Movie Review : Antara Dua Darjat

Song title: Getaran Jiwa

Singer: P. Ramlee

Getaran jiwa

Melanda hatiku

Tersusun nada

Irama dan lagu

Walau hanya sederhana

Tetapi tak mengapa

Moga dapat membangkitkan

Sedarlah kamu wahai insan

Tak mungkin hilang

Irama dan lagu

Bagaikan kembang

Sentiasa bermadu

Andai dipisah

Lagu dan irama

Lemah tiada berjiwa

Hampa

Movie poster : Antara Dua Darjat

Antara Dua Darjat is a 1960 malay film directed, written and acted by the very famous Malaysia’s legendary artist, Allayarham Tan Sri P. Ramlee. The original story and screenplay of the film was also written along by Omar Rojik. The song above, “Getaran Jiwa” is the theme song of the film and the song is quite well known up until today as one of the best malay evergreen song. The main actor and actresses in this film are P. Ramlee as Ghazali, Saadiah as Tengku Zaleha, S. Kadarisman as Tengku Mukri, S. Shamsuddin as Sudin, Yusof Latiff as Tengku Aziz, and Ahmad Nisfu as Tengku Karim.

The scene where Ghazali flashback his past

I love this movie because I think this is among the first Malay movie that used flashback to tell a story and P. Ramlee have done an excellent job. The starting of the film shows the present at a villa named Orchid Villa where it was during heavy rain weather, the villa which have abandoned empty for a long time visited by the honeymooners, Tengku Mukri and Tengku Zaleha. They were accompanied by Dr. Tengku Aziz, a good friend of Tengku Mukri.

The situation at the villa became a chaotic when the maid and followed by Tengku Zaleha saw a human figure ghost outside of the house. The real situation is the ghost is actually Ghazali who came and wanted to determine if the woman in the villa is really Tengku Zaleha or not.

After the incident happened, Ghazali went back home where he lives there with his mother and cousin named Sudin. That night, Ghazali was scolded by Sudin where Sudin told him that the woman that he saw in the villa is not Tengku Zaleha because Tengku Zaleha is dead. Ghazali disbelieve what Sudin had mentioned and this is the moment where he flashback his past with Tengku Zaleha.

The scene of the first time where Tengku Zaleha met Ghazali

From Ghazali’s flashback, he started his story remembering the first time he met Tengku Zaleha where the love sparks started when he and his friends helped to push the car that Tengku Zaleha sink into mud due to the heavy rain. They met again for the second time at Tengku Zaleha’s birthday party where Ghazali performs with his other band members. The next day, they accidently met in the village where Ghazali was sitting on a bench under a tree and Tengku Zaleha is picking up some fresh flowers.

Once back home, Tengku Zaleha mentioned to his father, Tengku Karim on her interest in learning the piano. Tengku Karim hired a tutor for his daughter and it turns out that the tutor is Ghazali. From that moment, Tengku Zaleha and Ghazali became close and put their relationship to a serious level. However, their relationship got hindrance from the father where Ghazali got beaten by a group of men that Tengku Karim and his son ordered.

The scene of Sudin saw Tengku Zaleha's body

From Sudin’s flashback, the night where Tengku Zaleha got separated with Ghazali, Sudin was at home writing letter. Then, he heard somebody is calling him from the outside and it was Putih, maid of the Tengku’s family. Putih told him that Ghazali was beaten and without a doubt, Sudin called along his men and rush to the incident place. They found Ghazali at the bottom of the hill and brought him back home. Thus, Sudin and several men went to the villa and saw Tengku Zaleha was already dead and her body was brought into the ambulance. This is why Sudin is so sure that Tengku Zaleha is dead.

The chaotic scene between Tengku Hassan, Tengku Karim and Ghazali

From Tengku Zaleha’s flashback, after got separated with Ghazali, she was forced to be injected by the doctor so she would be paralysed and seems like she is dead like what Sudin saw. After being injected, Zaleha woke up and realised herself in Singapore. In Singapore, Tengku Hassan had an argument with Yang Chik, Tengku Zaleha’s mother and he killed the mother.


