Bunohan

Bunohan [Online Image].(2011). Retrieved August 28, 2015 from http://moviebuzzers.com/movie-review-bunohan-return-murder/

            Bunohan was a kickboxing movie that was directed by Dain Said (2012) and had triumphed in the 25^th Malaysian Film Festival by earning eight awards. The story revolved around three brothers: Ilham, the hired assassin, Bakar, a schoolteacher, and Adil, the kick-boxer. The film begins with the ending which confused the audience about the story at first but the dark secrets in their family affairs were slowly revealed along the progression of the story.

            Adil who was a Muay Thai kick-boxer lost in an illegal fight-to-death battle ring when his friend immediately stepped in to save his ass. The opponent promoter, who was upset about the turn of events, hired Ilham, who was actually Adil elder brother to kill Adil. And so, two brothers eventually returned to their hometown, Bunohan with Adil fleeing from the death chase of the kill while Ilham who was the hitman, tracking down his brother. In the meanwhile, the middle brother, Bakar came back as well to help their ailing father, Pok Eng. As described by the director (Said. D, 2012), Bakar was a portrait of “banality of evil” which maybe clean-looking on the outside but was actually the most sly and ruthless of all. He went back not out of his filial piety virtue but to convince his father to sell the burial ground to a resort construction company. Things were gone more complicated when Ilham and Adil found out that they were in fact stepbrother. Bunohan was not only a barbarous crime and gangster film but was also a complex family reunion film.

            Obviously, the film was more focusing on the vary masculinity images portrayed by every male characters in it as there was seldom woman portrait shown in the movie. For Adil character, he portrayed to likely more gangster image but was the most fragile out of three brothers. He hated his father as Pok Eng did not take any action when Adil was bullied by his stepmother and elder brother. Though he felt estranged from his family, he still appreciates the heritage that was passed down by his father. In one of the scene when Bakar tried to persuade him to sell the burial ground, Adil refused as he thinks that the place was full of his father’s memory towards his mother. Through his daily interaction, there was also gangster-like characteristic performed by him and he shows independent personality as he denied inheriting the place that his father had left him. Adil portrayed more emotional and humane part than his two other brothers. This was proven when he knew that the deserted beach that was under his legacy property was the memorial place of Ilham’s mother when she lived out alone there. He felt compassionate for Ilham without accused Ilham for attempting to murder him before. His decision of not selling the place to the resort construction company was more determined after he knew the story behind Ilham. Yet, this decision had leaded him to a killing death.

Adil (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            At the end of the scene when he attended the last kick-boxing ring, he was wounded by the face with a scar and a traditional herb medicine was applied on it. Unfortunately, the herb medicine was created by Jolok, the contractor of the resort construction with a poisonous fruit that he hired someone to search for it. Jolok who was also lost to the desire of escaping poverty, decided to obliterate Adil’s existence as Adil has the right of the legacy they want.

Ilham (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            Next, Ilham’s masculine image was the portrait of confusion and disorientation in his way of living. He also portrayed the barbarous part of the overall film with every assassin crime he had committed. In the beginning of the story, Ilham shows no compassionate and remorse for committing murder but he later changed to be more benevolence after he reunite with Adil and found out that they were stepbrothers. This could be proved when Ilham decided to spare Adil’s life in the last scene. Ilham was a distorted character as he took the wrong path of being a hitman and his hatred for his father of marrying three women and causing his mother died alone.  He was always on the path of uncertainty and confusion as he begged in his heart to be someone else that could make his mother proud, other than a killer yet he was not. As the story progressed, Ilham started to realize his sin of killing and all he could felt was depression and loneliness. He felt estranged from the world. In one of the scene when he murdered the last two people who seems to be digging out graves in the white beach, Ilham had the vision of seeing the Adil’s mother caressing the dead man who Ilham had just killed. Ilham woke up and found himself in the swampy underbrush area, surrounded by many white skeleton heads. That was the event that triggered him to atone his sins.

Ilham talking to the bird in the swampland (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            Out of three brothers, Ilham was the one that connected more to the border of myth as he was always wandered in the realm of death. There was this scene where he collected many white skeleton heads in his boat and was having a conversation with a bird. The setting itself was unreal and visually somber which the message maybe to convey the emotional thinking of Ilham questioning his path of living. When the bird asked what he did, he answered that he killed people for living. Then, a sudden slow-motion edit technique cuts in showing the bird flying and somehow making a laughing sound towards Ilham. To me, it may seem like that the bird was a subconscious of Ilham and he was laughing at his own sinister life. Ilham also intends to make reparation for those he killed by digging up ground and burying the skeleton heads. At this stage, Ilham’s mind had come into calmness and he had made up his mind of stop taking other people lives.

