Finally, the long awaited Malaysian movie of the year was released a few days ago. For those who haven’t heard of this movie, check out the trailer below. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is based loosely on the actual Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa that written in the 16th Century (historians are still unsure exactly when it was written).
I went to see it with my family a few days ago and this is by far the best action-epic movie that a Malaysian producer has ever made. It was amazing. The cast, the fighting scenes and the special effects.
Anyway, here are my reviews [SPOILER ALERT]:
- Very good action scene. Fast paced, realistic fighting choreography and impressive show of epic battles
- Interesting plot with sub-stories, although they could improve by providing more depth on other characters
- Excellent casting. They got the perfect hero, and the heroin
- Brilliant display of culture and dressing of the time (~2nd Century CE)
- Beautifully written classic Malay language, especially the poems, absolute classic
- Not so brilliant choice of music, they should have created a proper theme song
- The ending was a bit rush, you would agree if you had watched it. They could use a few more scenes to show what happened after the battle. For example, they could use a scene to show Merong’s body brought back to his village and Embok crying over his body, while putting her hand on her tummy (she was pregnant), saying “zuriat-zuriat mu akan berlansung dari kandunganku and jadilah mereka raja-raja yang teragung di tanah ini” (English: your descendants would live on from my womb and they would be great kings of this land). Yes, that was my modest attempt at classic Malay.
All in all, it was a great effort by KRU Studios. I felt really proud watching it. Malaysian production has come a long way, and this movie is definitely gonna make it internationally. They have room for improvement, and I hope from here onwards we’ll be creating even bigger and better epic movies!
Imran Jaafar 