For the next season.

With August coming to an end, so does the blockbusters season. Sadly 2011 wasn’t that great of a year for summer movies. Most movies aren’t memorable, being mediocre at best. Pixar had their first critically panned film, the two Avengers build up was more hype than they deserved, and I realised that Olivia Wilde have neither the acting skills nor boobs to carry a tentpole movie.

With a disappointing summer season, I am really looking forward to the awards season. A lot of movies that premiered during Cannes and Berlin will finally be widely available. But those are not the only movies that I’m really looking forward to. There are some Malaysian movies as well that I want to watch.

Oh yes, there are some Malaysian movies, films and flicks to check out these coming months.

KIL

Produced by Flux Visual Lab, the studio behind Seven Collar T-shirt’s Wild Child and Fragile MV, Lab The Rat’s MV, and a couple of Pesawat’s MVs. KIL will be their first foray into feature films which stars Redza Minhat – a theatre writer and actor, Cristina Suzanne Stockstill – another cun mix awek to add on my crush list, and Harum Salim Bachik, the president of Seniman.

And the first official trailer:

Relationship Status

Next up is Relationship Status, directed by Khairil M. Bahar.

Khairil M. Bahar was the dude responsible for Ciplak, an independent film that won Best Alternative Film award in Anugerah Skrin 2006. Starring mostly actors from the theater scene, the movie is about how social media has affected the modern society, specifically the urban KL. Click the banner to go to their site.

The teaser trailer:

Bunohan

Bunohan, a gritty thriller movie set on the East Coast of Semenanjung.

One of the few movies in Malaysia with a martial arts theme, Bunohan is about two brothers in the world of underground Muay Thai kick-boxing. Tomoi. This film has the awesome feat of premiering in a major film festival, the Toronto International Film Festival early next month.

Bunohan is Directed by Dain Said, who is behind the notorious film Dukun – a biopic of the infamous Mona Fendy – which was banned from screening in Malaysia.

Songlap



Kalau menari boleh dapat 50,000, dah lama Dr. Rozmey belajarlah.

Directed by duo Effendee Mazlan & Fariza Azlina Ishak, Songlap explores the underbellies of Malaysia, a similar theme explored in their last project, KAMI. Songlap stars Shaheizy Sam and Syafie Naswip, two actors who I'm pretty sure are recognizable names to the Malay movie audience. Judging from the trailer, the film certainly has a more naturalistic approach compared to your typical Malay movie.

And yes, I'm looking at you KL Gangster. Seriously guys, you're not in Hong Kong.

Hanyut

And finally Hanyut, directed by U-Wei Haji Shaari.

I can’t remember the last time U-Wei Haji Shaari directed a movie. Maybe because back in the days I wasn’t that into films yet, and it’s really hard to obtain old Malaysian movies from the 80’s and 90’s. U-Wei Haji Shaari is one of the directors that made sense in Malaysia, with one of his movies – Kaki Bakar – screened for Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Film Festival. Pretty awesome, yes?

Hanyut is an adaptation of the novel Almayer’s Folly by Joseph Conrad, which tells the story of a Dutchman searching for treasure in Malaya during the 19th century. I love me some period movies.

I’m including this last because I’m not sure whether this movie has premiered in Malaysia or not, as I cannot find any news regarding its release date. All I know the release date is in 2011.

And here are some set photos from Hanyut.



And that’s it. Those are the 4 Malaysian films that I’m really looking forward to. What are yours?