By My Side (2017) experience and review
Halu. Semester 3 has started so I'm back in Kuching!
We bought the 7.30pm ticket, expecting them to join the screening. But later on we see a post by Vivacity's facebook saying that they will join the screening for the 9pm show. T_T Cry T_T
Anyway, we accepted our sad fate and move on. I had quite a bit of emotion and questions while watching the film. It IS NOT a conventional film at all, even if the storyline is. But first, lets talk about how THEY DID CAME INTO THE HALL WE WERE IN AT THE END OF THE FILM WITHOUT ANY NOTICE! Surprise!
How it happened:
They ended the credit abruptly and we were like WHUT, then there were a bunch of walkie talkie sound, AND THEN THEY CAME INTO THE HALL LOL T_T For like 10 minutes je la lol.
To be honest, I only know JinnyBoy, Reubun and Adam Shamil (cos he sang to me during my birthday when he visited UNIMAS a year ago weeewuuu). The others I've only seen them in few videos, like Josephine (her fanboys were crazy mad when she showed up lmao). As for Arwind, he is a famous internet person. That's all I know. Okay don't blame me, I have slow internet.
MY REVIEW (massive spoiler alert)
Alright, time for serious writing. The beginning of the film was an opening credit galore. It lasted for a while BECAUSE we were shown of Ben and Faye stories from when they were in primary school. Cute! But I just felt like it's too long. Of course, not all narrative are to be shown through dialogue - I mean, that's lazy writing. But I felt like that particular part was just too long. Going through the Act 1, it was sweet and lovey dovey. And we were introduced to the main and side characters. 17 year old high schoolers who looked and styled themselves a tad bit older than how they should be. This is especially obvious in the scenes where they had that graduation dinner thing. If you watch it, you would get it.
Another thing that ticked me off is the confusing timeline which doesn't match the production design. They took SPM in 2017, the graduation party is on November 2017, they ate McDonalds with the most recent restaurant interior there is, but they were shown eating childhood snacks. You know those biscuits with the colourful icing. I mean, if we were to look at reality, I doubt teens in school eat those things. Eating Apollo would make more sense as they are more readily available in the market right now. Okay, that was that. We were actually watching it in the future! Of course there is nothing wrong with showing a narrative in the future. But it would have been nicer if we were shown that they are indeed in the future. Like, weird iPhones or flying cars, or just completely futuristic looking buildings. But instead we get 2017 iPhones, Skype, locations, buildings, cars, you get it. A simple mention of the year inside the movie would help a lot in understanding as well. Otherwise, it just looked like a lousy mistake to me. It is as if everybody in the team didn't think through about the year they should be in and just continue scouting, art directing and whatnot. BUT, if Reuben, the director, had intended this then case closed. Only he knows.
Okay now, lets talk about the storyline. The story is your typical coming-of-age love story. Everything is sweet until ... your long time boyfriend now have to leave for his studies. Oh noes! #longdistancerelationship #thestruggleisreal This was the beginning of Act 2, where just being 6 months (?) apart, became a huge problem for the couple. Now, this is reality. This happens in real life and many would be able to relate. I like how Faye's character develops throughout the story. She went from being dependent to independent. In a way, you could relate to her. Getting up in the morning feels hard, using a certain road makes you reminisce those good old time together. And then, she snapped out of it. Not immediately of course, but you could see positive changes from her face and actions. I like it!
What's shocking to me is that, by the end of the film, it's not romantic comedy anymore, but patriotic romantic comedy. Simply because, Faye, loves, Malaysia! All of her decision comes back to how she felt like Malaysia is good enough for her. I love the scene where she, her mom and her aunty was sitting on the same table. The aunty represents know-it-all-and-dislike-Malaysia Malaysians who persuades you to leave Malaysia the minute you have the chance and the mom represents Malaysia-loving Malaysians who believe being home is nicer, even if it limits yourself a little bit. I remember the mom asking, "have you ever lived overseas?", and the aunty replied with "no, but I heard my friends stories from overseas". I SMILED AT THAT SCENE! It criticized Malaysians whom easily say that Malaysia is not a good country for Malaysian, and that the grass is always greener on the other side, without actually experiencing living overseas themselves.
