Film Journal 3 - Authorship of U-Wei bin Haji Saari

U-Wei bin Haji Saari is considered as an author in Malaysia. This is because his filming styles, editing and camera techniques are presented in sophisticated and affluent way to reveal himself as Malay, or husband and father in a family as well as a citizen in the society.

There are two films that have been chosen to analyze his style which are Kaki Bakar and Jogho. Kaki Bakar is talking about a Javanese man Kakang and his family that living in a local Malay society on how to survive and struggle between his values and the ethnic of the local society in way of being exaggerated as Kakang burns the Encik Kassim’s house that he think this person has threaten his life and his values. While Jogho shows a Malay Jogho that lives in a village called Patani in Thailand, due to the tragedy happens after competition, he tries to find out the murderer but refuses to kill him at the end of story to avoid more tragedies happen among their races. However, he has been caught in the charge of murdering.

Firstly, both films actually show the ethnic, traditions, and lifestyle of Malay society in rural area based on the point of view of Javanese and the Malay Jogho. In his films, Malay society is a patriarchal society that the men who represent masculinity will be the decision makers and rulers of the society. For example, in Kaki Bakar, Pak Empat is the judge for the local Malay society and everyone in the village should admire him while Kakang is the decision maker for his family. In Jogho, Mamat will be the decision maker for his family and his team in bull competition. Moreover, settings of U-Wei films always in rural area to represent the Malay society in terms of values, ethnics and traditions that did not being westernized and modernized. For example, the location setting of Kaki Bakar is a village at Kelantan while Jogho is a Malay village in Patani, Thailand which near Kelantan.

Both films also reflect the struggle of their ethnics among Malays and Malays as well as Javanese. For example, Kakang refuse to send his sons to school as he thinks that he can teach them about their religions, traditions and values. In Jogho, Mamat has sent his son to Kelantan for his study even Mamat lives in Patani, Thailand. Moreover, U-Wei tends to highlight the social inequalities in the Malay society such as Kakang is punished by the Pak Empat in the court to pay RM 400 for the carpet even he has cleaned up and send back to Kassim’s house. In film Jogho, Lazim’s death does not get some attention from police but Isa’s son and Dolah death have cause Mamat to be caught by police in the charge of murder them. However, both films present the values of justice and honour in the way of somehow being exaggerated and extreme. For example, the slogan blood must be paid in blood in Jogho, and Kakang burns other house in Kaki Bakar. This is cruel and uncivilized solution in handling problems that they face.

Apart from this, the director tries to show that Malays are family oriented and their unconditional love to their family such as Kakang works hard for his family and he tries hard to get a place for them to live stable in longer time. However, U-Wei has presented this kind of love in larger form such as neighbor and friends love as well as love to his race. For instance, Mamat loves his family so he cares his daughter’s asthma. Mamat loves his friends and also their family so he tries to find out the murderer and gives money to Lazim’s family as well as helps Lazim’s son for not to be arrested by police. Mamat loves his race because he does not trigger the gun to shoot Isa to avoid hatreds spreading to the society. This is the part that U-Wei has extended it and this is the part that I like as well as what he says to Isa that he don’t want to kill Isa because they are Patani Malays.

Apart from this, there are some improvements in female roles in the film. U-Wei extends the role of female to show that male show their respect to female and female should support their husband decision whatever is wrong or right. For instance, compare to Kaki Bakar, females in film Jogho have the chance to voice out their opinions and dissatisfaction such as Mamat wife voice out her opinions about the bull competition when speaking to Mamat in kitchen and Mamat does not shout to her even she strongly against his decision in bull competition. However, in Kaki Bakar, females have no chance to voice out their opinions.

The music is presented with traditional instruments in the sense of horror to show the seriousness in the film. However, the quality of music has improved compare to Kaki Bakar as it has better mixing and adding more ambience sound in Jogho. Lastly, U-Wei likes to use tracking shot especially at the beginning or ending of the scene in order to guide audience to understand and merge into the story. For instance, long pan shot at the beginning of movie, crane shot in police station and dolly shot at the end of movie.

In conclusion, these two films have presented that U-Wei as an author and how he define and interpret his own traditional values and culture. However, the bad night scene has made a stain in the films. He could improve this in his further films to show betterment in viewing night scene.

