The film Kaki Bakar tells the story of Kakang, a man proud of his Javanese heritage and taking care of his family living in Malaysia. He instils in his children the traditional values and beliefs he has in him. Facing social inequalities as he is not a local, he has to survive and fight for his rights. This he did by defiantly exploiting the situation and handling the problems his own way. He taught and passed on to his youngest son, Kesuma these traditional values of justice and freedom.
Jogho tells the story of Mamat from Kelantan who moves to Southern Thailand in search of a new and better life with his family and works as a bull fighter trainer. Trouble ensues when a defeated challenger Isa shot dead his brother, Lazim. The story continues with the search for the killer and tells a story of revenge.
The two films portray human relationship within a family and how this relationship connects between the different characters in the films and how it was dealt with given different situations. However each film characterizes different values, one about fighting for justice and the other about hatred and seeking revenge.
Kaki Bakar is a straightforward movie with its kampong style scenery and a script with moral values. This appeals to me as it highlights family virtues of integrity, justice and decency. The scene which I like is Kakang guiding his son to follow the right path and always fight for justice.
The ending of the film however was not to my liking as Kakang got misguided and did something unusual contrary to his beliefs. He did not follow his own teachings and subsequently burnt the hut which belonged to the boss.
The film, Jogho shows natural surroundings which depicts a carefree, simple and realistic lifestyle without sophisticated buildings and complicated way of existence. The many locations in Southern Thailand is suitably used to enhance the storyline. This piqued my interest and catches my attention.
However Jogho, to me, is not so attractive a film as I feel there were some parts which make the story irrelevant. This is because of the appearance of minor characters which do not hype up the main story.
Authorship was depicted in both films as there are differences in the script and style. The first is the depiction of the characters. In Kaki Bakar, Kakang is a man proud of his beliefs and heritage, takes good care of the family but in a way he is also stubborn and arrogant. He always orders family members around and never listens to what others, especially the wife, have to say.
Jogho is different as Mamat is more sophisticated, a decision-maker and is always more concerned about the bull rather than his family. However he shows compassion and gave money to his late brother’s wife after his death. Mamat is more of “to pay back blood for blood” while Jusoh, Mamat’s son who is studying in Kelantan, is more understanding and does not think violence can solve anything. Jusoh advises his father not to go for vengeance but was ignored. Minah, Mamat’s wife, always voices out her opinion about her worries about money but it never cross Mamat’s mind to do anything about it. Even so, she still meekly obeys her husband.
The next aspect of authorship derived in both films is the social inequalities. In Kaki Bakar, Kakang who is considered as an outsider, was shooed off from the village after he was suspected of burning the hut in the rubber estate. In Jogho, after the death of Dollah and Isa’s son, the police quickly went to Mamat’s house and detained him, suspecting him to be behind the murder.
In both the films evidences of tracking shot can be seen. In Kaki Bakar, in the scene when Kakang wants to return the carpet, the camera only pans from left to right and back again without zooming in on any particular scene. In Jogho, in the scene after the bull fighting ended, there were tracking shots of Mamat, then the camera moves to the spectators’ terrace from left to right, then back again to Mamat.
Another scene is where Jali went to help out two girls and gets the chance to speak to the girl he likes, there is a shot from the place he is with his friends at the shelter, then moves to the two girls and back to the shelter after they finished talking.
In fighting for his rights Kakang in Kaki Bakar refused to pay damages for the carpet he dirtied because he feels it is injustice to him. Similarly in Jogho, Lazim’s sons, Sani and Salim in fighting for their rights want to kill Isa and Dollah for murdering their father after the bull fight.
The role and voice of male and female characters are stronger in Jogho as both male and female characters have a balance role in terms of dialogue as there are more scenes involving both genders in it. However in Kaki Bakar most of the female characters have less to say while the male characters dominate most of the film progress.
In both the films Kaki Bakar and Jogho, different aspects of mise-en-scene are observed. For lighting in Kaki Bakar most of the scenes were bright enough to be able to see the characters well during daytime but at night the lighting was dark and I could not tell what the characters were doing outside. It was the same in Jogho as there are some dark scenes that I could not see clearly.
There were different forms of sounds created in Kaki Bakar. The audio especially the speech can be heard clearly but the language was difficult to understand when the main characters were talking as the Javanese accent was heavy. An eerie background song was heard when Kakang went to meet the owner of the rubber estate, and again when the owner came to Kakang’s house to ask him to wash the floor mat dirtied by him. Another sorrowful song was sung by Kakang after he got scolded by his boss who shows his despair which I see him very sad of his situation.
In Jogho, the Malay language was heard but there were some old Malay words used which is hardly heard off nowadays. An eerie song was also heard when the villagers went to check why the bull is making noises. Then the song climaxed when the bull charged at Mamat and gored him that made me to think what will happen next to Mamat in the film.
In editing, for Kaki Bakar, the flow is fine but there is one repeated scene where Kakang is in the court to settle the carpet issue. In Jogho I can say it was a good flow of storyline. However, there is one scene when Sani and Salim went to kill Dollah, one of them shot Isa’s son and there was no gunshot sound heard. At the end of the film, Isa shot Mamat’s left hand but no gunshot was heard too.
Commenting on the actor’s behaviour/movement in Kaki Bakar all the characters played their roles well and there are no mistakes whereas in ‘Jogho’ there are too many characters that I found it hard to concentrate on the few main characters as the story progresses leisurely and the minor characters have more screen time which does not relate to the story.
The props used in the film Kaki Bakar were well suited as they perfectly depict the background of the location but in ‘Jogho’ the props used were just ordinary and not anything unusual. The location of the rural village chosen for Kaki Bakar was a good choice as it shows off the natural setting of the film. In Jogho the location of Southern Thailand was also an equally good choice as it shows the nature of the village they live in.
In Kaki Bakar there were two different sets of costumes used, one wardrobe is for the poor and one for the rich. However in Jogho, the costumes used are simpler as it wants to depict the kampong style for the people living in the wooden houses. Make-up in both films was not obvious since both deals with rural setting and not a sophisticated lifestyle.
In conclusion, I would like to add that both films have different perspectives and has its own qualities to make a clear cut storyline that the audience can relate to and understand the story easily.
References
Kaki Bakar
Kaki Bakar - 1995. (2010). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110229/
Kaki Bakar. (2008). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/film/info/?id=Kaki_Bakar_69
Kaki Bakar Sinopsis. (2003). Retrieved Deember 3, 2011 from http://www.filemkita.com/filem/k/kaki_bakar_01.html
Kaki Bakar/ The Arsonist. (1996). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/134775/Kaki-Bakar/overview
Jogho
Jogho - 1997. (2010). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241604/
Jogho. (2007). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/film/info/?id=Jogho_274
Jogho Sinopsis. (2003). Retrieved December 3, 2011 from http://www.filemkita.com/filem/j/jogho_01.html
