Tiger Stripes

Coming-of-age allegory/tale by way of demons (both personal and actual) with a dash of some werewolf energy. Absolutely gorgeous directing and cinematography, and main girl Zafreen Zairizal who played Zaffan was incredible. Fierce but fragile. What a performance. Big props also for the makeup and effects. Really different and beautiful creature design work. Also hi hello writer director if you see this please make a soundtrack playlist on Spotify :) Opening song had me dancing, and my heart always skips a beat when I see hot pink credits and title. This is a movie for all the cute ragey girlies.

Not too big of a fan of the plot (personally felt some aspects were stretched to the point of comic absurdity), but I thought some scenes were excellent.

Also, the lead girl is superb. She brought to life the struggle with identity and transition from childhood to adolescence quite powerfully. It helps that the supporting characters were all very bad actors, so that her talent was more pronounced and better highlighted.

There's that typical clichéd attempt to tokenize the Indian and Chinese, but luckily it wasn't shoved right in the face of the audience.

The movie itself also felt a bit too overwrought and long.

Is this a horror film? It shouldn't be categorized as such, just because there's a few horror elements.

Much like Carrie White of the Stephen King novel and later film, Zafan is the first in her class to experience her period, and somehow, the school is aware of her situation.

Classmates mock her and the girl begins to exhibit some very strange behavior. A bathroom scene where she is attacked by a group of girls from her school results in a demon like possession and a Muslim supposed cleric arrives to perform an almost Catholic style exorcism. The man is obviously a con artist with business cards and social media presence.

The Malaysian scenery is beautiful and the lead actress is excellent.

I was not happy with the ending but Tiger Stripes is a decent horror film.

Amanda Nell Eu debut effort is a surreal study of a 12 year old girl's coming-of-age experience told against the backdrop of rural Selangor

Tinged with magical realism, the story is a simple slice of life tale with Zafreen Zairizal's impactful performance as Zaffan being the definite showstealer. Told through her lenses, we see her navigate the changes of puberty and the challenges of a small conservative town school life in an ever evolving modern world

The cinematography (by Gaudi Award nominated Jimmy Gimferrer) is excellent, with some breathtaking shots and framing of Malaysia's rainforest and the Titiwangsa range. The background score was also superb, an almost raw tone from Indonesian duo Gabber Modus Operandi.

Really cool piece

Not quite sure what genre

Not horror

More rites-of-passage puberty tale with highly humorous and also serious themes blended in; shamanism is very present here too

The Malay village and surroundings/nature it is set in so beautiful

The acting from the three girls; this a teen buddy movie too really very good; the ancillaries pull their weight too; the parents are excellent in this too; the über-laidback dad an absolute treat

Watching more and more films and series from Asia and the quality is really as good as anything from The West often on a par with

Highly advised for folks who are interested in good cinema shamanism and the thorny time in a person's life we call teenage.

PS For the ones of you who have not seen it; watching La féline (1982) would explain why I titled the review Cat People for 12 year old. The 1982 was not the first but it was an excellent film.