The Journey Review

Not to be confused with Pixar's Up because it's way better movie in my opinion! 

The Journey Review (Locally produced Chinese movie with English subtitles and dialogue using our local Malaysian rojak language) Well, the movie title is actually just The Journey but I wanted to add on because when I saw it was listed as Chinese movie, my eyes chose to ignore it. It was not until I went ‘horsing’ at my Cinapek X Boss house for Chinese New Year (CNY) when he told me I should; in fact every single Malaysian shouldn’t miss it. Hmm…biar betul…since its CNY season, there’s like tonnes of Hong Kong produced movie and he picked this and recommended me? Kalau dah Boss aku cakap kena tengok memang wajib lar aku tengok kan? Guess what happened after I watched? I called him up immediately thanking him for not letting me miss this awesome amazing cilaka giler babi best punya gambar!

Learn how to differentiate male and female tree! hehehe 

As I mentioned earlier, it is local movie so the story’s main location was set in Malaysia, the plantation area in Cameron Highland to be exact. There lives Uncle Chuan  (Frankie Lee) who is quite a ‘pantangfull’ cinapek type of oldman. He is so full of pantang until one might get turned off by him. After his wife demise he sends away his only daughter (Bee (Joanne Yew)  [then aged 8] to UK to live and study there. Years goes by and his daughter ‘balik kampung’ not by herself but accompanied by her ‘Ang Moh’ fiancé, Benji (Andrew Pfeiffer – not related to Michelle Preiffer)! Jeng jeng jeng! Amek ko orang tua! Pantang bukan pantang tapi tengok-tengok anak ko bawak balik laki omputih. Apa lu mau bikin? Hehehe! After much deliberation, Uncle Chuan finally agrees to the wedding but with one major condition. Uncle Chuan wants his future son in law to hand deliver the wedding invitation to his former classmates. At first Benji gets annoyed but he obliges and thus begins their ‘perjalanan’ across the country. During the ‘travel’ both man teach and learn new things from each other. Both man return as changed man but will there be a wedding in the end?

Hey ho....let's gooooooo!!! 

I can’t help but to smile, laugh, feel angry, annoyed, sad, happy, touched and almost cried because the cast managed to evoke all this feelings and more while watching them giving their top notch performance in their respective characters. I dono any of them but by end of the movie some if not all became my fevered! Yup, even ‘Uncle Chuan’ managed to creep into my list. That grumpy oldman, I felt like giving him a big teddy huggies. Peluk ketat-ketat sampai pengsan. Don’t get me started about the Benji! I might just book my next flight ticket to UK to get a boyfriend….eh jap…husband like him! Hehehe….as for the rest of the cast, not matter how small or big, all was well picked! The location featured…Cameron Highlands…it’s gonna be in the list for my next cuti-cuti Malaysia holiday…Penang, Perak and the most amazing of all….the beach kat Sabah…mak datuk hang!!! How I miss my feet touching the crystal clear water. Wahai pembikin filem tempatan, please take note on how to highlight Malaysia’s beautiful location by picking up a point or two from this movie.

People involved in the movie! 

If you have never watched any locally produced movie and want to start have faith in local movie making scene, you must! You should! You have to catch this movie. I’m willing to refund your money if you walk out not happy after watching this film. There’s no explosion, CGI or any Hollywood type crap but pure heart and soul. You can feel the people involved in the making put their best effort and the end result came out as a shining diamond among tsunami of Hong Kong blockbusters. We are becoming more and more depended on technology and slowly turning into tech zombie so this is a breath of fresh air to appreciate the human value of tradition and respect towards such practice. We may have evolved into a developed country but if we lose our custom, we are no different than the computers that we have invented. By all means, do take my word for it and watch and re-watch this movie with your family or friends. Take me along if you can! 

Wanna ride?

More proof why you should not miss this!