Seniman Bujang Lapok (1961)

Directed by

P. Ramlee

Genre

musical film

Country

Singapore

Runtime

2h 01m

Rating

8.2 of 10 from 5 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Three down-on-their-luck friends try to break into the Malay film industry as actors. The movie shows the behind-the-scenes chaos and humor of making films in 1960s Singapore.

comediclightheartedwhimsicalnostalgicself-referentialplayfulupbeat

What happens

Seniman Bujang Lapok (English: The Nitwit Movie Stars) is a 1961 Singaporean Malay-language black-and-white comedy film directed by P. Ramlee. It is the fourth instalment in the Bujang Lapok series of films, but the last to feature P. Ramlee, S. Shamsuddin and Aziz Sattar as the main trio of actors. However, it is not a direct sequel to the previous "Bujang Lapok" films, as there are no references to the events of the previous films. The film is a self-referential spoof of the Malay film industry of the late 1950s to early 1960s. The plot revolves around the main trio attempting to become actors and break into the film business, and hence features a fictionalised look at the behind-the-scenes process of Malay film-making during that time. The line between reality and fiction is blurred as real film industry places are used, real film sets of previous Malay films are used for the film-within-the-film, and all the featured actors use their real-life names or derivatives thereof. Almost all of the 7 original 35 mm reels kept by the National Museum of Singapore were deemed irreparable from damages cause by vinegar syndrome, but L’Immagine Ritrovata managed to salvage the last reel which covered the last 8 minutes of the film in 2017. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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