CONSTRUCTING ‘CINEMA-WITH-ATTITUDE’: THE PROBLEMATICS OF SINO-MALAY POWER RELATIONS IN MUKHSIN

This paper looks at the prospective development of an emergent‘cinema-with-attitude’ in the malaysian film industry given thenow prevalent ‘cinematic attitude’ in exploring socioculturaland political discourses. ‘cinematic attitude’ is perhaps one ofthe key problematics in malay cinema which is inherently andsystemically connected to and shaped by sociocultural, historicaland political discourses of the nation. deploying fairclough’scritical media discourse analysis as the framework, this paperexamines the selected mise-en-scenes in mukhsin as a signifyingand promising set of aesthetics of ‘cinematic attitude’ criticallyframing the complex sino-malay power relations in the film. thisexamination moves beyond the film’s mandarin vignettes towardssituating the critical extension of such power relation within thediscursive practices and dynamics of vernacular education policyinnovations and resistance in the nation.