Salon (2005) User Reviews

Refreshing

[azrael_disorder · 7/10 · 24 October 2005]

"Salon" is the next Malaysian movie that falls in the same category as "Gol & Gincu". Non-Malay directors directed both movies, and both have cross-cultural appeal. Directed by Woo Ming Jin, this will be his first feature-length theatrical release. His previous movie, "Monday Morning Glory" received encouraging reviews. Previously, he has made several short films that have won awards and music videos.

The cast in this movie are relatively new to the big screen. Raja Farah currently stars in "Impian Illyana" (shown on NTV7), Pierre Andre was recently seen in "Gol & Gincu", and Chelsia Ng and Jojo Struys were in "Kopitam" together. Having new talent on screen doesn't make it bad; in fact, this new approach made "Salon" a refreshing watch.

Luna (Raja Farah) and Ezra's (Pierre Andre) characters may not be a couple in the movie, but their chemistry is really explosive. Producers, please pair them up in a future movie! Personally, I think that the 17-year-old Raja Farah is a good actress. However, her role as a twenty-something entrepreneur soon-to-be wife is a little unsuitable. Not when she's 17 anyway. But overall, I can see her doing many movies in time to come.

Pierre Andre's portrayal as the sweet and quiet Ezra Fernandez is great. He's someone many Malaysian males can relate to; stressed out at work, loves eating at the mamak, and is longing for someone to love. Director Woo Ming Jin made the characters believable and lovable. A few corny lines can be found in the movie, but that doesn't hamper it. Happy stuff aside, "Salon" also deals with real life problems.

There are a few cameos in "Salon" from the likes of Syanie as one of Luna's clients, Khatijah Tan as an Indonesian cleaning lady, and funny-man cum director Ho Yuhang as a typical Chinaman who fought with his wife. Yuhang's cameo is absolutely hilarious and is actually one of the best scenes in the movie.

Chelsia Ng plays Emma, the secretary at Ezra's work place. She may seem happy and bubbly on the outside, but there's something hidden behind the facade of smiles. Chelsia's acting really stands out and shows that she can act outside comedy. Jojo Struys plays Zora, Luna's half-Malay, half-Caucasian wild and sexy cousin. Her comparisons on human relationships to the female anacondas mating habits are just yummy. There are not enough scenes of Jojo though. Sad.

With a new age of Malaysian cinema upon us, "Salon" is a good addition to the building library of Malaysian movies lead by a new wave of directors. With the success of "Sepet", Malaysian movies are going where no Malaysian films have gone before.

good clean fun, but a little shallow

[azarimy · 3/10 · 11 November 2005]

frankly, i have not heard a single thing about salon before i stepped into the cinema. i didn't even see the trailer in local TV. basically, i had no preconception on the movie at all, and was very prepared to accept it as it is.

good points: this film definitely goes into the same category as gol&gincu as the contemporary teen movie, although the characters of the movie mostly aren't teens, but the appeal was definitely there. in a way, it was a fun movie, with a lot of refreshing funny bits, straight and simple comedy.

the acting is quite good despite some who are just above average. having fresh faces on the silver screen is always risky, but i applaud the producers of having the balls to do it. the film's visuals are quite good also, but i seriously think they have to lay off the close shots. too many close shots made the film more like a soap drama, where they focus exactly on the face of the characters.

bad points: seriously, i have no idea what's the story about. what was the main conflict/turning point of the movie? the story seems to drift from one scene to the other, without apparent direction. it made me very conscious of my presence in the cinema, as the movie did not manage to immerse me (not sure about other audience) into the story.

then there's the plot. a lot of the plots were just left hanging. what happened to zora towards the second half of the movie? what was the significance ezra's "home business"? what about the salon? what happened to emma eventually? a whole lot is left hanging, and i don't suppose they're planning a sequel.

all in all, a good attempt at adding variety to the Malaysian film scene, but i wish they could've spent another 2-3 months on the script/screenplay and concentrate on telling the story.

Is fun true... but still short on some major issues

[Gi-bonaventura · 4/10 · 5 February 2006]

Well I didn't watch this show on cinema, I watched it about 2 months after the actual premiere and it is showed on cable TV.

Well the story was quite good, it tells about 2 individuals that had problems with love (similar to each other) and apparently been told in both male and female point of view, is quite original but still fall short to grab the audiences. The fact that they used unknown actors has its own pros and cons. Some actors actually put a spice on the movie but the other just made the movie look dull, and destroying the over all illusion.

Now the major problem is on the mise-en-shot, the director or the producer can spend more money on lighting or learn how to use it properly. I mean don't they know that neon light give out green light. If they going for the Matrix green look that's understandable but the matrix uses high power neon light to clear up the shadows. The second thing is the shadows, there're so many shadows build up on the actors, especially neck and below the eyes, and this just make the over-all scenes look dull. Don't get me wrong I know they use lighting in certain part of the movie… but people haven't you heard about white balance and if you mess it up already use the gamma correction or the RGB color balance or even re-shot. Believe me re-shooting is better than leaving the scenes as it is, since one of the major factors of a movie is over all visualization.

Money is not the problem here believe me I seen movie with very little budget do wonders, oversea and in Malaysia it self. The Blair Witch Project, The beautiful washing machine just to name a few. The camera shouldn't be a problem also, is you can used film in all of the scenes be different. Michael Mann Collateral and the up coming Miami Vice used Digital video and it looks great, is different some people might not like it but is has that x-factors that put it on different class above the rest. Or you can change the frame rate to 24p, some high end digital camera has that now like canon XL-2, hell some short film uses mini dv cam and the visualization looks amazing.

Well I guess is just they did spend more time during the post production period and do a bit more research on how to handle things. If they did that believe me it will make this movie a much better movie. Neither the less it was a good effort, hope they'll learn from their mistake and correct it on their next project.

One of the most terrible Malay movie of the year

[fahrulhakim · 1/10 · 6 January 2006]

First of all, I don't have better words to describe this movie. What I am trying to say here is that this movie is extremely awful and ruined my life for entire day. In other words this movie bored me to death. For those Malay out there who are still trying to borrow this movie from friends or from stores (or downloading from Bittorrent) my advice to you is please stop it immediately. It is not worth at all to spend your little time in your life to watch this movie because, if you still do it, you are just wasting your time. If you still want to waste your time, please do it in different way. For e.g. how about watching Badul's movie or Doraemon 10X rather than watching this extremely terrible movie.

In my humble opinion, at the first place, the director of this movie did not do his/her homework. He/she just picked up the camera and shot the movie without analyzing the script and plot of the movie. May be he/she in the 'rush' and did not have time to discuss with their fellows friend too. That's why I did not find any good story, conflict, in this movie. The 'art' in this movie is far worst. The dialog blurred me to death. At the second half of this movie I still cannot follow the main conflict and I thought may be this is the documentary of stupid actors/actress in how to learn acting in matured-teen's drama. At last, (after recovered from trauma because of this movie) I've found the answer, this movie is a grave mistake and have been released at the wrong time, at the wrong place, at the wrong person. It appears to me that the quality of this movie is just like 2-minute Maggie-Noodle (most likely a brand of food that consumed by the entire crews of this movie) My 'humble' suggestion is that, the producers/directors of Malay film should attend a detailed course (maybe 1-2 years) in how to produce a better movie which could attract educated Malaysian. If they still stubborn to follow this simple rule, FINAS (Malaysian Film authority) should take legal-action. For e.g. they should ask those stubborn producers/directors to attend counseling or force them to produce a reason letter on why they skip the course and still produce lousy movies before suspending their license.

I really hope that my comment is useful ;-)