A few months back, the S'kali team initiated the S'kali World Gallery Collection, where we invited anyone from anywhere in the world who wished to show their support for the movie to email us photos of themselves with the special S'kali World Gallery poster. Below are just a few of the interesting entries we've received from good sports around the globe. Thanks for the great work, guys! :) *details on how you can take part below*
Batch #3
Attila the Hon, aged 7 months
Southampton, England
Southampton, England
Chi and Kat, both 22Ta Keo, Siem Reap, Cambodia
John de Keyser, 20-somethingNational Museum, Singapore
Ooi Gaik Ping, 20, Fiona Pang, 23 and FriendMongkok, Hong Kong
Batch #2
Bruce Indiana Abraham the Bear, pretty young
Camden Town, London
Camden Town, London
Ng Shiow Fern, 25George Square, Glasgow City Centre, Scotland
Keoni, 4 years old
Damansara Jaya, Malaysia
(Contributed by Lee Jas Min, 21)
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Keoni, 4 years oldDamansara Jaya, Malaysia
(Contributed by Lee Jas Min, 21)
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Batch #1
(L-R) Brandon aged 7, Bella the dog aged 4 and Christopher aged 11 Lake Pend Oreille, North Idaho
Anonymous: "Two random Arab fishermen statue things"Bahrain International Airport
Mazdiana bt. Mahathir, 20Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium, Stuttgart
(Germany vs. Portugal-World Cup 3rd place match)
Amanda and Hidemi, both 14, and Hidemi's dog Alaska aged 8Cabin John, Maryland
If you too would like to be featured in the S'kali World Gallery Collection, simply email us at perantauanpictures@gmail.com with a picture of yourself (or your friend/granddad/pet iguana/washing machine if you're shy) holding the poster below, with "The S'kali World Gallery Collection" as your subject line. Don't forget to include your name, age and location- remember, the photos above are just some examples of how creative you can be, feel free to be as quirky and bonkers as you like:) Happy snapping!
Click and print the S'kali World Gallery Poster:
5 comments:
Hey, where's the one with Bruce Indiana?..the one on Sam's MSN?!!
coming coming
patience la!
these pix are amazing.
the first one is ... phwaliauweh.
now I wanna do one too!
OH MY GOD!! THIS IS SO SO SO FUN!! i'm soo in!! lolz. ok now you have to wait because i'm gonna get my beloved grandma, my beloved cat and hamsters and my friends from all around the world. this is so far the most exciting thing to do!
My S'Kali Review - from AlbinoL
It’s rare that I find Malaysian-made films worthwhile, be it inde or not. I really have to say it was a rare experience to watch director Arvind’s S’Kali which had been generating some interest or curiousity amongst us Malaysian filmmakers for the past months. Obviously this is always the case with most inde films that reach our local screens rather than just minor festivals because we’re always curious to know if it would be any good, have a broader appeal… or just be some plain dud with exaggerated marketing and overrating-optimistic reviews… which the latter proves to be unfortunately, painfully true.
Now let me just say it for the front row seats. S’Kali is fairly impressive and has surprisingly GOOD acting. I seriously can’t remember when was the last time I felt characters in a Malaysian film felt so rich…. Yes I’m sick of those arty-farty pretentious character-trash that seem to populate festivals.
S’Kali has quite a basic premise and merely deals with five close friends who are about to depart, either for university, studying abroad or simply pursuing some minor career. The fact is is that they can’t stick together much longer despite their well-bonded circle of friendship.
I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t gone through this or at least has felt the force of reality overpowering his/her youthful life. And eventually you’d just have to face it and simply move on. This is what I feel makes S’Kali work. In terms of originality, frankly, this particular teen flick doesn’t have to be! The simplicity of the premise alone is what would contribute appeal. But S’Kali’s strength is really in its characters. If they don’t work, any premise or predicament won’t ever suffice because we couldn’t care less for them. I certainly don’t give a rat’s ass for any of those mute/silent/staring characters we often see in those local heavy art movies.
Arvind’s characters/cast are a sigh of relief!! They really did it for me. It won’t be anything a hardcore film buff hasn’t seen before but I swear these fellas do a fine job of carrying/driving the picture through.
