Bukit Kepong is a 1981 Malaysian epic war film produced and directed by Jins Shamsuddin starring himself, A. Rahim and Hussein Abu Hassan. A collaboration between Jins Shamsuddin and the Royal Malaysia Police, the film is a dramatization of the Bukit Kepong incident in 1950.
The film has won eight awards in the third Malaysia Film Festival in 1982, including Best Film.
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).
Contents
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".
Cast
Jins Shamsuddin as Sergeant 3493 Jamil Bin Mohd Shah
A. Rahim as Lance Corporal 7168 Jidin Bin Omar
Hussein Abu Hassan as Police Constable (PC) 10533 Osman Yusoff
Yusof Haslam as PC 8600 Jaafar Bin Hassan
Dali Abdullah as PC 7493 Mohamad Bin Jaafar
Shamsudin Baslah as PC 7862 Abdul Kadir Bin Jusoff
J.A. Halim as Extra Police Constable (EPC) 3475 Mohd Tap Bin Lazim
Hisham Ihsan as Village Chief Ali Bin Mustapha
Mohd Noor Bon as Auxiliary Police (AP) 1925 Ali Akob Bin Othman
Harun Ibrahim as AP 2130 Samad Bin Yatim
Jamaliah Arshad as Mariam
Edah Ahmad as Saadiah
Suhaina Yahya as Fatimah
Ayu Rahman as Pon
Normah Alim as Arfah
Noraini Talib as Fatimah Ya'aba
Omar Suwita as Sa'ibun
Norazizah Mohd Seh as Jamilah
Ahmad Tarmizi Mad Zin as Mohd Nor
Akhmal M.Zain as Hassan
Norizan Hashim as Zainun
Extra cast
The Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) members were given the roles of extra casts in the film as:
Members of Federation of Malaya Police, as the policemen of Bukit Kepong:
ACP Latifi Ahmad as PC 7645 Yusof Bin Rono
Inspector Zainal Abidin Bin Mohd as Pagoh District Police Chief (J.J. Raj)
Inspector Fauzy Bin Abu Bakar as EPC 3472 Ahmad Bin Khalid
Corporal Mohd Kurdi Bin Ismail as PC 9136 Hassan Bin Othman
Corporal Shukor Bin Daud as Marine Police Constable (MPC) 37 Abu Bakar Bin Daud
Corporal Abdul Ghani Bin Abdul as MM 5674 Abu Bin Mohd Ali
Corporal Abdullah Bin Jabar as AP 2127 Osman Bin Yahya
Constable Marsat Bin Jidin as Corporal 7068 Mohd Yassin Bin Haji Abdul Wahab
Constable Sukarman Bin Selamat as PC 3933 Hamzah Bin Ahmad
Constable Talib Bin Janggi as EPC 3795 Jaafar Bin Arshad
Constable Mat Saad as MPC 60 Ibrahim bin Adam
Constable Mohd Jan Bin Katan as MPC 68 Awang bin Ali
Constable Malek Baba as MPC 181 Basiron bin Adam
Communist terrorists:
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.
Novelization
The Bukit Kepong novel, written by Ismail Johari, was published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in 1990. It was adopted as the Form 4 secondary school and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) literature component (Komsas, Malay: Komponen Sastera) teaching material.