Okay. I'm a person who is distracted a whole lot by bad acting. So, Ben, distracted me. And the other characters also distracted me. Except Faye. If South Korea dislike idols in their dramas and films, then I can say I dislike YouTubers in our films. Being distracted for 8 minutes (your typical YouTube short film length) and 75 minutes is a big difference. I know the purposes are either: 1) make casting job easier cos the actors are all confirmed and willing to work for you, or 2) they have high marketing value. But, yeah. Most of the time, I feel like they are rushing with their dialogue. It just feel empty. So. Much. Potential. T_T
As for the cinematography. This film is not cinematic. It is a web film - a film made to be watched on the small screen. Simply because of the shots. Almost, all of the scenes, are taken, as if they are a YouTube video, which makes me feel angry and dizzy, because the screen is so big, and almost everything is in close up or medium close up. Such a waste of that pristine camera (okay I don't know what camera they used but the footage is clear!). For this reason, the film lost it cinematic feel. However, as the film IS produced by Tonton.my, I don't see it as a big problem. It IS for web release anyway. But if you're a person who loves cinematic feel, don't watch it on the big screen (I believe the cinema schedules have finished anyway LOL).
However, this film, definitely paved a way of web feature film trend in Malaysia. The film proved that there is a demand, there are fans willing to watch, and there are people who are willing to produce and fund them (especially if you are JinnyBoy level). We still have a long way to go to make super high quality web films like those in Netflix but the future is now.
I was lucky enough to catch JinnyBoyTV's JinnyBoy and Reuben Kang at Vivacity Megamall last 2 weeks. They were here to promote their first feature film - By My Side, with the casts of the film. Brandon Ho (Ben), Adam Shamil, Josephine Yap and Arwind Kumar. They are all highly notable YouTubers so it was an exciting time indeed. Most of the people there were teenagers - and then there was me, this fella nearing the quarter age. I wasn't there alone for sure as my coursemates also wanted to meet them eye to eye. But yeah, we were drowned by the screams of the much younger crowd. Reminds me very much of my old days of Kpop fangirling. O h m y g o d! Tonton.my gave out like a bunch of tickets to the 9pm show and also some goodie bag. There were a bunch of activities on the stage to win those goods and I was like - damn kids these days. In a good way lah okay. But again, I feel old. Cri.
We bought the 7.30pm ticket, expecting them to join the screening. But later on we see a post by Vivacity's facebook saying that they will join the screening for the 9pm show. T_T Cry T_T
Anyway, we accepted our sad fate and move on. I had quite a bit of emotion and questions while watching the film. It IS NOT a conventional film at all, even if the storyline is. But first, lets talk about how THEY DID CAME INTO THE HALL WE WERE IN AT THE END OF THE FILM WITHOUT ANY NOTICE! Surprise!
How it happened:
They ended the credit abruptly and we were like WHUT, then there were a bunch of walkie talkie sound, AND THEN THEY CAME INTO THE HALL LOL T_T For like 10 minutes je la lol.
To be honest, I only know JinnyBoy, Reubun and Adam Shamil (cos he sang to me during my birthday when he visited UNIMAS a year ago weeewuuu). The others I've only seen them in few videos, like Josephine (her fanboys were crazy mad when she showed up lmao). As for Arwind, he is a famous internet person. That's all I know. Okay don't blame me, I have slow internet.
MY REVIEW (massive spoiler alert)
Alright, time for serious writing. The beginning of the film was an opening credit galore. It lasted for a while BECAUSE we were shown of Ben and Faye stories from when they were in primary school. Cute! But I just felt like it's too long. Of course, not all narrative are to be shown through dialogue - I mean, that's lazy writing. But I felt like that particular part was just too long. Going through the Act 1, it was sweet and lovey dovey. And we were introduced to the main and side characters. 17 year old high schoolers who looked and styled themselves a tad bit older than how they should be. This is especially obvious in the scenes where they had that graduation dinner thing. If you watch it, you would get it.
