The title “Sepet” is a
Malay word which means “slit eyes”. Normally this word is used to call the
Malaysian Chinese with small eyes. For example, the main cast in this film, Jason
(Ah Loong). Sepet is a Malaysian romantic
comedy drama film directed by Yasmin Ahmad in 2005. There are also many local
actors that involved in this film such as Sharifah Amani as Orked, Ida Nerina
as Orked’s mother, Harith Iskander as Orked’s father and Adibah Noor as Kak
Yam.
This film is about the
love story between a Chinese boy and a Malay girl, Jason and Orked. Jason is a
19 years old boy that selling unlicensed VCDs at market and surprisingly he
likes to read and write poetry. While Orked is a schoolgirl who admires Hong
Kong actors Takeshi Kaneshiro. They face some social and racial pressures from
the society as they are from the totally
different background.
Mise-en-scene plays a
very important role in film as it helps to motivates and develops the story. There
are many languages that used in this film such as English, Malay, Cantonese,
Standard Chinese and Min Nan. As Malaysia is a unique country with multi ethnic,
it is normal that Malaysian can speak different
language. I think this really shows Malasysia identity as we are using
different languages to communicate with others in our daily life. In the film, Jason’s
mother said that “Tapi hairan, bangsa lain, bahasa lain, isi hati kita boleh
faham.” This sentence means that we are from background with different culture,
using different language, but we still can understand each other. This is
strange. This shows that Malaysian all live in a harmony and peaceful country
as we accept, respect and tolerance with each other.
Besides, this film can be
categorized as Malaysia film not only because the language but also through the
background setting of the film. This film was sets in Ipoh Malaysia. We can see
the Malay house (Orked’s house), secondary school (Orked’s school), market (Jason’s
CD stall), mamak stall (where Jason, Orked and Keong are chatting) and etc. The
actors’ costumes also show Malaysia identity. For example, Orked and her mother
wear baju kurung when they are going to market. Baju kurung is a very common
outfit that Malaysian woman wear especially Malay girls. Orked also wears
telekung (Muslim ladies’ prayer cloth) when she prays. Another example is when
Jason and Orked have their first date in the fast food restaurant, there are
two students wearing Malaysia school uniform sitting at the table around them.
In term of
cinematography, Yasmin Ahmad and Low Soon Keong used different kind of
techniques to shoot the film to enhance the narrative. In the scene where Orked
and her friend walk along the market, the camera tilt down to allow the
audiences look at the surrounding of the market. The market is crowded with
people and noisy. They also use close-up shot to show the facial expressions of
the characters to the audiences more clearly. For example, when Orked knows
that Jason makes another girl pregnant and she refuses to answer his call. She
looks sad and he looks worried.
In conclusion, Sepet
represents a local film that includes a lot of sensitive issues that found in
Malaysia. Yasmin Ahmad uses some funny but also serious way to interpret these
issues in the film. This is a recommendation film for all Malaysian as it shows
the conflict and stereotype of people towards multi ethnics in our country.
