Every account of Jalan Ampas is written from the soundstage. This one is written from the office at the gate.
Kwek Chip Jian — “Mister Kwek” to everyone who worked there — was the studio manager of Malay Film Productions, and the point at which the Shaw brothers’ money met the work. Runme Shaw, Run Run Shaw and later Vee Meng Shaw owned it. Directors, crews and contract actors made it. Between them sat one man with the schedules, the budgets, the soundstages, the laboratory, the recording suites and the payroll on his desk.
Whatever he asks for
His policy on P. Ramlee was known to the whole studio, and it was four words long: Apa dia minta, beri saja. Whatever he asks for, just give it to him.
It is worth sitting with that. The complex orchestral scores, the arrangements that took twelve musicians and a night of rehearsal, the genre experiments, the decision to let a contract actor direct his own picture in 1955 — none of it was free. Somebody signed for it. The years the archive calls P. Ramlee’s peak, 1955 to 1964, are also the years a manager decided that the cheapest thing the studio could do was stop arguing with him.
Artistic freedom is usually told as something an artist seizes. Here a share of it was handed over, by a man with a ledger, on commercial grounds.
The office on screen
In Seniman Bujang Lapok (1961) — P. Ramlee’s film about the studio that employed him — three hopefuls arrive at the gate of a film studio and meet the manager. The post is Kwek’s. The performance is Kemat Hassan’s.
He also represented the studio outward. In June 1962, alongside Vee Meng Shaw, he received the Indian star Sivaji Ganesan at Jalan Ampas.
The last day
When Shaw Brothers closed Jalan Ampas in 1967, it was Kwek who told the staff. He gave them two weeks’ notice. On the final day of operation, at two o’clock in the afternoon, he handed out one month’s salary and gratuity to the assembled company — actors, directors, technicians, the people who had made twenty years of Malay cinema — and then the gates of No. 8 Jalan Ampas were locked.
That is the last verifiable record of him.
He speaks
There is a recorded interview with him. He gives his age as seventy-four, dates his arrival at the studio to 1954, and says something that reframes the whole page above: he did not choose the film industry. Management picked him and appointed him. He arrived knowing nothing technical about how films were made.
The man who signed off P. Ramlee’s budgets was, at the start, an administrator who had been assigned to a business he did not understand.
On what pictures cost, he is the best-placed witness there is, and the figures he gives are larger than the ones this archive has been carrying. A typical film: 160,000 to 170,000. Hang Tuah, the colour epic: close to 300,000. A basic monthly wage at the studio: around 600. The Indian directors were paid a monthly salary plus an allowance, with a further payment for each completed title.
On scale: a large production ran 300 to 400 people, P. Ramlee’s among them, and one project reached 600 in total.
And on the thing that is hardest to document: he was a Chinese man working closely and warmly among Malay actors and crew, and what he chooses to conclude with is the mixture of temperaments at Jalan Ampas and how well they held together.
What his figures do to this archive
They contradict it. The archive has carried roughly 80,000 to 120,000 for a Jalan Ampas picture; Kwek says 160,000 to 170,000 — about double. For Merdeka, the essays here carry $18,000 to $25,000 while the manuscript carries 40,000 to 60,000, and those two do not agree with each other either.
Nothing is being resolved here. Kwek is the studio manager and the figures passed across his desk, which makes him the strongest source available; he is also recalling them at seventy-four, decades after the fact, and the summary of his interview does not state whether he is speaking in Malayan dollars or in any other unit. The archive states all three sets and picks none.
What is not known
Neither his birth nor his death is documented. No obituary, no death notice, no grave record has been found in Singaporean or Malaysian film archives. Studio management and technical staff were not written about the way actors were, and after 1967 he did not take a public role that would have produced a paper trail.
This archive does not know when he died, and states that rather than estimating it. His age in the interview — seventy-four — would give a birth year the moment the recording is dated, and the date of the recording is not yet established. He is not on the In Memoriam roll, because that roll carries the date somebody died and his is not on record.
What survives of him is a song. Kwek Mambo began as a joke in Studio 8 — the name of the manager, set to a mambo — and went out on Parlophone in 1957. The man is undated and the joke is catalogued. That is roughly how the record treats the people who ran the building.
Setiap catatan tentang Jalan Ampas ditulis dari pentas penggambaran. Yang ini ditulis dari pejabat di pintu gerbang.
Kwek Chip Jian — “Mister Kwek” kepada semua yang bekerja di situ — ialah pengurus studio Malay Film Productions, dan titik pertemuan antara wang Shaw Brothers dengan kerja. Runme Shaw, Run Run Shaw dan kemudiannya Vee Meng Shaw yang memilikinya. Pengarah, kru dan pelakon kontrak yang membinanya. Di antara keduanya duduk seorang lelaki dengan jadual, bajet, pentas rakaman, makmal filem, bilik rakaman bunyi dan senarai gaji di atas mejanya.
Apa dia minta, beri saja
Polisinya terhadap P. Ramlee diketahui seluruh studio, dan panjangnya empat patah kata: Apa dia minta, beri saja.
Perkara itu wajar direnung. Skor orkestra yang rumit, susunan muzik yang menuntut dua belas pemuzik dan satu malam latihan, percubaan pelbagai genre, keputusan membenarkan seorang pelakon kontrak mengarah filemnya sendiri pada 1955 — tiada satu pun daripadanya percuma. Ada orang yang menandatanganinya. Tahun-tahun yang disebut pustaka ini sebagai kemuncak P. Ramlee, 1955 hingga 1964, juga tahun-tahun seorang pengurus memutuskan bahawa perkara paling murah yang boleh dilakukan studio ialah berhenti berbalah dengannya.
