Legendary_Love_Movie_Review

Before I watch the movie, I thought it won't be good because I thought Malay movies are not well made and I have watched a few Malay films and they are way far from being good. But this one turned out to be different. I have to admit this contains the right elements of good and watchable film. Firstly, the camera angles and shots used are brilliant. For example, when the main actor fights the bad people in the village, in that scene, when he kicks one of the bad guys in the face, it was shot from the low angle, so that the audience can see the sky and how he kicks the guy in the face and how he falls down. This is not a usual shot for a fighting scene and gives us a different taste. The background music is excellent with the mixture of western and Malay traditional music. When fighting or love scenes, the background music perfectly fits the scenes that the audience can feel the feelings that the movie is trying to show. Even though I have watched only half of the movie, I can learn Malay culture and kingdoms from those days. The audience can see the dressing style, how Malay kingdom works and Malay urban life. It has good cinematography too. The view and scenery in the movie was spectacular and beautifully done. The harbor, lake, river and forest scenery was superbly done. This is something to me that's up to international standards. The leaves falling down on the rock scene like something from a Hollywood Fantasy story. Foreshadowing and symbolism are involved in this film. At the very start of the film, the main actress was in the maze, which to me, it symbolizes and foreshadows her confusion. It could be that she wants the main actor so badly but she is in dilemma of whether to choose the love of her life or marry the King and save her people. And also when the King was having the conversation of pearl and beads with his men, they said that a pearl is a pearl and beads can never be pearls. So the King makes this evil laughs. This symbolizes that the king is a pearl and his men are beads. He is more valued and better. He is satisfied and makes this evil laugh. Mise-en-scene is well done too. The yellow colour of the court is just marvelous. It stays true to the royalty of Malay courts at that time and the rich colour sort of signifies Malacca as the powerful Malay state. The palace rituals and traditional Malay villages seem authentic. However, there are some weak points in this film. For example, there seems to be confusing 'flashback' scene in the movie. They could just have done the usual blurry effect before the reminiscing scenes as indicator to the audience what's going on in the story. It could actually help the viewer differentiate the past and present scene in the movie. To sum up, I must say this movie is a great movie for a Malay film. There are some weak points in the film but overall, it is brilliant with amazing shots, cinematography, background music, mise-en-scene and so on.