Apart from its premise, Arvind has wisely chosen to further complicate things for his characters by simply giving them distinctive attachments that they each can’t let go of. You have the individual who can’t get over drinking, another who’s petrified to fulfill his dreams, the couple who isn’t sure what their parents might think of them being together, etc. Ultimately, they each contribute to the conflict and separation, and Arvind skillfully unfolds each one of them. As aforementioned, it’s not the originality, but the mixture, and it’s overall pleasing to watch.
Now admittedly, at times Arvind’s dialogue can be a little too on-the-nose [writers get this] but I got comfortable and didn’t mind it at all. I concede that I’d normally nitpick at every moment of a local movie, but S’Kali made me wanna listen and see more. Now wasn’t that a surprise! On top of that, the film also has marginally good songs by this band called FatBoy and I still have the trailer song in my head as I’m writing this.
Where S’kali falls short is that it’s… well, TOO short as it clocked in just over an hour and you can’t help but think some viewers may go "That’s it?". Great films [all the world over throughout the century] have always had great characters, first established as either interesting, appealing or sympathetic. Then a crisis occurs that throws them all into the mix and we’d be anxious to find what happens to them in the resolution, seeing how they may or may not resolve it which leads to something big. Whether it’s triumphant or ultra-tragic, hi-tech, low-tech, it’s still emotionally big and unforgettable. S’kali has all of the above except a proper satisfying/active resolution and it just breezes through the ending. I wished there was some additional ‘act’ or more conflict but alas it’s not here. While I wasn’t expecting anything so gigantic [and it doesn’t need to be], again, you can’t help but feel Arvind could have done more with the material simply because his characters actually work! Nevertheless, the transition or change of what they go through unfolds almost masterfully given the short duration.
While I’d be glancing at my watch for certain Malaysian flicks wondering when it’ll be over… S’Kali was over before I knew it. I really digged Arvind’s characters and I would have loved to see more interaction between them on say… a sequel or something. Wishful thinking, but that just shows how much the flick can be fun. Yes folks that is very unexpected for a local one and although there have been acceptable ones throughout the years like Sepet, S’Kali is quite different as it doesn’t want to hint too much on artistry or indolence.
So how does it compare to Yasmin’s flick? As in ‘Sepet’. Tough one. Well sort of. To kick it off, I VERY MUCH prefer the characters of S’Kali to Sepet by quite a long mile and I ain’t kiddin’. And yes, dare I say it… S’Kali’s bunch has more life to each of them and I feel they make those of Sepet look somewhat stiff and dry by comparison. It also makes Sepet feel draggy or slower. This is fairly strange to me because Sepet has it the easy way as you only need two main characters to drive the story and in the film medium itself, when you have more characters, things are very difficult to keep track of, let alone create a sense of coherence - a critical flaw in Gubra btw, despite the better performances. But anyway in S’Kali, you have FIVE characters and it’s impressive when you find Arvind is capable of crafting them together and all things add up satisfyingly.
Now I can’t compare it to Gubra because that one takes on an entirely different structure and narrative. But even then, S’kali’s characters are still BETTER. Speaking of which, Yasmin makes a small poignant cameo, along with a handful of other artists.
Now on to technical technicalities. And some trivial nitpicking you could say. As often mentioned in forums [including it’s own website], S’Kali was shot in High Definition! That’s pretty much [well almost] THREE times the resolution of standard MiniDV, assuming that all the settings of Arvind’s camcorder were set to max, as in 1080p. This somewhat new format gives far greater depth and definition to the overall video as ‘highlights’ don’t overexpose much while deep shadow-detail is still preserved. This would also mean killer video-filesizes to edit on! If you’re a knowledgable video buff, you’d get all of what I’m saying here. Now I’ve seen various MiniDV movies projected on a movie hall in Midvalley and although they seem kinda blown-up in resolution, it’s still quite watchable. Which means if they project HD footage, it would be better right? As in three times better? Well not quite, which made me dumbfounded.
