Dukun

Coming from a country where anything branded unislamic is banned ( as this movie was for 11 years) I was pleasantly surprised when I found the acting and directing extremely good . The plot has a few loopholes and unexplained characters but overall the loosely based storyline and acting held the movie together.

Not as expected. very boring rhe first 30 minutes i closed thw movie

When I heard about the movie which is based from the true story that involves witchcraft, I was so excited and perhaps putting too much expectation. Old movie quality aside, there's too many gap to be filled. The main focus the movie is trying to show is how the continuation will be (if they're planning for Dukun 2). Some of the characters are just redundant, perhaps just to lengthen the screen time. It's more "gross" instead of "scary", which is very disappointing..

One of the few horror flicks that have come out of Malaysia I can say I actually enjoyed. Though the movie feels a little choppy and disjointed at first, everything eventually fleshens out to an eerie, unforgettable finale. The film has a distinct David Lynch feel throughout, especially in the scenes involving Diana Dahlan's nightclub which just screams of Twin Peaks and the Black Lodge. It also has the awkward, unintentionally comedic dialogue that has become central to Lynch's style. However, I feel like the director has cut the movie way too short. Many of the characters and elements of the story have been left undeveloped and leaves the viewers with more questions than answers. I know many movies purposely do this to inspire discussion and dread within the audience, but somehow it did not work for me in this particular movie.

Overall, a firm 8/10 with strong leads from Umie Aida, Faizal Hussein, Ramli Hassan and Elyana.

After a long wait, 12 years to be exact, Dain Said's first feature movie "Dukun" is finally showing in Malaysian cinemas. "Dukun" centers on Karim (Faizal Hussein), a lawyer who is in a desperate search for his lost daughter who went missing after an argument. While searching, he is assigned to defend an alleged murderer, the seductive yet sinister Diana Dahlan (Umie Aida), in court. As the two meet to discuss about Diana's trial, she reveals that she practices black magic and offers a deal to help search for Karim's daughter using illegal mystical methods.

Umie Aida, who plays the titular role of "Dukun", which means shaman, stole the show completely with her outstanding performance. She perfectly balances Diana's bipolar characteristics, switching from being seductive to lure her victims, to showing her evil possessed-like manner when she holds her ritual. Every scene involving Umie Aida is fun to watch because of her character's unexpected personality.

Not forgetting Faizal Hussein who also did a great job in portraying two different personas, one as a desperate father seeking for help to find his daughter, the other as a confident lawyer who shows no mercy when in the middle of a court battle. It is easy to sympathise with his character, knowing that his confident pose is just a façade hiding his despair.

Knowing that "Dukun" is essentially a 2006 movie, one must praise Dain Said's efforts in creating something different for the local movie industry, by making a movie with such a challenging concept that not only has an excellent social commentary but also separates itself from the typical Malaysian genre, which is primarily comedy and horror. He also purposely tells "Dukun" in a non-linear way, keeping the audiences on their toes so that they do not miss out on any important details. The director successfully captured the underground world of black magic and portrayed it in a form that is easy to understand and accessible to the audience.

Overall, "Dukun" is worth -to-not-worth the 12-year wait solely for Umie Aida's fantastic performance. Even if some dialogues seem outdated at times, you can't really blame the movie because it was made more than a decade ago. But with all the troubles "Dukun" faced, this is one movie that is sure to become the talk of Malaysians for years to come, whether it is about the movie itself or the making of it.