Reference:

Slater, B. (n.d.). U-Wei bin Haji Saari: indie Malaysian filmmaker. Retrieved from
http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/film/feature/u-wei-bin-haji-saari-indie-malaysian-filmmaker

Owen, S. G. (2000, February 8). Traditional Film Camera Techniques. Retrieved from
http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/cameras/
traditional_film_camera_techniqu.htm

Film Journal 2: Abang

The movie” Abang” was produced in 1981 which directed by Datuk Rahim Razali. This film is talking about the protagonist, the eldest brother Fuad want to fulfill his will before he dies in leukemia. In the beginning of film, he comes back from London after leaving from his family for 10 years. Some of his family members are angry and panic while some of them fear or happy. Despite Fuad’s return is not fully welcomed, he talks with his siblings, Faizal and Farid in order to enlighten and encourage them to face their life. Moreover, he also seek for apologize from Mona but Mona refuses to forgive him. After he has completed his mission, he goes back to his hometown and enjoys his life in small village. However, he dies at the end of film after his family members realize that he gets deadly disease.

Basically, this movie explains the hybridity of Malays before Islamic revivalism. There are four forms of hybridity which are cultural, gender, language, and racial. However, there are only three form of hybridity in this movie. First will be the cultural hybridity. Cultural hybridity means that the mixture of the Malay east culture and western culture. It can be represented in their wearing, house design and so on. For example, most characters in the movie except villagers are wearing western style, the protagonist Fuad goes pub and listens his sister’s singing contest, the westernize house design and etc. This also shown the penetration of Islam is still not deep as it clearly makes a clear contrast between city and village. Girls in city are not wearing tudung but girls in village do wear tudung.

Language hybridity is shown in the conversation. They usually speak in mixture of English and Malay. It shows the high education level of Malay during that time as they can speak English and Malay fluently. For example, Faizal said ghost is past in the beginning of movie, Fuad said think when he is persuading Mona and etc. This movie also reflects the racial hybridity that there are different races in one movie. It also clearly portray that Malaysia is a multi-cultural society that all culture are merged together. Moreover, it also shows the openness of Malaysian that willing to accept other cultures. For example, there are Chinese people shown in the elevator scene at the beginning of this movie and Fuad father’s secretary is a Chinese.

Moreover, this movie shares the reviews that implemented to the traditional Malay society and culture which boys are more preferable than girls. It can be shown at the father of Fuad who thinks that his sons join to his company for helping him in his business but he let his daughter to do what her want. It clearly presents authentic masculinity in this film that men are the decision maker. The person representing masculinity is Brother Fuad. He persuades all his younger brothers in the manner of being elder. Moreover, he is the person who solve the problems that exist in the film.

This movie is actually giving a solution to Malay on the question of searching themselves throughout the protagonist, Brother Fuad. This movie use Fuad family to represent the modern Malays that speaks the mixture of Malay and English. Moreover, the director tends to use Brother Fuad as the elder and wiser to guide modern Malay. Brother Fuad has the characteristics of honest, polite, noble, dignity and etc to teach Malays about the manner and moral values that should have in order to be true Malay. For example, the conversations between Fuad, Faizal, Farid and Mona have presented the values and morality to the Malays. After that, the return of Fuad to his hometown, the small village means that they should not forget their origin and to be grateful to where they come from even want to be success and educated.

The editing and camera angle of this movie is reasonable and smooth. Although there is no any dramatic or stylist technique used in the movie, the film makes a smooth and clear editing that audience would easily understand the plot and what is happening in the film. However, the sudden jump cut that found in Youtube is rather serious but could be believed that the jump cut is not the original film that it has but ruined by third party in another time.

I like this movie because it portrays the relationship between siblings which have a strong bond and cannot be interfered by their negative emotions towards their eldest brother. For example, even Farid and Faizal are fear and angry to brother Fuad but they still respect and love their brother, Fuad. In Faizal and Fuad’s conversations, Faizal has said that whole family are still happy when heard his return even they fear or angry or panic. To represent the happiness, he repeats four times of happy instead s of other emotion such as panic, angry and fear.

