Urine scene in Namewee's film is COMEDY, film censors tell 'racist' Utusan

One of Utusan Malaysia’s favourite targets, the Malaysian censor, yesterday rebutted the Umno-backed daily’s criticism of Namewee’s latest movie, Kara King, in which it targeted one scene in particular.

The scene shows Namewee, who plays the lead role, relieving himself by the roadside and while attempting to turn around to bribe a policeman, he accidentally urinates on a Malay couple passing on a motorcycle.

“What’s the fuss about the scene? I do not know how Utusan could have interpreted it as being insulting to Malays," said Film Censorship Board chairman Datuk Raja Azhar Raja Abdul Manap in an interview with The Malaysian Insider.

Utusan Malaysia’s weekly edition, Mingguan Malaysia, claimed that the scene was disrespectful to the Malay community.

On Sunday, Rosdan Ahmad wrote: “Is it too difficult to read Namewee’s agenda to insult Malays in this film? The portrayal of Malays being urinated on by the Chinese survived and was not snipped out?”

The writer also took a swipe at the board, questioning why the scene was allowed.

Raja Azhar responded, “The urine accidentally splashed on the Malay couple. This is a comedy. It depicts the behaviour of the lead actor and his bad manners. There is nothing racial about it. That is why we allowed the scene.

“We look at the whole picture, not just the one scene alone. There is a message in the movie. The lead actor was of bad character and he eventually became good.

“If the scene was cut, the behaviour of the actor would not be portrayed to viewers. I don’t know how Utusan could have interpreted it that way."

Meanwhile, Namewee took to his Facebook page to urge Utusan to stop playing the race card.

Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, said the newspaper has to stop attributing racial motives to his films and harping on race issues, and instead encourage positive thinking.

“As we all know, my films encourage the spirit of ‘One Malaysia’. No matter what race you are, every Malaysian has equal opportunity to participate in my film.

“Only those racist would focus on race,” he said in his posting.

Kara King is about a Hong Kong singer whose wife has mysteriously disappeared and how he copes with life after that while raising his two children in a small town in Malaysia.

The movie was released nationwide on August 1 to moderate returns at the box office.

The criticism of Namewee’s movie is the second time the board has been attacked by Utusan Malaysia recently.

Last month, following criticisms from the newspaper, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi suspended the release of The New Village, pending another review by the board.

Utusan claimed then, in its weekend edition, that the film glorified communism. The board, which maintained that the movie was about a love story set during the Malayan emergency, had cleared it for screening in September last year.

- themalaysianinsider.com