“Peperangan Bintang”: Star Wars in shadow puppet format, a work-in-progress project by Tintoy Chuo

Besides amassing books I have little time to read, I also like collecting anything related to Star Wars be it books or toys. When I discovered in Facebook that a Malaysian designer plans to present ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’ in the form of a wayang kulit (shadow puppets) I was intrigued. The designer goes by the name ‘Tintoy’ Chuo and he is the founder of ActionTintoy Studio, specialising in character design.

The whole idea of presenting Star Wars using shadow puppets came about when ‘Tintoy’ Chuo got the idea to introduce the practically extinct form of entertainment (shadow puppets, not Star Wars) to today’s generation. He chose to fuse it with Star Wars because he figured it would have a better chance of capturing people’s attention and besides he loves Star Wars. Work with something you know and love, I always say.

And to start things off he and friend Take Huat have painstakingly carved out two characters in the style of a wayang kulit puppet and of course those characters had to be Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

photo courtesy of Tintoy Chuo

photo courtesy of Tintoy Chuo

Guys, seriously, those are just awesome! I even learned a few things about this particular ancient cultural heritage. For example, these were based on Malay-style wayang kulit puppets which according to Chuo tend to be more sturdy and solid, more ‘meat’ on their bodies. Javanese wayang kulit on the other hand are leaner. Also most of the puppets traditionally have only one movable arm. Only a few characters have two movable arms and those tend to be the talkative ones. In traditional wayang kulit, a character known as Pak Dogol is ambidextrous because he’s normally used by the Tok Dalang (the puppeteer) for exposition and comic relief. ‘Tintoy’ Chuo has hinted that C3-PO will be the Pak Dogol in his version. If you don’t know which one is C3-PO, he’s the golden effeminate one with the British accent.

Yeah, that’s him. He’s perfect as Pak Dogol.

Also check out the detail in the puppets above. Luke Skywalker or ‘Perantau Langit’ for this version is standing on top of his X-34 Landspeeder while holding his lightsaber in his left hand and binoculars strapped around his waist. Darth Vader (or ‘Petaka Derita’ although I suggested ‘Sang Wira Derhaka’) with his lightsaber poised for battle, strides on his Imperial Star Destroyer. That’s a nice touch seeing as how traditional wayang kulit puppets’ feet are usually carved with their feet astride something as well. Vader being the bad guy holds up his claw-like hand but the fingers on good guy Luke’s hand is pushed back. I discovered that the bad guys in wayang kulit always have their hands posed threateningly while the good guys hold it in deference. In this case, it could be interpreted as Luke using the Force to push Vader away.

photo courtesy of Tintoy Chuo

Take Huat and Tintoy at Publika art exibition (photo courtesy of Tintoy Chuo)

‘Tintoy’ Chuo is serious about this project. He’s already at work designing the droids and although he did not mention it I believe he will, if he has not already, work on the Princess, Han Solo and Chewbacca. The problem he has now is to find a Gamelan group who could adapt and perform at least three of the iconic songs from the movie: the Star Wars opening theme, the Mos Eisley Cantina song and Darth Vader’s theme otherwise known as ‘The Imperial March’.   Musicians don’t work for free so ‘Tintoy’ needs a generous grant from someone to finance his project. Anyone? Anyone?

Oh, and I must mention something:

I NOW OWN THESE TWO COOL PIECES!  ‘Tintoy’ and his team have created two Star Wars-inspired puppets that just oozes professionalism and exquisite workmanship. Not even uber-collector Steve Sansweet has these. Not yet, anyway.

Tintoy Chuo giving a personal presentation in my Star Wars room/man-cave

These aren’t mass market products but if you ask him nicely he might bash another pair for you in his studio. You can search for him on Facebook under the name Tintoy Chuo. Tell him Khairul sent you. The “Peperangan Bintang” project also has a Facebook page here.

You can also click on the ActionTintoy link up there in the first paragraph and check out his other works.

Shadow puppets and Star Wars. I never thought I would see the day when someone thought mixing those two would be a good idea for a project.

