Malaysian minister criticises controversial ‘Pulau’ trailer, calls for “more specific scrutiny” in film approval process

Malaysia’s Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil has weighed in on the controversial trailer for upcoming local horror film, Pulau.

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Pulau follows a group of friends who plan to stay on a deserted island overnight, awakening a vengeful spirit on the island who was killed for having sex with her supposed husband, as shown in its trailer. Pulau is set for a March 9 release.

Following its release last week, the Pulau trailer was criticised by Malaysians over sexual scenes of kissing and lovemaking and women in bikinis, as the Malay Mail reported. Such scenes are typically cut and censored from films and trailers, even international releases, under Malaysia’s film laws.

Additionally, many believe that the scenes involving women in bikinis infringes on the Islamic belief that obscene imagery should not be broadcast to the public. Earlier this week, Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, the president of religious body Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations issued a statement on Facebook decrying its “indecent” scenes and calling for the reevaluation of Pulau’s approval.

On Wednesday (January 18), Minister Fahmi Fadzil spoke about Pulau to those in attendance at an exclusive screening of the movie Duan Nago Bogho, The Star reports. Fahmi reportedly told audiences that in his opinion, the trailer for Pulau was not suitable for viewing.

He acknowledged that Finas (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia) had issued a statement explaining the Film Censorship Board’s (LPF) had approved the film for release in September 2022.

Fahmi also said he was informed that scenes that were cut from the approved film had somehow made it into the released trailer and that a new edit is in the works. He also added that he has called on Finas to “reexamine and restructure its SOP [standard operating procedure]. We do not want this to happen again… the approval was given without a more specific scrutiny, I feel there needs to be scrutiny”.

In a statement to Free Malaysia Today, the LPF shared that the trailer for Pulau “falls outside LPF’s jurisdiction” as the LPF – per the Film Censors Act 2002 – is only required to approve films and promotional materials that are distributed to the public outside of the internet.

On Tuesday (January 17) Pulau actor Ikmal Amry said in a statement to Kosmo: “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. There is no compulsion to watch the film”. He also took a jab at those commenting on the trailer, saying “When you leave a comment, it means that you have chosen to watch such a video”.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Malaysia will begin implementing a new ratings system across the country from February 1 onwards. This includes the addition of two new ratings for children under the age 12 and for viewers aged 16 and above, while altogether removing a PG-13 rating.

This comes less than a month after several Malaysian filmmakers called for a revision of the country’s censorship practices, arguing that the LPF’s rules were outdated and resulted in producers and directors compromising their stories to remain within censorship guidelines.

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