HIKAYAT MERONG MAHAWANGSA.....This film hit local cinema by 10 March 2011. This is the first Malaysian epic film and the story related to history of Malaya. This story begin in the year of 120, the Roman empire is under the reign of Hadrian while in China, Dynasty of Han was a powerful empire and has expanded its rule to the Central Asian countries. During the Roman forces are repairing their vessels in Goa, they ask for help from Merong Mahawangsa to accompany the Prince of Rome to Langkasuka to marry a beautiful princess of Han Dynasty from China. The piracy of Geruda decide to kidnap the Princess of China and make it as a hostage and attacked Merong mahawangsa and the fleet at the end of the irrigation straits of Malacca. Mahawangsa's ship was also attacked and making it harder for any rescue attempt. They traveled through many obstacles and eventually managed to defeat Geruda with cooperation from the armed forces of Rome and China. The two great civilizations from the East and West are successfully unite but sadly at the end of the story, Merong Mahawangsa sacrifices himself in order to killed Taji, the head of Geruda.
What had I found through this film is various languages uses like English, Malay, Chinese and some Indian language but most of the film dialogue is monopoly by English language. I wondered why this film does not use the language according to the actual place? The actual place means the location in the story. In the story, the Chinese people ( Chinese princess, her maid and the chief of China) does not use fully Chinese language in their conversation. For me, i feel a bit awkward when the Chinese princess and her maid speak in English all the time. However, when I read the information about this film at Wikipedia, i found out that the goal of this film been create for overseas film market. So, there is no surprise WHY the English language used in this film is about 70%.
The props and the costume used in this film is really awesome and it brings the audience back to the second century. The special effects used in this film (CGI) still can be proud even though cannot compete with the international epics film. Effects of an arrow piercing, a sword stab on the actor look alive and Merong character as a mighty king looks perfect. This is the additional factor that makes the movie interesting to watch. The film had a budget of RM8 million, of which RM2 million was spent on the sets, props and costume. There is no doubt that this film was the great action film compared to other Malaysian film before.
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