Maharaja Sern - Baik Punya Budak!™

226th Post, 5th February 2008

 

Cuci

 

Related Links :

 

1. Baik Punya Cilok (25th September 2007)

 

2. Sumolah (12th May 2007)

 

CUCI (2008)

Starring : Afdlin Shauki, Awie, Hans Isaac, AC Mizal, Erra Fazira, Umie Aida, Dato’ Rahim Razali, Khir Rahman
Guest Stars : Harith Iskandar, Que Haidar, Elaine Daly, Ida Nerina, Ako Mustapha and Harun Salim Bachik
Cameo : Dato’ Tony Fernandes
Director : Hans Isaac
Producer : Hans Isaac & Dato’ Tony Fernandes
Running Time : 101 minutes
Date of Release : 24 January 2008

 

INTRODUCTION

Make no mistake! This is not an Afdlin Shauki’s movie but Hans Isaac’s first attempt as a director. Although the main casts (Afdlin, Hans, Awie and AC Mizal) were featured in Baik Punya Cilok and the movie itself was helmed by Afdlin, this Cuci is another dimension exposed to us by Hans Isaac.

 

Can you guys believe that window-washing can be made as an Olympic sport? Well, this is just a movie. To give the industry an Olympic feeling, the casts hinted that the sport is also held quadrennially.

 

I always said i like to watch Malaysian movies produced by the best brains in the industry. Cuci was on my must-watch local movie list since last October. Instead of Afdlin, this time we have Hans at the director’s chair for this movie.

 

Cuci is a joint production between Hans’ Tall Order Productions and Tony’s Tune Money.com (via Tune Entertainment). Since this movie was Hans’ first directorial movie, I would say it is good but not brilliant because it lacked the "ummph" of Afdlin’s movies. Nonetheless, the movie still scored highly in my rating because it showcased on current national issues in Malaysia.

 

It seems like Cuci is a continuation story-telling effort from Buli, Buli Balik, Baik Punya Cilok and Sumolah. Cuci lingered around issues such as the "tidak apa" attitude by Malaysians, unwillingness to work for success, choosy in selecting jobs and most importantly, the over-reliance on foreign workers!

   

Besides that, Cuci zeroed on the significance of Malaysians to stand tall and always work to make the dream a reality just like Afdlin’s character in the movie, Fairil through his Impianku’s rendition.

 

The central theme of the movie – giving everyone a chance in life. If Sumolah focused on the Japanese martial art and sushi, this Cuci revolves around the window-washing industry. The idea of making the industry as the center of Cuci’s story-telling begun when Hans saw a man cleaning the windows of a building while he was driving.

 

Most of the jokes in Cuci were cleverly portrayed by the casts and sensible enough to make the audience laugh. However, the jokes need in-depth understanding because movies pioneered by Harith, Hans and Afdlin were on Malaysians in Malaysia in the most realistic way. The dialogue for this movie is substantially filled with Malaysian lingo to make the viewers feel so close at home. This movie is somewhat pairing up Erra Fazira with her two ex-boyfriends (Awie and Hans) and also Hans with his two old flames (Erra and Elaine Daly).

   

Overall, compared to Baik Punya Cilok, Sumolah and Cuci, I still like BPC more because of its hillarious and meaningful storyline. Cuci is somehow a little bit weaker in terms of its direction and plot but still recommendable to all Malaysians. The ending tied up all the loose ends in the main plot.

   

On Hans’ part, I am looking forward for more of his movies because I believe he will surely improved his skills in directing plus he has a lot of capable friends to help him in the future.

   

The movie trailer was just an okay only. I still prefer BPC’s trailer because it was brilliantly done by Afdlin using the Syok Sendiri style. Sumolah’s was good too but Cuci’s trailer is like any ordinary local movies’ trailer.

   

One striking resemblance on Sumolah and Cuci was the telecommunication sponsor. Again, it was Celcom but luckily this time we see ZERO product placement of Celcom in Cuci compared to Sumolah.

 

STORYLINE

Cuci chronicled the lives of four adopted siblings - Fairil (Afdlin), Khai (Hans), Jojo (Awie) and C’Tan (AC Mizal) - from their happy childhood days in kampung to the hustle-bustle life of Kuala Lumpur. They were adopted by an old woman called Tok Bi. When the siblings migrated to the city, they started a small-scale cleaning jobs (Cuci-Cuci Services). Due to the mischievousness and always love to fool around attitude by Khai, Jojo and C’Tan, most of their contracts with various shop-owners were terminated and this really worried Fairil who acted as their big brother. Fairil always wanted them to be successful in life. He is the most ambitious among the four of them. In fact, Fairil always asked his siblings to buck up and strive for the highest quality of work. His aim is to wash the window panes of KLCC but the three guys poked fun of his dream.

