FILM REVIEW - 4
Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah was created by
Mamat Khalid on 2011. The story was about Husin has been working in Singapore
for some time and decides to return to his hometown, Kampung Pisang. Upon
returning, he feels that his neighbour Mak Limah is strange as she does not
speak and sleep. After that he tells villagers at the Mamak stall that Mak
Limah might be a ghost. Pak Abu decides they should investigate further but
when they go to her house, she is already a rotting corpse!
However, things get more interesting when the village is haunted by strange occurrences,
despite the burial of Kak Limah.
The director presents some of the political
situations of Malaysia in this film. For example:
2. In a scene,
Hussein said that he want to bring along his fiancée to leave the village
because he hoped the government would give him some subsidy when he was in
the Banana Village but he didn’t get it. After he worked at Singapore, he became
a supervisor. In this situation its means that government doesn’t care
about the small village so the villager try to find a way to build up
their economy.
3. The SGD currency
rate is different with Malaysia ringgit. It will higher than Malaysia, so
many people like to work at Singapore is part of the reason. As Hussein
also has mentioned in the film, his salary is 2000 sin dollar so he can
married with his fiancée. Nowadays, Malaysia ringgit is getting lower and
economic is not good as past, so we have to think before we use the money.
What is the genre of this film?
What is the genre of this film?
It is a mix genre for this film. In this film, it
includes fiction, comedy, horror and mystery. The director, Mamat Khalid used
different genre to attract audiences instead of 1 genre. So that, it will be
more interesting compare to others film.
How do you think about the development of commercial
film in Malaysia?
We use history of Malaysian cinema to
explain the development of commercial film in Malaysia.
Most of the P. Ramlee’s films do not
portray Islamic rituals but focus on one’s characters and actions in 1929 -
1973. However, all the themes of films from late of 1940-60s were focused on
royal transgressions, unrequired love, forced marriage or evil stepmother. Moreover,
P.Ramlee’s first directional effort touched on social and economic divisions
within the Malay community, a theme constantly returned to in his work.
After that, Merdeka studios produced 14
films in black and white and many of the films were unsuccessful. In 1964, Shaw
Brothers bought over Merdeka Studios and renamed it as Merdeka Film
Productions. However, today, it is the headquarters of the FINAS.
FINAS is a response to the community’s
appeal for government assistance to improve and develop the industry by various
means including the provision of research and advisory services. FINAS
stipulated that a company can only do two of three functions which mean
production, distribution or exhibition in order to avoid monopoly by a certain
party.
Other than that, government creates a film
censorship law in Malaysia to regulate the production and exhibition of local
and foreign films in post 1980. Government will ban some of the film that
includes any communication topic about religious, culture and political. Moreover,
filmmakers concerned with film as commentaries to socio-political issues. For
example, the director used different ways to show the current political situation
of Malaysia instead of present it directly in the film of Hantu Kak Limah Balik
Rumah.
In my opinion, we
suggest to provide subtitle in every film no matter it is a Malay, Indian or Chinese
film. It is because audience will very hard to understand some of the message
that character want to bring out. For example, Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah film
without any subtitle, so the audiences are very hard to understand their conversation
especially they speak very fast.
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