Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya

This article aims to examine the representation of Japanese occupation of Malaya in films produced by Shaw Brothers during the Golden Era of Malay cinema, namely “Sergeant Hassan” (1958) and “Matahari” (1958). Currently, films depicting the past are relatively less prevalent in Malaysia, and scholar...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Yow, Chong Lee, Candida Jau, Emang
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	UKM 2016
Subjects:	N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/17206/ http://ir.unimas.my/17206/ http://ir.unimas.my/17206/1/SELLING%20THE%20PAST%20IN%20FILMS%20%28abstract%29.pdf

id	unimas-17206
recordtype	eprints
spelling	unimas-172062017-08-14T07:02:47Z http://ir.unimas.my/17206/ Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya Yow, Chong Lee Candida Jau, Emang N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR This article aims to examine the representation of Japanese occupation of Malaya in films produced by Shaw Brothers during the Golden Era of Malay cinema, namely “Sergeant Hassan” (1958) and “Matahari” (1958). Currently, films depicting the past are relatively less prevalent in Malaysia, and scholarly analysis is comparatively less conducted on such films. Hence, the authors try to analyse how the films, in a given context, which reconstruct and reflect the historical past are experienced by the society at large. Bearing in mind that the films are based on a similar subject (Japanese occupation as its backdrop), it is important to determine why different receptions were registered from the audiences on both films. This prompted the authors to examine the reasons why these two films received a different level of popularity from their contemporary audiences (in the late 1950s). In this article, both the textual and contextual analysis will be employed: the former method is used to interpret the meanings constructed through the film’s text and promotional materials for both films. The latter would explore the historical circumstances that shaped both the production and reception of the films. This is mainly through promotional materials as well as secondary sources through interviews conducted by third party researchers who had interviewed Shaw Brothers and those who had experience working with them. The findings of this article indicate that the Shaw Brothers were ambitious with their films projects about the Japanese Occupation by widening the promotion of “Sergeant Hassan” to a wider audience and not limited it solely to the Malays1. By capitalising on the historical pasts that the contemporary audiences (in the late 1950s) had personally experienced, Shaw Brothers had embarked on the complex relationship of socio-political and economic conditions which had also shaped different receptions towards these films. UKM 2016 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/17206/1/SELLING%20THE%20PAST%20IN%20FILMS%20%28abstract%29.pdf Yow, Chong Lee and Candida Jau, Emang (2016) Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya. Malaysian Journal of Communication, 32 (2). ISSN 2289-1528 http://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/article/view/16299
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
spellingShingle	N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR Yow, Chong Lee Candida Jau, Emang Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
description	This article aims to examine the representation of Japanese occupation of Malaya in films produced by Shaw Brothers during the Golden Era of Malay cinema, namely “Sergeant Hassan” (1958) and “Matahari” (1958). Currently, films depicting the past are relatively less prevalent in Malaysia, and scholarly analysis is comparatively less conducted on such films. Hence, the authors try to analyse how the films, in a given context, which reconstruct and reflect the historical past are experienced by the society at large. Bearing in mind that the films are based on a similar subject (Japanese occupation as its backdrop), it is important to determine why different receptions were registered from the audiences on both films. This prompted the authors to examine the reasons why these two films received a different level of popularity from their contemporary audiences (in the late 1950s). In this article, both the textual and contextual analysis will be employed: the former method is used to interpret the meanings constructed through the film’s text and promotional materials for both films. The latter would explore the historical circumstances that shaped both the production and reception of the films. This is mainly through promotional materials as well as secondary sources through interviews conducted by third party researchers who had interviewed Shaw Brothers and those who had experience working with them. The findings of this article indicate that the Shaw Brothers were ambitious with their films projects about the Japanese Occupation by widening the promotion of “Sergeant Hassan” to a wider audience and not limited it solely to the Malays1. By capitalising on the historical pasts that the contemporary audiences (in the late 1950s) had personally experienced, Shaw Brothers had embarked on the complex relationship of socio-political and economic conditions which had also shaped different receptions towards these films.
format	Article
author	Yow, Chong Lee Candida Jau, Emang
author_facet	Yow, Chong Lee Candida Jau, Emang
author_sort	Yow, Chong Lee
title	Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
title_short	Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
title_full	Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
title_fullStr	Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
title_full_unstemmed	Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya
title_sort	selling the past in films: shaw brothers and the japanese occupation of malaya
publisher	UKM
publishDate	2016
url	http://ir.unimas.my/17206/ http://ir.unimas.my/17206/ http://ir.unimas.my/17206/1/SELLING%20THE%20PAST%20IN%20FILMS%20%28abstract%29.pdf
first_indexed	2018-09-06T16:34:45Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T16:34:45Z
_version_	1610876647043497984

Selling The Past In Films: Shaw Brothers And The Japanese Occupation Of Malaya

Similar Items