 

One day, Fairil’s opportunity came! A competition pitting eight top window-washing teams with the champion will not only get RM5000 but to square off with Wira International Cleaners for a contract to wash the windows of Petronas Twin Towers. One of the eight finalists pulled out last minute and the last spot was grabbed by Fairil. From there, the adopted siblings learnt the importance of staying united to achieve their dreams. During the competition, Cuci-Cuci Services emerged triumphant.

   

Wira International Cleaners’ director, Wira Andika was impressed and also feared for the worst of losing his contract to Cuci-Cuci Services after seeing Fairil and his three siblings with full determination and confidence. Wira is ambitious, confident and his most annoying attitude was always thinking himself as very intelligent and money is everything. After the competition, Khai tried his best to woo CJ and succeeded. Actually it was Wira who had his eyes on CJ much earlier. He was pissed off to see Khai dating the girl he likes. At the same time, Jojo and CJ’s assistant are also in love. As the champion of the competition, Cuci-Cuci Services posed a threat to Wira and he tried to sabotage the team by offering sweeteners to Fairil to leave the team. Fairil took up the offer and his siblings looked down on him for betraying them since he was the one giving hope to them to be successful in life. The siblings continued training for their competition but with one man short.

   

Meanwhile, Fairil felt very bad for turning against his brothers and tried to re-enter the team but met with cool response from them. Khai, C’Tan and Jojo organized a recruitment drive searching for their fourth member of the team to replace Fairil. There, we can see a lot of guess stars featured in the movie with their antics. Elaine Daly as herself came for the recruitment thinking that the three brothers looking for model. Rusdi Ramli came for the audition to sell his family’s ointment. We also have Que Haidar as the syok sendiri rocker belting out songs after songs and rocking his guitar with rockers’ outfits. Ako Mustapha was the funniest of all when he talks about his vision for Malaysia. The three brothers were really impressed with him and almost take him in as their last member but much to their shocking, Ako is actually playing a blind man in the movie. During the competition day, their last minute substitute also chickened out due to fear of height.

    

Fairil quitted Wira’s company after learning that Wira is not sincere in the competition and hired foreigners as participants for the competition. He rejoined his siblings but lost the competition to Wira’s company. To show their love for the industry, they continued washing the windows of the high-rise buildings from night until the next morning and enjoying the beautiful night scenery of Kuala Lumpur from a very high altitude. CJ’s father was impressed with their attitudes and send them to Air Asia’s owner, Dato’ Tony Fernandes (in a cameo as himself) to clean the AirBus.

 

CASTINGS & CHARACTERS

 

Afdlin Shauki as Fairil
- As the big brother of the siblings, Fairil always believe in working hard to attain success. Afdlin always made every penny that we paid for his movie are worth it. No doubt about it.

      

Hans Isaac as Fairil
- As the director, producer, co-scriptwriter and also actor in this movie, Hans pulled off a wonderful performance here. He had a very convincing chemistry with his then girlfriend, Erra Fazira in this movie.

 

Awie as Jojo
- This time, Awie played an easy role. Not as serious as he was in Baik Punya Cilok or Sumolah. Passable performance from him as Jojo.

 

AC Mizal as C’Tan
- C’Tan is afraid of height and always resorted to play the minor role in the team. At first, he was skeptical with Fairil’s decision to compete in the WWO but later accepted the challenge.

 

Erra Fazira as CJ
- She is as usual at her most beauitful level. Erra Fazira was the Miss Malaysia/World 1992 winner. As CJ, Erra portrayed a feminine side and she really looks beautiful in all of her attires.

 

Umie Aida as Farah
- The sister of Erma Fatima, Umie is a versatile actress. But in Cuci, she played a relatively small role as assistant to Erra’s CJ.

   

Khir Rahman as Wira Andika
- Wira Andika always think money is everything and yearns for foreign brands such as cars and workers. Wira always tried to make CJ’s father, Tan Sri Rahim, happy with all sorts of materials because he likes CJ.

 

Dato’ Rahim Razali as Tan Sri Rahim
- As CJ’s father, Tan Sri Rahim really loves his daughter a lot and cares for her future. He even tried to matchmake CJ with Wira but later withdrew it after knowing CJ does not like him. He is someone preaches a good and exemplary work ethics such as come early and go back late.

 

Next Anticipated Local Movies

- Los dan Faun
- Cicakman II