By Ralvin Manikam
Last night, the cast of “1 Goat year, 1 Great Family” shared their spirit of making the movie with a family of guests.
The script and idea for the “1 Goat year, 1 Great Family” Chinese New Year video was based on that concept of family amongst friends of multicultural multiethnic Malaysia, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said during the reunion dinner in conjunction with the new video.
The Chinese New Year video comes a year after the Onederfull Malaysia Chinese New Year video, which had resulted in Kok being investigated under the Sedition Act.
This did not stop her from creating another new video this year, featuring an all new “star studded cast”. These big names included Khalid Samad (Shah Alam MP), Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai MP), Cynthia Gabriel (Director of NGO C4 – Centre To Combat Corruption And Cronyism), Hew Kuan Yew (better known as Superman from DAP) , A Samad Said (national laureate), and Kok herself.
Compared to last year video which was a mostly Chinese affair, the new clip had a multiracial cast dealing with various national issues using satire.
“Like Anwar used to say in all his speeches, wo men tou shi yi jia ren (we are all one family),” she told the guests.
Most of the guests present were chosen from a Facebook competition on the “1Goat Year, 1 Great Family” Facebook page.
Over 3,000 of the page’s followers had commented saying why they wanted to be selected for the reunion dinner with the cast of the video, and two percent were picked to attend the Lou Sang and dinner session in The Club, Bukit Utama.
She thanked the guests who were made up of different races, saying that they represented the true Malaysian family.
The cast have their say
Khalid Samad when addressing the crowd said “he did not know what he was getting himself into” when he was asked by Teresa Kok to perform in the video.
“We occupied her house for the whole day, we had to live in her kitchen… even her poodle had to stay in the kitchen and I had to move upstairs,” he said.
Calling it a “very enjoyable experience”, he hopes that this unity amongst different races would been seen in the society at large.
He also jokingly apologised for his “poor acting” in the video.
Another cast member, Cythia Gabriel joked she was “imprisoned” in Teresa Kok’s home because the director had forced them to do many takes for simple scenes.
“We really had no skills to act,” she said.
In a non-stop 14- hour shoot, the cast stayed at the house from nine in the morning until eleven at night, she said.
“The best part about the whole thing was how we laughed at each other’s performance.”
She recalled that during shooting, Khalid Samad could not hold in his laughter even after he had rehearsed his script.
Although some were critical of their acting calling the video this year “kurang standard” (substandard) compared to last year, she said, the content represented a wider range of issues facing Malaysians discussed by a multiracial cast.
“We are talking about the fact that we, young, old women and men of different races can find commonality amidst these difficult times.”
Cynthia added that this was the message that they were trying to put forward in the video.
“Although actually I am embarrassed to be viewed in that video, I’m very proud to be amongst the cast.”
All belong under the Malaysian sun
Nurul Izzah who arrived late at the dinner from the Sungai Buloh prison where a nightly vigil was held in solidarity with her father, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said that she was happy to be part of the video.
She said though the cast found difficulties at first, to actually mention 1Malaysia, it represented the aspirations of all Malaysians who deserve to feel like they belong.
“And they do belong, under the Malaysian sun,” she said of the message of the video.
She added that Khalid and herself would consider taking part in future sequels, if the script “stayed away from seditious issues” such as Dubai, golf and shopping. -The Rocket