It was another chaotic moment and Tengku Hassan got arrested while Tengku Karim got admitted into the psychiatric hospital due to the death of his wife. Not long after, Tengku Zaleha got married to Tengku Mukri who his family has been closed to her family since the beginning.

Fighting scene between Ghazali and Tengku Mukri

Back to the present, Tengku Aziz found out about the past relationship of Tengku Zaleha and Ghazali. He talked about it to Tengku Mukri but Tengku Mukri got real mad and tends to kill Tengku Aziz. After the killing attempt, Tengku Mukri made a chaotic situation where he shot Ghazali but Ghazali luckily survived and fights him back. While they were struggling fighting with each other, Tengku Aziz came and shot Tengku Mukri without a doubt and that ends the fight between the two of them. The death of Tengku Mukri seems to unite the long lost love between Ghazali and Tengku Zaleha.

One of the most romantic scenes in the movie

I think this movie is good to be watch by families since nowadays there are still parents who are overly strict and protective on their children which cause the children to be rebellious. I think that this movie would make the parents and the children thinks on the best way to communicate with each other and discuss if something is not in the same page between both of them. Plus, the movie reminds us that love is not all about status and names but it is all about honesty and good heart. The message of the movie is still relevant up until today.

Ghazali and his band members at Tengku Zaleha's birthday party

From what I have overall seen from this movie is the versatility of P. Ramlee. He could direct, write, act and sings at the same time and this is what generation nowadays should take example of. Apart from that, what I feel impress about the movie is their costumes. I am impress with some of the high class and beautiful suits and dresses in the part of Tengku Zaleha’s birthday party. Never that I knew, that kind of clothing had already existed back then in Malaysia. The casts are all well-suit and looks beautiful.

Malaysian directors and artist these days should have appreciate this movie by studies the idea that P. Ramlee has bought into the movie and the beautiful music that he had offered. For me, Antara Dua Darjat is a tragedy comedy with a happy ending movie.

Movie Review : New York I Love You

Movie Poster : New York I Love You

New York, I Love You (2009) is the second series of collective short films conceived by producer Emmanuel Benbihy of Paris je t'aime (2006). The movie consists of several love stories set in one of the most loved cities of the world, New York.

Movie Producer : Emmanuel Benbihy

Benbihy explains, “My idea was always to make a collection of movies that would illustrate the universal idea of love around the world. I started with Paris because that is where I am from, but I always intended to do something similar for all the mythic cities, of which New York of course had to be a part. New York is a city that has the potential to make anybody who sees it start to dream."

One of the heart-warming scenes in New York I Love You

Directed by ten emerging directors from around the world, the film tries to break the rules by stressing continuity over individuality. Therefore, the filming itself had to obey a series of rules and they are, each story had to be visually identified with one or more New York neighbourhoods, each story had to involve some kind of love encounter, there would be no fades to black at end or beginning of any segment. For me, I think the place chosen and the title itself which is New York had already attract

the people to watch the movie since New York has long been cinema's dream city. The city has been immortalized on screen in hundreds of different ways in thousands of movies but the effort of the ten directors trying to portray it in their own unique way should be credited.

Natalie Portman as Rifka Malone & Irrfan Khan as Mansuhkhbai

The movie has its own high and lows. None of the stories has enough screen time to allow for the characteristics and abilities of the directors to shine through. Most of the segments are too short and slight to be considered not important to be showed especially the part where Irrfan Khan, a Jain Indian diamond dealer, in all of a sudden kissed Natalie Portman’s forehead who plays a Hasidic Jew and bride-to-be. As for me, I don’t really get what are the motives or significance of that part.