Bakar (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            Lastly, Bakar was the middle of the three brothers and was the most cunning and corrupted character out of them. He also portrayed the image of typical modern people where materialistic is important in one’s life. Although Bakar may seem like the son that shared the closest relationship with their father, that was just the surface deceit. In truth, Bakar was just like the other brothers, did not actually cared for his father. For instance, when Bakar came back, there was this scene that shows two rooms gaped by a wall which indicates the disconnect bond between Pok Eng and Bakar. Indeed, Bakar’s motif of coming back was not to take care of his ailing father but to convince his father to sell the burial ground.

Bakar murder his father (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            When audiences may think that “Bunohan” was referring to Ilham, but it was also referred to Bakar. Bakar was a symbol of the dark side of society where urban people wore masks over their faces to hide their corrupted personalities, so as Bakar. He may seem clean by his profile but he murdered his own father in the end which was much cruel than his elder brother, Ilham. Eventually, they were all “Bunohan” themselves.

Pok Eng (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            Besides the three protagonists in this film, there were other masculine figures with different characteristics portrayed by other characters. For Pok Eng, he was the person who appreciated the traditional heritage that has been passed down. For instance, he enjoyed creating the Malay kite and the puppet for “wayang kulit” which was rare to be found in that modern era. However, he failed to be a good father as he followed the traditional marriage conception of marrying three women, which was polygamy.  In consequences, the harmony in the family torn apart and causing his sons and wives to live in hard life. Pok Eng character also represents a lot of myth influence of Malay such as the little boy who often visited his house. 

The boy talking to Mek Wah (2011). [Image, screen capture]

          In some intercut of scenes, the little boy would voice in Pok Eng’s sound which it can be thought of that the little boy was the subconscious of Pok Eng himself. For example, in the last scene when Mek Yah told the little boy that she wanted to heal this destructive land, the little boy replied her in Pok Eng’s voice. At this moment, we could be sure that Pok Eng reincarnated into the little boy and that the “supernatural” Mek Yah added into the essence of Malay myth influence.

Pok Wah (2011). [Image, screen capture]

            As for Pok Wah, he depicts the portrait of ancient ‘bomoh’ who expert in herb medicine and always seem to have connection with supernatural things. When Adil’s friend, Muski asked for Pok Wah help, the location he searched for was not in ordinary house region but in the swampy area. In the meantime, Pok Wah answered to Muski’s call when the scene shows no Pok Wah’s existence but could only be heard by his voice. Then, we could see Pok Wah sitting on a tree trunk in the middle of the swampy area. At this moment, the audiences would probably be confused about the appearance of Pok Wah in the swampy area while not in some ordinary village hut. However, if one was familiar with Malay myth culture, ‘bomoh’ would usually lived in forest biome and that particular swampy area was ideal to portray Pok Wah’s role in the Bunohan’s film.

            Thorough the film, there were no modern medicine used because it was all replaced by traditional herb medicine. This enhanced the Malay’s ancient heritage and to promote the richness of herb medicines that had been maintained to the world.

            “…Healing needs time. And time needs healing…”, exclaimed by Mek Yah who intends to protect the nature land from the destructive power of masculine. Her phrase implied that there is a need to revert to the ‘ancient matriarchal’ heterogeneous time. It was also the message that the film wanted to convey that masculinity is overpowering the nature heritage that has been passed down generation by generation. Cinematographer, Charin Pengpanich did a very good job in collaborating visuals, action and a bit of fantasy into one film. The film was also deliberately shot in swamplands during monsoon, thus creating the somber mood and intensifying the dangerous sensation in it. 

Swampy area I (2011) [Image, screen capture]

Swampy area II (2011) [Image, screen capture]

Reference

Killing Fields - Bunohan. (2012, April 29). Retrieved August 28, 2015, from http://thoughtsonfilms.com/2012/04/29/killing-fields-bunohan/

Wai Yeng, K. (n.d.). Bunohan. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from http://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/film/bunohan

Selubung

Selubung [Online Image]. (1992). Retrieved August 27, 2015 from http://sabrinafilm.blogspot.com/2011/11/selubung.html

