CINEMAS OF KOTA BHARU IN THE 60s AND 70s

In 1970, Love Story starring Ryan O’Neill and Ally McGraw was released and became instant success. People start quoting “Love means never having to say you are sorry!!!” Not such a gem of a quote but that was the power of cinema. It captured your imagination and passion. It was one of the highest grossing films of all time (Quote: wikipedia).

In 1972 Indonesia released ‘Perkawinan’, starring widyawati and Sophan Sophiaan, maybe as an answer to Love Story. It was a great hit and I got to watch it at Lido. The sound was just great and I could still hear the booming word “PERKAWINAN” pronounced by the presenter in that bassy uniquely Indonesian voice that filled the cinema. That was the joy of watching in a real cinema and not the multitude of mini cinemas in abundance nowadays. It won 7 Best awards in 1973 Indonesian Festival. Widyawati and Sophan became household name after that. I believe they got married after that.

MUSICALS

Musicals were very popular in that era and gave rise to pop and hippy cultures. We saw the rise of pop bands like Dloyd, Carefree and the evergreen Alleycats. Notable Indonesian films that fed on these and captured the imaginations of the East Coasters were among them;

• Dunia Belum Kiyamat, starring Muchsin, Titiek Sandhora, Benjamin S
• Akhir Sebuah Impian, starring Broery Marantika, Emilia Contessa, Benjamin S

The stars became heros and heroins of the day. Their songs such as Akhir Sebuh Impian and Mimpi Sedih graced the radios and danced on the lips of the youngsters. I still remembered the powerful melodious voice of Emillia Contessa singing the number with the comical Benjamin S. What a singer she was.

Often their songs were sang in groups and gatherings. I remembered in my college days up the Maxwell Hill and sleeping in tents. We sat around a campfire one night and Rashid (now a professor) my classmate began to strike his guitar. We then huddled together in the coolness of the night lighted only by the stars and carressed by the cool air. We then sang songs together to our hearts desire. After a few songs “Oooii.. Balik KK lah. Buat bising saja. Kami nak tido lah Oooiii“. It was from the Indian plantation workers. Even the curse was in Malay, hahaha.

Then came THE BOMB.

Indonesia seemed to be trying very hard to upstage Hong Kong Film Industry in releasing fighting films.

The ground breaker then was Si Pitung starring Dicky Zulkarnaen, released in 1970 followed by Benteng Betawi, 1971. It portrayed the Indonesian fighting spirit against the Dutch colonialist much like chinese films depicting heroism against the Japanese invaders.

Much like Bobby shattering the musicals and love imaginations held by previous films, Bruce Lee exploded on the celluloid screens all over the world from 1971 to become everyone’s martial arts hero. The previous skill of Kung Fu exponents shown by using trampolines and wire lines were soon pooh pooohhs by the people because Bruce Lee scoffed these unrealistic martial mastery and instead used real techniques and skill. He even had to slow down the camera to enable his lightning fast kicks to be captured on films and this became a new standard in martial arts films.

Bruce Lee starred in 5 films, one of which was uncompleted (completed latter by others) named cryptically The Game of Death. Many theories were attributed to his death not the least of which was a death touch strucked by actor Dicky Zulkarnaen or Grandmaster Meor Abd Rahman of Silat Gayung Malaysia from SEA region and Dim Mak from other quarters. All were denied by his student Danny Inosanto and wife Linda Lee.

Strange maybe, I was not interested in Bruce Lee then, though it was the talk of the town among colleagues. I was more interested in my Silat. I only knew of him and watched his films when I was studying in the UK. Then on I was strucked by Bruce Lee fever and would buy any material I could find of him from the market.

I was influenced by Zahari Hassan, my classmate to watch Kung Fu films when I was studying in Kota Bharu. That was in 1971. The hero at the time was Wang Yu. One of the cinema at Kota Bharu, the Rani Cinema Theatre only cost 60 cent for third class seat. The cinema normally showed cheap Kung Fu and Indonesian Silat film. That did not matter because the objective of such films were good fighting moves.

One Armed Boxer Starring Wang Yu

I remember watching one of the film called The One Armed Boxer starring Wang Yu. In the story, the hero from a classical fight Kung Fu school was defeated by a japanese Karate fighter and lost his arm. He was then advised to learn the Old Chinese Pugilism which focused on strengthening and toughening of the body parts to avenge his defeat. As part of the training, the hero tied weights which were increasingly added to his feet as he jogged with it. The jog then turned to a run, sprinting, and followed by jumping. In the end, he could jump to the rooftop without the weights. As most stories then, he finally defeated the Karate Fighter and restored order and harmony to community.

The story caught my imagination and I started to practice. Putting on a soldier’s boot, I tied a brick on each and did a high jump. After one such jump, I lost my balance, fell down and broke my arm. I felt very foolish and ashamed of the accident for allowing myself to be influenced by such a film. I was very scared of what Dad would say when he learnt of the accident because he had always admonished us to not do anything that would cause harm to ourselves and others.

When he came smiling however, it was like a huge burden lifted. What he said was a wisdom I remember to this day; `Apa guna cakap lagi. Nasihat dan marah ni sebelum berlaku. Kalau dah berlaku, tak guna marah lagi. Dah tak boleh undur (To admonish is only useful before the mishap happen. Once it has happened, admonition is of no more use because we cannot reverse the process).

That’s it folks.