Film Journal | Sepet (2005)


Introduction and Story Development

Sepet is a Malaysian romance and comedy film which was released in 2005. Its director and screenwriter both is Yasmin Ahmad. The main characters of this film are Choo Seong Ng as Lee Seow Loong, as known as Ah Loong and Jason (Chinese eye, 2005). Sharifah Amani is the leading lady in this film and acts as Orked (Chinese eye, 2005).

This Film is narrating the intimate relationship between two teenagers, Ah Loong and Orked from different races. In this relationship, their racial differences have led them to face much opposition and ridicule. The twists and turns of this love story ultimately have no clear ending, leaving the audience room for speculation.

Integration of Ethnicities

Language

The characters in this film have the ability to multilingual due to the integration of ethnicities in Malaysia. In this film, the main character, Ah Loong, is very good at Chinese, Malay, English, Cantonese and Hokkien while Orked is fluent in Malay English and Cantonese. Mother and servant's Orked indulge in the glamour of Cantonese and had a great impact on Orked. Although Orked doesn't receive any education on Cantonese, she learns it from the Cantonese film and manages to communicate with others by using Cantonese.

Art-Film

The origin of the relationship between Ah Loong and Orked is all about the film. In the beginning, Ah Loong falls in love with Orked when she is buying a Chinese film's VCD from him. In the first dating of Ah Loong and Orked, the topic of their dialogue is about the reason Orked prefer Chinese movie. They have also mentioned the Malay film is on a downward spiral compares to the preliminary Malay film.


Art-Music

At the beginning of the film, Ah Loong dances cheerfully when the television is playing a piece of Malay music although he is a Chinese boy. In the scene that Orked's family meets Ah Loong outside of their house, her mother and servant sing a little part of a Cantonese song, The Bund. These two scenes have well-indicated the integration of ethnic in Malaysia although the tone is different between the songs of different languages. 




Art-Poems

The scene that Ah Loong recites poetry for his mother which is a Nyonya with mandarin indicates the common phenomenon of Malaysian. It is because most Malaysian has a main language to communicate in daily life but then they can also understand other languages in which they are not fluent. The Chinese poem that is recited by Ah Loong is a translated Indian poem, conveying the emotions and thoughts very well to its readers although they even do not know Tamil language.



Problems Faced By Malaysia Ethnics

Some problems between ethnicities are mentioned in this film. For example, in the scene, before Ah Loong introduces his girlfriend, Orked to his friend, Ah Keong advise him not to have a relationship with a Malay girl since he needs to alter his name, lifestyle, and religion if he marries her. This is a long-term issue between ethnicities since it is quite difficult to change their origin lifestyle and religion for a person. Therefore, the intimate relationship between two people from different races will normally receive a lot of objections from the people around them.


Conclusion

In a nutshell, this film indicates the multiethnic of Malaysia in a simple and unpretentious approach. It is an opened end film, and thus, I think Ah Loong dead in the end. In the scene that Ah Loong attempted to meet Orked in the airport, he drove rudely on the road. To answer Orked's call, Ah Loong stopped at the side of the road to answer it and was hit and killed by a car. 

References

Chinese eye. (2005, February 24). IMDB. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433692/

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