No need to regulate Netflix

LETTER | Instead of suggesting that the government regulates the well-favourited Netflix, we should present ways of reinvigorating the local film industry by equalising screening opportunities for all filmmakers, especially small-scale producers whose previous works were praised.

Restricting certain movies on Netflix with “unhealthy contents” doesn’t even spark competitive advantages to our film industry.

In fact, there are highly-applauded Malaysian-produced movies featured on the platform and that visibly proves that Netflix actually elevates quality works, regardless of where it’s made.

Netflix is a global online platform for movie watchers to exclusively watch their favourite movies or drama series via smartphone or laptop as long as their devices are connected to the internet and they pay for its subscription.

Paid online platforms like Netflix needs no intervention from any hand - be it government or parliamentarian or industrial body - to get it regulated with certain restrictions or censorship on artworks screened on it.

I do understand that there are movies that could be unhealthily influencing people’s minds, especially kids’, but in life, one’s maturity and rationality will drive his or her choice of acting.

As one of millions of Netflix subscribers, I am personally against any immoral behaviour that could severely damage society’s morality and religious values caused by films or music that are fanatically overreacted by some irrational people.

Every film has a message to tell and how we decipher it will shape our responses.

Recently, on the Netflix, I watched Invisible Guest with my wife, a story of a well-respected man who tried his best to escape from justice sought by a murdered boy’s parents.

He fabricated every event that happened after he killed the boy in a statement he told a ‘lawyer’, who was actually the boy’s mother disguised as the murderer's lawyer.

The film didn’t make me a great liar nor even influence my mind to be a manipulative person to harbour my faults.

Instead, the Oriol Paula-directed work made me really realise that being a manipulative criminal won’t save one from being hunted by justice, no matter how far he runs away from it.

Before Netflix existed, I did always take films I watched as food for thought, especially thriller, horror and political ones.

To me, films are supposedly created to educate viewers with life lessons hinted by characters played by actors.

Every actor tells a story within a story. A director moulds how the story could be storied. And a producer sets how the story should be crafted so that viewers or audiences could encode what it is storied by the story.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.