Thursday 20 August 2015

Brothers Love


Brothers Love
            Bunohan is a Malaysian drama thriller and it is directed by Dain Iskander Said. The film manages to win praise from audiences in Toronto International Film Festival for its' poetic narration and beautiful cinematography. The film won 8 awards in 25th Malaysian Film Festival.


            The story is surrounding the life of 3 half-brothers who share the same father with different mother. Adil, a Muay Thai fighter who falls into trouble after he flees from an illegal death match. Bakar, a teacher who resides in Kuala Lumpur returns home to claim his father's land. Ilham, a killer who hired to execute his own brother, Adil. 3 of them come back to their hometown, Bunohan to uncover a string of dark secret and family affair.
            The theme explores the theme of dysfunctional family relationships. Viewers would be confused to label this film as an action film with all the fighting scenes in the trailer. However, those action scenes are only a small part of the storyline. Director Dain Iskandar Said cleverly explores the dark side mentality of human nature in an artistic and philosophical approach, but not to lose the sense of realistic feel to the movie. This forms a connection with viewers as the theme of family drama is easily related to the audiences.
            The essence of masculinity is flowing thru the movie with intense fight scene and man-to-man family affair and business. Female character is reduced to minimal as male characters take the lead in the film Bunohan. The lack of woman’s existence in a family like the presence of a mother figure creates a dysfunction family situation as the brothers estrange from each other with their father. The movie explores different stages of life focus on the role of a man. The father represents the old generation with regretful past, Adil represents the youth with dream, Bakar represents a family man who struggles in the city and Ilham represents a man with twisted mind who challenge the society rule.
            Adil, the youngest son who estranged from the dysfunction family with only his father remains. He spotted to carry a slightly long hair with razor shaved on the side. The punk hairstyle is his way to express his angst and rebellion. Also, he is constantly wearing shorts as if he is ready to pick up a fight. This shows he is a person with passion for Muay Thai and aggressive in daily interaction. He has no choice but to hide in his hometown as he runs away from a death match. In the scene where he visits his home for the first time after he left many years ago, he opens a box with photos and letters. This indicates no matter how bad a family tears apart, Adil still loves his family from the bottom of his heart, especially for his mother. In the sub sequential scene, Adil has a conflict with his father. It reviewed his stepmother and elder brother had been constantly bullying him in the past. Adil is disappointed of his father for not taking any action as he wishes. This shows strong relationship of father and son, yet the painful experience have lead Adil to turn away from his father. Even though Adil still cares for his father, he could not forgive him. Father is an important role to a family as he bears most responsibility to shape his family. It would become a social issue if their children's well-being is neglected.

            While Adil is having conversation with his life saver, one of them quotes:" in darkness, there is brightness." The background is a wooden house after sunset, lights from light bulb creates contrast lighting effect on actors and building. Although Adil owns a lot of debts to the fight arena promoter, yet he remains focus to pay it back with another Muay Thai match. It reminds to audiences never give up too early as there are always hope around the corner.
In the final act, Adil is falling down on the arena as the poison tries to kill him, scene changes its' pace to slow motion with shaky and spinning camera ankle with silence in sound. This technique stimulates the similar nausea and uncomforted feeling from Adil's psychical condition. It creates a moment before climax scene as audiences are longing to discover what will happen next.
Bakar, the middle child in the family and a high school teacher who married with wife and kids. However, he comes back to Bunohan to persuade his father to sell the land to contractor for resort construction. He always well-dressed and wears a pair of glasses thru the film and it gives the impression of an educated citizen image. However, he is the mastermind behind most of the evil plans. In a traditional coffee shop, he will discuss his plan with the long haired contractor. The setup of coffee shop is sending message of plain and simple is the way of Bunohan as this town is a village far away from the city. The unbalanced development in both different places create riff and misunderstanding issue between city people and village people as it shows on Bakar and  his father. Their plan to sell the land turns into vain as their father refuses to obey. The father then lit a cigarette and blows smoke around himself while Bakar remains quiet. This shows the father is annoyed and discomforted to this idea as Bakar is feared for his father’s authority. At night time Bakar is having one-on-one conversation with his father. The setup is a room separated by a wall with one room switch on its’ light and the other one remains darkness. This shows both father and Bakar have strong disagreement ina very contrast way. The wall symbolizes the emotion barrier as they unable to having a normal conversation without getting into quarrel.

