Film Journal 3- Authorship

Kaki Bakar

Kakang is proud with his Javanese heritage and his previous job. He always wanted his son, Kusuma to be a real man and he transfers the teaching of religion to him. Kakang did a lot of mistake and he never realize. End up, Kusuma reveal the truth to the victim and Kakang get caught.

Jogho

A story surrounding bull-fighting Patani Malay community of Southern Thailand. The stubbornness of Mamat bring him to jail because he always wanted to involve in bull fighting and revenge for his brother,Lazim.

Kaki Bakar and Jogho are 2 films produced during year 1995 and 1997 respectively. These 2 films are written and directed by U-Wei Bin Haji Saari. Both of these films are actually share a few similarities as its produce by the same director. For example the theme, mise en scene and mise en shot. These 2 films are mainly talk about family, religion, cultural and also tradition. The family and the unconditional love was one of the themes in these 2 films. I discovered this theme as the main theme because through this 2 film, it is mostly focus on the family background and member. For example in Kaki Bakar, although Kakang take over control of the family but he still take care of everyone of them. Although he has high demand toward every one of them, but he still trying to give them a proper house and good living environment. Besides, Kusuma is loyal to his family without expose his father name when being question by Tok Empat about the fire of the smokehouse. While in Jogho, Mamat gives the money to his brother’s family. After his brother, Lazim was killed, he pay visit to his house and gives some money to Lazim’s family in order for them to reduce their living cost.

Next, Masculinity and role of a male had been portraying in this 2 films. Male is responsible to take over the cost of living in the family, for example earning money to cover the living cost. Moreover, male also responsible to take care every member in the family. For example, Kakang is responsible to find a new house for his family after he moved out from the village. He responsible to settled down his family in a safer place. All his family members need to listen and follow what exactly he say or order them to do. While in Jogho, the wife sometimes tell husband what is her opinion, but at the end, she still have to follow what Mamat say. Besides that, the bull fighting activity are not allow woman to join. Woman is also not allowed to step in the bull fighting location. Mamat is more patriarchal as he sent his son to Kelantan and wish he has higher education.

            Identity also one of the theme in this 2 films. Kaki Bakar and Jogho bring out the identity of a Malay man but it’s in more hyper masculine and archetype way. Kakang and Mamat bring out the Malay identity which is extraordinary and relentless. Both of this character emphasize on Islamic teaching which believe in god. In Kaki Bakar, Kakang is proud with his Javanese personality and his previous job, and is trying to instill his own tradition value and beliefs to his son, Kusuma. He is strict to Kusuma and scolded him as he wanted him to be a real man. As for Jogho, Mamat is a jogho and he has been moved to South Thailand from Kelantan. He maintains his own culture as a Malaysian and never change. He insisted to join for the bull fighting competition although his wife not agrees with it. He persists to do so and say that no one can stop him to join.

            The film technique and style that used by U-Wei Haji Shaari is also quite similar in this 2 film. He used slow dolly tracking shot as an establish shot or to establish mise en scene. For example, in Kaki Bakar, when all the people are sitting as a group to discuss about the fired smokehouse, the camera is slowly tracking everyone’s facial expression and position. For Jogho, from the beginning, there ‘s also an establish shot that use dolly tracking to emphasize that the story is happening in a village. U-Wei Haji Shaari likes to use tracking shot to follow the character expression and also when they are walking. I have noticed that, U-Wei Haji Shaari likes to use haunted music in his film for example in Kaki Bakar. Sometimes the music is too loud and it scares the audience. This is the part that I dislike.

            On the other hand, I realize he like to capture the sky when there’s something going to happen, for example in Kaki Bakar, it show moon when bad thing going to happen. The beginning and the ending of this 2 film are also showing the same thing, which is the scenery of sky or nature. Besides, he emphasizes more on low key lighting. He also likes to show the crowded and after that tilt the camera to upward. For example, the last scene in Jogho.

            We can see that there’s improvement of U-Wei Haji Shaari’s skill because in Kaki Bakar, the night scene are too dark and hard to be seen. But when comes to Jogho, night scene seems to improve a lot because not that dark anymore, it is brighter than Kaki Bakar. . In Jogho, i realize he use a transition like flipping to the next page from this scene to next scene. We also can see it as an insert sometimes. This is the new thing that we never see in Kaki Bakar, and I like this part. U-Wei Haji Shaari’s use 2 same character who is Khalid Salleh as his main character in this 2 film. I think he choose him because both of them work together in the first film, and Khalid Salleh know U-Wei Haji Shaari’s about what he wanted to bring out to the audience.