'Gayong' and 'Kulit Wayang' — two solid reasons to go to the cinema now

Malay Mail

17-05-2025

MAY 17 — With the recent announcement that Blood Brothers: Bara Naga has collected RM76 million at the local box-office after 33 days of screening — taking it to second place at the all-time Malaysian box-office charts for local films — it's quite easy to overlook the fact there have been quite a few notable Malaysian films that have opened in local cinemas in the weeks after the Blood Brothers fever hit local cinemagoers.
When you add to that the fact there are also other notable releases from Hollywood and beyond opening around the same time like Sinners (which I think is one of the best films of the year so far), Thunderbolts* (aka The New Avengers), Until Dawn and Holy Night: Demon Hunters (come on, who doesn't want to see Don Lee punch demons?), it really is easy to miss out on some of the more notable local films being released concurrently.
Despite my best efforts to catch as many local films that I can in the cinema, I still haven't managed to catch Telaga Suriram from this latest batch of local films opening recently, but I've managed to catch two pretty notable ones, for various reasons respectively.
The only expectation I had when walking into the cinema to watch this movie, based on the life experiences of Silat Gayong grandmaster Datuk Meor Abdul Rahman Daeng Uda Md Hashim, is that the trailers promised a sort of Malaysian version of the Ip Man movies — a nationalistic historical epic based on the life of a real person. — Picture via YouTube/Filem Gayong Rasmi
Gayong
The only expectation I had when walking into the cinema to watch this movie, based on the life experiences of Silat Gayong grandmaster Datuk Meor Abdul Rahman Daeng Uda Md Hashim, is that the trailers promised a sort of Malaysian version of the Ip Man movies — a nationalistic historical epic based on the life of a real person.
As a local film fan and paying customer, I'd say that director Faisal Ishak (of the Juvana movies and Budak Flat fame) has totally delivered on that premise, with all the caveats that may come with it being an Ip Man type movie.
Just like those Ip Man movies, this one's very stylised as well, with a nationalistic spirit that can't help but stir the emotions in you, with an added local flavour that will remind people of 80s and 90s Malaysian films in how the dialogue is written and delivered.
And there's a beautiful layer of Malay-ness to it all, particularly in the ethics/practice of the art of Silat Gayong, in how and when to hold back or move forward, and when to truly let go of all that rage, that's presented in a surprisingly subtle way.
In short, there's a very Malay soul to this historical action flick, which makes it pretty unique and at least of some value to fans of fight flicks out there.
There are some unfortunate, but not that glaring, holes in the film's plotting, wherein some character motivations can be a bit confounding, but on the whole, Ishak has delivered an exciting, emotional and pretty well-paced piece of mainstream entertainment.
It's not perfect, but in its wonderfully quaint and mannered retroness, and its soulful presentation of Silat Gayong principles, it holds its own place in the history of Malaysian action films. I can't wait for its next chapter!
Kulit Wayang
Celebrated Malaysian auteur Dain Said does horror again with his latest film Kulit Wayang, but aims to deliver a bit more food for thought by using the world of Kelantanese 'wayang kulit' (shadow puppetry) to provoke audiences into thinking about issues like exploitation, creative and literal theft from the more underprivileged local communities, and if one were to think in an even wider context, exploitation and theft by those in powerful positions from poor and normal people.
He does all this by telling the story of a tok dalang (shadow puppet master) named Pak Lee (played by Fattah Amin, doing a pretty great job with his facial expressions and emotions, but sometimes undone by the inconsistency of the delivery of his Kelantanes dialect) who is grieving the death of his child.
He comes across a young Indonesian girl named Dewi, who's in the village with her mother, who's doing a thesis on wayang kulit, and it turns out that Dewi has a preternatural gift for wayang kulit ('angin dia kuat' as explained in the film's dialogue), which kicks the film's plot into gear, involving mystical beings like a crocodile man, ghosts of lost kids and a shadow puppet made from human skin that sounds brilliant on paper, but in reality was not executed as well as it could've been as a horror film.
It's not a bad film, but it's not great as well, because in the film's own struggle between being a horror film and a more arthouse/thought provoking one, it kind of got caught in the middle, not fully satisfying the needs of both or even either genre.
Still, it holds plenty of value for cinephiles, especially in Dain Said's visual flair, which can be experienced in abundance here.
Even when the CGI is a bit dodgy, fans of horror maestros like Lucio Fulci will find plenty to admire in Dain's depictions of the netherworld, beyond the wayang kulit's screen, and there are some shots here that will wow viewers just like he did in Bunohan.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.