Monday, October 08, 2012

NO Sex. NO Violence. NO Family Values

Tickets were on sale for the general public screening weeks ago, for daily 7+pm shows at Cineleisure Orchard, being an exclusive showcase under The Cathay Cineplexes. There was even a gala premiere for invited guests only last Friday 5 Oct 2012 at 915pm, Cineleisure Orchard Hall 3. The film was rated M18. You can check out the ticket stubs here.

It even got reviewed by F*** Magazine. How they watched it, I've got no idea. But I suppose they could have been to any one of the many festivals that the film had travelled to and watched it in its entirety there.

Then this was just in on the film's Facebook Page:
Friends & cineastes,
The theatrical release of SEX.VIOLENCE.FAMILYVALUES has been cancelled after the MDA revoked our license on Oct 6, a day after the film's premiere at Orchard Cineleisure. Thanks to all who attended.

... MDA revoked our license...

Wow.

Sex.Violence.Family Values runs 47 minutes, and is made up of 3 shorts - Cartoons, Porn Masala, and The Bouncer.

It's not anyhowly made. It's written by Ken Kwek, writer of Glen Goei's The Blue Mansion, Kelvin Tong's Kidnapper, and It's a Great, Great World. It features a power packed cast including the likes of Adrian Pang, Pam Oei, Tan Kheng Hua, Benjamin Heng, Serene Chen, and more. Ken Kwek makes his directorial debut here, and MDA shuts it down.

I guess MDA only prefers flicks like this one, since the end credits clearly put MDA's endorsement (Well, it could be a joke, but it's not funny lor).

MDA has NO QUALMS about Cartoons since it rated it PG13-Passed Clean, so I guess there must be something so shockingly offensive in the segments of Porn Masala, or The Bouncer, for a sudden turnaround on Oct 6, one day after the film's local premiere on Oct 5, to decide to ban everything.

Perhaps the censor who was doing his job censoring the film, was actually fast asleep and passed it M18 out of convenience for the local gala? Perhaps his colleague who could have watched it on Oct 5 discovered the offensive bits and had to re-rate the film, banning it instead?

It was only days ago that this was published
MDA has ACTUALLY moved away from censorship towards classification and co-regulation. This is to ensure that diverse audiences have greater access to a wide range of media choices without compromising on the need to protect young children from undesirable content.

Riiight. Action speaks louder than words. So what's this about the revoking of a license? And protecting young children from undesirable content? Are cinemas lax in their controls and letting children into halls screening M18 films already?

I plan to watch this when it premieres for the general public. I am now being denied access to a choice.

One can only speculate until the truth is out. If ever. And it remains out there, because of those who can hide behind the cloak of anonymity and have no need to justify any action taken. It's like Dredd you know. "I am the law".

This campaign was 2 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Update: "for racial references which are demeaning and offensive to Indians". Yup, so it's Porn Masala that the censors found issues with.

16 Oct 2012 Update: One of the Films Consultative Panel members publishes a letter, and for the curious, these are the FCP folks.

2 comments:

H.Prakash said...

Sigh. Most unfortunate. Was really looking forward to watch it. :(

Stefan S said...

so do a lot of people H.Prakash

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...