Virtual cinematic heritage for the lost Singaporean film Pontianak (1957)

Abstract

In 1957, Cathay-Keris Studio in Singapore released “Pontianak”, the first of a hugely popular series of horror films featuring the female vampiric ghost based on Malay folk mythology. The visual transformation of the lead actress Maria Mernado into the Pontianak creature amazed the audience in cinemas (Mustafar, 2012) [1]. The Pontianak trilogy by Cathay-Keris was ground-breaking for the genre at that time and registered several firsts in Singapore: Pontianak was the first Malay film to be dubbed into Mandarin, while Sumpah Pontianak is the first local CinemaScope (widescreen) film. The 1957 film is also considered the first depiction of the Pontianak in a film [2]. Despite their relatively wide distribution in 1957 both films are believed to be lost, with no prints or copies surviving (Barnard, 2011) [3]. Film Heritage in the conventional way of ‘restoration’ being impossible, this project investigates the novel approach of creating a Virtual Cinematic Heritage application. In this paper, we outline our current work in progress from historical film research to recreating a scene from the lost film as a Virtual Reality experience.