We all know that the Stormtroopers from Star Wars aren’t exactly the most efficient of troops. With their crappy targeting skills and propensity for getting easily killed by every Tom, Dick and Luke rebel or Jedi. Now imagine if some of those Stormtroopers were Malaysians. The opportunity for comedy gold would definitely be there which is where this particular fan-film comes in.
Called If Stormtroopers were Malaysian, the short fan video was made by the Macam Yes Studios, the people behind popular Malaysian youtube channel Dan Khoo Productions and features the talents of the Malaysian garrison of the 501st Legion.
This hilarious video sees three stormtroopers fighting against what are most likely the Rebel Alliance with Darth Vader beside them. One of the Stormtroopers is star struck that they’re fighting side by side with the Dark Lord of the Sith and attempts to convince his other two squad mates to shake Vader’s hand. Needless to say, that turns out to be VERY BAD IDEA.
Now there’s not much so-called acting that can be done when you’re encased in full Stormtrooper armour but the three “actors” did a wonderful job with the dialogue and hand-motions. What really sells it though (especially for Malaysians) is the use of our very own colloquial Manglish in the dialogue. Throw in some Malaysian apathy, typical Malaysian love of famous celebs/politicians/leaders and you get a truly Malaysian flavour to this Star Wars fan-film.
And in case you didn’t get the Manglish parts (at least for our non-Malaysian readers), here’s a bit of a translation of the more Manglish terms of the dialogue:
0:55: What?! You really think you so geng meh? = What?! You really think you’re that great?
1:08: Eh you SOT ah? = Are you nuts?
1:33: Sure one or not you simply say one = Are you sure or are you just talking crap
1:39: Walaueh bradder, dem disgusting weh… = Come on bro, that’s damn disgusting…
2:16: You all siao ah? = Are you crazy? (SOT and siao actually holds the same meaning aka crazy)
2:35: You think you very geng ah? What battlefield now? = You think you’re that great? What battlefield now?
As for the terms weh, la, lo, haih, haiya, ah and leh, these are all suffixes with no particular meaning which are used to spice up the conversation. We COULD give you a glossary but that would just turn this article into a Manglish dictionary. Here’s a better resource to understand them (yes we know it says Singlish, unfortunately, no one has bothered to make a Manglish dictionary so we have to rely on a Singlish version, which is almost the same).
There’s definitely a lot of effort that was put into making this fan film and Ernest Ng of the popular Malaysian Don’t be Like That La bro webcomic has a pretty good behind the scenes vlog.
