Abang by Rahim Razali

Synopsis

The movie “Abang” emphasize on a male character Fuad Din who is the eldest brother in the family.  He is away from his family about 10 years without any reason. However after 10 years, he suddenly decided to come back to his family. This was shocking news towards his family members, which most of them has faced conflict. Both of his brothers dislike Fuad Din return, because they thought the act of Faud Din is rather irresponsible. He tried to make the life as normal as he possibly know how and keep his secret intact. In the end of the story, the family members finally found out the reason of Faud Din leaving the family.

Review

The director of the movie Rahim Razali focuses on the Malay, while he always like to ask the question of what it means to be Malay and yet modern. Therefore in this movie, it has emphasized the effect of hybrid Malaysian, which this film do not portrays the Malay culture or definition that people expect. For example, the activities that done by the Malays, the Malays’ clothing, the languages spoken by the Malays.

Hybrids are not lost just that they do not really worry of who they are, which doesn’t involve identity crisis. In Malay cinema, we see hybridity in the form of racial or ethnic hybrids, language hybrids, cultural hybrids and gender hybrids.

In this film it has involves language hybridity, where Fuad Din has combined some English language in his Malay conversation after coming back from London. Other than Fuad Din, the rest of his siblings have spoken Malay mixed English Language.

Other than that, the movie has involved cultural hybridity too. Where during Fuad Din has returned to his homeland, his family member has organized a welcoming home party for him, which is from the western culture. The drinks that they drink are not Malaysian drink but the cocktails from the westerns. In the other scene, Fuad Din’s father smoking cigarettes in the garden, which this is one of the western act too. There is one more scene, where it shows the little boy wearing karate suits after learning his karate lesson, which this is a cultural imprealism from the Japanese culture. The dressings of the cast are not wearing Malays’ traditional clothing but the western clothing like jeans, suits and so on. In this movie, it shows some casts play western instruments too, like violin and piano.

The racial hybridity has implant in the film too, where Faud Din has already adapt to the western practices after living in London for ten years.

Lastly gender hybridity has been used in the film too, where Faud Din’s sister has more interest on the boys’ activities like racing than the girls activities.

There are certain things that I dislike about this film, which are the casts portraying a bad habits towards the audiences, like smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and drunk. Other than that, it also portrays the main cast has forget the root of his nation.

In the other hand, the things that I like about this film is the main cast Fuad Din, as he is a good and caring brother that protects his siblings and family. As the movie shows he protects his sister from the boys that forces her to smoke.