Another thing that ticked me off is the confusing timeline which doesn't match the production design. They took SPM in 2017, the graduation party is on November 2017, they ate McDonalds with the most recent restaurant interior there is, but they were shown eating childhood snacks. You know those biscuits with the colourful icing. I mean, if we were to look at reality, I doubt teens in school eat those things. Eating Apollo would make more sense as they are more readily available in the market right now. Okay, that was that. We were actually watching it in the future! Of course there is nothing wrong with showing a narrative in the future. But it would have been nicer if we were shown that they are indeed in the future. Like, weird iPhones or flying cars, or just completely futuristic looking buildings. But instead we get 2017 iPhones, Skype, locations, buildings, cars, you get it. A simple mention of the year inside the movie would help a lot in understanding as well. Otherwise, it just looked like a lousy mistake to me. It is as if everybody in the team didn't think through about the year they should be in and just continue scouting, art directing and whatnot. BUT, if Reuben, the director, had intended this then case closed. Only he knows.
Okay now, lets talk about the storyline. The story is your typical coming-of-age love story. Everything is sweet until ... your long time boyfriend now have to leave for his studies. Oh noes! #longdistancerelationship #thestruggleisreal This was the beginning of Act 2, where just being 6 months (?) apart, became a huge problem for the couple. Now, this is reality. This happens in real life and many would be able to relate. I like how Faye's character develops throughout the story. She went from being dependent to independent. In a way, you could relate to her. Getting up in the morning feels hard, using a certain road makes you reminisce those good old time together. And then, she snapped out of it. Not immediately of course, but you could see positive changes from her face and actions. I like it!
What's shocking to me is that, by the end of the film, it's not romantic comedy anymore, but patriotic romantic comedy. Simply because, Faye, loves, Malaysia! All of her decision comes back to how she felt like Malaysia is good enough for her. I love the scene where she, her mom and her aunty was sitting on the same table. The aunty represents know-it-all-and-dislike-Malaysia Malaysians who persuades you to leave Malaysia the minute you have the chance and the mom represents Malaysia-loving Malaysians who believe being home is nicer, even if it limits yourself a little bit. I remember the mom asking, "have you ever lived overseas?", and the aunty replied with "no, but I heard my friends stories from overseas". I SMILED AT THAT SCENE! It criticized Malaysians whom easily say that Malaysia is not a good country for Malaysian, and that the grass is always greener on the other side, without actually experiencing living overseas themselves.
Okay. I'm a person who is distracted a whole lot by bad acting. So, Ben, distracted me. And the other characters also distracted me. Except Faye. If South Korea dislike idols in their dramas and films, then I can say I dislike YouTubers in our films. Being distracted for 8 minutes (your typical YouTube short film length) and 75 minutes is a big difference. I know the purposes are either: 1) make casting job easier cos the actors are all confirmed and willing to work for you, or 2) they have high marketing value. But, yeah. Most of the time, I feel like they are rushing with their dialogue. It just feel empty. So. Much. Potential. T_T
As for the cinematography. This film is not cinematic. It is a web film - a film made to be watched on the small screen. Simply because of the shots. Almost, all of the scenes, are taken, as if they are a YouTube video, which makes me feel angry and dizzy, because the screen is so big, and almost everything is in close up or medium close up. Such a waste of that pristine camera (okay I don't know what camera they used but the footage is clear!). For this reason, the film lost it cinematic feel. However, as the film IS produced by Tonton.my, I don't see it as a big problem. It IS for web release anyway. But if you're a person who loves cinematic feel, don't watch it on the big screen (I believe the cinema schedules have finished anyway LOL).
However, this film, definitely paved a way of web feature film trend in Malaysia. The film proved that there is a demand, there are fans willing to watch, and there are people who are willing to produce and fund them (especially if you are JinnyBoy level). We still have a long way to go to make super high quality web films like those in Netflix but the future is now.
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