Asian Cinema Challenge 2023 | 14/52 | Made in Malaysia
Sekinchan, Sabak Bernam, 1993
Ten-year-old Orked gets out of her Chinese school for the holiday. Her teacher talks to her in Mandarin about doing a writing assignment over the break. Going home, Orked encounters the boys, who are bullying and roughhousing with one another. At home, Orked’s mother, Mak Inom, worries that Orked’s position at the library will lead to her reading too much and falling behind on her studies. Orked’s father, Pak Atam, speaking Malay, isn’t so sure and returns to his band. The housekeeper, Kak Yam, joins the band in a song. As they sing on the porch, the rain pours. Her Orked and her mother dance in the rain to the music.
Ayu and other friends come to Orked’s to ask her to play, but Orked hides under the bed. Her father agrees to take her to a football game if she goes and plays. The kids gossip about Orked’s parents, saying her mother is becoming white because she speaks English, and that she must be a bad wife because her father “has to” help around the house. Orked leaves the girls to ask about a twelve-year-old boy playing in the yard named Mukhsin. When one of the boys gets injured, they suggest Orked jump in. Mukhsin is reluctant because she’s a girl, thinking she isn’t tough enough. When Orked nails Mukhsin with a rock, he agrees.
Later, Mukhsin comes looking for her. She rides on the front of his bike, steering while Mukhsin pedals. They visit an old fountain, which has a traditional story associated with it regarding a virginal girl who disappeared. They begin to spend more time together, bringing Orked’s troubles into Mukhsin’s life.
The film is a cute portrayal of children’s life in northern Malaysia, but also explores the subtle tensions between traditional life and the Western ways of living coming into the country. We see this through Mak Inom, who primarily speaks English and was educated in England. The neighbors think she has forgotten her Malay and Javanese roots. Also, Orked’s family breaks from traditional gender roles, with Pak Atam helping around the house, leading to further neighborhood gossip. Even Orkid’s name is rooted in the English word, orchid.
As the film progresses, however, we see the troubled lives of some of these neighbors. Ayu, who bullies Orked more than anyone, has a father who secretly cheats on her mother, taking young women out on dates on his moped. The mother’s anxieties around this trickle down to Ayu, who becomes the voice of her mother’s insecurities. We also learn about Mukhsin’s family and the abusive household his mother ran away from.
The film contrasts this with the deep love between Orked’s parents. Their household is where most of the film’s comedic moments occur. We get a funny scene where Mak Inom puts on a show of taking a switch to Orked’s room to whip her as punishment for throwing a kid’s backpack out the window. From outside, it sounds like Orked is getting it. But in the room, we see the mom is whipping the bed while Orked pretends to scream out in pain, and they discuss the problem together in the breaks between whips.
The storytelling is slight, and the camera often watches from a distance, taking on the distancing flatness of mid-00s indies, but without the ironic disposition that they usually take for humorous effect. The results are predominantly long-take, middle-distance shots with few, if any, cuts during each scene. I guess that these choices were budgetary more than stylistic. It’s not difficult to read the intentions of each scene, but it’s amusing how much more attention the film requires because of these choices.
I’m curious about the other films in the Orked trilogy. I already had Rabun in my watchlist, but it isn’t considered part of the trilogy despite having some of the same characters because different actors portray them. I didn’t realize that director Yasmin binti Ahmad’s films were quite controversial when they first came out for their depictions of socially taboo subject matter. Her films received a reevaluation since her passing in 2009, citing her as a central figure of Malaysian New Wave cinema.
I didn’t know about the conservative Muslim movement, nor Arabic influence on Malay, which this film depicts briefly with Orked’s family praying and one child’s father taking a second wife, which is only allowed in Malaysia to practicing Muslims.
I was going to say the casting for Orked’s mom is top-notch due to their resemblance to one another. It turns out that they’re sisters in real life!
I started watching this movie ages ago but had a hard time getting into it due to its mild-mannered storytelling. I’m glad I gave it another go — its sweetness and cultural specificity are welcome change-ups to my usual film-watching habits.
Mukhsin’s dream!!
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torrentasiancinemachallenge2023asiancc2023directed-by-womenwritten-by-women