Malaysian No-Shows

This is the inaugural entry for a new column I just thought up. Some years ago, I used to travel to Singapore a few times a year to catch films that weren't shown at our local cineplexes or were badly butchered. Lately, our censors have learned to relax a little and we got some films released uncut. But still, others simply never appear or are banned. For example, I caught Brokeback Mountain at an afternoon full-house screening at Shaw House on Orchard Rd. On that same trip I also saw Takeshis in a cinema hall that had only two other patrons.

Till today, there is still a wider and better selection of films over the Causeway. Our problem is not only with the censors, but also the distributors who seem to have their own set of criteria on what sells and don't sell (therefore not worth releasing) in our cinemas.

Hence, from now on, I shall list the movies showing in Singapore that are either not shown here or are screened in butchered versions.

For these past weeks:

Eastern Promises (no cuts)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
3:10 To Yuma
Juno
Rambo (uncut)
Sweeney Todd (uncut)
The Kite Runner
The Mist
American Gangster (uncut)
Away From Her
Atonement (uncut)
Gone Baby Gone
The Flock
Love In The Time Of Cholera