The scenario is quite political and focuses on the social issues of Malaysia where laughing was once took place. In a sense, though, it is important not to forget that Malaysia was not even a state before the year 1964, it comprises of very different nations and it has experienced almost by chance a tremendous growth in the 80s riding the wave left by the Four Asian tigers.
Political indeed as we encounter with Mariane an ambitious and yet a disappointed journalist who has no choice but to contemplate relocating to England in the near future because the geographical boundaries of her career opportunities appears to be scarce. In any case, however, she is rather reluctant to take up the offer from her chief editor who suggests her to cover an interview with Eric Yong, a former national team soccer player and one of the athletes who were able to secure Olympic qualification in 1980.
Politics is involved in considering that Eric is from Sabah, a foreign region of Malaysia, and never felt`s targeting a less privileged upbringing from most of his teammates. flashbacks take Eric to his family and as Eric is having a discussion with his mate Marianne, we cut into Marcus Chang’s vision of a National team altering decade and a half back roughly thirty years ago. And this was the point in time that qualification was out of the question since the squad was an abominable sight; amalgamated talented and egocentric chow Kwak Keung the captain and Eric who were boyhood footballers. Political once more when it comes to the team’s decision to employ British Harry Mountains as their new coach: Will he be a guidance to the previously colonized cowboys to achieve independence (no opportunities to moil in this tale)?.
The tale of every player individually is a dominant feature of the mosaic of diverse societies that the country is made up of: a Malay heart who dreams to ‘make color’ ametrias social order that finds him starkly out of place, the son of a plantation worker of Indian descent who struggles for the welfare of his many poor siblings as his duty, Chow the Chinese boy who aspires to do so and is gradually taught, now try to share his fame with less gifted people, And Eric from Borneo, the unremarkable goalkeeper’s reserve turned starting striker to surprise the team and reverse their loss.
All this political drive to get the people to believe that their time has come, in particular Mariane and then telling her that the future is here, “Malaysia Boleh!” as they say, is brought with a strong reminder that they worked hard to get there. Politically, Talk about cinema, the casting is very heterogeneous. Most of the cast consists of non professional actors and so the direction was quite susceptible. The emotional moments aren’t really the highlights here as such. But the direction still gives the requisite amount of empathy one would expect from such a commercial comedy even though the characters are somewhat overused but even more so, very cute, It works.
In fact the only drawback of the movie might be the sporting action sequences which is a surprising vibrant cinematographic spectacle after all especially for a film with a limited budget. It adds a wonderful refreshing element that a non sports fan would find otherwise dull. While flashbacks may be considered a risky exercise nowadays it is all the same relevant and soberly and intelligently cut so as not to lose the audience among the innumerable different stories.
Dressed up as a feel good comedy which Ola Bola certainly is not, Chiu’s film which will be out sometime in 2016 after The Journey(2014) and before Ma I love You (2023), once again looks into the crutches and gaping holes of the Malaysian society, exposing the underlying issues but this time in a calm manner. Comedy equals politics.
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