Friday 23 November 2012

common sense and movies

A check on Wikipedia (they know everything) shows that Singapore is not the only country in the world to place a ban on some movies being shown.
The one that surprised me was Ireland banning a couple of Monty Python movies!  Tongue in cheek and full of satire and I can see why they would,  but seriously?
Texas Chainsaw Massacre seems to be on a lot of banned lists!
One recent case of movie banning in Singapore  had alot of people up in arms.  (see article)
 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1230340/1/.html

I am Indian, proud to be Indian but I am not afraid to laugh at myself or my race.  I know we are different, I know we all have different habits.  Every single person is defined by their race and its our  race and culture that plays a big part on how we are brought up, idiosyncrasies and all.  The locally made movie in question was banned because of some of the remarks  a character in the film made about Indians.

Our government needs to be able to balance the heavy handedness with some soft gloved approach.  Yes its volatile and having all the different races get along is a major task and so far the heavy handedness has worked.
But, isn't it time they (the government) gave us some credit?
I can understand their reluctance, to assume that everyone has that common sense gene in them.  I know for a fact that common sense isn't so common, but I would like to see some rules relaxed in our nanny state.  What would happen if the movie was shown, there would be the humourless, sour people who cant laugh at themselves, get all upset about the movie and how Indians are depicted.  But I bet these same people would be the ones talking about other races in a not so nice way.
Would the screening of this movie incite race riots in Singapore? No I don't think so.  After all we were just voted  the most emotionless people in the world! http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC121123-0000060/Emotions-not-taking-over.  We aren't really emotionless, just apathetic.

Anyway...
There was a petition going around, which I signed, to allow the movie to be screened.  One can hope that the powers that be will listen and allow us to judge for ourselves if any race or feelings were  hurt during the making of the film!

2 comments:

  1. You're right, common sense is lacking everywhere, but people should still be allowed to make their own viewing choices.

    I'm American, and here it seems like anything goes in movies, and yet classic literature gets banned in schools. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

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