Dain in 1982, testing out his first camera. He spent his formative years in London watching films and learning about cinema.
I ask Dain if the endorsement from Variety provided some kind of vindication after the times of uncertainty he and his team have had to face, and gave them even more confidence to forge ahead.
“For me it’s not so much that,” Dain replies. “I’m sure other filmmakers also face this. I’ve worked on this for a long time, I don’t actually know what it means. When that kind of accolade comes, it’s very ... strange. I don’t know what to make of it.
“But of course, one is happy. Emotionally I’ve been living with (the film) for so long, I don’t know how to judge it anymore.”
Snakes and leeches
For a while, it seemed one couldn’t escape news about Bunohan. Almost every week, someone was either reviewing the film or interviewing Dain. And thanks to one online interview, everyone became intrigued by “heat-seeking vipers”. It probably made a lot of people want to visit the village in Kelantan where the movie was filmed, to see if there were indeed such snakes.
There are, Dain confirms. The vipers and giant leeches were some of the biggest concerns of filming in the bog on the east coast, and during the monsoon too. He relates how a documentary-maker friend of his once encountered one of these vipers on a night shoot. The snake, sensing heat from the guy’s helmet-lamp, shot for his head, but thankfully only grazed him.
Scary stuff, but such things only confer upon Dain the title of “maverick director”, going fearlessly into the unknown to capture the real thing, much like one of his filmmaking heroes, Werner Herzog, who’s known to venture into the remotest places on earth to shoot a film.
And like Herzog, Dain’s not stupid. No one goes into these things unprepared. His team had contingency plans in case of emergencies, the nearest hospital and clinics were noted, and even locals familiar with the waterlogged area were hired to keep everyone safe.
Few directors today would bother getting their hands dirty, so to speak, to get that perfect shot or lend their films more authenticity and immediacy. Most things can be done with CGI in post-production nowadays. But for Dain, that perfect sky, perfect light or beautiful landscape meant sparing no effort, sometimes getting into the water among the lalang himself.
“This is part and parcel of how I work, I guess,” says Dain. “Sometimes I get lost in it. Sometimes time is of the essence. For one scene I was in the water because Azura (supermodel Tengku Azura who plays a mysterious woman who appears time and again in fever-dream sequences) was supposed to come out of the water. Time was really running, and I didn’t want to lose those clouds.
“It was towards the end of the day already, and I didn’t want to lose the light. I also wanted her to come out of the water in a particular way. It was difficult to explain, so it was better to get in there and show her how I wanted it.”
Meeting Godard
Dain seems to believe in the old aesthetics, the classic way films were made, from when directors immersed themselves in certain locales (think John Ford and Monument Valley) or fleshed out the imaginary with the real (think Terrence Malick and nature).
It’s easy to see why once you’re familiar with his background. After Kuala Lumppur, as a boy he lived in Egypt (his father was a diplomat) and spent his time watching spaghetti westerns. But it was in London during his teens that his real adventure in cinema began, stealing out of Latin classes to sneak into a nearby repertory cinema to feast his eyes on European films.
“I skipped Latin classes because I thought ‘Who wants to learn a dead language?’” says Dain. “So I ponteng lah. They were double lessons in the afternoon and you tended to fall asleep. So I thought, I can’t do this! And it was so easy to get into the cinema because those back doors were loose.”
The rep cinema played five to six different films a day, and one day, Dain came face-to-face with a Jean-Luc Godard film. But no, it wasn’t the film that inspired him to become a filmmaker.
“It was the Godard that got me really, really pissed off! I didn’t understand it!” he says. “And in those days in London, there were loads and loads of secondhand bookshops. There was always a huge film section. I would spend my lunch hours there. Each book was about 20 pence, which was really cheap, like 20 sen. So I started reading up on cinema.”
It wasn’t all just European cinema though. It was also the time of the then-new generation of filmmakers out of Hollywood, film school graduates ready to break old rules and make their own. Directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were making films that had a literary quality to them yet was entertaining enough for the masses. Coppola’s Apocalypse Now!, in fact, drew inspiration directly from Joseph Conrad.
Dain himself started his love affair with literature after seeing Kafka’s The Castle televised on British TV. And he was only 12 at the time. His mother was a schoolteacher, so reading was cultivated at home. Literature and the love of 60s and 70s cinema in his formative years helped to shape his vision and his desire for films that have both entertainment value and substance.
He graduated in photography, film and video in 1990 from Harrow College, Polytechnic Of Central London (now Westminster University).
“For me, film was at its height in the 60s and 70s, with the new breed of filmmakers,” says Dain. “The French, Italians and Germans were coming up with different things, and so was Hollywood, with (Bob) Rafelson and gang, and then Scorsese and (Paul) Schrader, and Coppola. It was a very, very exciting time for cinema because it was all so new. There was no precedent for anything and all the rules were being thrown out the window. But (the filmmakers) were very articulate, they weren’t doing things haphazardly.”
Made for Malaysians
Dain is currently travelling between here and Indonesia, working on a documentary. He’s heard good things from our neighbours.
“The Indonesians say the film scene in Malaysia is very, very healthy at this moment,” he reveals. “Malaysia is doing very well. There is diversity – there are the die-hard Hollywood wannabes and the more independent filmmakers producing things on their own, and our films touch on very diverse subject matters.”