Kebebasan berkarya lazimnya diceritakan sebagai sesuatu yang direbut oleh seniman. Di sini sebahagian daripadanya diserahkan, oleh seorang lelaki yang memegang lejar, atas alasan perniagaan.
Pejabat itu di layar
Dalam Seniman Bujang Lapok (1961) — filem P. Ramlee tentang studio yang menggajinya — tiga orang pemuda tiba di pintu gerbang sebuah studio filem lalu bertemu pengurusnya. Jawatan itu jawatan Kwek. Lakonannya lakonan Kemat Hassan.
Beliau juga mewakili studio ke luar. Pada Jun 1962, bersama Vee Meng Shaw, beliau menyambut bintang India Sivaji Ganesan di Jalan Ampas.
Hari terakhir
Apabila Shaw Brothers menutup Jalan Ampas pada 1967, Kweklah yang memberitahu warga studio. Beliau memberi notis dua minggu. Pada hari terakhir operasi, tepat pukul dua petang, beliau menyerahkan gaji sebulan berserta wang saguhati kepada mereka yang berhimpun — pelakon, pengarah, juruteknik, orang-orang yang membina dua puluh tahun sinema Melayu — dan pintu pagar No. 8 Jalan Ampas pun dikunci.
Itulah rekod terakhir yang boleh disahkan tentang dirinya.
Beliau bersuara
Ada rakaman temu bual dengannya. Beliau menyebut usianya tujuh puluh empat tahun, menetapkan kemasukannya ke studio pada 1954, dan menyatakan sesuatu yang mengubah cara kita membaca halaman di atas: beliau tidak memilih bidang perfileman. Pihak pengurusan yang memilih dan melantiknya. Beliau tiba tanpa sebarang pengetahuan teknikal tentang cara filem dibuat.
Lelaki yang meluluskan bajet P. Ramlee itu, pada mulanya, seorang pentadbir yang ditugaskan kepada satu bidang yang tidak difahaminya.
Tentang kos sesebuah filem, beliaulah saksi yang paling hampir, dan angka yang diberikannya lebih besar daripada yang dibawa pustaka ini selama ini. Filem biasa: 160,000 hingga 170,000. Hang Tuah, epik berwarna itu: menghampiri 300,000. Gaji bulanan asas di studio: sekitar 600. Pengarah dari India dibayar gaji bulanan berserta elaun, dengan bayaran tambahan bagi setiap judul yang disiapkan.
Tentang skala: sesebuah produksi besar melibatkan 300 hingga 400 orang, termasuk filem arahan P. Ramlee, dan satu projek mencecah 600 orang kesemuanya.
Dan tentang perkara yang paling sukar didokumentasikan: beliau seorang lelaki Cina yang bekerja rapat dan mesra dalam kalangan pelakon serta kru Melayu, dan yang dipilihnya sebagai penutup ialah kepelbagaian ragam di Jalan Ampas dan betapa baiknya semua itu bercantum.
Kesan angkanya terhadap pustaka ini
Angka itu bercanggah dengannya. Pustaka ini membawa anggaran 80,000 hingga 120,000 bagi sesebuah filem Jalan Ampas; Kwek menyebut 160,000 hingga 170,000 — hampir dua kali ganda. Bagi Merdeka, esei di sini membawa $18,000 hingga $25,000 manakala manuskrip membawa 40,000 hingga 60,000, dan kedua-duanya pun tidak sependapat.
Tiada apa yang diselesaikan di sini. Kwek ialah pengurus studio dan angka itu melalui mejanya, menjadikannya sumber terkuat yang ada; beliau juga mengingatinya pada usia tujuh puluh empat, berdekad selepas peristiwanya, dan ringkasan temu bualnya tidak menyatakan sama ada beliau bercakap dalam dolar Malaya atau unit lain. Pustaka ini menyatakan ketiga-tiga set angka dan tidak memilih mana-mana.
Apa yang tidak diketahui
Kelahiran mahupun kematiannya tidak terakam. Tiada obituari, tiada notis kematian, tiada rekod pusara ditemui dalam arkib filem Singapura atau Malaysia. Pengurusan studio dan kakitangan teknikal tidak ditulis tentang mereka sebagaimana pelakon ditulis, dan selepas 1967 beliau tidak memegang peranan awam yang akan meninggalkan jejak kertas.
Pustaka ini tidak tahu bila beliau meninggal dunia, dan menyatakan hal itu dan bukannya menganggarkannya. Usianya dalam temu bual itu — tujuh puluh empat — akan memberikan tahun kelahirannya sebaik sahaja rakaman itu bertarikh, dan tarikh rakaman itu belum dipastikan. Beliau tiada dalam senarai Takziah, kerana senarai itu membawa tarikh kematian seseorang dan tarikhnya tidak terakam.
Yang tinggal daripadanya ialah sebuah lagu. Kwek Mambo bermula sebagai jenaka di Studio 8 — nama pengurus itu, dijadikan mambo — lalu dikeluarkan oleh Parlophone pada 1957. Lelakinya tanpa tarikh, jenakanya berkatalog. Lebih kurang begitulah rekod memperlakukan orang-orang yang menguruskan bangunan itu.