Sell-Out

Fony Corporation has just promoted doe-eyed Eric Tan (Peter Davis) to Head of Product Design and he’s already invented a revolutionary 8-in-1 soy bean machine! Taste the silken tofu, the creamy soy milk, the crispy bean curd! It just has one reprehensible flaw: no flaws! The lack of a built-in-breakdown mechanism appalls the conglomerate’s two-man executive branch who resorts to a budget exorcism to solve their problem named Eric. Also under the axe is Fony TV 11’s ruthless host Rafflesia Pong (Jerrica Lai), whose speciality arts programme is overshadowed by an increasingly popular art form: reality TV. Determined to claw her way back to the top, she lands on a morbid concept that finds an ally in the divided product designer.

Yeo Joon Han’s long unavailable musical SELL OUT! is presented here in both its Venice and Director’s Cut alongside the original soundtrack of ear-worm musical numbers. In contrast to the realist New Wave films of his contemporaries, Yeo presents a wildly funny, fantastical satire of cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur. Feeding off the city’s inherent frictions — its languages; its dramatic wealth gap; its capitalist malaise – SELL OUT! takes equal aim at corporate monopolies; the film festival ecosystem; pan-Asian fetishisation; consumerism, and money itself: skewering the media landscape and its enablers over a fiery and joyful flame.

If you have ever wanted to kick over your cubicle, set Slack on fire, throw your computer out the window, and your boss out right after it, this is the rock anthem for your workplace revolution.”
– Grady Hendrix, Cofounder of Subway Cinema and New York Asian Film Festival

"A funny and infinitely smart musical reminiscent of Monty Python's surreal dark humor and lucid look on society.”
– Nicolas Archambault, Fantasia International Film Festival

"A one-of-a-kind karaoke satire of corporate capitalism and reality TV, SELL OUT! is a timeless cult gem that entertains and amazes audiences today as it did when first released. A must see re-discovery!”
– Paolo Bertolin, Venice Film Festival