Abang-Rahim Razali (1981)

Abang is refered to brother in the Malay context. As a sign of respect, the word Abang is usually added in front of the person’s name before addressing the person. In the Malay society, Abang plays a vital role and as the eldest son, he is basically in charge of everything. Abang usually is the heart and soul of the family, the one that brings the family together as one. He is usually the decision maker.

Rahim Razali , a Malaysian director and a well-known actor in a few major movies such as Puteri Gunung Ledang, Muallaf and etc. Not forgetting that he stars in his own movie Abang 1981 as the main role, Fuad. He won the best male actor in the 2^nd Malaysian Film Festival 1981. Abang is also known as Big Brother in English.

Synopsis:

According to Filem Malaysia the story goes like this the oldest son and heir apparent to a wealthy Kuala Lumpur family returns home after his sudden departure to London a decade ago. His family struggle with their emotions about his return while he tries to make life as normal as he possibly know how and keep his secret intact.

Review:

Abang is a movie full of hybridity involved in it. Language and culture hybridity are despict obviously throughout the whole film. The Din’s Family is a modern, rich family who owns a family business. Din and his wife have 3 sons and 1 daughter named Fuad, Faizal, Farid and Dila respectively.

In language hybridity, the family uses quite a number of English terms in their daily conversation. The words such as “shut up”, “I” and sentences such as “A ghost from the past” are being used. Even the malay accent is slightly westernized. It is very obvious that they are rich and educated people as Dila plays the piano which is pricey in cost to learn.

The culture hybridity can be seen transparently throughout the whole film. The Din’s family dresses up in modern, westernized clothes. Guys are seen in bell bottom jeans with shirts. Whereas the girls wore dresses, skirts and tube tops. Tube tops are against the malay customs as it is skin revealing but the Din’s family are fine with how the way Dila and Nazreen dress up. This proves that they accept the western fashion style and infused a bit of traditional clothing where Mona wears a baju kurung. But they are all tudung-less as they never use a veil to cover their heads.

Other than that, they drink alcohol, smoke cigar and did the welcoming party in a western style. The welcome party done by Din’s family and also the villagers back in the kampung is totally different. The Di’s family has chefs, Englishmen, Dila playing the piano and people walking around with their cocktail glasses. Whereas the party organized by the villagers are much more traditional, where there are people playing traditional instruments such as kompang and singing traditional songs. People in the village also are more united as all of them take part in the party. The school teacher was the chef, the chief of the village was the organizer and etc. These 2 scenes show the main differences between an urban people and a villager who lives in the kampung.

Every movie provides valuable lessons for us to learn. Nevertheless, Abang did provide me with important lessons. Responsibility as the eldest. I totally can relate myself to Abang Fuad as I am also the eldest in my family. The responsibility that the eldest hold is quite a huge weight; I would not use burden as for me it is a positive thing. Abang Fuad saves his sister from danger and got himself an incurable illness. He came back to save his family and bring them back to their roots. He saves his brother, Farid from a scam and educates him to be much more intellectual and be smart in making decisions.

Leaving his beloved family, his girlfriend who bears his only child without any early notice is a heart breaking thing to do.  But Abang Fuad had to take this action because he knew that Faizal likes Mona and she deserves to be with a man that can give her a bright future and his child deserves to have a healthy father. When Fuad knows that he does not have much time left, he rushes back to Kuala Lumpur in a short notice and put his family members in awe as they did not know what to aspect from him. He knows that he needs to patch things back before he leaves the world.

The part that I like in this 2hour film is the part where Fuad went back to the village. He played the “tarik nipah” game with the kids where one is supposed to drag another on a coconut leaf and races to the finish line. Fuad swims in the waterfall, cycles around the village on a bicycle, climbs a coconut tree and stays in a wooden house. These all reminds me of my childhood memories in my kampung. It brings back a sense of nostalgic that one can relates easily when one are not born in the city.

The scene that I dislike is when Fuad went to seek forgiveness from Mona. The editing of it is poorly done. Shots are repeated and it makes my head goes everywhere wondering what is happening. Shots of a bright day view of the house in intercut with a night scene which is totally out of place. Maybe this was the mistake done by the editor or a technique used by him which I totally do not get it.

In mise-en-scene, the only part that I dislike was the script. The scriptwriter uses a lot of words just to emphasize 1 thing. For example, to portray disgusting, the scriptwriter uses words such as “jijik”, “geli” and “keji” all in one sentence. This to me is too much of exaggerating that one particular word. Other than that, the scenery and setting was applicable to the scenes and soft lights are used most of the time. The movie’s mise-en-scene was appropriate to me as it was a 1980’s film.

Overall, despite it is a slow pace movie, I am still a huge fan of drama and romance. So this movie is my cup of tea. I did cry at the end when Fuad died and knowing that what he went through for his family. Hiding a secret that huge was not an easy thing to do. I did not expect that the movie would have that impact on me when I watch it in tutorial class. But when I watched it again, it did have a meaningful storyline about love, family and responsibility. I did not regret watching it and even my dad said it was a good movie. Surprisingly, he watched Abang too.

So, thumbs up for Abang. =)