Wangi (2019)

 

Like a bad poster for a porno

Like all low budget Malaysian horror movies directed by someone that can't agree on a fixed name for himself, Yeop Hitler/M. Hitler Zami/Latiff Zami (goddamn dude, the Hitler in your name isn't even the worst part. Commit to one!), Wangi is a diabolical mess of camera angles, a confusing story, horrible editing and a mediocre script. 

The start of the movie begins with Sharnaaz Ahmad beating the shit out of something off screen while Erra Fazira cowers in the corner. It then cuts to another scene where Erra, Sharnaaz and their first child enter the house following the arrival of their newborn. That in itself is just confusing as heck. Like, you want to create a dramatic opening, but because of the shoddy editing, it just doesn't deliver the effect you expect it to - unless that effect is creating a sense of confusion for the audience and a desire to request for their money back. 

"Help me, my husband's Malay"

Wangi tells the story of Erra Fazira's character Nor and her husband Khuzairi played by Sharnaaz Ahmad as they welcome home their new baby who is then haunted by an unknown entity. As the movie progresses, we are introduced to two other characters, Bella played by Nabila Huda and her boyfriend Azlan, played by Syazwan Zulkifli. While Erra tries to figure out why her baby is being haunted, she's also looking for her adopted sister Bella. 

There's a lot of things I can nitpick about this movie, like how there's the obligatory mysterious character that appears offering mysterious advice in a mysterious way or the fact that only after half an hour through the movie do we see that they actually have a maid and then never see her again, or the fact that there are too many front doors to their house, but if I were to go into detail about the little things that irk me, this review will be hella long. Oh, also, before I forget, to indicate that Erra was going through confinement, she spends the first part of the movie with shit smeared across her forehead like she just lost a shit-throwing contest with a bunch of baboons. 

But, i'll stick to the important bits. 

Because of the way the movie is edited and shot, it absolutely does not give off a sense of suspense or intrigue. The scene changes are fast and jumpy and they don't give certain scenes time to breathe. The script in itself is too rushed so you'll have a difficult time understanding things. 

As far as the acting is concerned, I have no qualms with Erra, Sharnaaz or Nabila since they're already seasoned actors, but Syazwan Zulkilfi gives such an over the top performance that even him being beaten to death is comedic. 

"I wish my parents chose better roles for me"

Then there's the extremely unnecessary and forgettable role of Erra and Sharnaaz's special needs son which acts in only a handful of scenes but turns out, towards the end of the movie, plays a pretty invested role in the plot. 

AHOY, ME HEARTIES! SPOILER AHEAD! 🐳

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I rarely spoil movies, but I wouldn't recommend you watching this in the first place so i'm just going to spoil the entire goddamn plot and twist of the movie to save you the time. 

So, Nor and Khuzairi studied in Manchester, UK, along with Nor's adopted sister Bella and her boyfriend Azlan. When I say adopted sister, I'm not sure whether its the legal adoption type or the Malay adoption type, but Nor constantly calls Bella her adopted sister. 

When Nor and Khuzairi graduated (I think they did. It's not specified) and moved back to Malaysia, Bella and Azlan continued staying there as they still have an education to complete. 

One day, Bella finds out that her biological grandmother passed away and wants to travel back to Malaysia for the funeral. However, she doesn't have any money so Nor offers to pay and have Khuzairi travel back with her. 

One shit storm leads to another and Khuzairi and Bella end up sleeping together. Then from Bella's hometown, they're suddenly transported to Manchester (now you understand why I said the scenes are choppy). In Manchester, they continue their affair until Bella winds up pregnant. But by this time, Khuzairi and Nor are already back in Malaysia. 

Ed: You know, it was so tiring to follow the entire flashback, monologue-delivered-by-a-ghost-lady, plot twist that I just lost interest in reviewing this movie entirely. But because I was so keen on shitting on the movie, I willed myself to write this. 

So (UGH), Bella travels back to Malaysia and tells Bella that Azlan knocked her up, just so she could have a place to stay. At the time, Nor was also pregnant, just a month earlier than Bella. 

Ed: As ridiculous as this movie was, I would've dared the script writer to write that Bella confessed to the affair and somehow still got Nor to allow her to stay in the house. 

Khuzairi continues to plow bella despite her being three months pregnant and this continues for awhile. 

Once Bella was nine months down the line, she (I don't know why) caused Nor to fall down the stairs and have a miscarriage. Bella then tries to get jiggy with Khuzairi, but being nine months pregnant doesn't look as appetizing as she was six months ago (or something like that, I don't know, I assume), Khuzairi beats the living shit out of her and she's forced to deliver the baby and then dies. 

Because of the fall, Nor suffers a miscarriage and Khuzairi hands Bella's baby to Nor pretending that it's hers and that's why Bella's ghost was haunting the baby, because it's hers and not Nor's.

There's other scenes after that but this movie is not worth watching so don't bother. 

All in all, I give this crap fest one ghost emoji out of five. 👻. 👈 look at how lonely he is. Make better movies, Hitler (I shit you not, his Wikipedia page says that he's named after Adolf Hitler)! 

That one ghost emoji is for Nabila Huda's thigh slip when she got tossed on the bed as well as for her sex face when she was seducing Sharnaaz. Other than that, no one deserves any other ghost emojis, ever!

Thank you.