SINGAPORE – Malaysian actor Shaheizy Sam is used to playing heroic action roles, but his latest film La Luna required more out of him than just flexing muscles.
In the Malay-language comedy about a woman who opens a lingerie shop in a sleepy kampung, he plays yet another cop, just like he did in blockbuster Malaysian police film trilogy Polis Evo (2015 to 2023).
But this time, his biggest worry is not criminals, but raising a teenage daughter as a single father.
“As a man, he feels like it’s his sole responsibility to right what is wrong,” the 41-year-old says of his character Salihin Arshad at a press conference held at Golden Village Bugis+ on Friday. “But in reality, it is the voice of women, the voice of the people, that give him strength.”
The Singapore-Malaysia co-production had its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival on Oct 24 and opens in cinemas on Thursday.
Written and directed by Singaporean film-maker M. Raihan Halim, it features a cast of mostly Malaysian actors, including Sharifah Amani as Hanie Abdullah, who opens the titular store in Kampong Bras Basah. The fictional village is run by a conservative leader (Wan Hanafi Su), who tries to shut the store down after it gains popularity.
The cast also includes Singaporean actor Hisyam Hamid who, like Shaheizy, takes on an unfamiliar role.
In the past decade, the former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) firefighter made his name playing dashing, romantic leads in Malaysian dramas. But in La Luna, he transforms into a rough-hewn, abusive husband.
“Sometimes, as an actor, you want a more challenging role, something different from what you normally do. It’s a form of expression, a little escapism,” the 38-year-old says of his character Pa’at.
“This is probably the only time in my past 10 years as a full-time actor that I had to do a full-on rage scene. I lost my voice for three days because of all the shouting.”
Sharifah, on the other hand, says her character bears a lot of similarities to who she is in real life.
“For people who know me, I think it’s quite obvious that I am a person who speaks my mind,” says the 37-year-old, who starred in the romantic comedy Sepet (2004) by late Malaysian film-maker Yasmin Ahmad.
“Hanie is only the catalyst and the heroes are the people of Kampong Bras Basah. Sometimes, we just need a little push to stand up to bullies.”
Raihan, 40, says he had the idea for La Luna after reading about a lingerie shop that was burned down in a Middle Eastern country.
“I was wondering, why would a group of men burn down a lingerie shop? What was so threatening? I couldn’t find the answer, so I made a movie trying to answer the question.”
He was very careful when it came to the risque scenes, such as the ones in which a married couple get intimate, and was “sweating bullets” while waiting for the film to pass through the Malaysian censorship board. It opened in Malaysia last Thursday.
Eventually, only two edits were made: One was to change a word that referenced a character’s private parts, while the other was to remove the sounds made by the couple during the intimate scene.
La Luna is Raihan’s second feature film. He began his career in television and is still active when it comes to series and TV movie work, for which he has won several Best Writing – Drama prizes at Pesta Perdana, the awards show that celebrates home-grown Malay-language television.
His first feature, the sports comedy Banting, was released in 2014 and travelled to the Hawaii International Film Festival.
La Luna – filmed in Kuala Kangsar, a town 25km from Ipoh, Malaysia – is produced by Singapore-based labels Clover Films and Papahan Films and Malaysian company Act 2 Pictures. It received support from various bodies, including the Singapore Film Commission and Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital.
Raihan says that La Luna, with its indie vibes, is a film for the “modern Malay audience”. “There are comedic elements, but also deeper elements that I think are worth talking about.”
- La Luna opens in cinemas on Thursday.