            The story background of Selubung took place in the midst of Middle East’s war where it told the story of a group of Malaysian youth who was about to finish their last year of study in Australia. Unfortunately, one of the main female protagonist, Mastura’s friends which is E.J. terminated her study suddenly and decided to become Brother Musa’s second wife. Although Mastura tried to convince E.J. not to withdraw from her study, E.J. still think that woman should be obedient to marriage. Mastura volunteered herself in Rescaid Malaysia to aid children and mothers around the world after she returned from abroad. E.J. was later returned back to Malaysia after the tragic incident of her baby killed by Hani, Brother Musa’s first bride. Mastura then worked together with E.J. at the Rescaid organization to help children especially in Lebanon. Mastura was later proposed by Kamal, head of company but she refused him as she found out that he was a married man. However, Kamal then explained to her that he has already divorced. During a nation-wide charity concert, an extremist anti-Rescaid placed a bomb in Rescaid office and this caused Mastura in coma. At the end, Mastura regained her conscious from the blessed of the butterflies which is a good luck charm predicted by her godfather and the charity concert was a huge success. The Malaysia government was also willingly helped the Lebanon by transferring provisions there. Moreover, Mastura recovered fully from the coma with Kamal accompanying by her side. 

            Selubung strongly reflects the Malaysia’s women identities during the 90s century which show distinct and revolutionized woman model during that period. The film portrayed different model of feminine during that social period and how the difficulty that has faced by woman with modernity and western values. In this film, Mastura represents the strong and modern woman identity through her characteristics. Mastura embraces the western values of thinking which is pursue her career and independent in proceeding tasks in everyday lives without depending on man. Mastura gained a great success in her career as an engineer and active in the social field by volunteering herself in the Rescaid organization to help children in Lebanon. Her active contribution in the Rescaid shows her tough personality and courageous to give aid even across the international boundaries especially when she made decision on sending provisions to Lebanon without any fear. Despite, Mastura also proved her capabilities in handling problem rationally and radically which not even slightly be inferior to man. She calmly gave instruction to the security when the lift in Rescaid office failed to function. She was able to manage to solve this problem without the help of man; this helped establish her standing ground firm in the new society of independent feminine portrait.

Mastura. (1992) [Image, screen capture]

            Strongly influenced by the western values, Mastura’s outlook was different from other typical traditional Malaysia woman where they must wear tudung yet Mastura did not obey to it and instead wore dress. However, Mastura still practiced her Islam value and did not abandon the root of their religion. Mastura believed more on Islam’s values during the incident of bombing and causing her in coma state. Her godfather from her hometown, Terengganu mentioned to her before that butterfly would bring good luck to her and his prediction was correct as Mastura regained consciousness thanks to the heavenly blessed of butterflies all over her ward and Dr.Sadar and her godfather’s prayer. Mastura also stick to her traditional principle by refusing Kamal, the Managing Director’s proposal after she found out that he was a married man and rejected the concept of polygamy. Unlike E.J., she did not lose herself to masculinity and traditional woman’s practice which is obedient to marriage.

E.J.  (before) (1992). [Image,screen capture]

            In contrast to Mastura, E.J. was representing a traditional woman figure which shows dependent, weak, and submissive characteristics. E.J. holds strong belief in the essential Islamic and submissive to the instruction of Brother Musa. E.J. also willingly withdraw from her study in order to marry to Brother Musa as she believed that marry will do her good. She was cognitively influenced by the teaching of Brother Musa where the way to conquer the temptation is to marry a person with a righteous path so one can go to heaven as well. This shows her conventional thinking of woman’s position should be below man and the education level should not be higher than them as well. Yet, her afterlife marriage was a tragic after Hani killed her baby due to her mental illness. Since then, E.J. realized from her mistakes and she later joined the Rescaid as well, together with Mastura they helped the children from Lebanon by organizing the charity concert. Since E.J. joined the Rescaid Malaysia, she was no longer seen wearing tudung but only wrapped her head with a scarf. This leads the audience to realize that E.J. was not restricted to Islamic rule and she decided to restart a new life.

E.J. (after) (1992). [Image, screen capture]

            Another distinct woman figure portrayed by one of the characters in Selubung is Hani. Hani played a unique characteristics in the film though she also shared the same thinking as E.J. at the beginning where they believed that Brother Musa is the right person and they should marry him to reach heaven one step closer. Through Hani’s outlook design, audiences would be well aware about the psycho status Hani was into. Her thrilling emotions and disorientation behavior was delivered through the story. For example, Hani warned Mastura not to mix with Zek as he has the mind of Satan. Hani also very jealous of E.J. and this caused her to commit murder to E.J.’s baby. Her performance highlighted when she crouched in the corner and repeating to herself the phrase “I didn’t do it…”. This meanwhile enhances the audience’s belief that she was in severe mental illness.

