BUANASENI

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Title: Bunohan ~ Type: Movie ~ Genre: Malay Thriller Drama ~ Year: 2012 ~ Length: 1 hour 37 minutes ~ Writer & Director: Dain Iskandar Said ~ Producers: Nandita Solomon / Apparat ~ Casts: Faizal Hussein, Zahril Adzim, Pekin Ibrahim & Bront Palarae UNOHAN is a Kelantanese cinematic experience. This thriller drama is presented in the Kelantanese dialec (Klate) all the way. Not coming from the state of Kelantan, I was forced to read the subtitles save for some few words that I understand. Even the word Bunohan was pronounced Bunoh'e. The actors must have practised speaking Klate real hard because those actors,... I don't think they are Kelantanese. Nevertheless, the movie is fantastic. I was surprised to have enjoyed a relatively simple story. That has to be because of a very well production work done for it. Two thumbs up for Dain, the writter and director.

Bunohan literally means "murder" in Bahasa Malaysia. No doubt the movie does have a lot of murderous scenes, but what is interesting is that, the movie was shot at a town called Bunohan near the border of Malaysia-Thailand in the state of Kelantan. I must say that the cinematography is fantastic. Kelantan offers beautiful scenery in the villages, forests, beaches, etc. That, coupled with brilliant angle, effects and 'poetic'ally organised photography, produces a magnificant piece of art work from cinematography point of view. It creates the mood necessary for the movie, i.e. dark and suspense. My favourite scenes are the ones involving a grave yard by the beach where you can see hundreds of tomb stones sticking out from the sandy beach that is flanked by a melancholic ocean waves as if saying good bye to the departed and sheltered by the dark clouds above.

My initial thoughts when I heard that Faizal Hussein was going to be in it wasn't that impressive because I could not imagine how someone like him can bring a dark role. Faizal is famous for his acting as playful teenager given his boyish look. It seems that he has lost that boyish look and has gone brutal - Magnificent acting by Faizal! Bront Palarae has always been a good actor. The only issue here is that he doesn't appear as much as I hoped he would. Zahril is a new and young actor who proved himself well in a TV-drama series Juvana. In Bunohan, Zahril elevated his career and acting quality. Pekin on the other hand is a mysterious one. I have never seen him before. For a mysterious guy, his mysterious acting was somewhat appropriate as well. The cinematography and acting present a quality worthy of the label "new age Malay movie" that can only manifest itself from a job well done by the director, Dain.

... an assasin who finds himself back in his hometown, Bunohan, for a 'job' to eliminate a tomoi (kickboxing) fighter named Bunga Lalang ...

The story line is relatively simple but powerful enough to create necessary actions surrounding it. It is about a battle over the custody of a land by the beach side which is used as a grave yard to the people of Bunohan. Three brothers have differing opinions over the matter. The eldest, Ilham (Faizal Hussein), is an assasin who finds himself back in his hometown, Bunohan, for a 'job' to eliminate a tomoi (kickboxing) fighter named Bunga Lalang - only to find himself caught in a family dispute over custody of his father's land. The three brothers, it seems, share different mothers. Bakar (Pekin), a younger brother, is determined to win custody over the land as he has secured a viable development project that can only proceed if the land is available. The youngest of them all, Adil (Zahril), left town in protest of his brother Bakar and finds his way in the rough-life of Thailand.

Ilham was accompanied by a fellow assasin, Deng (Bront), a dark character who knows no mercy. The deal gets thougher when the death of Bunga Lalang may not be achieved when the mysterious Bunga Lalang is actually the wonderer in Thailand who ran away from his family because of a land custody dispute. Apparently, Ilham has lost contact with his brothers too long that he had no clue that his target, Bunga Lalang, is no other than his brother, Adil. When family gets intertwined with business, it gets messy. What is more interesting is that, Bunga Lalang had to return to Bunohan for a tomoi fight to settle old debts of his guardian, a tomoi-house-master. In Bunohan, they all met. Everything that needs to happen, happened, inclusive of bunohan (murder).

In the end, the land where "hundreds of tomb stones sticking out from the sandy beach that is flanked by a melancholic ocean waves as if saying good bye to the departed and sheltered by the dark clouds above" had to fall under someone's hand. Whose hands will it be? Well, for you Malaysians, please support local industry! The movie is no longer in the cinemas but the original DVDs are available.

... hundreds of tomb stones sticking out from the sandy beach that is flanked by a melancholic ocean waves as if saying good bye to the departed and sheltered by the dark clouds above ...