Burma’s B movie scene, where B stands for Bad

It’s not Cannes or Venice, but the Golden Rooster Hundred Flower Film Festival is China’s largest movie show place—and it’s the Burmese film industry’s best hope of winning international recognition this year.

The Chinese festival, on the island of Hainan, is one of three venues chosen by Burma to showcase a new release that’s pleasing at least domestic audiences. Sea Mist, shot on a US $160,000 budget, was shown at South Korea’s Gwagjun film festival in July and is on the program of India’s upcoming international film festival.

Three festivals in one year isn’t a bad tally for Burmese film producers, who are combating strict censorship, financial stringencies and a lack of technical know-how in their efforts to get their films onto international screens.

Sea Mist is one of five Burmese movies to be shown abroad this year, albeit with mixed results. At home, it vied for box office popularity with the historical epic King Kyan Sit, which also made it to cinemas in Malaysia and Singapore. True Love and Sacrificial Hearts by director Kyi Soe and Mystery of Snow, directed by Zin Yaw Maung Maung, have also been shown abroad this year.

King Kyan Sit, based on the life of King Kyan Sit Thar, who ruled ancient Pagan from 1084 to 1113, was produced with technical assistance from a Malaysian company and is one of the first Burmese films with English subtitles and marketed to an outside audience.

Although it romanticized its subject, creating melodrama and even slapstick out of an important chapter of Burmese history, local audiences mostly loved King Kyan Sit.

Audiences in Malaysia and Singapore weren’t so impressed, however, and the film flopped there. Critics faulted the film’s dialogue and technical quality. Even at home, King Kyan Sit had its critics.

One Rangoon-based entertainment reporter said that although King Kyan Sit was one of the most successful products of the Burmese film industry it was still not good enough to be shown abroad. “In Burma we just don’t have movies that meet the international standards,” he said.

Even in regional terms, Burmese movies fail to meet the grade, unable to compete with Bollywood’s beauties, South Korean super stars and Chinese, Japanese and Thai martial arts extravaganzas.

People within the Burmese film industry readily admit that their films are not up to regional or global standards, and filming, directing and acting techniques need to be improved before Burma can make a quality debut on overseas screens.

But most blame the Burmese junta’s censorship regulations, complaining that the strict rules hold Burmese cinema back by stifling creativity and rejecting anything not considered “traditional Burmese culture.” The regime is in a dilemma of its own making, insisting on the application of censorship regulations that consign films to mediocrity although national prestige demands productions that meet international standards. At the same time, it tries to stem the flow of foreign-made films into Burma, condemning Burmese audiences to a diet of dross.

In a disingenuous appeal to the movie industry earlier this year, reported by The New Light of Myanmar, Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan “urged the businessmen to produce more quality pictures and to prevent the penetration of foreign pictures in the nation. He also exhorted those from the film industry to make efforts with might and main to achieve greater success.”

The appeal couldn’t be more unfair, complain many in the film industry. They argue that the government is holding the industry back by blocking any creative scripts that come its way. The regime exerts its influence not only through non-negotiable censorship regulations but by means of its financial clout, which it sometimes shamelessly uses to win a key role in production.

Government participation in one form or another is inevitable in an industry so sadly lacking in outside investment. According to actors and directors, there are currently only two or three businessmen interested in producing films. Even the most popular Burmese-made films make little profit, if any.

In what might be seen as an enlightened bid to upgrade the quality of Burmese films, the regime is actually encouraging directors and film technicians to get overseas training and enter their films in international festivals. Industry insiders say the Burmese military hope that film festival success will help to attract investors and draw people back to the cinema, where audiences have reportedly dwindled by up to 50 percent in the past two years.