Hani (1992). [Image, screen capture]

            The character development of feminine figure in Selubung certainly was exclusive and interesting with each character’s told a different background story from their different beliefs. Not only that audiences could pondered on the issues that happened during that period but also questioned the society and Islamic restriction over the people. Out of three female characters, Mastura proved to lead a better future than the other two as she did not lose herself to masculinity and embraces the western value of becoming independent in choosing her own path. Selubung definitely was a film for you to consider on the Malaysia’s woman identity and the Islamic beliefs that influenced it.  

Reference:

Tan,K. (2011, November 15). Shuhaimi Baba | Selubung 1992. Retrieved August 27, 2015, from http://kathysfilmjournal.blogspot.com/2011/11/shuhaimi-baba-selubung-1992.html

Chung King Express

Chungking Express [Online Image]. (1994). Retrieved August 17, 2015 from http://www.iubfilmclub.org/2015/03/14/the-narrative-analysis-of-chungking-express/

    Chung King Express was directed by the famous Hong Kong filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai which greatly influenced by the French Impressionism.

    The overall film was divided into different two stories which involved two cops. The first half deals with Cop 223, who was unable to recover from the broken relationship with her past girlfriend of 5 years. He would only purchased pineapple tin everyday with specific expiration date which is 1 May, his birthday. He believed that by the end of that day he would be either rejoined with his girlfriend or their relationship would expire forever. On that night of 1 May, Cop 223 met with another mysterious blonde lady who wore a blonde wig in a bar. The mysterious lady was actually working for the drug smuggling operation but unfortunately it went sour. Although they eventually spent the night in one room, there was nothing happen between them and in the end the blonde lady wished Cop 223 happy birthday by leaving a message on his pager. There, Cop 223 went to visit his usual snack food store where he collides with a new staff member. The next story began at that point.

    The next story surrounds the relationship between the Cop 663 and the new staff member at a snack food store. At the beginning of the story, Cop 663 was dealing with the hard time of breaking up with his girlfriend who was a flight attendant. During that time, he met the new girl ( played by Faye ) at the snack food store who secretly falls for him. On one occasion where Cop 663’s girlfriend leaving an envelope with his apartment key enclosed inside at the snack food store, Faye had the opportunity to intrude secretly to Cop 663 apartment after he rejects to take the envelope from Faye. After Cop 663 found out about Faye’s action, he finally realized his feeling for Faye and invited her to the “California” restaurant. However, Faye turned down his date by not showing up on that day. She flew to California and asked his cousin, the snack store owner to transfer the message to Cop 663. A year later, Faye now working as a flight attendant came back to the snack food store where Cop 663 had bought it from the last owner. This time, Cop 663 requested Faye for a new boarding pass as the old one was wet and wrinkled. Faye asked him where he would want the destination to be in the new boarding pass, he just answered wherever she would be. Again, their ending was ambiguous. 

    In Wong Kar-Wai’s film, he ignored the usual representation approaches that one could usually found in classical Hollywood film. Indeed, he was an expressionist and he sees film as a tool to express the art and to portray the message. The four main characters of Chung King Express were fairly photogenic in the whole film. The two cops’ character – Cop 223 and Cop 663 spend most of their time preoccupied with recalling back their past relationship with their broke-up girlfriend. The first cop character, Cop 223 (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro) was unable to part from his last relationship and was preoccupied with the pineapple tin’s expiration date of 1 May. He viewed the pineapple tin’s expiry date as a portrayal of the deadline of their relationship, betting on whether they would rejoined love or expired forever. Besides, he spend his time preoccupied with cold-calling old girlfriends or crushes from yesteryears in an attempt to forget the heartbreak moment. He also replaced his loneliness by seeing the pineapple tin as a substitute for his past girlfriend as he remembered her being fond of pineapple very much.

Cop 223 attempt to rejoin with his past love. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

The expiration date of 1 May on pineapple tin. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

    Despite, Cop 663 preoccupied himself with having conversations with his household objects in order to overcome the hard time of breaking up from a relationship. He sees every household objects as a significance of his heart-broken emotions. The old rag that soaked with water represented his crying heart while he felt that his past girlfriend’s flight attendant’s suit was feeling cold, which is the representation of his cold and miserable feeling. 

Cop 663 talking with his household objects. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

    The two lead female characters were rather similar in some ways. Both of them left from the male characters and continue to pursue their own lives. Wong director gave these both female characters a mysterious atmosphere around them. The woman in a blonde wig gave Cop 223 a mysterious background as she was working under a smuggling operation with her immigrants assisted. On the other hand, Faye’s character was created to be more complex than the woman in blonde wig as her vague motivation to “improve” Cop 663 house. It could be reckoned that she did this was hoping that her presence of changing the house would change his heart as well or is it only for her consistent psychology of visiting his house. 

