Jason says: “A lot
of what audiences see in YASMINE will be fairly familiar and
predictable, but give the filmmakers a little slack – it’s the first
movie that the nascent film industry in Brunei Darussalam has produced,
and it doesn’t hurt to walk before you run. This is a pretty decent
teen sports movie, and its high points are pretty good.
“It starts with the title character (Liyana Yus) discovering that she
won’t be going to college with her high school friends because her
father Fahri (Resa Rahadian) doesn’t make enough as a librarian to
secure the needed loan. It’s bad enough that her friends start to drift
away, and worse when Adi Rahman (Aryl Falak), a boy she likes that is
also a rising star in the martial art of silat, starts paying more
attention to his teammate Dewi (Mentari De Marelle). The only thing to
do is join her school’s silat club and do well enough to get Adi to
notice her again – not so easy when her only teammates are stuffy Ali
(Roy Sungkono) and bulky Nadia (Nadiah Wahid), it’s quite possible that
the club’s advisor doesn’t know anything about silat at all and the
only other master they find who will teach them, Jamal (Agus Kuncoro),
is in a wheelchair. Oh, and Fahri has forbidden Yasmine to have
anything to do with silat at all.
“Events in the main story don’t always happen right on schedule, but
they cover the basics – Yasmine starts out fairly irresponsible and
full of herself, makes new friends, has success go to her head, and
finds out that there’s more to her father than she was aware of. For
the most part, those bits are comfortable but not rote, especially
since the details of how this plays out in Brunei are new to most in
the international audience – it’s an Islamic country, but one where
women appear to have equal rights. The setting is quite beautiful but
also a lived-in city. Some bits of the scripts seem to be stretched bit
far, such as Yasmine seeking ‘the dark master’, and there will
sometimes be what seem like weeks of stuff going on between scenes that
are referred to as days apart, but it’s fairly well-done overall.
“And even though the character can often seem a little self-centered,
Liyana Yus is a great discovery as Yasmine. She brings a great deal of
energy to the role, with the lightness of a young woman who is facing
her first real challenges; even if she’s not always handling them well,
it’s in a way that mades the audience hope for better. She’s got a nice
chemistry with Aryl Falak as her father; he gets across the idea of a
guy with strong convictions where the urge to be strict with his
daughter doesn’t exactly come naturally. The cast is well filled-out;
too, with Mentari De Marelle playing Dewi as an enjoyably sharp rival
and Nadiah Wahid is pretty good as Yasmine’s new friend.
“They’ve all put in the work to become proficient at silat as well, so
the matches which punctuate the film’s second half – directed and
choreographed by Chan Man Ching, a veteran of Jackie Chan’s team – are
quite strong. It’s a martial art where moving into position and posing,
ready to spring, are quite important, so it looks great even though it
can erupt into quick violence (this is what Iko Uwais uses in THE
RAID). The characters all have their own styles, and it’s a nifty
surprise to see Nadia attack like a freight train even as Yasmine is
doing moves that call to mind the dancer she is referred to as early
on. There’s personality to these sequences, which makes them even more
of a satisfying climax.
“So, sure, you’ve probably seen the likes of YASMINE before, but it’s
done well and offers a fresh enough perspective to merit a look. Brunei
may be new at this, but I suspect one can expect good things from Siti
Kamaluddin and Liyana Yus, at the very least, going forward. 3.5 cats
“Seen 25 July 2014 in Théâtre Hall (Fantasia Festival: The
Best Years
of My Life?, DCP)” |
