Kala malam bulan mengambang (2008)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Mamat Khalid

Writer:

Mamat Khalid (writer)

Release Date:

10 January 2008 (Malaysia)

Genre:

Comedy

Awards:

5 wins

Cast

Rosyam Nor	...	Saleh
Umie Aida	...	Cik Putih
Avaa Vanja	...	Miss Rohayah
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Corinne Adri	...	Doreen Chua
Kuswadinata	...	Dr. Rushdi

Country:

Malaysia

Language:

Malay

Color:

Black and White

Certification:

Malaysia:U

Company:

Tayangan Unggul

Trivia:

The first Malaysian mainstream film to be shot in Black & White since 1974.

Good Old Film Noir With A Dash Of Humor

This is one of the rare few local movies I watched and I found it to be quite a treat. Parodying the film noir of the 40s and 50s, Mengambang opens up with a typical heroic scene of Saleh, Rosyam Nor, an ex reporter, narrating the story of his life. Donning on a P. Ramlee-esquire garb his destination takes a series of turns when he discovered a skeleton with a keris attached to its hand that punctured his car tire.

Everything mysterious, bizarre, cliché and cool can be found in this movie. The humor comes in the form of a Tauke Hotel, David Teo, a bevy of sexy and enigmatic girls and Saleh's personal recount of the town he is stranded in where the disappearance of one too many people becomes too obvious.

Presented in the good old black and white hey days of classic films, with witty scripting and artistic cinematography, Mengambang begins with so much promise of being an excellent movie. What falls short is the anti climax created by the denouement somewhere in the middle of the story. From then on it becomes a little too tedious as though a new storyline has been negotiated in altogether.

Although it did maintain some quirky spoofs which are still hilarious, it could have been a better fare had the second half been considerably edited. Mamat Khalid, famed for his Zombie Kampung Pisang, Tipah Tertipu and Man Laksa, wrote and directed this amusing feature.