RISE: INI KALILAH is an Ode to the Everyday Malaysian4 min read
Reading Time: 4 minutes
An ordinary couple, a police officer, a teacher, a businessman, and a foreign journalist go about their lives in the days leading up to the most important election in Malaysia’s history.
Directors: Saw Teong Hin, Nik Amir Mustapha, M.S. Prem Nath
Cast: Remy Ishak, Mira Filzah, Sangeeta Krishnasamy, Jack Tan, Shashi Tharan, Jenn Chia
Year: 2018
Country: Malaysia
Language: English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil
Runtime: 100 minutes
The 2018 Malaysian General Election was a major event for many Malaysians and marked a turn in Malaysian political history. After 61 years of rule under the Barisan National party since independence (something perhaps a Singaporean audience can understand), Malaysia saw a change in political party at the 14th Malaysian General Election. Many Malaysians accredited this change to a collective effort that demonstrated unity and true democracy. The General Election was a mark of change—a time for the people to come together and show their strength—which the title of Rise: Ini Kalilah (Rise: This Time) encapsulates.
I knew that much when the elections happened, with many Malaysians taking to social media to encourage their fellow countrymen to vote and wriggling their ink-stained fingers with pride. The day after the elections also saw an outpouring of Malaysian patriotism as many expressed their renewed hopes for the country and renewed faith in democracy. Like the chants in Rise: Ini Kalilah expressed, “Long live the people!”
Why was it so important to Malaysia? I thought. And what better way to learn more about the significance of the elections than to watch a film based on the event.
So Rise: Ini Kalilah it is. Following the lives of 6 Malaysians whose paths eventually merge when the film culminates on election day, Rise: Ini Kalilah literally brings together people from different races and different countries to come together for the historical event. Things are amiss, conspiracy theories are aplenty, and good people are caught in moral binds as the election draws near.
However, for such a crucial event that seeks to remember a time when Malaysians came together and felt strongly for their country, Rise: Ini Kalilah unfortunately seems to reduce the affair into an extended propaganda film that does not attempt to conceal its intentions. The scriptwriting lacks nuance and depth, while the characters are either morally righteous or… morally righteous but caught in difficult circumstances.
Rise: Ini Kalilah does not dwell on the political background that made the 2018 Malaysian elections so crucial, and the impact of that is lost to an international audience who is not aware of the implications. Instead, the movie chooses to focus on the lives of everyday people who had a hand in the issue, no matter how small. Overtly skewed political representations aside, Rise: Ini Kalilah is quite a beautiful film. Colours are bright and vibrant, and the dramatic angles and camerawork do amplify the myriad of emotions that run throughout the film, even if they can get a bit excessive.
The most regrettable effect of the lacklustre script writing has to be not doing justice to the ensemble of strong actors and actresses that Rise: Ini Kalilah gathers. Many films that deal with multiple plotlines struggle to give each story sufficient depth and emphasis, and Rise: Ini Kalilah is no exception. That really is a pity because the cast does an excellent job, or the best that they could, but they are unfortunately limited by the lack of character development and awkward dialogue.
Special shoutout to Remy Ishak and Mira Filzah; Remy Ishak plays a policeman who is struggling financially and has to choose between his family and his morals, and Mira Filzah is an overseas Malaysian who has to decide if she cares for her country enough to give up on her career. With both characters struggling with inner dilemmas, the actors were able to portray moments of vulnerability and have their tears move me.
Regardless of the fictional stories that Rise: Ini Kalilah tells in order to show how everyone is connected to this significant moment in Malaysian politics, the movie does give some insight into the real events that had led to the many controversies that transpired. Perhaps then, Malaysians who had personally gone through the election period would be able to relate more the movie: from understanding the frustrations of late ballots sent to overseas Malaysians, to experiencing the overwhelming elation of the final victory.
Openly dedicated to Malaysians, Rise: Ini Kalilah seeks to resonate emotionally with them and represent a narrative created in the heat of the moment, one that is still reeling in the aftermath of the much celebrated election results.
Rise: Ini Kalilah can be caught on Netflix. Have a look at the trailer:
