★ 6 / 10
Zaffan" (Zafreen Zairizal) is a young girl merrily
CinemaSerf
"Zaffan" (Zafreen Zairizal) is a young girl merrily enjoying her childhood until her body decides it's time to grow up - and so she awakens horrified and…
"Zaffan" (Zafreen Zairizal) is a young girl merrily enjoying her childhood until her body decides it's time to grow up - and so she awakens horrified and bloody. Her mother reassures her and off she goes to school - only to find that her friend, the prefect "Farah" (Deena Ezral) is rather disgusted by her new found maturity. It isn't long before "Zaffan" is being ostracised by her classmates and no matter how hard she tries, she cannot re-engage with her pals. The frustration this causes starts to manifest itself in dreams, then in more than those - in physical changes that seem to be rendering her more animal than human - as epitomised by her new favourite snacks! In a rural Malaysian community that is not without it's superstition, her shunning becomes more complete - but what can she do? Can the enigmatic "Dr. Rahim" (Shaheizy Sam) help out with his internet-friendly method and speciality products? The production standards aren't the best, but there's an engaging effort the young and enthusiastic Zairizal as she learns to shin up trees in record time and manage to work well enough with the very limited visual effects. It's not without some humour - especially at the end, and that helps it move along quickly with just enough emphasis on a subject rarely touched upon by cinema anywhere. It'll be fine on the television, and it is worth ninety minutes.
★ 5 / 10
Visually Stunning but Narratively Flawed:
vanessaharlinton
I had high expectations for this film because I saw that the director had won numerous awards and it was co-produced by eight countries. I decided to watch it…
I had high expectations for this film because I saw that the director had won numerous awards and it was co-produced by eight countries. I decided to watch it and was impressed by the superb cinematography; I would give the cinematographer 10/10 stars.
However, there were several issues with the film. To create a compelling movie, every scene should have a purpose so that it is not a waste of money and time. The general structure of storytelling includes an introduction, climax, and conclusion.
What this film lacks is a clear conclusion or solution to the problems highlighted in the introduction and climax. The film suggests that there is a problem involving a character named Zaffan, Mariam and Farah attract an entity in the jungle, which gradually infects these three girls and transforms them into tigers. However, the film leaves the audience hanging without explaining what the entity actually is. Maybe it is Saka or a jungle entity? What does this entity want from the three girls? These are questions that should have been addressed and put into the scene.
Many scenes in the film seem unnecessary. For example, scenes like the canteen scene, the fake ustaz scene, the camp scene, the weird drawing scene, the sticker scene, and the father's hunting scene all lack meaningful context. These could have been cut to make room for explanations about the entity and its effects on the girls.
Another major problem is the lack of resolution to the central issue. After the fake ustaz is decapitated by Zaffan (who is no longer herself), the villagers merely record the incident while the parents wait at home instead of contacting authorities for help. Is this supposed to be normal behavior? For a film that runs for 1.5 hours to be precised, it fails to explain the cause of the 'disease' or offer a solution to the problem. Perhaps the director intended for viewers to draw their own conclusions? The ending scene showed that the three infected girls were dancing happily at the river, I was wondering this scene is before or after the infection? But my sister said, she saw the red claw scar on zaffan thigh so it might be after the infection. So is that the conclusion after all the heavy complications at the beginning? Hurmmm.
As a fan of horror movies, I was disappointed. I was eager to see how the plot would unfold, but it ended up being confusing and disengaging, leaving the audience wondering what they had just watched. The entire two-hour film could have been condensed into 30 minutes. I really dont want to compare with our neighbour's film but just to make an example so we can do better, look at one of latest Indonesian horror film 'menjelang ajal', every scene has a meaning and we understand all the facts in the film completely.
Nevertheless, the cinematography was excellent, and I truly appreciated every angle of the work. Zaffan, Mariam, and Farah were outstanding actresses, and I was very impressed with their performances. They deserve more opportunities in the future!
97%
TOMATOMETER
· 65 reviews
29%
AUDIENCE
5.9/10
1.3K
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@_guilt how can you even tell?