One of the most standout scene in New York I Love You

There are of course a few standouts in the movie and one of my favourite scenes is the conversation or seduction that occurs between Chris Cooper and Robin Wright Penn. Despite being together for not more than six or seven minutes, they sizzle. There's a connection between them and the scene are short yet easy to be understood. It's neither too short nor too long and ends perfectly. My second favourite scene is the beach walk with Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman where it seems so perfect in its own way and so honest in its representation of two people who express their love through argumentative behaviour, that it warmed my frosty heart.

New York City

Overall, ten vignettes in New York City: a pickpocket meets his match; a young Hasidic woman, on the eve of her marriage, reveals herself to an Indian businessman; a writer tries a pick-up line; an artist seeks a model; a composer needs to read; two women connect; a man takes a child to Central Park; lovers meet; a couple takes a walk on their anniversary; a kid goes to the prom with a girl in a wheelchair; a retired singer contemplates suicide.The movie is a great attempt and effort by the directors and the high and lows of the movies should have taken notes by the directors for a better improvement in their next movies.

Movie Review : The Overture

Movie poster : The Overture

Homrong or ‘The Overture’ is a story about Sorn who is a ranad musician that gradually grows from being arrogant and rebellious to becoming refined, discovering a new style of playing an old instrument. Directed by Itthi-sunthorn Wichailakis from Thailand, this sentimental tale of musical expression was Thailand's submission for the best-foreign-film Oscar of 2004.

Young Sorn follows a butterfly and it leads to the ranad.

The ranard is a wood or bamboo-keyed traditional Thai instrument, resembling a xylophone with 21 to 22 keys strung together. Four year-old Sorn's musical life starts unexpectedly when the butterfly he is following takes him into his father's music room and lights on the ranard. Young Sorn sees the instrument for the first time, picks up the mallets and creates his first melody. As a child, Sorn is stirred up by all the sounds he hears in nature near his rural home, and eventually replicates them in his innovative music. "The Overture" shifts back and forth to different times in Sorn's life chronicling his musical victories, struggles and the condition from the political climate in Siam.

As he matures into a young man, Sorn's musical gifts win him great regional acclaim, but his adolescent pride

Sorn with his biggest competitior, Khun In.

also leads him to an early defeat when he attempts to challenge Thailand's legendary ranad master, Khun In, during his first visit to the capital city of Bangkok. Returning home haunted by his defeat, Sorn increase his dedication to his music and develops a revolutionary new ranad technique that eventually wins him national respect which also made him as a royal court musician, and gain another chance of battling with his old challenger, Khun In. To me, this one of my favourite scenes since it shows Sorn’s determination and effort in improving himself and his ranad skills. Sorn won the battle and becomes the most celebrated ranard musician in Siam since then.

Thailand's traditional instrument, ranad.

According to the director, it took quite a long time to cast the actors for The Overture mainly because the actor who would play Sorn, the main character of the film, had to be able to play lead xylophone and other kinds of Thai musical instruments as well. Initially, he looked at actors who could really play Thai musical instruments, but could not find anyone appropriate for the role. Then he began to look at actors who had enough time to devote in learning and practicing these musical instruments. The role finally fell to Anuchit Saphanphong, who, although had never played Thai musical instruments before, had enough skill to get a feel for the music's rhythms.

One of the best angle shot for the movie.

In my opinion, the character of Sorn reminds me that we are all created and born into lives so that we can learn, grow, get into what we have passion in and get up when we fell with a particular mission to accomplish.  When one is born with that particular sense of being here to do something specific, there is no denying that it is already there, in one’s heart. Sometimes, one does not choose such destiny but the destiny chooses us instead.

The scene of where Sorn met Khun In for the first time.

I am proud that the new generation has produced a great movie like this. Thai people should be glad that there is at least a group of people who celebrate their beautiful culture and their unique way of life that is calm, beautiful, contemplative, and modest. The movie brings out the distinct character of Thai civilization. The Overture has romance but in their own modest way, Thai history that is both real and engaging, music that is both original and creative, and actors and actress who portray appropriately the unique Thai spirit that are hard to find in the present. It is sad that there are still so many Thai people who have never had an opportunity to touch the beauty of the lifestyle of past Thai generations. Many have ignored being Thai and appreciate only Western art without learning both before judging them.

