NOOB FILM REVIEW - ABANG ADIK directed by Lay Jin Ong

SYNOPSIS
Abang and Adik are undocumented orphans in Malaysia. While the older brother, a deaf mute, has resigned himself to a life of poverty, his younger sibling burns with indignation. A brutal accident upsets their relationship`s fragile balance.

THE ODDITIES
It is quite odd to see two grown-up men doing what they do in this film. At first, I thought it was ok until the scene where they slept on the same bed. And at one instance, the deaf brother, 'Abang' literally climbed on top of 'Adik'.

Hmmm.....

The second instance made me go 'Heyyy wait a minute.'. Both of them grab each other and go for a slow dance. And in one instance, they almost kissed each other.

Ok. After that, the tear-jerking ending happened and I joined the crowd in manning my shedly tears. And had me forgotten about the gheyness of the relationship between the two until the next day!

THE BROMANCE
Nearly to the midpoint of the film, I can't get myself away from thinking of the movie 'Guang' back in 2018 or so. It was also about a deaf sibling and an older brother taking care of him since the death of their mother.

In 'Abang Adik', both of them lost their ID due to fire a long time ago and were taken care of by a transvestite sister since then. Ok fine, I cannot make a straight comparison of how 'Guang' takes care of each other with 'Abang Adik'. (and minutes after realizing that, the actor who played Guang appeared in a scene playing as a doctor!)

Up until in one scene, the 'Adik' said that both of them have no blood relation? Correct me if I got this wrong. If I am right, then both of them are homo. And that changed how I look at the movie.

SUBTLETY
Ok la the supposed 'ghey' scenes are borderline subtle. Not as subtle as it is in 'Spilt Gravy'. So I guess the director of 'Abang Adik' really wanna make that point seen. What is clear no two normal grown-up guys do the things like what 'Abang' and 'Adik' does to each other, regardless of how much they love each other, unless they are really homo. period. Ok if they are indeed brothers, it's even worse. Incest!

Brotherly love has been expressed many times in movies but in a different fashion because the characters are not homos. To name a few - Rocky (his brotherhood with Apollo). Frodo and Sam. Thor and Loki. Rama Raju and Komaram Bheem in the epic RRR. To name a few that we are all familiar with. And yes! How could we forget the Sudirman's Kami! (my personal favorite. Talk about it later)

OTHER THAN THE GHEYNESS. AND GESTALT
There is a scene where the Chinese girl goes to the UTC counter and the typical Malay inefficiency is shown. Also, the policeman slapped the face of 'Adik'. And not to be forgotten is Bront Palarae playing a human smuggler. And those are masked by the tear-jerking ending.

And the call of 'azan' in some scenes of them at home. Hmmmm. Hmmmmm…

Ok. There is that saying, "You are what you say about a film". But I am not a homo (duh). It is what I see by how the scenes were shot and placed. In film term, its 'gestalt' lah.

Sometimes referred to as the 'Law of Simplicity,' the theory proposes that the whole of an object or scene is more important than the sum of its parts.

In this case, I think, being homos are some of the 'parts' and the 'sum' of that cannot fight for the importance of the 'whole' which in this case, is the 'man the shedly tears' parts (and the acting by the Taiwanese Wu Kang-ren!).

(the double espresso I just had made me do this)

Thus this is why I think this award-winning 'movie' got hold of many people and this sells more in Malaysia than 'films'. Why was 'Tiger Stripes' only shown in one theater in Malaysia again?

The line between cinema and ‘beautiful pictures’ are getting blurrier and blurrier…