The word most often heard when Bunohan is mentioned, is “game-changer”. Malaysian cinema may be robust and diverse at the moment, but we’re still waiting for that one film, the game-changer, the one that will successfully bridge the gap between entertainment and artistic integrity, please both critics and the general masses.
Dain seems to identify most with Jean-Pierre Melville, Malick and Herzog, “outsiders” who don’t fit easily into any category. Melville, who helped Alain Delon to become a star, influenced directors such as Johnnie To and John Woo. Malick has Hollywood A-list actors busting down his door for a role. Herzog, who had to steal a camera to make his first film, continues to work comfortably in various kinds of cinema. Game-changers they are, bridging art and entertainment.
Come March 8, Malaysians will get to see what the fuss has been about overseas over a little film called Bunohan. The film has been passed without cuts by the censorship board. Meanwhile, it is also going to Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Festival next month, in the Going South category.
“I made the film for Malaysians to watch and enjoy,” says Dain. “We still need to make sure that we do well in our own country. The box-office is my producer’s worry, but for me, I want audiences back home to see the film.”
Jom ramai-ramai gi menonton....tak sabar rasanyer..dengar kata bulan 3 baru masuk panggung kat sini..{:4_227:}....so aper ceriter kat luar sana dpt sambutan tak filem nih....?
kalo dpt awards kat FH... berduyunlah rg nak amik die blakon blik..
but Fh,, bront, namron, beto, depa sure pilih watak kalo belakon.. xhentam keromo.. asal aa rmbat.. mcm retis2 suam2 kuku yg x menang anugerah fefeling diva/ hero
Bunohan Menang Anugerah NETPAC Di Festival Filem Golden Horse Taipei
Filem drama-aksi Malaysia berjudul BUNOHAN, yang telah pun mencetuskan gelombang di arena perfileman antarabangsa, menerima Anugerah NETPAC di Filem Festival Taipei Golden Horse 2011. Anugerah tersebut diterima pengarah filem itu, Dain Said bagi pihak produksi.
Juri NETPAC memuji filem tersebut kerana mereka mendapati BUNOHAN filem yang menggunakan cara paling kreatif dan unik disamping menggunakan bahasa sinematik dan menangani pelbagai isu kontemporari Asia.
Anugerah NETPAC (Rangkaian untuk Promosi Pawagam Asia) dianugerahkan bagi menggalakkan pengkarya sinema di Asia mengenengahkan filem-filem yang luar biasa dan berhasrat untuk mencungkil bakat-bakat baru.
BUNOHAN mengadakan tayangan perdana di Festival Filem Antarabangsa Toronto pada bulan September 2011. Festival Filem Taipei Golden Horse dijadikan tayangan untuk tayangan perdana filem BUNOHAN di peringkat Asia. BUNOHAN juga telah dipilih oleh Universal Pictures untuk diedarkan di beberapa negara termasuk United Kingdom (UK), Perancis, Jerman, Australia dan New Zealand.
Bertempat di Kelantan dan bersempadanan dengan negara Thai, BUNOHAN menceritakan mengenai lelaki ganas yang kental. Ia berkenaan dengan nasib tiga adik-beradik; seorang peninju tomoi yang berada dalam pelarian, pembunuh upahan dan seorang ahli perniagaan licik yang tersepit dalam sarang tragedi penipuan dan rasuah.
ilem ini dibintangi pelakon-pelakon yang pernah memenangi pelbagai anugerah seperti Faizal Hussein, Zahiril Adzim serta Pekin Ibrahim, dan dibantu oleh Bront Palarae, Soffi Jikan, Nam Ron, Wan Hanafi Su, Amerul Affendi, Jimmy Lor dan Tengku Azura. Filem ini hasil karya dan diarahkan oleh Dain Said. Ia diterbitkan oleh Nandita Solomon. Tim Kwok Entertainment Convergence bertindak sebagai penerbit bersama.
masalah filem x bermutu kat msia sebab producer nak wat untung cepat...nak hasilkan filem yg berkualiti mmg susah, sumer kena bagus, skrip, pelakon, jalan cite, sinematografi dan lain2...sumer tu makan mase, kdg2 bertahun nak wat research saje n training pelakon, tgk cam kat hollywood je...filem yg cgi gempak n ade 3d bukan penentu cite berkualiti...
so tahniah le pada pembikin filem cam dain said ni...harap ramai lagi akan wat filem cam dia ni.
Aku dah tengok tayangan perdana malam tadi 29 Feb 2012 (sekali dlm 4 tahun tuuuuuu) :
1. 99% dialek Kelantan. Nasib ada subtitle BM standard
2. Kena paham betul2 jalan cerita. Jika tidak kamu akan lost
3. ciri-ciri arthouse/seni... tak semua boleh terima filem sebegini.. Oleh itu, sila lah baca filem ini, bukan sekadar tonton
4. Jangan expect filem ni dipenuhi aksi2 muay thai/kickboxing atau bunuh-bunuhan. Hanya 20%-30% saja.
5. Family drama/ deep/ somber
6. Visual/ cinematography yg cantik
Post time 16-11-2011 01:15 PM
Post time 16-11-2011 04:19 PM
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