| Nasi Lemak 2.0 | |
|---|---|
Film poster |
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| Simplified | 辣死你妈 |
| Mandarin | làsǐnǐmā |
| Directed by | Namewee |
| Produced by | Fred Chong & Sylvia Lim |
| Starring | Namewee Karen Kong Adibah Noor Afdlin Shauki David Arumugam Reshmonu Kenny & Chee |
| Studio | UB Prodigee Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 8 September 2011 |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Language | Mandarin Malay English Tamil Hokkien Teochew Cantonese Hakka Japanese |
| Budget | lower than RM 1 mil. |
| Gross revenue | RM 7 Million |
Nasi Lemak 2.0 (Chinese: 辣死你妈; pinyin: làsǐnǐmā) is a film by Namewee. The film had a low budget, since the government did not provide funding. Wee spent nearly a year applying for loans. As the National Film Company did not endorse the script, Wee was determined to meet the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak and stressed the movie effort was for the sake of the promotion of the 1Malaysia spirit which was initiated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Production took about 2 months including post-editing. It was handed to the National Censorship Board for the final nod and his film finally aired on September 8, 2011 in 60 cinemas throughout Malaysia. In an interview with AFP, Co-producer Fred Chong said that the movie made more than RM1.5 million during the first four days of release.[1]
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On 17 March 2010, Namewee announced that he was going to film a movie in a short media event.[2] Since then, he filmed the whole progress of applying for the funds from the government to film the movie. After countless unsuccessful attempts, he vowed to meet the Prime Minister of Malaysia.[3] However, without any support from the government, he filmed the whole movie himself with a low budget and requested the government censorship board to approve the movie.[4] On 26 June 2011, he announced that the movie will be in theatres on 8 September the same year.[5] Soon after that, the official movie trailer was released on his official YouTube channel[6] and it was premiered at Melbourne on 31 August, which is also Malaysia's National Day.[7]
The film's executive producer Fred Chong also said that the movie had the full support of the Minister from Prime Minister's office, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who had issued an official letter endorsing it as a "1 Malaysia film".[8] However, there were people protesting about the film and its maker. He wrote on his Facebook page about being worried that the film will probably get banned in the country.[9][10]
A young chef, Huang Da Xia (played by Namewee) struggles to get his restaurant business going. The reason his restaurants rarely gets customers is because he cannot adapt to the "localized" cooking his patrons are looking for. However, contradicting his unpopular cuisine, he is also well-known as "Hero Huang" in the local neighborhood where he carries out good deeds in helping the community (e.g: Filming videos and putting them on his Youtube account) until he met Xiao K (played by Karen Kong) who asked for his help. Xiao K's father, owner of a famous chinese restaurant, is fighting with her aunt for the ownership of the restaurant. After some complicated discussions, they decided to hold a contest to see who can cook the best chinese dish. Desperate to get his life and the restaurant business back on track, Chef Huang decided to help Xiao K. Huang seeks help from a mysterious hawker stall lady (played by Adibah Noor), who summons him to embark on an extraordinary journey of his life. During this self-enlightening experience, he will also meet many "local heroes" each lending their support to help him re-discover his roots and the real hidden message of "Nasi Lemak".
There has been much talk about this movie, since its inaugural screening on the 8th of September 2011. This is the very first film in Malaysia that portrays all its 3 major races in an ensemble manner, the response from critics and fans alike have been mixed. This is the first time in Malaysia that there has been no specification of which of its 3 races would prefer to watch the movie. A survey conducted by major bloggers and entertainment tabloids found out that most movie goers love the style of acting, the reason being that the style is unique to Malaysia itself and audiences can instantly relate to the characters and the script. There was something in the movie that every Malaysian could relate to whatever their race.
Since its screening there has only been one protest against the movie, this protest took place in Ipoh by a group called Pertubuhan Gagasan Rakyat Didahulukan Negeri Perak. They protested outside the cinema and wanted the movie to be dropped from the cinema. So far, cinema operators have been unnerved by these groups
Nasi Lemak 2.0 is not without controversy. One of the strongest remark so far is from an article which was written by Fauziah Arof dated 21 September 2011 condemning Namewee's attitude on insulting the national anthem Negaraku, Islam and Malay race as a whole. Namewee respond to this by scolding the author of the article through his YouTube channel. He cited that the author had passed an unfair judgement on his movie without looking at it has a whole and for not understanding what the underlying meaning of the movie was and also what the movie was meant to achieve which was unity throughout all the races in Malaysia .Namewee pleaded to the media to present an unbiased view of his movie to the public. Namewee’s YouTube response has angered many, many are pushing for Utusan Malaysia to lodge an official police report against him, till this day no such report has been made.
Nasi Lemak 2.0 has been a huge hit in Malaysia, fans of the movie and of Namewee himself have been reported to have watched the movie till up to 3 times a day. Fans have started campaigns through social network sites encouraging the public to watch the movie, the results of these campaigns have been successful The movie also has many musical numbers within it, these musical numbers have become very popular amongst youngsters in Malaysia as they can relate to the songs well.
The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) has declared that the movie is not entitled to a 20% tax rebate under its new incentive for local films because it did not qualify for mandatory screening status.[11]