Bunohan: Return to Murder

Although it sports plenty of gangsters and kickboxing action, Bunohan: Return to Murder is far from a Malaysian martial arts potboiler. Laced with hints of magical realism (including a conversational bird and a female character with reptilian features), the film's almost Shakespearean plot develops around the relationship between three half-brothers whose aging father is attempting to make mysterious reparations for old mistakes. Ilham (Faizal Hussein) is a coldblooded contract killer ordered to take out Adil (Zahiril Adzim), a young kickboxer who happens to be the estranged, illegitimate son of Ilham's father. Meanwhile, their brother, Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim), a teacher who has come home to care for the old man, is busy pressuring dad into selling a large parcel of beachfront land to deep-pocketed developers. All of these high-stakes plot strands ultimately collide as long-held family secrets are finally spilled, leading to a powerful climax. Writer-director Dain Said has a disciplined, arthouse sensibility that brings to Bunohan unexpected moments of dreamlike comedy, such as a small set of stairs that enigmatically appears on a barren shoreline. Yes, the fight action is strong and the crime tone intense, but there's much more to this movie (and its surrealist twists) than genre tropes. Recommended. (T. Keogh)