improve yourself.

Cantabrigian: Malaysians don't buy Umno's version of history, Shuhaimi Baba. You even had to make it obligatory for public university students to watch it before GE13, and yet the response was bad, so what more do you expect if you ask them to pay to watch the same movie?

James Bond movies made millions of dollars worldwide in box-office collection even with empty cinemas on weekdays.

Abasir: Actually I would like to blame Ali Hamsa and all the KSUs in the civil service for not doing their national duty and shutting down all government departments and busing the millions of civil servants to theatres nationwide on a 'working' day.

This failure is indeed a grievous one. It has caused so much misery to the maker of this flick, it has revealed how irresponsible Finas (National Film Development Corporation) and MdeC (Multimedia Development Corporation) were in not doing a proper risk assessment before putting out millions of taxpayer funds, and it has made a mockery of the ‘wajib tayang' (must screen) ruling.

Just imagine how much happiness there could have been if Ali and Co had acted sensibly - civil servants would have been thrilled to bits, bus operators would have chanted 'TP' all the way to the banks, theatre owners would have been converted to be hardcore BN supporters and the nation would have gained another ‘tanda' (mark) in the Malaysia Book of Records.

And, most important of all, former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad would have been ecstatic at yet another Malaysia Boleh achievement.

Wg321: Who ask you to upload pictures with inappropriate props in the film's official Facebook for public consumption, including a scene where you claimed it was DAP leader Lim Kit Siang urinating at a flagpole in front of the Selangor menteri besar's house?

Later you claim it was not Lim Kit Siang but a certain Chinese. It was a historical fact that no such thing happened. Yet you claim your film is a historical film.

What is your motive in stirring up anti-Chinese feelings after 44 years? You want to prolonged anti-Chinese feelings for another 44 years?

Ian2003: "Its detractors label it an Umno film. So why was it that it was not filled with Umno's three million members in the first four days of screening?" asked Shuhaimi.

This indicate that even Umno members are not as gullible as she would like them to be.

Maplesyrup: But does Umno really have three million members?

Anonymous #40538199: It was reported that, ‘Tanda Putera' collected RM500,000 while 'KL Zombi' racked in RM3 million in ticket sales over the same period.

The production cost of ‘Tanda Putera' is RM4.8 million. Shuhaimi's previous film in ‘1957: Hati Malaya', was also a flop after ticket sales only hit RM760,000 compared with the production cost of RM3.6 million.

Ferdtan: What? Empty cinemas for her masterpiece ‘Tanda Putera? All of you must be wrong.

After all, Umno leaders have told her that her film is a must-see. In the private screenings, they had told her it would smash the box office with earnings of millions of ringgit. The common Malay folks would make her a film legend.

Dream on, Shuhaimi Baba and stop whining - we don't want to see a big girl cry. And stop the Umno Youth leaders from fully sponsoring the tickets. Don't you feel humiliated that free tickets are given to make up the number? No one wants to pay to see your show.

You say that the film still raked in commendable earnings especially for a historical film. Are you sure? We guess half of the audience were paid by Umno leaders.

Milosevic: Sorry to hear that your film is not a sufficient handout to get Umno members to watch. Apparently they don't care to watch propaganda shows, they just want the propaganda to work, and underwrite a system in which they can ride the gravy train.

They appear to be more realistic than you in knowing the difference between propaganda and art. It is my hope that you will see yourself as a state-sponsored propagandist. The better you can resist any thought that you are an artist or vanguard of culture, the greater the likelihood that you will not be hurt personally.

You need to be like the rest - enjoy the spoils of the Umno system and develop a thick skin. You need to be clear in your own mind what exactly is the goal you are pursuing. Let me help you by saying that you are not doing art.

Fair Play: Indeed, Shuhaimi is a very sore loser. Earlier she said by boycotting the movie, the audience would be sabotaging the local film industry. Now she compared the poor performance with a James Bond movie to vindicate herself.

Since she talked about the local firm industry earlier, why not compare her film failure with the success of a zombie movie ? Don't compare apples with oranges to confuse people.

DOC: This sounds like Shuhaimi Baba has be "shaken and stirred" with the poor response to her ‘Tanda Putera.'

Hang Babeuf: Yes, but James Bond was 007. This ‘Tanda Putera' is simply "kosong, kosong".

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