Malaysian Films on DVD at Amazon

Posted by The Visitor at 10:09pm.

Posted in DVD News , Asia.

It’s quite unusual for DVDs of Malaysian films, especially the independent ones, to be found at Amazon.com, or anywhere else on the Net. Heck, even us Malaysians have a hard time finding them in our own country.

But in August, five titles were made available by Red Films, the Malaysian production company that’s been a great supporter of independent films. They are:

James Lee’s The Beautiful Washing Machine
Ho Yuhang’s Sanctuary
Bernard Chauly’s Gol & Gincu
Visits: A Hungry Ghosts Anthology (by four directors, including Lee and Ho)
Woo Ming Jin’s Monday Morning Glory

According to Lee Mee Fung, executive director of Red Films, these titles, with the exception of Gol & Gincu which is of mass appeal, are considered too niche and do not get the typical distribution platforms such as video and TV. I think she’s describing a general problem that persists in Malaysia and perhaps some other countries as well.

DVD covers

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Reader Comments

Justin Slotman 10/14/2006 @ 2:44pm

Any of these worth checking out, Visitor? There’s not much information about them on either Amazon or the IMDB.
Spike 10/14/2006 @ 6:47pm

Those DVD covers are sweet.
Tuan Jim 10/14/2006 @ 11:01pm

Guess they’re not working on one of the Malaysian titles that would be worth exporting—Puteri Gunung Ledang? Is this available anywhere on subtitled dvd yet?
Jason 10/15/2006 @ 1:00am

The covers do make them look compelling.

Cool design unfortunately does not always coincide with content, so any recommendations would be nice.

Thanks for the info.
WS 11/07/2006 @ 3:56am

If you like Tsai Ming-Liang, then try James Lee’s slow, strange, austere but haunting ‘The Beautiful Washing Machine’.
WS 11/07/2006 @ 4:06am

PS: For a brief overview of some of these films, click here
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