(SCFF 2024) Film Review #117: 富都青年 Abang Adik (2023)

When quizzed on how he knew cinemagoers from four vastly different countries enjoyed his inaugural feature film, director Lay Jin Ong, had this to say: “I think it is because there were tearful people all around, some sobbing even after the film ended, right up to the Q&A session.” With its universal message of love and longing, that’s how you know Abang Adik might be the frontrunner for the most moving picture of the year.

Most of the story takes place in the Pasar Pudu district of Malaysia - an area where the marginalised mingle; a sea of undocumented people fighting to stay afloat. A deaf-mute orphan boy called Abang (Taiwanese superstar Wu Kang-ren) and the slightly younger Adik (Jack Tan with a gaudy brown mullet and dad bod in a bid to portray the “real Pudu”) are two of them. The orphans become sworn brothers and develop a loving kinship nurtured by the motherly instincts of a transgender sex worker, Miss Money (Tan Kim Wang), who feeds and shelters them as if they were her own.

While Abang makes an honest living toiling at a wet market, Adik gives in to the thrill of impulse and resorts to illegal dealings and sex work to supplement their dream of escaping poverty. The “gor” (elder brother) of the two proves to be the more sensible one and constantly picks up after his ne'er do well brother, but when an overly helpful social worker, Jie En (Serene Lim), steps in, things take a gruesome turn for the worst, resulting in nail-biting tension where one brother makes a life-and-death decision in the ultimate act of love.

According to Lay, many nameless people live like Abang, Adik and Miss. Money in a vicious cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and the constant need to “find a semblance of light in the darkest of places”. This prompted the Taiping-native to kickstart his directorial career to expose the sad reality of these people and provide them a guiding voice. 



Aided in part by an atmospheric and soul-crushing score by Ryota Katayama, the film echoes neo-noir elements of Bong Joon-ho’s seminal masterpiece, Parasite (2019). It is clear Lay was at least partially influenced by Bong’s Oscar-winning picture in Abang Adik, seeing how they are both social-commentaries with jaw-dropping twists and violent tendencies.