However, this movie deserves a decent exposure. As I know, the movie received a poor reception during the first week of its showing in Thailand and through word of mouth it grew in popularity and became the biggest movie in 2004. I’m not a Thai but I think every Thai should watch it. The movie is a representation of Thai rich culture and heritage. Although it is set almost a thousand years ago, the message is still relevant today. It tells us to not abandon our roots as we march into the new era. Our culture tells so much about how far we have come from. Nowadays people often take our custom and traditions for granted, we forget the story behind it and the struggle of our ancestors went through to keep it alive.

MOVIE REVIEW : BRAVE

Pixar and Disney collaborating for Brave.

Brave. When I first heared the title ‘Brave’, all I can think of is ‘cliche’. To be honest, as a person who is not into animated film, I thought the film would be an ‘okay’ rate of film but after watching it thoroughly from the start up until the end, it was all wrong. The film was a legend with very powerful lessons.

Some of the Pixar's films.

Pixar’s have always been great in producing animated films that are fun and great to watch at, such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars and Up. From what I have seen, I think that they did a splendid job of making Brave and it must be considered as one of the most difficult yet the best they have produced. Directed by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews, set in the Scottish Highlands, Brave is a different story than Pixar is used to produce and this is a no ordinary princess story.

The scene of Queen Elinor turns to a bear

This film stories a rebellious princess who has a huge passion in archery. Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) rebels against her regal mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), and runs away into the forest.This is where Merida meets a mysterious witch (Julie Walters), who is obsessed with wood-carvings of bears, and who offers Merida the chance to change her mother’s mind with the help of a little dark magic cake. Returning to the castle, Merida gives her mother the magic cake, thinking that it will change her mind. Instead, it literally transforms the queen into a huge, hulking bear. From what I can see, this is a twist for Pixar but as familiar to its parent company, Disney as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog. The one big difference in all of the movies compared to Brave

is the woman who makes the heroine’s life miserable is not her stepmother but her own mother.

Merida has a huge passion in archery.

Starting from the climax of the movie where the queen transforms into a bear, it’s all focus down on the relationship between Merida and her mother. The plot becomes more interesting with the aspects of responsibility, togetherness, selfishness and communication included when both of them, Merida and her mother tries to solve their problem before it is too late. In short, despite all of the trouble and difficulties of Merida face through with her bear mother, they managed to save each other’s life and the queen turns back into a human. Their mother-daughter relationship and bond grows even stronger and closer after the incident. The most important part of the film is how it managed to touch on the mother-daughter relationship despite the suspense in a humour way and at the same time leaves an effective impact towards the viewers.

Despite all of the touching scenes of ups and downs between Merida and her mother, what impress me the most is the main character herself which is not very common to have one in an animated princess story. The abundance of curly red hair of Merida is a standout for me. Merida’s red hair, according to Pixar, it was one of the most challenging animation tasks of the movie. In order to achieve the natural curl and bouncy 

Merida's hair is one of the most challenging animation task.

appearance, they created entirely new software. As it is hard and a long time to make a nice looking curly hair in reality, it also takes a long time to make one in animation. The hair and the attitude of the character show that the Disney and Pixar is trying to get out of the box from what they used to make a princess look and act like. Despite Elinor's desire to see Merida as a proper royal lady, Merida is an independent girl who wants to take control of her own destiny. Although she is very outgoing, forceful, headstrong and willful personality, Merida does have a softness of heart, particularly when it comes to her younger triplet brothers. These acceptable behavior of the main character could be an example that can be taken by the younger generations who watched this movie.

From left: King Fergus, Queen Elinor and Merida.

