Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in a scene from "Lost In Translation"

The cat is out of the bag. With all the hype surrounding the Academy Awards this year, many fans would be able to breathe a sigh of relief now that it's over.

Now comes the post-Oscar period, the time to re-cap the deserving and the unworthy. Movie buffs alike would mostly agree with Sean Penn's win, or with Peter Jackson being named best director. Or the fact that it's more than okay that Nicole Kidman didn't get a nomination for the best actress category this year.

But what of the films that didn't even make it to our tropical shores? Can we really appreciate the fact that Charlize Theron won a best actress Oscar without even seeing the film (assuming that we are all actively enforcing our duties of boycotting pirated VCD's and DVD's)? And what about Sofia Coppola's critically acclaimed "Lost In Translation"? There's a good reason that her last name is Coppola, you know.

For those of you who had previously preferred not to catch these films, "Monster" is a film based on the real life of Aileen Wournos, a highway prostitute in Florida who resorts to killing her 'customers' after a certain ugly encounter with one woman-hitting patron. Meanwhile, "Lost In Translation" follows the encounters of two Americans in Tokyo: a middle-aged actor (Bill Murray) and a neglected young wife (Scarlett Johansson) who crosses paths and develops an unlikely relationship throughout their loneliness.

Christina Ricci and Charlize Theron in a scene from "Monster"

Be it for the explicit contents or the divisive themes, there's always reason for not bringing in a good solid Oscar-winning movie. The fact of the matter is, Malaysian movie-goers will simply never be able to appreciate the value of below-the-mainstream-line films such as those mentioned above (unless of course, they do purchase those VCD's and DVD's, but that's besides the point). The point is, even Oscar-worthy films aren't Malaysia-worthy.

Bottom line, until the Malaysian censorship board goes through some serious revamping (as well as broadening their horizon a little bit), and let in those deliciously good films that we've been denied for so long, our perception of a good film will always be one that has a big budget and features internationally known actors.

You wonder why locally produced films are still on the same level they were at ten years ago. Romantic comedies do bring in the cash but is that all there is to us Malaysians, falling in love? Looks like we'll just have to wait till they wake up and smell the coffee.