“2 Alam,” (Two Lives) is probably the most highly anticipated Malaysian movie of recent years. Two Singaporean actors, Suhaillah Salam and Aaron Aziz, take the starring roles and it centres on the life and death of Adam/Amy, a transsexual.
The subject matter courts controversy and is sure to get conservatives on both sides of the Causeway in consternation. But before more is said, let’s get one thing, err, straight… It is not a gay movie, as one lesbian blog from Malaysia has claimed.
“It’s not. To my understanding, a person who switches gender is not gay, they just feel they were born in the wrong body,” Salam told me.
“There are no gay people in it. I was the only sex change character in it,” she added. Salam has already had a very varied career: starting as a presenter on the “M” magazine show on Suria in 1999, a role in the “Mr Kiasu” Channel 5 TV sit-com, three years as a VJ for MTV’s “Boom” and the romantic lead in the hugely popular “Cinta Bollywood” series for two seasons (alongside Aziz) for Suria.
In “2Alam,” her career makes another major shift. She plays Adam/Amy and Aziz is Haji Ishaq, an Ustad or Muslim religious teacher, who was Adam/Amy’s childhood friend. For Aziz, the movie also marks a dramatic change and fans (and as he is the current “hot” Malay actor, there currently are so many) will be surprised that he has been cast against his recent comedy or “bad boy” roles.
“2 Alam” is the story of Adam bin Zainal, who goes to the UK, has a sex change and becomes Amy. She marries a British guy, is eventually dumped and returns to Malaysia where she becomes a successful female entertainer and enjoys a wild life of partying. When her secret previous identity becomes public, her life unravels, she cracks up and commits suicide. Her body is brought back to her village for a midnight burial, but while the pre-funeral Islamic rites are taking place, unusual incidents begin to happen and another world may be revealed…
Aaron Aziz as Haji Ishaq conducts the funeral rites for Amy/ Adam (Suhaillah Salam).
Given the high life Amy leads in the story, there are numerous sex scenes in the film, including an open air “gang-bang.” Salam assured me that she wore a body suit and there was no skin on skin contact for any of these scenes. “We cheat in so many, many ways,” she said.
The camera does lie you know but this modesty from the actors and film-makers may not be so apparent. Some viewers and non-viewing observers on both sides of the Causeway will certainly be scandalized.
Two trailers for the movie have been circulating and they seem to promise very different things. One focuses on the pre-funeral processes while, a harder core preview shows Amy flashing back through the highs and lows of her life as she breaks down. In the latter trailer, Salam, as the tragic transsexual, demonstrates a range of extreme emotions. When I saw them, the two trailers teased and left many questions about the story unanswered.
Meanwhile, Malaysian rock legends Ramli Sarip and Amy Search provide haunting, husky vocals on the soundtrack. The presence of these songs alone will guarantee some prominence for the film.
The number two seems to be a recurrent motif in the movie’s genesis: two directors were at the helm, Ed Zarith and Hairie Othman.
The producer, Datuk Dr Che Rozmey Che Din has been saying that “2 Alam” will bring back the golden era of the Malay film industry. He is also predicting that it will be the first Malay movie to gross RM12 million at the box-office. The highest grossing Malaysian film so far was the comedy “Adnan Sempit,” which brought in RM7.8m.
Rozmey is the founder of Herba Prima Marketing Sdn Bhd, a company specializing in health products. “2 Alam” is his first venture into film production. He believes that movie-goers will want to see the film more than once.
To this observer, it appears that brave people have been involved in “2 Alam.” They could so easily have taken the Jack Neo route of low-brow farce or given the region another cheap budget action movie. Instead they have chosen a sensitive subject that exposes the life of a transsexual who forgets her roots and her culture. Though only previews and a press kit have been available until the first screening, it supposedly is a moral tale yet does not set out to be a religious film. I wait to see how well they have fared but based on what I have gleaned so far, I feel I and you, dear reader, will not be disappointed by the acting, the cinematography or the music.
Rozmey and his team are pushing the packet of what may be acceptable to kampong dwellers, heartlanders and traditionalists. They are opening the doors on aspects of life (and death) that are usually locked away or bowdlerized. In this they are daring to face criticism, but they may also be widening the area of public discourse.
At the last check, the film was due to go on general release in Malaysia on 27th May. Though it was previously due to open first in eight cinemas in Singapore on the 28th April, at the time of writing this piece, no date had been confirmed for screenings in the Republic.
• You can watch the trailers for “2 Alam” on YouTube and Facebook by keying in “2 Alam”. The movie’s theme songs “Andai Ku Tahu” performed by Ramli Sarip and “Salam Terakhir” by Amy Search are also on YouTube.
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