Sepet (2005)
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Sepet Movie Review
Sepet is a 2005 Malaysian teen romantic comedy film directed by Yasmin Ahmad. It is an uneven movie for sure, but its charming central romance is definitely worth seeing.
The movie offers a look at how two young lovers from totally different background cope with family and social pressure. The boy is Chinese and the girl is Malay. This is obviously another one among the hundreds of cinematic takes on the story of Romeo and Juliet, but it depicts an interesting country, so it is definitely worth seeing for its unique setting and execution.
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The main reason why Sepet works as well as it does lies in the central characters. I just really liked both Jason and Orked. She is very likable and genuinely well developed as the protagonist of the piece while he is so sweet and endearing as this guy who is a romantic soul into poetry. The guy being the more romantic part of the couple made them feel very different from other couples. They are just such a unique, lovely pairing that the sad ending did feel quite heartbreaking.
The performances are also quite strong and the dialogue between the two is excellent throughout. Whenever the movie focuses on these two, it soared. The romantic, tender atmosphere is unlike anything I’ve seen in recent memory as the movie is indescribably sweet and elegant in execution.
It is not without its flaws, however. For one thing, all the other characters besides the central couple weren’t just underdeveloped, but some were genuinely annoying, which was frustrating to me as a lot of the screen time was unnecessarily devoted to them. The thugs in the story did not really work to be honest.
Also, Sepet isn’t particularly inspiring in its technicalities. It is well acted and solidly directed, but the cinematography is nothing to write home about and the same goes for the score, though that one song used in a couple of scenes was lovely. The movie failed as an artistic endeavor, but as a sweet romantic tale for romance fans it delivered in spades.
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