Film Critique : OLA BOLA

To critically assess the Character Key Development and the relationship to the Three Acts. Was the development well explored? Did the story flow well? Were there any issues not addressed by the end of the film?

Set in the 1970’s, OlaBola celebrates the unity and courage that inspire a team of Malaysian footballers to rise through all odds and create a most triumphant zero to hero story. Inspired by real events, the film showcases the pride and passion of a multicultural football team and their struggles to overcome personal and collective hardships. It is at once a powerful exploration of everyday human relationships and of the indomitable spirit that perseveres through tribulations.

The Characters Key Development

In this movie, the three main core characters is The Captain, The Striker and The Goalkeeper.

The captain, Chow Kwok Keong was a very arrogant and conceited person, because he is very proud of his own fantastic personal football skill and leadership. However he is the eldest football player in Malaysia Football Team, so he became the captain in the team. Every teammate was treated him like a big brother, they respected him and followed his command during the game. Sometimes he will talks very rude to his teammate when teammate keep repeat the mistake, so this cause a lot fears to his teammate. He wanted to lead the team with his own way and technique to win the game and refuse to obey the coach’s (Harry Mountain) instruction.

The striker, Ahmad Ali was a talented striker, His fiery ambition has made him one of the rising stars in the national team. But this has also turned him into an arrogant over-achiever. His dream is to one day don his idol Samsul’s No.10 jersey. He was very passionate in chasing his own dream to be the “No.10” in the team. “No.10” was very important to the football team because the ex-football player was a super striker that help Malaysia Football Team won a lot of match. He think that, he was the only person can score, so he plays his own way. He was also laughing and bullying the new teammate, and refuse to obey the captain and coach’s instruction.

The goalkeeper, Muthu Kumar was a humble person. He is kind to everyone not only to old teammate but also to new teammate as well. He did not dare to speak out his own thought so much to the teammate for his kind heart. However, he could not stop the disagreement so the situation among them had gone worst due to his attitude.

After they lost in many matches which cause the team in to the disaster, they all realized that this incident will happen because their conceited and disagreement of each other. In the end, they decides to work as a team and respect each other thinking and thought. They also motivating and inspiring each other. They followed the command that given by the coach. So this lead them to achieve their dream.

The ACTs of Movie

In the beginning of the movie, the football team is a national team that formed by different state and different race of the football player. They have only one dream that is enter the Moscow Olympics. However, in the beginning most of the team members were disagree with one another due to their own goals and cause them misunderstanding to each other.

For example, Kwok Keong worried about losing the role as captain, so trying to lead the whole team to achieve their dream and refuse to followed the command given by the coach because he think that he is more understand their teammate than the new coach.

However, their own conceited and thinking lead to misunderstanding among the teammates, resulting in tear apart of their relationship. They only care about their own importance without thinking to work as a team to win and enter the Olympic. So they lead the whole team to the lose disaster. Some of the teammate were decided to quit the team, because they knew that their own dream and goal can’t be achieve.

After the incident, they realized that teamwork is the key weapon to achieve their goal and dream. They begin to believe each other, work as a team and no more lone ranger to win the game. They followed the command that given by the coach. Moreover, they also motivating each other throughout the games.

They works and practicing as a team after realized their mistakes. Their efforts lead them back to the winning streaks, and all of them are getting confidence.

When into the final match, the opponent told Ali that even if they win the match, they also can’t enter the Moscow Olympics due to the Moscow incident “Boycott”. They begin to lose hope and think negatively. At this moment, Kwok Keong and Kumar speak out loudly and motivating their teammates and the motivated is working.

At the end of the story, they won the match although they fails to enter the Olympics due to the incident. They knew that their goals and dream can't be achieve but they still din't give up because they found out a new achievement that is make proud of Malaysia Football. And they are achieved the whole country citizen dream and hope.

Personal Review

The overall story line is very clear, with meaningful moral value. The message to deliver to audience is very clear that until it touches the heart of everyone. How they begin, how they fall and how they rise is a very interesting part to show the moral value. Especially when all the teammate decided to work together as a team to achieve their own goal until the tears of success among the teammate. This feeling is priceless and can’t be determined. The story flow is very interesting because it’s like a real life progress. How they begin together, how they work together and how they fall together. They are facing a lot of issues such as family problem and friendship but they overcome all the issue step by step. So this a very good story flow movie. At the end, every audience is curious about what happen to the football player after the game, did someone still pursuing the dream? Maybe some of them are turn to become coach or maybe some of them are turn into normal citizen but one thing that I’m sure is the Harimau spirit never end.