Film Review- 15 MALAYSIA short film

The film Ms Ezzati showed us last week were 3 short films under 15 MALAYSIA short film project, Duit Kecil by Johan John, Lollipop by Nam Ron, and Meter by Lim Benji. 

Duit Kecil gives the meaning of small change. It is a story centers around a man who goes to a brothel house to have sex activity. However, he doesn't have duit kecil as it costs him RM 60 when he has only RM 100. He asks for the change of RM 40 from the prostitute. Some social and politic issues have been discussed by the man and prostitutes in the short film. 

Lollipop is one of the short film that impressed me a lot with its underlying message hidden in it. The main issue we can see through this short film is about child abduction case. However, when we found out the hidden message and the historical event happened in Malaysia being shown by the director is not that simple, we are so impressed. Nonetheless, the review we mentioned in the video might just be our own personal opinion. Not to spoil too much, you may watch our review at the bottom! teehee~

Meter is the another short film that surprises me and my partner. The short film centers around a Malay taxi driver drives around and the conversation and interaction between him and different races passengers. When we had the discussion in the class, our tutor surprised us with disclosing the underlying message the director trying to bring out especially at the last part when the interaction between the taxi driver and the Chinese passenger. We never thought of that might be relatable although we have had this knowledge when Dr Carmen shared the history story with us in the past few weeks. 

Film Review 2- Tiga Abdul

The week before, our tutor Ms Ezzati played us a movie in the class. So, here is my second film review. 

The film "Tiga Abdul" is a 1964 Malaysian comedy film, I wasn't even a zygote at that time. P.Ramlee, the icon of Malaysian entertainment directed and starring in it as well. We found it hard to pay fully attention in it while showing because it is a Black and White movie. 

This story is about a merchant who orders his three daughters to fleece the three Abdul brothers for all their huge wealth and properties left by their father who has passed away. The two elder brothers unwilling to share with their youngest brother, role-played by P.Ramlee. At the end, the two elder brothers being cheated by the merchant. However, P.Ramlee saves them and forgive them, yet get back all the wealth and share equally with everyone. 

From this film, we can see how P.Ramlee portrays male stereotypically as they are always get attracted by female's figured. Besides, female is portrayed in the film that they are always weak, being ordered to attract men with their body and they have no right to refuse. We found this film is kind of lengthy as there are many unnecessary scenes. Nonetheless, we were told by our tutor that film in the 60's are most likely to entertain people instead of any other reasons. Therefore, the singing and dancing scenes are probably to entertain only. From this film, we can see how well talent of P.Ramlee as the icon and the star of Malaysia. 

Film Review- Perempuan, Isteri, Dan...

We were assigned to create a YouTube channel so we can post our review every week after watching certain films showed by Ms Ezzati in the class. We were told to share our opinion through the video after watching the films on any topic.

This is the first film review- Perempuan, Isteri, Dan...

It is a 1993 movie directed and written by U-Wei Haji Shaari. The name of this film should be Perempuan, Isteri, Dan Jalang which gives the meaning of Woman, Wife, And Whore. However as we all know the rules and censorship in Malaysia on certain words which then created this name. 

This story centers around a woman who is supposed to marry another man whose she has no idea about. On the day of their wedding, she runs away which then her so-called husband finds himself humiliated. So, he kills the woman's real husband and sells her to a pimp to work as a prostitute for 6 months. After 6 months, he buys her from the pimp. She tricks on him so he can marry her and follow him back to his hometown as his valid wife. She brainwashes the women in the rural area to live their own life, seduce the men and creates a series of problem in the village. 

From this film, we can see a huge gap of power between men and women in the past. Why was woman always being controlled and man is dominant? We can see how the director shows this issue through story telling. However, I think the director should be commended for producing this kind of movie in those oldies day where majority was under a close-minded society yet and also the great performance from the main male character, Nasir Bilal Khan. 

It is a good film to be seen today.