As proven with the case of S’kali [as in when projected on a big screen], it’s hard to distinquish the added HD resolution from miniDV’s because the square pixels look so notoriously large and blocky. Either the editors outputted the whole movie on a much smaller resolution [as opposed to its highest HD glory] or the digital projector inside the Cathay Cineleisure hall is one helluva dud. If the reason for this happens to be the former, then that’s one BIG mistake and quite a missed opportunity.
When the movie began, the cinema hall’s screen opened up to an almost 1:85 aspect ratio [real movie-buffs know this], yet the film itself sits within a mere 1.33 frame [aka 4:3] so we see some black bars on the SIDES throughout. What I don’t understand is why couldn’t the film be shot in true 16:9 widescreen? It was shot in HD which would have had that setting and would have given the film a more cinematic look. Well slightly, since that’s still a far cry from grand Cinemascope [2.35 aspect ratio].
On a side note, I felt the overall sound volume was a little too loud. Not really an ear-bursting problem but you’d really agree it gets a little too high on the levels at times. And I don’t understand why it never occurrs to editors [whether sound or mixers] to lower the volume of car-doors closing. And S’Kali is no exception. These particular sounds almost seem to ‘clip’ when it happens. But overall, I guess S’Kali’s audio is still clear for the most part and not too distracting. And thank God there’s no obvious looping/ADR by the actors as is so obviously the case with Bjarne Wong’s Legend of the Red Curse.
There are however, brief moments where Arvind’s bunch get together and start to have multiple conversations that overlap each other. This is where it can be difficult to hear specifically what they’re saying, but you get the idea they’re just gossiping trivial stuff. Good example would be the opening mamak scene itself. Luckily we still have those funky subtitles and unfortunately S’Kali is yet another movie where the editors forgot [or just don’t know how] to add a stroke of shadow around the subtitles. Meaning if the text appears on a sparkling bright image, they’re virtually invisible and that happens 35% of the time.
Well in terms of shooting style, I wouldn’t say there is anything remarkable which is still fine in case you were curious if Arvind would try for a more fancy style, given his talent. It’s simply the good old shoot-straight form with no tricky, fancy business. There are however, a few very good time-lapse shots where multiple roads [filled with tiny shimmering carlights] intersect, as if coming together than separating. Good symbolism folks.
As for the style of basic conversation scenes, I’m not too sure if Arvind personally operated the camera, let alone oversaw the framing of every shot because things do look a little too up-close [or tight] for my taste. Personally feel they could have been handled better slightly but this is ONLY a minor quibble and no big deal. I’m really quite impressed with all those table/mamak scenes because as the average filmmaker knows, they can be very deceptively simple to shoot. Yet Arvind always maintains a sense of geography and doesn’t jump his axis, so there’s hardly any confusion as to who is where and who’s responding to who. I guess casual readers won’t get what I’m trying to get at here unless you’ve personally shot five characters at a table scene.
Lighting-wise, there appears to be some minor digital diffussion around shots that frame the ever dull overcast sky during day-scenes. My isn’t it so hard to get interesting clouds or vivid sky blues? Night scenes are typically orangy and blusih, mostly lit by overhead street lights. Overall, acceptable stuff.
Oh and one anecdote about S’Kali’s marketing… It should have been better! The faceless poster’s tagline "Love Life Friendship" simply is inadequate and doesn’t specifically imply what the movie’s plot really is and I doubt just by looking at it, will spark any interest. The so-called trailer itself doesn’t tell you anything and even FatBoy’s song isn’t enough, though it just ‘might’ make you feel it’s catchy. Hate to say it, but even Bjarne Wong’s attrocious ‘Legend of the Red Curse’ [I’ll run to the hills away from his next film ‘Possessed’] had a better trailer because I at least [and the very damn least] knew what that show was about. Yes the same can be said about Julian Cheah’s ‘Hired Killer’. Trailer I mean, if you happen to have somehow caught a glimpse of it.
But with all that said and done, the verdict is still that S’Kali, is I feel REALLY a breath of fresh air to the Malaysian filmmakers. Attention to all those local Art-only-directors [yes even those so-called renowned ones], THIS IS THE way to make movies!!! Characters we like and care!! Not slow, draggy, sluggish, boring, silent, muted, loser-like handicaps who only know how to get it up the ass!
S’Kali is my recommendation!
4 out of 5 stars
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