FILM CRITIQUE | OLA BOLA

To critically assess the cast design and their individual character. Was the cast designed well? Did all characters have a purpose? Were the individual characters well explored? Or lacked depth?

JC Chee as Chow Kwok Keong or Tauke

Chow Kwok Keong is the main character and a protagonist in this movie. He is a 26-year-old captain of the national football team and Asia’s best defender. He is also the eldest in his family. Thus, he feels a great responsibility towards providing for his family and his girlfriend (Siew Lee) a good life.

As we know, he is from a poor family and his father had passed away in the movie. Therefore, he had to carry all the responsibilities to take care and earn money for his family. For instance, He undertook a few jobs such as rubber tapper and clerk. At night, he also helped Siew Lee in a funfair stall and fetched her back to home safely.

Besides that, he is a very responsible captain of the football team too. He always takes care of his teammates and leads them to train hardly in their football practice. He had a dream to be in the Olympic Qualifier. The 1976 defeat to South Korea was a painful experience for him and he swears to do all he can to be in the Olympic Qualifier of the 1980 Games. Therefore, he was in a dilema in choosing between taking care of his family back home or pursuing his footballing dream.

He is a stubborn and bad-tempered person too. At first, he does not accept the order from his new coach (Harry Mountain) because he think that there is a spy in the team that causes them to lose matches as he is a foreigner. He had decided to quit the team after the conflict arised from the defeat. After that, he had admited his mistakes to the coach and hope to get back to the team. From this movie scene, we can know that Kwok Keong is a person who is brave to admit his mistakes and learns from his mistakes.

In addition, Kwok Keong is a protective person. He has shown his protective personality when he tried to hide the news of the Malaysian government's decision to boycott the Olympic in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion against Afghanistan from his teammates. This is because he does not want to see his teammates to be disappointed and lose the match.

Luqman Hafidz as Ahmad Ali

The secondary character and a mirror character in this movie is Ahmad Ali. Ali is a 20-year-old striker of the national football team who has dedicated his life to the game of football. His fiery ambition has made him one of the rising stars in the national team. His dream is to put on his idol Samsul’s No.10 jersey. He trained hardly in football practice during daytime and even at night. On the other hand, this has also turned him into an arrogant over-achiever. For instance, he is jealous when the new coach had chose the other teammate (Eric Yong) to replace his striker position.

Besides that, he is a quick witted too. He misunderstood that Eric told the coach that he is injured resulting in the coach dropping him from the squad. This is because he had assumed that Eric is the only one person who knows about his injury. He is a bad-tempered character too as he quarrelled with Eric after the misunderstanding between them.

Ali accidentally found out that the team is boycott the Olympic during competition which resulted in him underperforming. After that, he had blamed the coach and captain for not telling the truth to the other teammate. From his reaction, we can know that he cannot control his emotion well while facing a problem.

Saran Kumar as Muthu Kumar

Muthu Kumar is one of the secondary characters and a mirror character in this movie. He is the best goalkeeper in the national team. The 22-year-old’s football ambitions have caused a rift between him and his father. His father does not support him to become a goalkeeper but to continue his business by selling coconuts. However, he refuses to give up and strives to prove to his father that he has what it takes to make it in football.

After his three brothers being involved in an accident as a result of helping him send coconuts, he realised that he had neglected his family due to his passion for football. Therefore, Muthu had decided to quit the team but the decision had been stopped by Kwok Keong.

Besides that, he is a calm and optimistic person. He had voiced up to encourage his teammates so that they do not give up the match easily when the news of boycott is known. As a result, the desire of team members was built up again and leads them to win the last match. Therefore, I think Muthu plays a very important role in this movie.

Bront Palarae as Rahman

The other secondary and a mirror character in the movie is Rahman. He also acts as a mirror character. Rahman is a sports radio commentator’s assistant. He is humorous, energetic and passionate about his career. For instance, he practices his commentating skill with his twin daughters at home after working. He had improved his commentating skill with his humorous and funny jokes to make his commentating job more attractive to the audiences.

He is full of determination and persistence as he always stays positive no matter what the situation. In this movie, he plays a role as Kwok Keong's best friend. They share passion towards football together as they have same personalities. As a friend, he tried to help and encourage Kwok Keong who faced problem in his career.

