Karaoke

To start, we eavesdrop on snatches of conversation in a crowded karaoke bar. The customers are Malays and Indians; we are in a Malaysian village which has been transformed (destroyed?) by massive new plantations of palm trees, producing oil for cosmetics. Gradually our attention focuses on Betik, a young man just back from college in Kuala Lumpur; his mother, widowed not long ago, owns and runs the bar and he expects to take it over in due course. At first things go well for Betik: his interest in a local girl seems to be reciprocated, and he gets part-time work helping to make karaoke videos – sometimes even appearing in them. But everything Betik thinks he knows is wrong. Coming from a background in experimental film, Chris Chong brings a wonderfully fresh eye to Betik's downfall. He uses a documentary segment to signal the shift in Betik's dawning awareness of his real predicament, and gradually takes the film from close-up delusions to wide-angle revelations. In a suddenly exciting time for cinema in Malaysia, this debut feature rethinks dramatic structure and film language to energising effect.

Tony Rayns