As Bakar is getting desperate, he pays money to Adil’s friend to kill Adil. A scene with fishes dead in the pond and the house Adil’s friend stays at is indicating he is a poor man who seeks for help. He lives with his sick mother in a small wooden house with no other houses around that area. This shows the isolation and desperation in a remote land as no one could reach for them. The betrayal of Adil’s friend shows the ugly side of poverty in reality as good people is forced to commit crime when they seduced with money in poor condition. The gap between lower class and upper class people are getting wider and more obvious, especially in a small village where job opportunities are rare and places are under-development.

In the final act, Bakar attempts to murder his father in a beach. Cloudy sky with grey tone to suggest something bad might happen. Crime scene is placed far from camera and cover in blanket with light comes from the lantern. This setting suggests focal point in the middle while allows audiences to interact more with the story as they would try to figure out what will happen next to Bakar and the father.
The character Bakar is a representation of our judgmental and prejudice society. People tend to label another person from their first impression, hence the mindset of dressing well equal educated good people. However, it is not the same case with Bakar as he tries to kill his own father. Family members are hurting each other when property is at stake. It shows how money could corrupt a person’s soul as it outweighs its’ value over family bond in the materialistic world we live.

Ilham, the oldest son is a ruthless and gruesome killer who slits his victims’ throat during assassination. Ilham firstly introduced to the scene when he kills his target in the shower room. It shows he is well executed in decision making and an experienced killer. For his second assassination, he kills the Chinese man who shares important information in the bird shop. Although Chinese man spills out the secret, Ilham still kills him. This scene shows Ilham is a cruel person as nobody could escape from him even when they beg for their lives. After he returns to Bunohan, he stays in a boat-like house. Boat is a symbol of freedom and journey for Ilham who leaves the village long times ago. A refurbish boat is a meaning of Ilham’s’ will to settle down in Bunohan so he could lives with his brother, Adil, his next target. Later, Ilham is walking on a sandy beach to visit his mother’s tomb. The bright sky landscape symbolize the good mood of Ilham while the white sand represents the mother image in Ilham’s mind, a graceful and mercy mother. It shows Ilham’s mother presence helps to calm his nerve. Near the river, killer initiates the conversation with a bird to confess his feeling as a killer. At night, he would dig the grave by himself at the beach. The gray tone of each shot evokes the emotion of sadness, depression and loneliness. He is finding his way to atone his sin as he feels disappointed for himself when he faces his mother’s tomb. He wishes he could be someone else besides a killer who kills innocent people as it would make his mother proud, but he is not.

On the beach, Ilham is hurted for attempts murder his half-brother, Adil. He believes Adil is the reason of his mother’s tomb being destroyed. At night after Ilham falls asleep, the old mini TV shows a bunch of random footages to suggest his mind in a state of confusion and chaos. The montage alike sequence allows audiences have a glimpse of the past of Ilham.
In the final act, Ilham tries to beg for Adil’s life to be spared. Unfortunately, the fight arena promoter’s bestman disagree and kill for not obey the order. Cloudy sky with dark night gives a touch of goth and devilish essence. Ilham is lying on the beach by himself as sea waves hit on his body. Perhaps this is the result he wants as he decides to protect his little brother till his last breath and a way of payback to lost soul he harms in the past. Ilham is by far the most interesting character as he demonstrates the evil of society. He choose the wrong path in his life after he neglected by his father who married 3 women. This fuels his hatred even more as his mother is dying alone. This shows the importance of human interaction on daily basis as no one should left behind.  The generation gap in family creates a serious problem if it doesn’t solve with communication.
For the father, he is a man who cherishes traditional culture and artwork. In the movie, he sews the Malay kite and plays with shadow puppets most of the time. In the crime scene, he is covered with cloth to entertain himself with shadow puppet at night. It is his passion to protect his culture. Also, Malay culture music in Muay Thai fight match in Bunohan is another highlight of the movie. The fast rhythm and high tempo music effect brings out the intensity of the fighting scene. The film shows appreciation to Malay culture and heritage to enlighten people more about the local art scene.
The movie is definitely worth to watch as the scenic shots of tropical jungle, sandy beach and crystal clear ponds would seduce the audiences’ mind to plan a trip to Kelantan for its’ breathtaking scenery.




Reference
Chew, J. (2012, March 7). Review: Bunohan. Retrieved from
Chong, C. (2012, December 3). Movie Review: Bunoohan (Return to Murder). Retrieved from
Orlok666. (2012, May 22). A Return to The Roots. Retrieved from















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