Ilham (Faizal Hussein) arrives home in Bunohan
THE name of prolific filmmaker Dain Said's latest masterpiece is a real-life village in Kelantan, near the Malaysia-Thailand border, and its macabre name spells "murder" in English.
Murder, in its most gruesome manifestations, is present throughout this movie and so is its companion blood.
But Bunohan is not about murder and blood alone. It is about family, honour, greed and corruption — all emanating from and taking place in and around the tradition-bound village the film is named after.
Slow-moving and thought-provoking, thus requiring patience and more than one viewing, Bunohan tells the story of three brothers from the village who are estranged from their tok dalang father.
Adil (left) in a Thai boxing match with Muski
One brother is a hired killer whose weapon is a lawi ayam curved dagger. While he looks cold and mean, he is really a caring son who cherishes the memory of his late mother and is obsessed with finding her lost grave, relocated by a relative who wants possession of the land.
Another brother is like Tom Hanks' character, Michael Sullivan in the film Road To Perdition — damned if he does his job and damned if he does not. He is a muay thai boxer who, to earn a living, takes part in fight-to-death competitions in Pattani in southern Thailand. But he grows sick of his job and runs home, with his match organiser's hired killer in hot pursuit.
The third brother is educated, neat and tidy. But behind his polished image, he is the devil incarnate who stops at nothing to sell the family land and his village for money and power.
The three brothers are Ilham (Faizal Hussein, last seen in Abuya), Adil (Zahiril Adzim, last seen in Klip 3GP) and Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim, last seen in Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah).
They are sons of Pok Eng (Wan Hanafi Su, the Garuda King Of Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa) from different wives, so they do not know of each other's existence in the dysfunctional family.
Ilham, who once thought of working on ships and circling the globe, ends up a killer. Ruthless, yet cold, lonely and longing to be loved, he faces the biggest ordeal of his life when he learns that his next victim is his youngest brother Adil.
Muski (Amerul Affendi, right) helps Adil (Zahiril Adzim) escape from Thailand
After nearly losing his life at the hands of a cheating opponent, his best friend, Muski (Amerul Affendi, Zahiril's Air Con co-star), brings him back to Bunohan to be treated by Pok Wah.
There, Adil chooses to stay for good because he wants to find out more about his family and more importantly, he realises that returning to Thailand means death.
Bakar, the eldest brother and the only one with a paper qualification, is a teacher but he moonlights as an Ah Long and is part of a corrupt, urban businessman's circle.
He fails to con his father into parting with the ancestral land and has to resort to more cruel means to get rich quick.
When the three brothers and father finally meet, what ought to be a happy homecoming ends instead in tragedy that shatters the idyllic seaside village.
Meanwhile, the family receives visits from strange beings — a mysterious half-crocodile woman (Tengku Azura Awang) who introduces herself as Ilham's mother, Yah, and a boy in shorts addressed as Abang who speaks in the voice of an old man.
Bunohan, despite its bloody and dark story, showcases beautiful cinematography courtesy of breathtaking reed fields, mangrove swamps and muddy rivers.
While dialogue is minimal, the facial expressions, body language and colours of the various characters and scenes more than tell the tragic story of Pok Eng's crumbling family.
Acting is first class, especially Faizal whose complex Ilham bares his heart and soul to the viewers and receives their sympathy all the way.
He may be a sinner who slices throats and rips out guts, but his love for his mother and respect for family renders him an angel at heart.
We also shed more than a tear for young Adil as he marches or rather boxes his way to perdition. Zahiril takes on wounded characters with gusto and his real-life chum, Amerul, and their real-life arts teacher Nam Ron have excellent chemistry with each other.
Both Zahiril and Amerul took muay thai lessons and endured painful bashings to make their on-screen roles real.
As for Pekin, the Kelantanese lad has grown by leaps and bounds. Having previously played good boys on the big and small screens, his performance here is noteworthy.
The yuppie scum who stops at nothing to become a millionaire, not unlike Daniel Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, he deserves an award for the most despicable villain of 2012.
Bront Palarae and Sofi Jikan, who play the ruthless muay thai organisers, fit nicely into the scheme of things as they have always done in alpha male flicks.
Hot model Azura does justice to her role as a betrayed wife and the spirit of Ilham's mother, Yah. Her appearances in the reed fields are both scary and sexy.
A no-nonsense tale of good-in-evil and evil-in-good, Bunohan also shines on account of the actors' flawless dialogue in Kelantan dialect. While Pekin is the only Kelantanese in the main cast, Faizal's mastery of the dialect is second to none.
With much in common with a Quentin Tarantino or Terence Malick film, Bunohan is the country's most ambitious art film and ought to earn us awards at popular film festivals abroad. It has all the elements of a champion — compelling and thought-provoking story, solid acting, breathtaking cinematography and a no-nonsense director who thinks out of the box.
NOW SHOWING
Bunohan
Directed by Dain Said
Starring Faizal Hussein, Zahiril Adzim, Pekin Ibrahim, Wan Hanafi Su, Nam Rom, Amerul Affendi, Bront Palarae, Sofi Jikan, Tengku Azura Awang
Duration
90 minutes
Rating PG13
