of gangsters and ghosts...

Quite recently, I managed to watch 3 local movies for free. And this post is just dedicated for my thoughts on those movies. The movies are KL Gangster, Bini-Biniku Gangster, Hantu Bonceng. Hua haa....these movies are totally not belonging to my favourite genres but I believe that sometimes we have to get out of our genres, out of our usual environment to have a wider view. Or we can say to open our eyes too. Huaa..so serious tones even talking about movies, eh? So here are some of my opinions about the films. I can say that none of them made me went ga ga over them, but anyway, quite entertaining.

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KL Gangster (KLG) and Bini-Biniku Gangster (My Wives Are Gangsters; BBG), both have gangster elements in them, but in different moods. When KLG is all seriously brutal and violent, BBG turned the gangsters community into a loving family affair with polygamy issues, a comedy. But nonetheless, both are okay to be missed. I'm not saying that they are not at all good, my...making movies is not easy business, eh? Lots of creative work involved, but...ok, both directors are far from being veterans, so I should say, let these movies be their experimental lab work and hope for better stories in the future.

In KLG, Malek is a retired gangster formerly from King's clan, after serving time in prison due to being stabbed in the back (figuratively) by King's stepson, Shark who is very ambitious (and a whole lot brutal too). Malek wished to clean his name, do honest job and ask forgiveness from his mother whilst trying to reunite his family. But it turns out that the gangster community is not very easy to run away from, especially when his younger brother, Jai becoming more and more ruthless and plays the gangster game too far by joining Shark's crew. After Shark gone too far as to terrorize his mother and killed his best friend, Fadil...Malek lost his cool and went on for revenge on Shark and beat up Jai. From his narrations at the end of the film, Malek finally went in prison again but satisfied that his score's settled. I think all the actors played their characters quite well except for the lifeless puppets of King's lady companions. I think the director didn't give them much attention but anyway just put them there because gangster bosses should have lovely girls on their side at all times. The film is dominated by male characters, featuring the hardship of life, gangsterism,.....and probably, trying to show that gangsters have compassion as well? That's where I think is lacking. All there is in the movie is fighting, fighting, and heartless fighting. (And King is like a lame gangster leader). Lack of character development, as well as the story line goes.

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In BBG, I think this one is purely just for entertainment. Just good for some laughs (well, not enough a hearty laugh though for me...). Manja and Herry are happily married and quite well-to-do couple. Herry works at a private company, and Manja maintains a flower shop. However, Manja is more than that, she's actually a leader in a gangster group. Unable to be pregnant, Manja allows Herry to take Reanna, his assistant, as his second wife but little does she know that Reanna is actually the younger sister of Min Siam, another gangster leader, the arch enemy of Manja's group. There's a sinister plot going on as Reanna wants to avenge her brother, being incapacitated in a fight, thanks to Manja. After that both ladies keep on hating and fighting each other behind Herry's back, and being nice and friendly in front of him, while living in the same house. One day, Herry went missing and both wives are starting to have what seems like the ultimate fight when suddenly a mysterious fighter came and broke their fights. In the end, the mysterious fighter is actually Herry and he is actually the son of another group leader and all the things that happened to them, including all marriages are actually part of his plans together with the other senior leaders of the other groups because the old guys have all gone mellow and tired of having rivalries. Duh!

You don't have to take this movie seriously because it is not, it's a comedy. But I just managed a few polite laughs, thanks to the relationship portrayal among all of the characters...all except Mat Saja. Mat Saja is an assistant in Herry's office, I'm not quite sure what's the purpose of his character, if he exists to add more funny flavour to the story, nope, he didn't make me feel fun. To say that he is the bad guy, also nope, although he did do some not-so-nice things because of envy. His character quite annoys me, but maybe that is his purpose in the movie. Whatever. Acting? No challenging roles. Biasa-biasa je.

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Alright, third movie is Hantu Bonceng (Pillion Rider Ghost; HB). Scary comedy, yup there's a ghost but it's more comedy than scary. However, there's an element of mystery that need to be answered, and yes, I got the answer at the end of the movie. Quite a simple story but I'd say in smooth line. Almost every part of the story are told in light-and-easy way but the story's real and there's a message. Amran is a delivery boy who always take part in illegal races. One night, Amran won the race and claimed his prize, an unassuming innocent village girl (definitely she's not a smart one, why on earth is she there?). While she is riding pillion on his bike, Amran rides home but shortly after that encountered with an accident with a truck. He survived but the girl died. Since then, Amran is constantly disturbed by the girl's ghost and it affected his life. In another situation, due to his playboy-racer lifestyle, Amran is always in a difficult relationship with his girlfriend, Halimatun, a nurse at a hospital where Amran always end up to after racing accidents. Amran also has a great buddy, Kunyit. Due to the case, Amran, Kunyit and Halimatun bond together to solve it. Things turned a different way when they discovered that the dead girl actually has a living twin sister who looks exactly the same. Amran gets the sister's forgiveness and tries to help her when everything seems to be out of hand. With the help of his buddies and girfriend, Amran is saved and the mystery involving the sister is solved. It turns out that instead of really forgiving Amran, the sister actually plans a scheme to revenge him.

There are positive elements in HB where Amran and Kunyit repent for their sins, and in all its naturalness, they are challenged in their effort to change. So, even though I won't care to watch this movie repeatedly, for me it's better than the other two movies here, for comparison purpose. Better in the aspect of story line and messages in the story. And for the funny part, yep...it's funny. However, for the title's sake of Hantu Bonceng, the ghost is never seen riding pillion anywhere in the movie! Heh... Just my humble thoughts.