“Fenomena’ : Malaysian Movie In Its Zenith Years.

The Malaysian cinematic industry had its zenith years during the late 1980s and the beginning of 1990s. In those years, numbers of quality movies were produced and you can’t help but feeling very proud. Personally for me, there are strings of tip-top Malay movies I could recall and still have so much awe and amaze sentiments till these days. Those movies that really amaze me till now are the like of :-

• Misteri Rumah Tua (Mystery of The Old House) : Enchantress Noorkumalasari played this vampy ghost @ pontianak with big sharp eyes and the head could actually turned 360 degree!! (still recall it vividly in my head and still remember that my sis and I were so scare taht we were so scared to enter the toilet!!)
• Selubung (Veil) : This is an excellent movie directed by Shuhaimi Baba and a movie Malaysians could proud of till today. Revolve around the life of Malaysian volunteers to Palestine and global terrorrisms. Deanna Yusof was spectacular as Mastura, a volunteer whose face got blown up by this caucasian terrorist.
• Fenomena (Phenomenon) :

This is my most favorite Malay movie (besides "Gol & Gincu"). Excellent direction of Aziz M. Osman who brilliantly combined the elements of modern East-meets-West and the injection of Malay folklores and folksongs (the ‘Ulik Mayang’ song by reknowned ‘ulik’ crooner Puan Habsah) . The story revolves around a caucasian girl named Isabella who flew from London to Malaysia to find Wak Labib who used to work with her family when they resided in Kuala Terengganu when she was a toddler. Isabella hopes that Wak Labib who was famous for his shamanic skills (dukun) could help her find the cure to her ailment; that was AIDS. Doctors told her she only had approximately a month to live but she won’t give up and was hoping that the traditional medication would help alleviate the pain she was dealing with. In Malaysia, she bumped into Amy and The Search Boys. Coincedentally, Amy was Wak Labib’s relative; that was Amy’s widower-ed brother, Azlan was Wak Labib’s son-in-law! The journey  took the caucasian girl to the village in Kuala Terengganu and there she learnt how to cope with people’s prejudice and hatred. Set against the beautiful landscape of Terengganu with BIG TIDAL WAVES beaches as if like it was Monsoon season (I really hope I could go there one day); it’s a beautiful scene of Malaysia one could be proud of! and the flavour of Malay cultural folklores like gamelan dancing, the display of the local martial art  ‘pencak silat’ and the ‘flower shower’ (mandi bunga) ritual act were very fascinating to watch. Ramona Rahman and M. Nasir did great jobs in portraying their characters.

I’d like to share with this magical sentence quoted by the dying Isabella to Azlan who was in a devastated state because of the death of his wife; as she tried to soothe Azlan instead of occupying herself with her illness :

Jangan Terlalu Kecewa Dengan Masalah Hari Ini Hingga Terlupa Akan Kebahagiaan Hari Esok. Mungkin Esok Tuhan Sudah Sediakan Bahagia Untuk Kita Sebagai Hadiah Bagi Ketabahan Kita Hari Ini.