    Although the four characters in two different stories were seem to be not connected, there were some shots proved that they were not directly related but were living in a same space. For instance, in one of the scene when the woman in blonde wig smoking in front of a toy shop, Faye bought a big plushy toy and came out the store. In the latter story, we saw that the plushy toy that Faye bought appeared at quite the end of the story after Faye started intruding Cop 663’s house. This scene implying that both the story events were chronologically happened quite the same time. 

Both lead female characters appeared in same scene. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

    There were also some parts of the location that linked them in the overall flow of the narration. The snack food store was the place that involved both the cops and was the beginning stage for the audiences to understand their stories behind. Moreover, the snack food store’s name was Midnight Express which referred to the title of the film. Thus, it could prove that the Midnight Express snack food store was an important location for the characters and the story. 

   In terms of cinematography, Wong director portrayed the chaos streets of Hong Kong through multiple neon streaks and by using the technique of stutter-step effect. This effect somehow created a temporal distortion to the streets of Hong Kong and also built up a profound impression for the overall film.  The effect also implied that Cop 223 was somehow dislodged from space but not from time. For example, though during the chasing after a criminal, the background was rather distorted in each frames and eventually only showed streaks of neon lights over the screen, yet the camera was still able to focus on Cop 223. 

Cop 223 chasing after a criminal. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

    Chung King Express could be said that it was strongly applied with this stutter-step effect and Wong director employed it, either in slow-motion or fast-motion, to show the disassemble of the characters with the space and time around them thus intensified their emotions thinking. To take an example, in one of the scene when Cop 663 was drinking his coffee at the snack food store while Faye staring at him behind the counter, the pedestrians outside were in fast-motion yet the time inside the store was in slow-motion speed. If we as the spectators viewed from the point of view of Faye, we would realize that the whole scene was mainly to think from the perspective of Faye. Faye also was wearing a big ol’ heart on it, crying out loud, desperate for the attention of Cop 663 of forgetting his past love. In the psychology moment of one is in nervous or anxious state, one would realized that the time past around them would seem to be never ending. It was what Wong director wanted the audience to ponder on and to feel in this scene. 

One of the scenes with stutter-step effect. (1994) [Image, screen capture]

    Furthermore, the lighting expressions were also one of the traits that Wong director employed it to express the mood and tone of the movie. When Cop 663 converse with his household objects, there was blue halo permeates his cramped kitchen and living room which created the miserable feeling of the character in the meanwhile showing the surreal transformation of ordinary objects into Cop 663’s confidant. The hyperreal objects accenting the mundane and placed meaning in the insignificant which portrayed the permeation of the character’s imagination outside the suffocating Hong Kong’s life. 

    In the second half stories, the two most repeated pop tune were “California Dreamin” by the Mamas and the Papas, as well as Faye Wong’s cover of “Dreams”. Both tunes were the depiction of dreams and also to symbolize the “dreaming” sickness every character were into. For instance, Cop 663 and Cop 223 were in the dream of their past love while Faye was in her dream of pursuing her ultimate dream. 

    There were some visible traits that defined Hong Kong’s culture could be found in the lead female characters. Generally, Hong Kong’s women were recognized as strong and independent. These characteristics could be found in both lead female characters where they could abandon love for the sake of pursuing their future path. It did not show the classical romance female character in most Hollywood movie where they could sacrifice for love. By constructing the female characteristics into typical Hong Kong women, it added as a trademark for Hong Kong’s culture. 

    Chung King Express was definitely a film that needed to be watched repetitively in order to fully understand the meaning and message Wong director intended to convey. The “Chung King” of the title was referring to Chung King Mansions whereas the “Express” referring to the Midnight Express of the snack food store. The film’s title “Chung King Express” was showing to a location that was not existed and indicated as a dream. A place for the four characters to live in, escape from the cramped Hong Kong’s reality.

References:

Maslin, J. (1994, September 26). The New York’s Times. Chungking Express (1994) FILM REVIEW; Mocking MTV Style And Paying Homage to It. Retrieved August 17, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9503E2DA133AF935A1575AC0A962958260

D'Angelo, M. (2013, October 16). The Dissolve. How Wong Kar-Wai turned 22 seconds into an eternity. Retrieved August 17, 2015, from https://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/221-how-wong-kar-wai-turned-22-seconds-into-an-eternit/