Rise: Ini Kalilah Review

As a movie lover as well as someone who is really invested in Malaysia's political scene, I think the existence of this film itself is an accomplishment. The story of 9 May 2018 indeed, should be made into a film. With that being said, this film was good, but it could've been better. The six-story narrative may need to be revised or cut to less than six, and it can be felt that this film was rushed as the script itself felt like assemble of events happening in Malaysia, before and during the GE14. 

I am a lover of historical and biography films, but it irks me a bit when a film that had a potential to be great turnt out to be only subpar, especially coming from Nik Amir Mustapha (whom directed KIL, a local film that I really love) and Saw Teong Hin (who directed Puteri Gunung Ledang).  The story(ies?) were messy and the overall production of this film just felt rushed. They should've take their time to develop and produce this movie, Pakatan Harapan is going to stay as the government for a while.. or would they?  In all seriousness, the story of 9 May 2018 - a historical date for Malaysians should be presented well and not rushed in the name of selling a film basing on the recent hype of a big political win.

The casts were not all necessary, I think we don't need the subplot of the Chinese reporter and her white journalist friend played by Mark Odea in the film. This is a film following Malaysians personal experience in changing the government, and we don't need a foreign reporter's point of view in this film. In another film, maybe, but not this one - not to mention we were already crowded with 5 other subplots. The cinematography was fine, but nothing spectacular - they used stock footages of PH's victory from the news but considering this is not the mega-budgeted type of biopic film that would cast actors to play Tun, Wan Azizah or Mat Sabu, you can't really expect much. 

Still, this film is an improvement in Malaysia local film scene, and hopefully in the so-called Malaysia Baru, more historical/biography or thought provoking films would be produced. Still eager in waiting for a film adaptation of Fixi's Murtad.

6/10