Miyabi / Maria Ozawa and the FPI -- Pornography, Morality, and Comedy...

It seems there are always plenty of people about looking for a controversy to jump into, and if there is not one available to jump into, then make one up. This is the Miyabi controversy. Maria Ozawa goes by the stage name of Miyabi. She is a porn actress, and apparently she is pretty good at what she does. However, she is now looking to branch out and test her acting skills in more mainstream films. She has recently done a slasher / horror film in Taiwan. And, she has signed on to do a comedy in Indonesia, Kidnapping Miyabi.

The premise of the film seems a little silly to me; several horny blokes who have probably "choked" the proverbial chicken one too many times, and when they learn that Miyabi happens to be in Indonesia they set out to kidnap her. You never know, it might work. It will undoubtedly be popular because there are seemingly a whole lot of Indonesians who are familiar with her previous work, and those that were not so familiar with it, are sure to be now.

Anyways, the fact that a Japanese porn star is coming to Indonesia to play a role in a comedy film has irked the usual suspects. The MUI has come out and said that allowing her to come to Indonesia in any capacity to play a role in a film is going to destroy Indonesia's image overseas (I have written about that here and posted a few pictures for your viewing pleasure). Perhaps the MUI might want to have a look a little closer to home to gauge what sort of image destroying material is floating around. Stoning adulterers is probably not a big winner in the image stakes.

To add to the MUI's protests, the Islam Defenders Front or Fron Pembela Islam (FPI) assembled some of their devotees and staged a protest in front of the offices of Maxima Pictures. Maxima Pictures are the ones that are going to shoot and produce the film. It would seem that FPI's beef is that Miyabi is the destroyer of morality. Once again, he who is perfect may cast the first stone. Considering, the number of Indonesian IPs that have swung by this particular blog in search of Miyabi pictures and links to her films is testament to a rather large Indonesian following.

It seems that the FPI would be conducive to the film going ahead if Miyabi was replaced with another actress. Presumably one without any porn on her resume. But, seeing the premise of the script seems to be based on Miyabi having fame as a porn actress then perhaps FPI is lobbying for an Indonesian porn actress to take up the role. Maybe Maxima Pictures could change the name to Kidnapping Jade Marcella.

Maxima entertained the protesters by agreeing to meet with their leader, Habib Fahri Jamalullail, of the Jakarta Branch of FPI. However, the FPI left about 15 minutes later somewhat disappointed, as Maxima refused to say that they would abide by the demands of the FPI and cancel any agreements with Maria Ozawa with respect to her appearing in the film.

Not to be deterred, Fahri is prepared to go to the airport and "intercept" her arrival. Sounds a little bit extreme, it also sounds a little bit scary, and it sounds somewhat illegal to be intercepting foreigners arriving legally into the country.

Fahri is concerned that Miyabi has violated religious prohibitions by doing what she does for a living. Unfortunately, being a porn actress per se does not prohibit one from entering the country, particularly when one considers that she will not be making any porn films while she is here. It is probably forbidden to watch porn films as well. However, this does not seem to stop everyone. Once again, it seems that there are quite a few Indonesians with a voracious appetite for porn, and for Miyabi in particular.

In any event, and the FPI protests aside, according to Maxima it is still not clear if and when Miyabi will be arriving. Apparently, there have been a few bureaucratic issues arise that are still to be sorted out.

With respect to the protests, Maxima is considering relocating the shoot out of Jakarta, perhaps to Bali, or going further abroad still and shooting the film overseas. This is sad because the shooting of a film and the subsequent post-production are normally fairly big contributors to the local economy where the film is shot.

Not that I am inclined to watch the film anyway, but I do hope that Maxima sticks to its guns and shoots the film with Miyabi / Maria Ozawa in the lead role and playing herself.

In any event, the post lends itself to some gratuitous posting of pictures.

Enjoy!