SEMAN: TOO AVANT GARDE OR JUST LUCKY?

Alkisah maka menontonlah aku filem Seman or Surman or ‘Sir, Man’ arahan Mansur Puteh di Puncak Perdana itu, Tengah tayangan filem Seman yang setengahnya ada macam babak-babak dalam filem-filem Z Lokman atau flem filem U Wei haji Shaari a colleague whisper to me “Aku tak faham kenapa filem ini diangkat”katanya berbisik. Aku yang menghulurkan telinga hanya tersenyum. Kata aku “Dont u ask me. Kau yang belajar filem. kau yang patut explain kat aku” kata aku ketawa.

Prinsip aku dalam review/kritikan/ aprisiasi seni adalah mudah: Bila menilai karya seni ,Buang yang keruh ambil yang jernih. Means I only absord the beauty while the bad, the ugly, the uncertainty,just left it behind.

The jernih first.
Seman overall is not a bad movie and Mansur Puteh is not a stupid director anyway. The title cult is probably well deserve. Forget about the bad lighting, the bad acting, the bad color and so on and so forth. I take a lot at the whole movie itself and I come up with a conclusion that something somewhere in there remains….cult heh .The movie itself is a haunting experience (but is it in a good way or in a bad way I cant tell myself either)
Seman puzzle the viewers. For good or bad it left u wandering whatta fuck is going on. …but wait a minute, that’s the keruh one. Ok ok think positive man, think positive! this is Mansur Puteh’s film we talking about anyway ok.
The plot is complex……err not really.. Its about a man names Seman working at a advertising company. Try to fulfill his job with an idea of a great Melaka (nothing extraordinary about that right?) And in the mean time, he try to get a girl, a school girl. Then we been shown his friendship with his small brother. Then he go to Japan. And when he get home his brother die.In a plane to someplace he meets a girl who later will be his gf. And blab la blab la bla he threw his script. Theres goes the end of Malaysia’s most sacred movie. Our own Citizen Kane(?) (and Minah Manja at the same time) Characther comes and go without early introduction(breakin the rules). Scene changing places tho the actor in the same conversation. Puzzle like Ulysses. No? ok its unfair to put Ulysses as comparison but its….confusing. I mean like …what?
That part when Seman buangkan air kebadannya its quiet funny and so spontaneous we didn’t expect it coming (sometimes I think since Mansur Puteh so hilarious live, I suggest that Seman should be as funny as him outside) . Its so funny (not so funny as funny I mean but that’s the only part in the film when everything humour attempt seems to blend together)
Then I enjoy very much the part where Seman put big glasses to welcome the girl. That’s very genius. (dammit! I wish I could think of that)
Then I enjoy the credit title part where all names written in a school book with pencil.
Basically walaupun Seman chaos, tetapi ianya banyak diimbangi oleh 2 unsur repetitious back to back, samada melalui scene, perlambangan, shoot dan sebagainya yang membuatkan file mini seimbang. For example;
1) Unsur pemakanan tempatan
1 dengan Maruku dan 1 lagi dengan cencaluk.

2) 2 lawak bodoh oleh Seman ketik bertemu awek
1 ketika dikapal terbang (bila dia tertumpah air) dan yang kedua dihadapan pagar dengan gigantic spek.

3) 2 kali buang skrip dan duit jepun.

4) 2 kali minat awek

5) 2 kali scene di kedai menjual kain

6) 2 kali berjumpa India

Dan banyak lagi kot…

The Keruh one
No komen. Tak baik mencari kesalahan orang.

Kenapa ini dikategorikan sebagai filem islam I have no idea. Tak ada corak2 or pattern dalamnya yang membezakan filem mini dengan filem Melayu yang lain ketika itu sehingga boleh diletakkan sebagai filem Islam? Adakah sebba ad babak memasak ketupat seisi keluarga boleh dikatakan sebagai filem Islam? Atau konsep keseimbangan tadi ? I have no idea. Don’t ask the director, they want to remains their work as mystery, kata neruda dalam Il Postino.

DO I like it? Yeah I do. I enjoy it. Just like I enjoy Freedy Got Fingered, Screwed, jackass The Movie, bas Kundoktur, Minah Manja , El Topo, Humane, and even naïve art, Cherry Samba’s work, Cy Twombly, Dubufet and so on. But I wouldn’t called that as a great film. (discuss)
Avant garde? Maybe but hes doing nothing new. Nothing shoking here that never been done before. Almost escapism too me. experimental? maybe. Absurd? yeah.
Tokoh perfileman tempatan? Better find somebody else. Not a personal argue but I think for tokoh we need a very positive leader here..not someone who cynically rambling on others filmmaker when talking about himself.
Old timer seems to hailed this movie. Perople who…old. U know old?. While young people (like me hahaha) and some of my collegue still confuse why his peers raised this movie abovecloud nine. I mean…we’re all too understoond the concept of conceptual, the concept of all the boring technique in movies . we have watch the difficult movie too u know but still not get it why seman is so…..say important. It just another experimental movie with bad lighting to me.
Is it cult? It is. But cult is like tempoyak man (or cencaluk in this case) . The more u keep it the better its taste.And I do like tempoyak man. Or like wine. Makin lama makin bernilai dia.
Ok ok…maybe its really ahead of its time. ..But what time? Mungkin ianya mendahului zaman. Tapi zaman apa?
In this digital and advance age, with things like LCD, PLASMA, DVD, Blue Ray all the technology that makes visual art works sharp, clean …pixel things, Seman will remains cult because it different from the rest. Its ugly and low key will keep his place as the cultest (haha cultest) film in local art scene.

But at the end..yeah What do I know about film? I just want I want to off and watch Penanggal Ilmu Teluh again.

Verdict: Its like the bright blogger student said: "Psuedo Intellectual!" It sum up the whole experience of watching Seman that night. So which part of it that makes mansur Puteh can be consider as great, brilliant? By the way he talks maybe. So that’s why, for better or worse he have to kutuk all this filmmaker from P Ramlee and Yasmin Ahmad and Satyajiv Ray just for others to notice that hes different from his peers. different here means hes the best among them. That’s an easy trick, all you have to do is to have a big mouth.
Ok so ‘pseudo Inttellectual’. Means maybe he is really genius or maybe he just lucky people praise his works. See in 1986 when Argentina meets England is quarter final of World Cup, the Argentina captain first score with his famous hand of God. But of course he knows, to have reputation as one of the best player in the world he have to come out with another shot. Few minutes later
he score the best goal the world even seen just to cover up his hand of gol’s goal.
Mansur Puteh hasnt yet score his best goal. Harap-harap bila Malaysia dihujani salji nanti Mansur Puteh mampu menunjukkan.....well nevermind.

Ok ‘Pseudo Inttelectual’. Save by the bell. Mansur Puteh needs more than one movie to convince people that hes really the diamond in local film industry or he just Our infant terrible. Lucky I mean.

But on a second thought......Seman rocks. And it left me puzzle why i said that. :)