Monday, March 26, 2007

`Penyesalan Tak Berakhir' to end Julian's filming `penyesalan' ?

`Penyesalan tak Berakhir' well received !After screening 3 exciting shorts we went into the 62 min feature by Julian Cheah. A well received film if we go by the positive responses after the screening. A few things stood out : the `low budget' Rm18k film was done with a 1-man crew ie the director/actor/etc etc -Julian Cheah ! He even filmed himself when he was acting his part !

The film did utilised an imported talent of a recognised TV actress who played the lead actress role effectively. The film's simplicity did not detract from the fact that its story focus on a nerve centre of Malaysia's almost unrivaled urbanisation -from 30% in 1970 to 70% in 2005. But the price of broken or strained family relation is poignantly played out in the film-which was telling a story of how a son who left for the city neglected his adopted mother -and regretted too late when he found his mother dying in a paddy field in the closing scene.

The scenes of rural life was much appreciated by the audience too -the eating of sireh, the washing of cloth by getting water from a well; the grinding of curry herbs etc. The using of royalty paid traditional Malay music was also a plus for the film.

Some critcisms were raised about the simplicity of the film which did not adequately explained the crucial change of the son from the cold hearted self to another where he went back to the village to look for his mother. It happened after a series of events which unfolded relatively quickly in a slow moving film : 1st the predicament of the old women caught attention of a by-stander (Willian played by Julian)-who happen to know his son-who then confronted the son Borhan/Jeff-which was noticed by his girlfriend-who then wanted to split from him and stop the fund for Borhan/Jeff's housing project. Did Borhan change his heart due to sincere regret -or simply another cold hearted calculation to hang on to the financing for his housing project ?

The ending scene where the old lady was found dying in a paddy field was found to be inadequately explained by some members of the audience. May be it would be better if she could be found dying near a fishing pond, someone suggested.

Some suggestions to improve the film eg the walk from the village to Borhan's city apartment by the old lady was not shown to show the effort of the old lady need to make to see her son. Another was some helpful lines which tell of how many youngsters had left for the city and run into emotional crisis with their family -to solidly contextualise the story in the bigger social `movement' of Malaysians from rural to urban society.

Instead of making his own film Julian actually made this film where the inspiration came from one of the actors in the film-a neighbour who sympathised with the old lady's predicament. Ther are different opinions as to if this is good or if Julian should keep to making his own films to emphaisze authorial authenticity. However all agreed that this film was a marked improvement from the last 2 shown here-something which Julian himself did not quite agree-he thought that all his films are different.

Review by : Ong BK

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