Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

(U)
Release Date: 10th March 2011
Language: Malay/English
Running Time: 110 mins
Genre: Action
Director: Yusry Abdul Halim
Cast: Jing Lu, Stephen Rahman Hughes, Khir Rahman, Ummi Nazeera, Dato Rahim Razali.
Local Distributor: Kru Films

Onlookers,

***Disclaimer : Movie spoiler ahead

Watched Hikayat Merong mahawangsa 10032011.

It is an epic of Merong Mahawangsa, an outcast sea captain known to be a descendent of Alexander the Great, enthroned King of Langkasuka after a journey to the Golden Chersones to unite the Prince of Rome and Princess of China in the hand of marriage. Their ceremony was abbreviated by the attack of a pirate pack called Geruda, led by an invincible barbarian, Kemawas, alongside a powerful witchdoctor named Taji. The Princess of China was kidnapped for ransom by the Gerudas and Merong was badly wounded in the gruesome battle. A local shaman, Pak Kesum, healed his wounds and prophecised his reign and role in defeating the Gerudas. With the help of the Chinese and Roman army, Merong is able to free the nation from Gerudas in the expense of his own life.

This movie shall be distributed to 72 countries worldwide entitled The Malay Chronicles : Bloodlines, which i think has a clinch and prospect of producing The Malay Chronicles 2. Kudos for the producers, casts, art directors and the whole crew for making a movie, which i think is at par with international standards.

Impressive CGI, outstanding cinematography, good casting... with subtle element of comedy within. Several weakpoints and errors, but overall, it was an astounding movie.

Weak points would be the lead actor not being fluent in Malay but he is much better as compared to his feature in Puteri Gunung Ledang. Certain dialogues and scenes also can be done without. These are some of the memorable scenes and dialogues in the movie as well as those that...mmm...sucked.

Memorable scenes :
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-Mass fighting scenes. A bit more upgrade and itll be as good as the scenes in the Gladiator
-Gory scenes of axe on head, and slashing of neck
-Princess bathtub scene
-handmaiden playing dead ;))

Scenes to do without :
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-Hugging scene of two Malay warriors before being overwhelmed by the Gerudas
-Prince of Rome *feeling2 superman
-Long-winded speech by stephen rahman hughes, when he couldnt fluently pronounce them.
-Princess of China informing the world that she had taken off Kemawas' talisman

Memorable dialogues :
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-Handmaiden : muscular, tall... youll get strong sons from this one. younger, not so muscular, youll get beatiful daughters from this one :))
-Maybe its my uncle, merong mahasuasa

Dialogues to do without:
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-apa salahnya mengintai di bawah tudung saji
-pintu pagar telah terbuka, manakan boleh ditahan airnya (which i felt a bit Xrated)

Last but not least, i dont think that Malay farmers and fisherman of the past are THAT scrawny...

Standing ovation to the supporting role of the handmaiden who is amazingly entertaining. (I just learnt that her name is Nell Ng)
*4 of 5*