There’s an audible jittering on the streets of Yangon.
A certain new poster, plastered outside cinemas throughout downtown, is responsible for the titillation, attracting stares and selfie-taking from gaggles of young men.
The ad is typical of Myanmar movie posters in most ways but for one: the unmissable cleavage of voluptuous actress Aye Myat Thu.
Some in the culturally conservative country, which recently emerged from decades of censorship, have raised eyebrows at the racy scene. But, for others, it’s been a long time coming.
“I don’t think it’s rude,” said Snow, a woman in her early fifties, outside a downtown theater on Wednesday. “It’s about time.”
The movie, titled Ma Aye Pwint, Myint Myint San, Lann Thone Sal, is a remake of a popular 1990s action movie about a woman on the run from 30 men sent to kill her.
Released this month, it looks set to be a box office smash – a three-minute trailer posted online before the film hit theaters attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers.
The film follows Aye Myat Thu’s character as she rides horses and fights off attackers in the forest – albeit wearing a traditional longyi, or Burmese sarong.
The most notorious scene features the actress, who is 32, bathing naked in a silent forest stream, some conveniently placed tree branches preserving her modesty.
By modern standards, it’s hardly shocking. But under the former ruling military junta Myanmar’s film industry spent decades under the thumb of censors who banned anything remotely sexually explicit.
Attitudes to female sexuality, meanwhile, are still extremely conservative.
“If we go only by Myanmar tradition, we can’t penetrate the international community,” director Thiha Kyaw Soe told Coconuts Yangon. “But we shouldn’t be too extreme.”
Commenting on the poster during a break from signing autographs outside a cinema on Wednesday, the actress said it was an expression of the character’s personality.
Actress Aye Myat Thu poses with fans outside a cinema in downtown Yangon on October 5, 2016. Photo: Aung Naing Soe / Coconuts Yangon
“She has a feminine beauty,” said Aye Myat Thu. “Ma Aye Pwint wears a longyi and she fights.”
The actress learned a few new skills during shooting. “I had some difficulties in riding horses and [filming] fighting scenes, as those are unusual for me,” she said.
The characterization has won her fans of both genders.
“I like to watch her acting as a strong woman character in the film,” said Soe Hlaing, a fan in his mid-twenties.
The film – praised also for its advanced camera work – has also raised hopes of the rise of female-led action flicks in Myanmar.
:”I like action films, especially if the hero is a woman,” the actress told the Myanmar Times last month.
“I’d like to act like those women in real life. Even if I had lots of problems, I’d be happy.”