Film Journal: Selubung

The movie ‘Selubung’ was produced in 1992 which directed by Shuhaimi Baba. The plot of this movie is about a modern Malay woman, Mastura who joined to the organization ‘Rescaid’ after her studies in Perth, Australia. In the beginning of the movie, Mastura was trying to help her friend E.J. from joining the religious extremist group but failed. When she came back to Malaysia, she joined the voluntary organization ‘Rescaid’ in order to help Palestine children to evade from the war. From time to time, she fell in love to a guy called Kamal but she tends to escape from him because he was a husband of other person. However, problem solved when Kamal was divorced. She also influenced EJ and Kamal to join the organization. When everything was going well, tragedy has come to her that some radicals tried to bomb the office of Rescaid and Mastura was coma after the strikes. At the end of the story, Mastura was finally recovered and came back to the Rescaid.

Basically, I like the idea that Shuhaimi Baba want to present in the film. The background of this story is that it reflects the rudeness of war that happened in Israel. The war between Israelis and Palestinians are endless and cruelty due to their conflicts are unsolvable in terms of religions, division of lands, hatred between them and etc as well as it relates to the benefit of western countries. For example, there’s a part that Lebanon refugees camp where Halim and Brother Musa stayed was under attack by enemies and a lot of people died. This scene actually has reflected the savages of war that happened in Middle-East. When it compares to Kuala Lumpur where Mastura lives, this is far more peaceful and harmony than Israel and Lebanon.

I like the part that Mastura refuse to see Kamal and reject him when heard that Kamal is married. This shows the happening of feminism in Malay women. In this movie, women are often represented as well educated as they speak a mixture of English and Malay. Moreover, Mastura as the main protagonist of this film has perfectly performed as a modern Malay woman with the characteristic of independent, strong-minded, and decision making. However, there is another type of feminism represented in this film that they are follower, weak, unconfident, and speak with a weak and soft sound whose EJ is the person reflecting this type of feminism. For example, when EJ decides to marry with Brother Musa, she has become a woman that follows what Brother Musa said and ritual of Islam.

I feel dislike on the editing of this film. This is because bad skill of editing such as jump cut has ruined the flow of the film and confused the audiences about the events that happening in this film. For example, Mastura has met Kamal in the dinner party, after that it suddenly jump to another scene which Mastura met her father. Moreover, there is a scene that Mastura walks away to escape from Kamal when Kamal leave for a moment, and then suddenly goes to the scene that EJ speaks to Mastura. This are also considered as jump cut. In fact, there is some scene that edited by Astro that leads to jump cut such as when Mastura is chatting with Kamal about Pintu album, it suddenly goes to the scene that EJ sitting at the beach and watching to the fire.

The scene that I have chosen is the scene that EJ is going to marry with Brother Musa and Mastura wants to have a talk with EJ. The place taken is a park in the University. There are six people appeared in this scene who are Brother Musa, Hani, EJ, Halim, Mastura, and Zek.

Firstly, the costume and props that they are wearing and taking represent their different situation and school of thoughts. At the side of Brother Musa, they are wearing the Middle East Islamic costume and Brother Musa is holding a bead in his right hand. It represents the meaning that they are loyal to their religion, traditional and conservative. While at the side of Mastura, they are wearing t-shirt, jacket, and skirt that represent modern wearing as well as Mastura holds a file in her left hand. It means that they are modern, liberal and open-minded.

Moreover, the way that they walk is also reflecting their difference. Brother Musa is walking in front while EJ and Hani are walking behind him. It shows the ruling of masculinity over the feminism. This portrays that women must be followers and all decisions are made by men. When looks at Mastura and her friends, they walk together in a parallel line. It means the gender equality that men are same with women and all of them should be in the same position.

Their way of speaking also represents their characteristic. When Mastura is questioning to Brother Musa, she tends to be like more confident and dare to face the authority. Her eyes is firm and steady when look at Brother Musa. It shows the modern feminism. While EJ speaks soft and gently, and her eyes are looking around that she tries to escape from looking at Mastura. This is the first portrayal of feminism. Brother Musa is representing the ruling role. His eyes are always looking higher sight and he speaks arrogantly to shows his authorities and power.

References

The Jump Cut. (n.d.) Retrieved November 15, from http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/transition/jump-cut.html

The Origin of Israel-Palestine Conflict. (n.d.) Retrieved November 15, from http://www.ifamericaknew.org/history/origin.html

Selubung 1992, (n.d.) Retrieved November 15, from http://idanerina.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=26