Banglasia

Banglasia! Banglasia! Banglasia! Thats the only theme song that kinda stick with me in an otherwise kinda satire? Directed by and starring Namewee, the movie covers several political references that is so in your face that sometimes you find it hard kinda to laugh at it (Maybe it wasn't meant to be funny, I dunno). In the beginning you kinda wondered whether Syarikat Timbang (The name of the company) is an agency or what? No doubt the narration in the beginning was saying this and that, I only figured it out in the middle of the movie that it is a metaphor for BN (Or maybe I was kinda slow due to my sleepy head). Saiful Apek's portrayal while funny and comedic was an indirect portrayal of Mahathir and it was only towards the end of the movie where I realised that (It is confirmed during a post-credits scene at the end which is a reshoot). I guess is kinda good that Mahathir is portrayed indirectly as a funny man as oppose to a more serious or how you have seen him in real life and casting Saiful is a genius move (At least to me anyway). While not everybody will get the joke like Saiful's style of humour which I find funny or other jokes being delivered by other characters, like a policeman named Wira which I find so over the top and funny as hell, the "love triangle" between Dirty Harris, Namewee's grandma and Rina at first is a bit funny but after a while it gets a bit tiring (So goes for Saiful's constant singing and ad narration), some racial jokes this and there and of course a Hindustani dream-like sequence which is quite a fun nod to those montages you see in every Indian movies and shows that Namewee indeed does his homework. Overall maybe this is not a satire and it is a dumb comedy (Despite what Namewee says that this movie promotes the values of Malaysians and I say it does that with a song in the end and a cast of 1Malaysia) that so happens to feature a Bangla hero nicknamed Dirty Harris and a cast of 1 Malaysia that carries the movie really well that I was kinda invested. In the end, it is a slightly dated movie that still feels kinda relevant and fresh in our people's mind, that would have benefited more if BN have not been so triggered by its reference of them. Fyi there are only two kinda censored scenes which I find awkward (Maybe Mahathir is triggered by those) and several scenes of gun firing which they cut (Come on! It is cg flour not real blood. That bad is it?).

Jokes and scenes are not even funny and keep repeated, the movie is naive, immature and cringy at a point it is annoying to watch that I rather play my phone to pass the time during the movie.

This is the worst movie I had ever seen , don't waste your money on this , I rather go watch Naruto's flashback than this pointless and meaningless movie, it is so badly directed that I purposely open an account just to write a honest review about it , it's bad.

This is really a real BAD, or the WORST MOVIE that I ever watched over these few years!!

The plot is badly written! The jokes are lame and not funny at all!!!

U really dunno what the HECK you are watching!!!

Banning it by the previous government was the MOST ACCURATE MOVE ever done by Najib!!!! It should not be released to WASTE anyone's money and time!!!!

Take my advice, DONT u watch!!!!

A comedically dramatized story of the political scandals and struggles in Malaysia prior to 2018 election. Only Malaysians who kept up with the news both mainstream and factstream can truly understand and find the analogies funny. Otherwise, the film plot in itself is pretty bad. There is no timing in the comedy, just full blown every moment has to be ridiculous and silly. While some are funny, most totally ruins the plot logic and the serious scenes. The characters are underdeveloped, and imho lazy writing towards the end.

Well.. it's just that, I guess? I give credit to the film and Namewee for being so brave and I would consider this is the first local film that went all out for political satire - jokes about Najib, Rosmah, GE13 jokes, IC to immigrants jokes, Lynas etc. This film also had Namewee handprints all over it, and this film also was set in a fictional Malaysia, as Malaysia is being invaded by the Luk Luk army, and Atikah Suhaimie is running around in skimpy nurse outfit, which definitely is not what Malaysian nurses wear. But I'm not complaining.

Banglasia was interesting as it was set in a fictional Malaysia and packed with political satire with a Bangladeshi worker as the protagonist, so we see the struggles and what the immigrants went through everyday, so that's interesting. But that's all Banglasia had to offer. It doesn't go any deeper than that, and yeah, I understand that it's a comedy movie, but even for comedy, the jokes were just meh and sometimes out of place. It felt like there were moments of running gags for Namewee and it shouldn't be because this was a film and not one of his videos.

Still, Banglasia was a brave film and the 2.0 version was updated with added scenes related to what happened post GE14. I hope Namewee would continue his brave pursuits, and for more filmmakers like him to come out.