Giving direction to splendour
Malaysian enthusiasm for ceremony brings filmmaker to tears
PETALING JAYA: Filmmaker Saw Teong Hin saw a long-held dream of his coming true when he was offered the chance to direct the 29th SEA Games opening ceremony.
But Saw did not expect Saturday’s ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur Sports City in Bukit Jalil to touch the hearts of so many Malaysians.
The creative director was in the stadium’s control room overseeing the performance, when he was almost brought to tears by the tremendous reaction to his work.
“It was beautiful seeing it all come together so nicely.
“I was so proud of all the performers, the production teams, everyone.
“I know how hard they worked and they really put their hearts in it,” he said.
Saw, 55, who directed Malay epic Puteri Gunung Ledang and You Mean the World to Me, Malaysia’s first entirely Hokkien film, only felt the true gravity of the mammoth task when his team started working on the production. Work started immediately after this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations.
Saw said he wanted to accurately represent Malaysia to the region, and decided on highlighting the nation’s cultural diversity and sense of community.
For this show, we wanted to recognise the beauty in each other’s culture, he said.
“Everybody knows how diverse we are, right? Malaysia is a melting pot. But people don’t really know that there is also similarity in diversity.
“By putting different ethnic groups together, dancing to the same rhythm, you get the essence of what Malaysia really is. We complement each other,” he said.
The cultural elements of the orang asli communities were also brought to the fore in the opening ceremony.
“This is a show about Malaysia, and they are very much a part of Malaysia,” he said.
Saw added that he and his team faced tremendous behind-thescenes challenges during the production process.
“The show was designed to use technology in an organic way. We marry the human elements with technology, so we have interaction between both.
“To synchronise technology and human elements was quite tough.
“The scale of production was also huge. Getting everybody together for rehearsals itself was challenging,” he said.
Saw attributed the show’s success to the performers, volunteers and everybody helping backstage who went out of their way to make the event work.
“Everybody pulled through. They were so tired that day, but I think they sensed we were on the brink of something really good,” he said.
Saw thanked Memories Entertainment and project director and producer Christine Danker.
“Kudos also to Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and his team for believing in my work, and standing by my vision,” he said.