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| Poster of Magika |
I was glad I chose Magika to fill my time during this school break.
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| In search of his brother |
Magika is a story of how a sister, Ayu, accidentally trapped and had to travel in the world of Magika while in search of her younger brother, Malik. She met several kinds of characters in Malay folk stories who gave her a hard time in the unknown world and eventually, managed to get the help of Badang who helped her to save Malik and return to real world.
As soon as the credit title of the film rolled, I told myself how impressed I am to have finally watched a Malay film which is suitable to be watched by kids, something of equal quality with Hollywood's Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Cindrella, Snow White, etc. Not that our film industry has not produced any children's movie, but this one is the best, so far.
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| KRU Studios Logo |
It's the best because now Malay language teachers in primary school can get their students to read Malay folk stories prior to the viewing of this movie. It helps to promote reading habit. At least now our kids have something to be proud of. And who said educational films are not commercial? At least the impressive collaboration between the KRU brothers have prove them all wrong.
However, it might be difficult to understand Magika, if one has not read Malay folk stories. So, let me write some brief information of them here to help viewers to understand the plot of Magika better.
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| Puteri Bunian played by Maya Karin |
Puteri Bunian : Puteri Bunian (bluntly translated as Princess Ghost) is a princess comes in a form of a very beautiful woman. In Malay folk stories, Puteri Bunian is said to have some liking into abducting men into her world and make them fall in love with her. She would make him stay with her for a few days (in her world's time). Then she would return the man to his world and the man would then realized that he has been missing for decades.
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| Pak Pandir (by Aznil) and Mak Andih (by Raja Azura) |
Pak Pandir : Pak Pandir is a man who is unbelievably fool who creates all kinds of silly problems for himself and his wife. In one of the stories, Pak Pandir bathe his son in boiling water - just to give an idea of his
foolishness.
Mak Andih : Pak Pandir's wife who is slightly cleverer than him.
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| Badang by Mawi |
Badang : A man who becomes as strong as superman after eating the vomit of a ghost.
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| Mahsuri by Vanidah Imran |
Mahsuri : A woman who was killed due to an evil rumour and to prove her innocence, she cursed the whole island and produced white blood as she was stabbed to death.
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| Nabil as Orang Minyak |
Orang Minyak : translated as 'Oily Man'. Orang Minyak is a black magic practitioner and he has to rape certain number of women to complete his studies.
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| Awang Kenit (left) and Nenek Kebayan - partners in crime |
Awang Kenit : A dwarf whose intelligence barometer is way longer than his height. But in Magika, he is in the evil side.
Nenek Kebayan : An old woman who practices magic to help others; something like Cinderella's fairy godmother. But in Magika, she is an evildoer.
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| Awang Lembing |
Awang Lembing : He was engaged to a woman and left his village to find wealth. But he left too long that his fiancee's family could not wait any longer and marry her to someone else. On the wedding day, Awang Lembing returned and threw his spear to the woman's husband. Before he died, he took the spear off his chest and threw it to someone else. The person who was stabbed by the spear repeated the same action until 99 person was stabbed to death by Awang's spear. The last person who was dead by the spear was Dayang, the girl who was supposed to marry Awang. It's then called 'Lembing Awang Pulang Ke Dayang' (Awang's spear returns to Dayang'.
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| Bawang Merah (left) and Bawang Putih |
Bawang Merah Bawang Putih : Bawang Merah (onion) and Bawang Putih (garlic) are step sisters. Bawang Merah is always being bullied by Bawang Putih and her mother. Bawang Merah then ended up marrying a prince.
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| M.Nasir as Naga Tasik Chini |
Naga Tasik Chini : Translated as Dragon of Chini Lake. This dragon looks after the lake so that nobody can come close to it.
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| Ning Baizura was funny as Puteri Gunung Ledang |
Puteri Gunung Ledang : A princess who refused to marry Sultan of Malacca and turned down his proposal by requesting illogical stuff as dowry, like seven trays of mosquito's heart, seven trays of young girl's tears, a bowl of blood of the prince of Malacca, etc.
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| Hang Tuah and his 4 brothers confronting Awang Lembing |
Hang Tuah 5 Bersaudara : Hang Tuah and his four other brothers are the important officers of the Sultan of Malacca. They are very well-known to have extraordinary skills in martial arts and Hang Tuah in particular, was undefeated. He was said to be the most loyal servant of the Sultan of Malacca and the reason why Puteri Gunung Ledang refused to marry Sultan of Malacca.
(click on the yellow links to read further on the folk stories)
Kudos to Norman, Edry and Yusry (especially Edry) for this beautiful and amazing film which I am more than willing to show to my children, nieces, nephews and all kids. There are awfully high concentration of talent in your blood that if that Naga Tasik Chini sucks it out of your neck, it might get drunk.
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| The man of the show - Sabri Yunus |
Also, I think the best bit of the film is Sabri Yunos as Bendahara Melaka (Malacca's Prime Minister). He was effortlessly funny, natural, mature and excellent. Five stars to his acting. That was a very nice one!
