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
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