From what I can see nowadays, teenagers always have issues and misunderstandings with their own parents. This movie could be a good message in showing parents not to over control their kids and they should have good communication skills in dealing with their kids’ passion or hobbies. At the same time, this movie could also act as a lesson learned to the kids who always disobey their parents’ orders and disrespect them. Brave delves into various areas that Pixar has not previously explored and mostly comes out successful. Touching, funny and visually wonderful would be the best words to describe this movie. Overall, though it never reaches the level of major hits like Finding Nemo and Up, I believe that this a one worth watching movie.

Movie Review : Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

MOVIE REVIEW : HIKAYAT MERONG MAHAWANGSA
By: Nur Anisah Binti Che Yusof

Movie Poster : Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Movie Trailer of Hikayat Merong Mahwangsa

Talk about local films, Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is one of the films that had always crossed my mind. Released in 2011, it was a major hit in any debates forum by the locals. Some gave good comments, some gave the negative ones and some agree on both. As for myself, I admit that I rarely watch local movies, but what makes me watched Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is the movie’s trailer where it impresses me and makes me saying that this could be something epic from the KRU Studios. I must admit, by watching the trailer and the full movie, I can see two different perspectives that I can conclude. I can see that the trailer seems as good as other international movie trailers but it all leads to disappointment when I watched the whole movie.

One of the fighting scenes in Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is about a Roman prince named Marcus (Gavin Stenhouse), who has to travel to Langkasuka to marry a Chinese princess, Meng Li (Jing Lusi). Marcus came across Merong (Stephen Rahman-Hughes) at Goa where he thinks that Merong could help him get to Langkasuka safely due to Merong’s knowledge that has better and wider experience in the seas. It all became a chaos and panicked when they got attacked by a tribe called Geruda. At this point, there are a few elements in the movie that caught my attention and they are the props and costumes. The props are quite well-organized in the movie I would say but I am quite impressed with the costumes that they are wearing. It looks bold, strong and high-class type of materials. It is not easy to put on or create costumes as good as what they did. The sets especially the scenes at the palace and beaches are quite spectacular too. The beach looks stunning with the crystal clear water and the palace looks real too. Move on about the CGI effects, I am quite disappointed with what they have done in the movie. What I can is they kind of ever used the CGI effects and the colour editing is a bit too much for me. I know that they are trying to create an old before century feeling kind of scenes by put on an old, deep and contrast colour in the film, but over doing it is kind of ruin the quality of the cinematography.

The character Embok played by Ummi Nazeera

Despite the sets and the costumes, from all of the characters in the movie, I would say that the character Embok (Ummi Nazeera) is my favourite one and I think she nailed it in the movie. For me, she was the best actress in the movie and I have no doubt about it. What makes me fall in love with her character in the movie is when she plays as Embok who have a mysterious character. She delivers her lines perfectly with her best mood in the movie. Although she appeared briefly in the movie, I think that she made her only few appearances memorable. Besides, I think that she is really beautiful with her look of a true Malay women’s face and her decent way of sayings in the movie.

Moving on to the scripts and storytelling of the movie, I thought that the movie could improve more on the scripts because it was pretty decent I would say. Some of the humour and jokes that they are trying to create are just not right for the movie I guess. But there is one scene that I think it does not even make sense at all is when Marcus (Gavin Stenhouse) got stabbed in the stomach by Kamawas (Khir Rahman) with a big gigantic sword. According to a logic mother nature, the stabbing is surely enough to make one person dies but in the movie, moving slightly towards the end, he show up and barely still alive. Yes, there are scars and a bandage wrapped around his body but still, it is not a logic thing that he could still be alive. That is the one part that I just think it does not make sense at all.

Regardless all that, I think Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa still have its own place in the hearts of the viewers. The movie has its own strength and weaknesses which I think it is a good movie to make a review about especially among us, the young generations. For a local movie, I think KRU Studios made a great effort in bringing our movie internationally and we, as the generations Y should have taken this as a guidance for us in producing a well-rated movie one day.