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[Weekly Update] May 8, 2022
🕑 Added 2022-05-09 01:29:20 +0000 UTCDon't you love it when dozens of viewers request you to review RRR, and then Patrick H Willems releases a review that talks about everything you want to say and more?
Oh and the requests stopped after that.
Damn it Willems, damn you and your damn good video.
CHANNEL UPDATE
Our video about Malaysian cinema is finally complete. It should go live on the 12th. I ended up talking about 3 films: The Kid from the Big Apple, Jagat, and Rise: Ini Kalilah. I know they aren't true classics and aren't really representative of the film industry. But I wanted a set of films that are easy to find, and offers a diverse look at the ethnicities and languages of Malaysia.
Sadly, there are quite a bit of notes I didn't include in the video for time. I would love to talk about language mixing in Malaysian cinema. But maybe I'll wait until Everything Everywhere All at once comes out in home media.
Up next, we have a video talking about why Kung Fu movies are so patriotic all the time (or so it seems). Afterward, we have a video on Gallants, one of the best modern Kung Fu movies you have never heard of.
MEDIA TALK
I guess there's one thing Patrick Willems didn't talk about is why Indian cinema, despite being such a massive industry, never makes it big in the west, or even outside of South Asia.
I can't really make a video on this, because everything I say here is speculation. But I guess I can at least share my guesses here.
So why didn't Indian cinema take over the world? I think there are multiple reasons. For one thing, Indian movies are almost always released without a translated title. Baahubali, Dangle, Jodhaa Akbar. They are not easy words to say.
It may sound like a stupid reason, but think about it. Can you go up to the box office and say "Can I have a ticket for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge"? Part of me think 3 Idiots is such a massive success because we can actually pronounce the title.
There are, of course, the cultural reasons. Indian cinema is one of the few film industries that is still primarily a star system industry. Hollywood used to be one, too. And it's what brought us cinematic giants like Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando, people who leads fashion and swap public opinions with a flick of their fingers.
In many ways, Indian movie stars are just like that, larger than life. Indian male actors are generally in extremely good shape, similar to Stallone in the 80s. They can't just be good, they have to be godly.
But in a star system, stars can't just be actors. They have to make appearance in all sorts of media and events to boost their presence in the public consciousness. If you are familiar with Hong Kong movie stars, they are usually actors but also often singers, dancers, and models. The same thing also applies to Indian movie stars. That means, to people outside of India who have minimal chances of seeing these stars, they don't have the same level of perceived prestige. So their movies also have much less draw.
As Hollywood shifted towards a more intellectual property driven system, most audience also got used to seeing films with familiar characters rather than familiar stars. The difference in audience expectation makes the cultural barrier even harder to cross, as a result.
Lastly, and there's no two ways about it, racism likely remains a big factor. Unlike Japan and South Korea, which are rich first world nations, India remains stigmatized by most of the world. Rarely is an Indian film perceived as artistic or discussed as such. Its diverse styles are often looked down upon. People either actively avoid Indian cinema because of their prejudice, or too afraid to share their love with their friends, in fear of being branded as a weirdo. That may have contributed to its lacking in popularity, too.
Of course, those are just my guesses. So if you have any other thoughts on the matter, let me know. I'm very curious to know your thoughts. In any case, I'll see you in a few days with a new video!
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Comments
Pratyush A
Regarding Indian cinema still being an unknown commodity, I would also add that people outside India have a false sense of them being musicals. When instead of them being "musicals", they are basically your normal movies with heavy focus on music and dance numbers, if that makes sense, though Malayalam cinema and Bengali cinema don't go heavy of music and dance sequences either. I would also add that India having so many languages and regional cinemas, most Indian's didnt know much about other other cinemas in India except for movie industry that is in their own language(barring for a few of the big names all time block busters from other regional cinema). As a hindi speaker, I grew up watching Hindi Cinema(i.e Bollywood lol) but only realized the magic of Malayalam cinema, Tamil Cinema and Telugu cinema etc in my late teens and early twenties as I ventured out and met new people. Untill then, even I had a biased outlook of these movie industries and was ignorant about them. Hence, if people in India themselves dont have a great appreciation of cinemas that isnt in their own language, we cant fault international audience to not give us our due since we have not done a great job at being approchable. More exposure for us towards our regional cinema would mean each cinema would thrive more, hence more eyes on each movie Industry of India. Bollywood for the most part, is the best and worst of each movie industry imo, but Malayalam cinema is at another level.
Pratyush A
Would absolutely love to hear your perspective on RRR, since your take on this would be so unique and informative to listen. Not just the artistic nature of RRR and SS Rajamouli's style but also your take on the social aspects of the movie, as an International viewer. I suppose anti-colonial nature of the movie blended with history and fantasy is something that would be popular themes outside but also odd that the hindu mythology that RRR portrays can be easily weaponized by India's Right Wing Hindu government which is also hell bent on crushing the rights of minorities. So it is interesting to see the movie show anti-colonial themes for the west and yet the same colonial themes for India's minorities(same thing that british colonizers were doing is done by India's government to Minorities now). Though, to the movie's credit, it shows a powerful operatic idea of protest and revolt but I with it had not tried to play safe its politics. All of this with SS Rajamouli being an atheist makes this movie very complicated for me as an Indian to appreciate(though, purely as a movie, RRR is a spectacular cinematic experience with so much goodness, especially that marvelous music/ost). Having followed Indian cinema all my life, I have never seen a movie from India talked about within the cinephile community as much as RRR, which is nice to see, though I would have guessed that it would be Malayalam cinema that would be the first to reach mainstream west because its the most grounded, artistic and the most similar to "european cinema" in its flavour. And because Malayalam cinema makes not only the best movies from India but imo is at par with the best movies made across the globe. But the complete opposite happened and its a Marvel-esq-demigod over the top-larger-than-life Telugu movie that crossed boundaries(still relative since RRR's reach is still not as much as movies from East Asia but its the farthest an Indian movie has made waves in the west imo). Thank you so much for all your work, its really amazing.
Abraham Limpo
I still think it would be nice to have RRR reviewed by you. Willems does a good job highlighting why he (and why we would) enjoy it, but he lacks the technical approach you tend to employ. Maybe instead of a full review, a dissection of a couple scenes from your point of view?
Jim Ng
so excited to see your video on Gallants man! I caught it summer 2010 at NYAFF when they had MC Jin and Bruce Leung in attendance, and it was such a treat! It was around the time when the first Expendables just came out, so that trope of older action actors coming out of retirement wasn't too saturated yet. Also really refreshing to see Bruce Leung so enthusiastic still making movies at his age! =D
