Bukit Kepong (film)

Bukit Kepong
Bukit Kepong
Directed by	Jins Shamsuddin
Written by	Aimi Jarr; ASP Yusoff Ariffin; ASP Ismail Johari;
Screenplay by	Jins Shamsuddin
Story by	ASP Ismail Johari
Based on	Bukit Kepong incident
Produced by	Jins Shamsuddin
Starring	Jins Shamsuddin; A. Rahim; Hussein Abu Hassan;
Cinematography	S. Mohan
Edited by	Johari Ibrahim
Production; company	Jins Shamsudin Productions
Release date	April 29, 1981 (Malaysia);
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Malaysia
Languages	Malay; English; Mandarin
Budget	MYR 1.3 million
Box office	MYR 1.7 million

Bukit Kepong (English: Kepong Hill) is a 1981 Malaysian Malay-language war film produced and directed by Jins Shamsuddin starring himself, A. Rahim and Hussein Abu Hassan. The film was based on the Bukit Kepong incident in 1950. The film has won eight awards in the third Malaysia Film Festival in 1982, including Best Film.^[1]

In 2014, the film was re-edited by United Studios (a distributing and marketing company of KRU International), which had invested MYR 100,000 in restoring and improvement for high definition (HD) display resolution of the original film. It was reproduced in HD version; as Bukit Kepong Versi Digital HD a year later. For this restoration, the movie was cropped to 16/9 instead of its original academy ratio and electronic stereo widening has replaced the original mono soundtrack, thus distorting the director’s original vision. The technical works was done by Prodigital Lab (owned by KRU Malaysia).^[2]^[3]

Plot

The story is set in 1950 during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) in which communist guerrillas of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) fought against the British colonial government of Malaya. The plot follows the struggle of the Federation of Malaya Police and local community in Bukit Kepong, Johor, in fighting against an MNLA assault in 1950. The battle peaked by the MNLA attack of Bukit Kepong police station where 18 policemen were attached on the dawn of 23 February 1950. The film portrays the police force as having indomitable and heroic spirits, showing them fighting a series deadly battles to defend Malaya from attacks by "communist terrorists".^[4]^[5]

Cast

Jins Shamsuddin as Sergeant 3493 Jamil Bin Mohd Shah
A. Rahim as Lance Corporal 7168 Jidin Bin Omar
Hussein Abu Hassan as Police Constable (PC) 10533 Osman Yusoff
Yusof Haslam as PC 8600 Jaafar Bin Hassan
Dali Abdullah as PC 7493 Mohamad Bin Jaafar
Shamsudin Baslah as PC 7862 Abdul Kadir Bin Jusoff
J.A. Halim as Extra Police Constable (EPC) 3475 Mohd Tap Bin Lazim
Hisham Ihsan as Village Chief Ali Bin Mustapha
Mohd Noor Bon as Auxiliary Police (AP) 1925 Ali Akob Bin Othman
Harun Ibrahim as AP 2130 Samad Bin Yatim
Jamaliah Arshad as Mariam
Edah Ahmad as Saadiah
Suhaina Yahya as Fatimah
Ayu Rahman as Pon
Normah Alim as Arfah
Noraini Talib as Fatimah Ya'aba
Omar Suwita as Sa'ibun
Norazizah Mohd Seh as Jamilah
Ahmad Tarmizi Mad Zin as Mohd Nor
Akhmal M.Zain as Hassan
Norizan Hashim as Zainun
Azizan Mokhtar as District Administration Officer (Malay: Pegawai Pentadbir Daerah)
Mike Steward as Mr Davis
Steven Wang as Tuck Sai
James Ling as Ling
Norazam Zakaria as Aziz
Mohd Rashid Md Isa as Said
Saadah Fadzil sebagai Saibun's wife
Zambry Samad as Saibun's son
Embong Azizah as Saibun's mother
Low Hwee Luang as Ah Yau's wife
Tan Mei Ling as Mei Ling (Ah Yau's daughter)

Extra cast

The Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) members were given the roles of extra casts in the film as:

