Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa
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| Official Movie Poster |
Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa was based on a 16th century document that also has the same title, telling about the early times in Kedah. It's about a warrior with the name of Merong Mahawangsa, which was believed to be Alexander the Great's descendant. He went through a journey with the Roman Prince, Marcus, and his followers. Marcus is set to be married to the princess of Han Dynasty, Meng Li Hua. Even though, both parties were not favor of this arrangement, it was a very important factor to unite the powers of both East and West.
Before having to watch this movie in Film class, I have actually not experienced watching a Malay movie before. I have only seen a few clips on TV, and to be honest I didn't really give any interest or high hopes, just because I was too fond of watching international films. However, I was quite surprised on how the location, the effects, the range of nationalities within the characters, and basically the main plot was almost similar to hollywood movies. Through what I saw, it gave me a little bit more interest in getting into the movie and just trying to watch something which was local for once. The main thing that really took my attention among the reasons I explained earlier, was the variation of characters. By variations, I mean that they really tried to depict the characters in such a way they were supposed to be, and that there were several races of people that was in the movie.
I was truly amused by the main character, Merong Mahawangsa. Everyone would probably agree if I say that he was the main reason why most people watched this movie. Stephen Raman-Hughes was actually an unknown actor before this movie. For that, I would give him a bigger credit for portraying this role quite well knowing that he was an amateur. His features and character portrays a true warrior. He is very fluent in the English language as well. His actions and how he speaks is also very convincing for his role. His delivery of lines are also very good and even foreigners such as myself could understand him very well. Even when he talks in the Malay, I could some how tell what he is trying to say though I don't understand the language.
I chose him as my favorite character in the movie, because first of all he had the main role, thus means that the movie revolves around him most of the time. In the movie, Merong was also a very kind-hearted guy. He is a true warrior, but he still has kindness in him. He went on to a journey with Prince Marcus, and he really put himself on the job and was willing to sacrifice his life just to protect the prince. Physically he already looks like a warrior; he is tall, muscular, and has very strong face features. 
He is also an affectionate person. If he truly cares for someone, he would do anything for that person just to protect them. He was very thankful to the tribe leader and his nurse who helped him when he was severely injured from the incident with the Garudas. When he found out that Embok, the village nurse who helped cured him was raped by one of the Kamawas, and he swore that he would take revenge from those people who've had harmed Embok. 
He also had a good sense of humor and he tries to give everyone with him a calm and fun journey. He brings everyone together and motivate other people to fight for the what is right. Even though, I didn't quite understand the part where he started talking in their local language at the part where he was giving a speech to fight against the pirates, his tone of voice is very strong and was really convincing. However, when I asked my friends about it, they mentioned that he couldn't really pronounce the words like how it should be pronounced. I don't criticize him for that, as I know it is quite hard to get used to a language which you're not that familiar with. Other than that, I don't think there were any cons about Merong and how he portrayed his role.
As the first local movie that I have watched in Malaysia, I could say that it was not so bad as I expected it to be. The plot was interesting and same as its' characters. This is probably just the beginning of watching other interesting Malay movies.
Lycelle Aure Bajar
1008H10921
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