(DISCLAIMER: All characters and related materials are trademark, copyright and/or registered trademarks of their respective license holders and/or owners.)

What I Did This 55th MERDEKA Day (31/08/2012)

To celebrate Malaysia’s 55th year of independence, I spent the day watching these on DVD:

Lelaki Komunis Terakhir (The Last Communist) and it’s sort of sequel Apa Khabar Orang Kampung (The Village Radio Show). The former focused on Chin Peng, the last leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) and the latter features interviews with the remnants of the mostly Malay-Muslim members of the CPM now living in exile in a small peaceful village in Southern Thailand.

Last Communist is sort of a biographical travelogue of Chin Peng. Amir Muhammad also interviews the current residents of the towns where Chin Peng used to live and operate in when he was the leader of the CPM, some of whom served as guerrillas fighting the British . One interesting interview was with a Mr. Salehuddin, who was literally seduced by a beautiful CPM recruiter.

I must say I enjoyed Apa Khabar Orang Kampung more as I, and I daresay most Malaysians, know next to nothing about the lives of the Malay members of the CPM. I was fascinated with one old survivor who talks about the time how he operated on his paralysed legs himself while in the jungle. It was damnable, he said but it worked. His legs healed!

Despite being unabashedly communist in ideology, they are devout Muslims. There is a mosque in the village and religious classes for their children. They insist they are not traitors but only joined the Party because they wanted the then Malaya to be free from foreign rule be it the Japanese, British or anyone else.

If you don’t like history then both documentaries will bore you. There are hardly any war stories or lurid details of how living in the jungle was like. All they have are experiences of the people who we never read about in the history books and to me that is interesting enough. Lelaki Komunis Terakhir and Apa Khabar Orang Kampung have both been banned by the Malaysian government from general release for being a threat to national security. How interviews of people who served ‘the other side’ over 40 years ago could be a threat to the nation’s security mystifies me but the DVDs are still available so if you ask Amir Muhammad nicely he might sell them to you.

And that’s what I did this Merdeka Day.

Blast From the Past: The Time I Had A Story Printed, I Was 9 Years Old.

This was the cover of my Primary School magazine back in rock and roll 1982. Bukit Bintang Primary School (2) even had a Latin motto. That’s how you know it’s an old school (pun very much intended). You can see it there at the top of the school badge/coat of arms or whatever. “NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA” which probably means, “The Loch Ness Monster dominates the frustrated”. Actually Google Translate translated it as “Unless the Lord in vain” which makes no sense at all. I prefer my version. The image of a plesiosaurus slapping its flippers at emotionally distressed students while probably laughing maniacally in its own serpentine manner is way cooler.

I was 9 years old in 1982 and I was in Standard 3 Biru (3rd grade to any and all Americans who may be reading this). ‘Biru’ means Blue and the classes were all assigned colour names and it was a big deal, especially among the parents, to be in the ‘right’ colour beginning from Standard 2. For Bukit Bintang Primary School, the top class was Biru. All the nerds ended up in Biru. Next came Hijau (Green), Merah (Red) and finally Kuning (Yellow). It was a bit like the football leagues. Students from the second, third or fourth rate classes got promoted the next year if they were top of their class. An A student from 3 Kuning for example would go up to 4 Merah the next year. It was also the same thing the other way around. Those who ended up at the bottom of the class after a poor result in the exams were relegated to the next class down. I remember going down one level to 4 Hijau the next year because I missed answering two pages of an exam paper and that brought my marks down (don’t ask me how I missed those two pages). But I went back up to the hoity toity Biru class in year 5. I also remember not caring one jot about which class I ended up in. It was all the same. Like I said, it only mattered to the parents.