Members of Federation of Malaya Police, as the policemen of Bukit Kepong:
- ACP Latifi Ahmad as PC 7645 Yusof Bin Rono
- Inspector Zainal Abidin Bin Mohd as Pagoh District Police Chief (J.J. Raj)
- Inspector Fauzy Bin Abu Bakar as EPC 3472 Ahmad Bin Khalid
- Corporal Mohd Kurdi Bin Ismail as PC 9136 Hassan Bin Othman
- Corporal Shukor Bin Daud as Marine Police Constable (MPC) 37 Abu Bakar Bin Daud
- Corporal Abdul Ghani Bin Abdul as MM 5674 Abu Bin Mohd Ali
- Corporal Abdullah Bin Jabar as AP 2127 Osman Bin Yahya
- Constable Marsat Bin Jidin as Corporal 7068 Mohd Yassin Bin Haji Abdul Wahab
- Constable Sukarman Bin Selamat as PC 3933 Hamzah Bin Ahmad
- Constable Talib Bin Janggi as EPC 3795 Jaafar Bin Arshad
- Constable Mat Saad as MPC 60 Ibrahim bin Adam
- Constable Mohd Jan Bin Katan as MPC 68 Awang bin Ali
- Constable Malek Baba as MPC 181 Basiron bin Adam
Communist terrorists:
- Sergeant Ng Thin Hong as Lee Tuan
- Constable Chong Yun Fook as Kwan Pin
- Constable Lam Seng Lan as Wing Chan
- Constable Looi Thye Choe as Chin Siang
- Constable Seah Lai Soon as Chan Fei
- Constable Abdul Ghani Wahid as Leman
- Constable Mohd Yatim as Malay communist
- Constable Abdul Ghani Mohd Yusoff as Malay communist
- Constable Yahya Nordin as Malay communist
Bukit Kepong villagers:
- Corporal Tham Chen Yao as Ah Yau
- Constable Lee Seng Chong as Ah Siah
- Woman Police Constable (WPC) Wong Chen Chu as Ah Siah's daughter

Crew members

Assistant Director – A. Rahim
Technical Advisor – Inspector Fauzy Abu Bakar
Technical Advisor – ACP Latifi Ahmad
Song Converter – Inspector Abu Bakar Long
Music Director – ACP Alias Arshad
Film Editor – Johari Ibrahim
Assistant Film Editor – Mariam Ibrahim
Audio Recorder – Peter Lim
Audio Recorder – Zulkifli Salleh
Assistant Audio Recorder – Ahmad Tajudin
Assistant Audio Recorder – Azmi Mohd Nor
Cameraman – S.Mohan
Assistant Cameraman – Ed Rizal
Director of Art Setup & Set Designer – ACP Yusof Ariffin
Set Designer – ACP Zakaria Mohammad

Production

Director, producer and main actor, Jins Shamsuddin explained that this film was done based on the historical facts with the co-operation of Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) and Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tun Mohammed Hanif Omar. He also interviewed former communist operatives who had surrendered after the Bukit Kepong police station attack incident and also Bukit Kepong villagers. Before production of the film, family members of Muhammad Indera, leader of the communist terrorists in the incident had met him and requested him not to show too much of the bad elements of Muhammad Indera.^[6]

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipients	Result
3rd Malaysia Film Festival, 1982	Best Film	Jins Shamsuddin	Won
	Best Director		Won
	Best Actor		Nominated
	Special Juri Award		Won
	Best Screenplay	Aimi Jarr, Yusof Ariffin, Ismail Johari	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	A. Rahim	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Hussein Abu Hassan	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Jamaliah Arshad	Nominated
	Best Cameraman	S. Mohan	Won
	Best Art Direction	Yusoff Ariffin	Won
	Best Sound Direction	Peter Lim & Zulkifli Salleh	Won
	Best New Actor	Suhaina Yahya	Won
	Best New Actor	Dali Abdullah	Nominated

References

^ "Lampiron I" (PDF). Studentsrepo.um.edu.my. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
^ Yusof Haslam reminisces his stint in “Bukit Kepong”, New Straits Times
^ Yeoh, Angelin (27 August 2015). "Proudly Malaysian: Iconic film Bukit Kepong restored to its full glory". The Star. No. Star 2. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
^ "Bukit Kepong dokumentasi kekejaman komunis" (in Malay). Berita Harian. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
^ Sta Maria, Stephanie (13 September 2011). "The man behind 'Bukit Kepong'". Free Malaysia Today. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
^ Niezam Abdullah (13 September 2011). "Filem 'Bukit Kepong' Ikut Fakta Sejarah – Jins Shamsuddin". mStar Online (in Malay). Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

External links

Bukit Kepong at IMDb
(in Malay) Bukit Kepong / 1981 - Filem Malaysia

[1] "Lampiron I" (PDF). Studentsrepo.um.edu.my. Retrieved 26 June 2019.

[2] Yusof Haslam reminisces his stint in “Bukit Kepong”, New Straits Times

[3] Yeoh, Angelin (27 August 2015). "Proudly Malaysian: Iconic film Bukit Kepong restored to its full glory". The Star. No. Star 2. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.

[4] "Bukit Kepong dokumentasi kekejaman komunis" (in Malay). Berita Harian. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.

[5] Sta Maria, Stephanie (13 September 2011). "The man behind 'Bukit Kepong'". Free Malaysia Today. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

[BukitKepongfilm-6] Niezam Abdullah (13 September 2011). "Filem 'Bukit Kepong' Ikut Fakta Sejarah – Jins Shamsuddin". mStar Online (in Malay). Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

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