Filmart: How Multi-Award Winner ‘Abang Adik’ Carries the Hopes of Malaysian Cinema

While the moving Malaysian drama Abang Adik has cleaned up at numerous award ceremonies around the world, its director is hoping his debut feature’s lasting legacy lands a little closer to home.

“I really hope we can inspire the next generation of Malaysian filmmakers, and to show that even small Malaysia films can find a global audience,” said director Jing Ong, speaking on the sidelines of this year’s Asian Film Awards.

Abang Adik was among the surprise packets to emerge from Southeast Asian cinema over the past 12 months. But Ong freely admits there were concerns that the film’s storyline might not resonate internationally, given it follows the problems faced by two undocumented immigrant brothers as they try to live, day to day, in contemporary Malaysia.

Instead, Abang Adik picked up awards as far afield as the Far East Film Festival in northern Italy as well as at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, routinely referred to as the Oscars of Chinese-language cinema.

It was also in the running on Sunday night at the AFAs in Hong Kong – where its stars Wu Kang-ren and Jack Tan were up for the best actor and best supporting actor awards, respectively. They left empty-handed, but Ong was already looking to the future and to the impact the film’s overall success might have at home in Malaysia, one of the many Southeast Asian territories where domestically produced films — especially small-budgeted, locally flavoured drams — struggle to get released in the face of Hollywood and Asian blockbuster dominance.

“We didn’t expect the success, honestly,” said Ong. “But no matter whether we screened [the film] in Switzerland, Italy, even New York, the audience reacted the same. They’re crying, they’re hugging me afterwards and saying it’s sad but beautiful.  I think emotions link us all, and people everywhere could feel the love between the brothers. So this gives us all hope that our small films can reach people because in life people everywhere share the same emotions.”

The 48-year-old Ong had enjoyed a long career as a producer and talent manager in Malaysia before deciding to sit down and write, and then direct, Abang Adik. He revealed that its success has led to discussions with some of the nation’s major TV stations, and its major studios — and that he hoped this might inspire Malaysia’s younger generation of filmmakers to continue to explore local issues, and local life.

“The government is now using my film as an example of what can be done, so this gives hope for us all,” said Ong. “Personally, I feel like I have given something back to my country and I have raised awareness of issues, such as these undocumented immigrants, that we should all be talking about.”