Anyway, 1982 was a special year for me because this was the first time that something I wrote ended up in print. They needed story submissions from the students to fill up the blank pages and I don’t exactly remember the circumstances but my story was picked. It was a bit corny but what did you expect? I was 9 and it was 1982. Malaysia only had two television channels, a Hollywood actor was in the White House and Michael Jackson was still black. Those were innocent days. Still, reading my story again after 3 decades I can see that I was already into dark stuff. While everyone else wrote about their favourite teacher, their friends, their pets and what they did during the holidays, I was writing about a serial killer. And the story had a twist as well! Go ahead and read it:

English Translation: A Terrifying Dream (yeah, the spoiler is in the title, just roll with it)

One night I was walking alone when I realised I was lost. I soon spotted an old lady. She invited me to her house. I was reluctant to follow her but she insisted. I relented and followed the old lady home. As I entered her house I saw several skeletons. “Hai! You are now my victim!”, the old lady said. I tried to escape but tripped and fell. I woke up and realised I fell from my bed. The End.

As you can see the submissions board wasn’t picky with the quality.

And this was my class photo. I’m in the front row, third from the left.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

from Designcrushblog.com

Amy Tan’s Books Can Be Summed Up As Such…

“MY HUSBAND, HE BAD MAN”

16th May 2012: HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY!

Voted Most Likely to be Thrown Into a Chasm By His Own Pupil

Palpatine is my favourite teacher from a sci-fi movie because other than totally rocking that crimson robe, he could also fly around like a crazed monkey with herpes and shoot lightning bolts from his fingers. I bet your Maths teacher never had that ability. And he teaches his students all about secret history that the Jedis would not like you to know. Censorship is fascism, ‘Master’ Yoda!

Happy Teacher’s Day, Master Palpatine. May the Dark Side of the Force Be With You, Always.

May The Fourth Be With You!

Today is the unofficial (as far I’m concerned) Star Wars Day. I’m more inclined towards 25th May as the ‘real’ Star Wars Day in honour of the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. But whatever. To celebrate this day, here’s a photo of my Leia collection. You’re welcome.

Watching Ancient Aliens Is Like Watching A Trainwreck, You Want To Look Away But Can’t

I felt a little stupid after watching this series. In fact, I could ‘feel’ some of my brain cells just giving up and switch off permanently. It’s like they were saying, “Yer on your own, kid, coz we’re outta here!”

The Ancient Aliens series on History channel put forth the argument that everything we know about our past is wrong. It all began with Erich Von Daniken with his Chariots of the Gods? book back in 1968 which speculated that all the great ancient monuments like pyramids of Egypt and Peru, all ancient advances made by humans and in fact human beings themselves were the result of extraterrestrial interference. Even religion was the result of our ancestors meeting up with aliens (well, I suppose angels are kind of extraterrestrial aren’t they?)

I don’t subscribe to the idea that aliens were responsible for everything on Earth. In fact I find it insulting. So why did I bother to actually but the DVDs? Well, I’ve always been interested in ‘woo-woo science’ mainly for the giggles and besides when I ordered these from Amazon, they were 60% off. Clearly not one of the online retailer’s sought after inventory.

Plus I’m fascinated by this guy’s hair (he’s one of the ‘ancient aliens theorists’):

He’s probably an alien.

TV PAS footage of BERSIH 3.0 Rally

And this pro-UMNO blog (see here) is probably the only one to call for Najib’s resignation and to advise his friends to get their ill gotten gains out of the country because he doesn’t think they’ll win in the General Election.

(EDIT: The blogger seems to have edited out his call for the PM’s resignation and instead has advised the Cabinet to just pack up and run. I hear Seattle is nice this time of year)

(Yet another EDIT: okay, he’s back to calling for the PM’s resignation. Eh, whatever. The whole party should just disband)

Mentioned In Despatches #4 or This Is How You Interview A Bookworm

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I was interviewed for an in-house magazine that no one reads because you have to pay a subscription and no one cares enough to subscribe to it (see here). When the person contacted me, I honestly thought she was going to ask me about my reading habits and what kind of books I prefer to read. But instead she went ahead and asked me about the state of publishing vis a vis Malay books, which is a legitimate topic except that I hardly read any Malay fiction and I have no experience in publishing. But it was an email interview so no one heard me stutter and play for time while I search for the right things to say.

An online friend however thought she could do better so she threw some questions at me via Facebook and you can see the results in her blog, Diane Again. The typos and grammatical mistakes are all mine. So are the kids in the photos. I have the DNA results to prove it.