PG18 and kisses
JUNE 22 — What do you think of a kiss in a PG18 movie?
No, this is not a PG18 article so please don’t shoo the kids away (or feel disappointed).
Before you let your imagination run wild, a PG18 kiss is defined as the touching of lips and inevitably at times the exchanging of saliva between two consenting, fully-clothed adults. It could be a French, English, American, Albanian and even a Malaysian kiss in the absence of stripping of clothes, wandering of hands and whippings in between.
So, do you think it is wrong? Do you think it will corrupt the will and mind of Malaysians? Do you feel that it will erode our Malaysian values and rip us of our pristine, incorruptible morals?
I cannot speak for all Malaysians but I know our government does. The Censorship Board treats kissing scenes in a movie as any surgeon would treat a tumour. But unlike the surgeons who follow up with their patients, the Censorship Board doesn’t. Otherwise they would know that Malaysians are already behaving badly; everything from littering to spanking women’s behinds on escalators.
Sometimes I wonder if the censors live in Malaysia, because if they do, they will realise that kissing is not as bad as the description of sex in the tabloids... it’s enough to make any PG18 movie blush.
Why do the censors regard kissing and sex as the only threat to our morals? What about murder and assassination, or scenes which depict images of torture? How many of us have watched war scenes with the 3D special effects so real it has us believing bodies are blown up before our eyes?
What about fighting green-blooded aliens in outer space or mumbling some mumbo jumbo to get rid of ghosts?
Why do we allow the screening of one while censoring the other if you believe that Malaysians are real straight arrows?
Who determines which scenes to censor? Should Malaysians expect a Jabatan Pengajian Moral to be set up with the close co-operation of all religious departments in the near future, tasked to research and update what constitutes Malaysian morals and which to allow and which cannot?
I can foresee their debut. No to scenes with kisses and curses, but wearing skimpily clad bathing suits, belly- and pole-dancing, smoking marijuana, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, robbing a bank, murder, ghosts are okay in movies.
I have a big problem with double standards that don’t make sense. It speaks volumes of the hypocrisy, unrealistic and selective stand our government has in safeguarding our morals.
Rating a movie PG18 negates the necessity to censor such scenes. Rest assured we are fully aware of what to expect from such movies, just like the smokers who choose to smoke despite the graphic images they see on the cigarette boxes, without having to actually ban and censor smoking.
While I applaud the dedication censors have in performing their sacred duty and encouraging the rest of the civil service to emulate their fantastic work ethics, they must realise that it is impossible to standardise moral values as it is different from one individual, community and from one country to the other.
Safeguarding our values and moral standards by banning only selected scenes while allowing the viewing of the others is not only a futile effort, it is also wasteful, pretentious and not to mention comical.
Be that as it may, I support all efforts to protect our minors from scenes deemed PG18. But what constitutes a suitable movie for them rests with their parents and no one else, as long as it remains within the confines of the law. Mind you, a minor is still a minor. If the government wants to be paternalistic and censor what they deem is wrong for the entire nation, across all age groups then don’t bother with the ratings or allowing movies into the country.
Socrates said: “A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.”
Take a stand, dear government, and let Malaysians enjoy movies in peace.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.