“The Gospel Of John” In Malaysia.

“The Gospel Of John” In Malaysia.

by Nurliana Kamaruddin

Mega Pavilion Cinema Bukit Jambul, Penang will be screening the epic feature story on Jesus’ life, “The Gospel Of John”. After the controversial movie “The Passion Of Christ” was screened in our Malaysian cinemas, it’s no longer a rarity that a movie is screened with limitations to a certain section of the public and “The Gospel Of John” is set to go the same way.

Narrating Jesus of Nazareth’s journey in bringing God’s message to mankind, this movie stars Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus and is directed by Philip Saville. A lot of care and study went into the production of this movie to ensure its authenticity and that the story keeps faithful to its source’s material.

“The Gospel Of John” is the first movie to be awarded the Seal Of Approval by the National Association Evangelicals and is also the winner of Epiphany Prize as ‘The Most Inspiring Movie’ in 2003 by the Christian Films and Television Commission – a Christian Equivalent of an Oscar.

In Malaysia, this movie has been passed with a U rating by the censorship board but will only be allowed limited screening, where the tickets will not be for sale at the cinema box office counter. Rather, movie patrons who are interested in purchasing tickets can do so at nearby churches or by private screening through hall rental.

Talking to a representative from Mega Pavillion Cinemas Penang, we were told that they hoped the churches would give as much support to this movie as they had given for “The Passion Of Christ”.

The movie will begin screening on 1 September 2005 and is expected to run until the end of October this year.

Cinema Online, 19 August 2005