Kaki Bakar is a story about a small boy receiving his Father teaching in fear and silence. Kakang, a furious arsonist who proud of his Javanese heritage and strive for a living in Malaysia. He wants his child to inherite the beliefs and values he has been holding on. But at the same time, his way of solving problem has brought negative impact to the family. Kusuma who was once silently accept the word of his father eventually fought back to protect the family.
Jogho tells about the bull fighting trainer, Mamat from Kelantan moves to Patani, Southern Thailand to seek for a better life. The story start with the shot dead of Lazim and it triggered revenge of the family. The story revolves around with different people in searching the killer and vengeance.
Both stories tells about the theme of social inequalities, seeking malay identity, family love, portrayal of male and females and fight for justice and dignity. The theme of story and technique of style is heightened in Jogho compare to Kaki Bakar. We can see more characters are involved and the story telling is much more fascinating when U-wei starts the film Jogho with the dead of Lazim. This begins the “searching for killer” game whereby audience will be curious of what will happens next. Also, background of Mamat and other characters are revealed through flashback of the scenes in order to drop cue by cue for audience to keep track of the storyline. In contrary, Kaki Bakar only revolves around Kakang, the mother and Kusuma. The story was told in a linear way.
Kakang and Mamat to me is both ignorant man who blindly insist their irrational thoughts and do things on their own way. They both end up in a sad ending, does it mean that their extremeness in retaining own beliefs has caused them to fall? The film ignites a social discourse to this matter. I dislike the ignorance of both character Mamat and Kakang. They claim that they are doing what they have t do to retain their beliefs and dignity which is “blood to blood” and “fight for justice”. At the same time they are being selfish and willing to give up their family just to make sure they have their “fight for justice” spirit inside their blood. However, facing the danger of social inequalities, what can they do about it?
To me, the story does not portray Kakang’s love to his family. It is his family’s unconditional love that makes them being tolerant towards his unbearable behavior. In another way, Mamat is the one who willing sacrifice and care for his family members though he refused to listen to his son and wife. Plus, his wife has more saying compare to the female in Kaki Bakar. Audience will somehow feel dilemma to Mamat due to his sacrifice. It is more emotional attached compare to the character Kakang. Director did a better job in handling character development in Jogho.
Kaki Bakar and Jogho both films also depicted strong sense of authorship through its well control over the mise-on-scene and mise-on-shot. U-wei did a great job in using long tracking to design the establishing shots for the film. As the camera move, the shot slowly reveals setting of the film. This provides a good visual pleasure and it added value for the true presence of the scene. In the film Kaki Bakar, tracking shot is merely one directional and lack of control while the tracking in Jogho progress to be more sophisticated and variety in direction. At the same time, the author also designs the time for characters to walk in and start the conversation in the scene. This technique of style is clearly seen in the rubber estate scene where Kusuma is helping his parents in collecting the latex.
In sound editing, it is more complex in Jogho. The mixing of diagetic and non diagetic sound during the raining scene at the barn provides a haunting effect to audience. It complement with the tenseness of that scene.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0DE4DB1339F935A35757C0A960958260
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