Besides that, he also lend his car to Kwok Keong, just so he could rush his teammate to the hospital. From this incident, we can know that Rahman is a kind and helpful person. He also appreciates and treasures his friendship with Kwok Keong. For instance, he did not get angry when Kwok Keong shows his temper but still try helping him when he is facing difficulties.

In addition, Rahman lives in a family filled with joy and happiness. His family member are always there to support him in his career.

Lim Jian Wen as Ong Tiam Cai

Ong Tiam Cai plays a minor and mirror character throughout the movie. He is a substitute in the national team. He is optimistic, humble and hardworking. Within the team, he is the life of the party. As we know, he always makes jokes around his teammates to create happiness and fun momments in this movie.

Tiam Cai has a determined personality. This can be shown when he encouraged his teammates who felt discouraged in their last match against South Korea. In the movie, he said: "I'm just a substitute in the team hoping to play whereas the rest of you have the opportunity to play but had given up the priveliege to play."

Tiam Cai has a pair of new football shoes which was given by his father. He made a promise to his father that he will wear the football shoes one day when he manages to play a match. Finally, he had managed to wear his new football shoes in the last match and he had a marvellous performance during the match too.

Eric Teng as Eric Yong

The other minor and mirror character is Eric Yong or 'Balak' Eric. He is a 20-year-old Sabahan who is from a wealthy family. He is called as 'Balak' because his family is involved in the logging business. He is chosen by the coach to be the striker in the national team. This appointment eventually creates dispute among the teammates. Although Ali had misunderstood him, he still choose to forgive him because he know the importance of teamwork and overcoming their differences to achieve the same goal.

Marianne Tan as Marianne

Marianne plays a role as the secondary and a mirror character in this movie. Marianne is a 25-year-old TV producer and a typically modern young lady. She came home from the UK with a heart full of ambition in the film and TV industry. But she is soon discouraged by the working environment and the financial constraints that she faces. Therefore, she plans to leave the country again to pursue her dreams.

Marianne respects the elders by talking to Eric in Mandarin even though she is not fluent in Mandarin to show that she respect the mother tongue.

She had decided to take on a final assignment before she leaves for greener pastures in England. She is not interested with the history of 'Harimay Malaya' because she thinks that their story will not get attention from the audiences. After interviewing 'Balak' Eric in Sabah, she had changed her mind about the history of 'Harimau Malaya'. She felt touched by their story and decided to stay in this country.

Katrina Ho as Tan Siew Lee

Tan Siew Lee is another minor and romance character in this movie. She plays a role as Kwok Keong’s girlfriend who has been with him for a couple of years. She is kindhearted, thoughtful and independent. She is a conservative lady who is very supportive of Kwok Keong. For instance, she gave full support to Kwok Keong when he is facing difficulties in his football career. Besides that, she also lend money to him to overcome his financial problem faced by his family. She even mentioned to him that problems related to money is easy to solve, thus asking him not to worry about it.

Daphne Low as Chow Mei Ling

Chow Mei Ling is a minor and a protagonist character in the movie too. She is Kwok Keong’s second youngest sister who has a very tough personality. Despite having an excellent result in school, not only she gave up her studies to help her family, she did not regret the decision at all. She worked in rubber estate as rubber tapper and worked as a tailor to support living expenses of her family.

Besides that, she is a caring person eventhough she may be too direct at times of criticism, she is acting based on the good faith of Kwok Keong. She even bought a television for her family so that they do not have to travel to the stadium to watch Kwok Keong play.

Mark Williams as Harry Mountain

Harry Mountain is the minor and mirror character in this movie too. He plays a role as the new coach of the national team of 1980. He is strict and hardly ever compliment his players. But he is bold and strategises very well, and is acutely observant of his players. Even with his stern attitude, he did bend over his way for the greater good which is allowing Kwok Keong back into the team.

In my opinion, I agree that the cast designed in the movie are well planned. This is because all the characters have presented their own character with a purpose to show how important they are throughout the movie. I respect the actors and actresses who was involved in the movie. They did a very good job. I had enjoyed this movie very much not only because of the story but also the characters in the story. They had expressed their acting skills and put in spirited effort into making the characters real.

'Ola Bola' is a film that succeeds on almost every level where each character, scene, costume and jokes celebrates our difference and unites us as Malaysian. It has been a long time since we have seen a local film that ignites the patriotism in us. It shows us that as a multi racial country, sports is important as a bridge to unit us together as a whole.

Let's enjoy the theme song of 'Ola Bola'!