Bukit Kepong is a 1981 Malaysian Malay-language action war film produced and directed by Jins Shamsuddin starring himself, A. Rahim and Hussein Abu Hassan. The film was based on the Bukit Kepong incident in 1950. The film has won eight awards in the third Malaysia Film Festival in 1982, including Best Film.[1]
In 2014, the film was re-edited by United Studios (a distributing and marketing company of KRU International), which had invested MYR 100,000 in restoring and improvement for high definition (HD) display resolution of the original film. It was reproduced in HD version; as Bukit Kepong Versi Digital HD a year later. For this restoration, the movie was cropped to 16/9 instead of its original academy ratio and electronic stereo widening has replaced the original mono soundtrack, thus distorting the director’s original vision. The technical works was done by Prodigital Lab (owned by KRU Malaysia).[2][3]
Plot
The story is set in 1950 during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) in which communist guerrillas of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) fought against the British colonial government of Malaya. The plot follows the struggle of the Federation of Malaya Police and local community in Bukit Kepong, Johor, in fighting against an MNLA assault in 1950. The battle peaked by the MNLA attack of Bukit Kepong police station where 18 policemen were attached on the dawn of 23 February 1950. The film portrays the police force as having indomitable and heroic spirits, showing them fighting a series deadly battles to defend Malaya from attacks by "communist terrorists".[4][5]
Constable Abdul Ghani Mohd Yusoff as Malay communist
Constable Yahya Nordin as Malay communist
Bukit Kepong villagers:
Corporal Tham Chen Yao as Ah Yau
Constable Lee Seng Chong as Ah Siah
Woman Police Constable (WPC) Wong Chen Chu as Ah Siah's daughter
Crew members
Assistant Director – A. Rahim
Technical Advisor – Inspector Fauzy Abu Bakar
Technical Advisor – ACP Latifi Ahmad
Song Converter – Inspector Abu Bakar Long
Music Director – ACP Alias Arshad
Film Editor – Johari Ibrahim
Assistant Film Editor – Mariam Ibrahim
Audio Recorder – Peter Lim
Audio Recorder – Zulkifli Salleh
Assistant Audio Recorder – Ahmad Tajudin
Assistant Audio Recorder – Azmi Mohd Nor
Cameraman – S.Mohan
Assistant Cameraman – Ed Rizal
Director of Art Setup & Set Designer – ACP Yusof Ariffin
Set Designer – ACP Zakaria Mohammad
Production
Director, producer and main actor, Jins Shamsuddin explained that this film was done based on the historical facts with the co-operation of Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) and Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tun Mohammed Hanif Omar. He also interviewed former communist operatives who had surrendered after the Bukit Kepong police station attack incident and also Bukit Kepong villagers. Before production of the film, family members of Muhammad Indera, leader of the communist terrorists in the incident had met him and requested him not to show too much of the bad elements of Muhammad Indera.[6]
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