Watching Generasi: Perfect 10 felt like a moral obligation to me.
I was a gymnast all throughout my childhood, right up until my last years in high school. I used to train where the gymnasts in the show trained. I was training at the same level that theses characters were. And while I was a part of the sister sport, rhythmic gymnastics, instead, it still felt like I had a lot of personal attachment to this series.
The world of gymnastics is complicated and harsh, and it was a real issue for me whenever people underestimated it. Gymnastics is often used as a gimmick. A talking point. Barely taken seriously.
Which is why, even though I was enthusiastic about watching the series, I came to it with a critical eye. I expected something soapy. I expected something that would leave me cringing.
Generasi: Perfect 10 blew my expectations out the water.
As a TV show, it builds up wonderfully. A mountain climb of a narrative that just gets more intense with each episode, unraveling different aspects of these character’s lives and psyches, before eventually hitting a breaking point by the last two episodes. It’s a hard watch at times, but never hard enough that I ever wanted to stop. The realism here is heightened with dramatic flair, reinforcing that notion of how life can sometimes be stranger than fiction.
The first half of the last episode in particular is wonderful and worthy of a whole star by itself. A metaphorical tensing, and then sigh of relief, that leads to a slightly unsatisfying end for some characters, but one that makes total narrative sense.
Exaggeration may be typical in the world of film and TV, but some scenes were so close to my own experience, that they felt both vindicating and anxiety-inducing at the same time. Generasi: Perfect 10 felt like a look into a real gymnast’s experiences, right down to the all too familiar public comments about decency, and often disheartening view of the sport that even those closest to the athlete refuse to understand.
The story hits those universal coming-of-age themes, but it also explores genuine issues that plague the gymnastics world – like abuse disguised as discipline – all wrapped up in complicated, layered arcs and led by characters that you love, hate to love, and love to hate. By the end, there’s only really one character that is truly antagonistic, and they’re really a symbol of the larger problem of exploiting young women and their dreams.
There’s a very real care and craft that was put into the making of Generasi: Perfect 10. Showrunner Nas Addina seemed to cradle much of show — she helped write the story and script, alongside creating it — and her passion shines through. Knowing how young she is, it’s exciting to see what else she comes up with, and her potential growth from something like this.
That’s nothing to say about how the collective cast was a joy to watch onscreen. Arena Wan heads the show as Ezrina “Ezie” Riyad Azfar, and she has a leading woman quality that’s subtle in the best possible way, growing in confidence just like the show does. Coach Sue (Sofia Jane) and Nazma (Sherie Merlis) were also standouts as the yin and yang of Ezie’s maternal figures in the show.
My personal favourite performance though, was Ellyza Azizi as Ezie’s best friend Amal with her Terengganu dialect and cheery disposition that leads into heartbreaking depth. (Definitely one of the only characters in the show you can root for the whole time…)
Now when I talk about Generasi: Perfect 10 as a mountain of a narrative, I mean it. It’s an uphill climb, with an exposition-filled episode one that’s difficult to jump into, but ultimately worth it. It feels like the narrative build up there could’ve been shortened, and there were some choices that felt slightly weird too.
The addition of actual legendary Malaysian gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi as an in-universe character is understandble, but also made it hard to suspend disbelief in some parts, especially when she eventually appears in the show.
The rest of the hang ups I have are a bit more personal, definitely nitpicky, so take these with a pinch of salt. But a lot of the action of the actual gymnastics can come off wonky, with body doubles and angles that try their best to match the actresses, but comes off awkward. The makeup and hair could also be overdone in some instances, especially in the school scenes, where it looked a lot less natural than it should have been, which didn’t help selling some of the action.
That said, Generasi: Perfect 10 is a passionately made, painfully realistic depiction of the life of artistic gymnasts in Malaysia. It’s a coming-of-age story that’s filled to the brim with layered characters and arcs, led by a great majority female ensemble. A high recommended watch from me. It most definitely has this ex-gymnast’s stamp of approval!
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