The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines
Tags: dark

Plot synopsis:
The story begins with a mysterious man writing about the history of an old Malay kingdom so that people would not forget the history of the early Malay heroes. In 120 AD, the powerful Roman Empire, under the reign of Hadrian, had expanded its rule to the Central Asian countries. During their time of expanding, the great Roman Empire agreed to create an alliance with the Han Dynasty by marrying their two prince and princess, thus uniting the two powers of East and West. However, the Roman prince, Marcus Carprenius (Gavin Stenhouse), did not agree with the decision. Instead, he wants to be free and not be controlled by politics. The Han princess, Meng Li Hua (Jing Lusi), also wants to be free instead being a pawn in a political game.
The Roman fleet sails off from the coast of Arabia to the mysterious peninsula dividing the two great kingdoms. The Roman fleet are struck by a powerful storm, which causes the Romans to lose much of their fleet. They go instead to the coast of Goa. They are greeted by a local Goan dealer, (Mano Maniam), and later introduced to Merong Mahawangsa (Stephen Rahman-Hughes), said to be the descendant of Alexander the Great himself. Merong is preparing to duel against Sunder (Ravi Sunderlingam), a Goan nobleman who challenged him after finding out about Merong's illicit relationship with the nobleman's sister, Yasodharā (Deborah Henry). Merong defeats Sunder and Marcus is impressed by Merong's fighting skill. Subsequently, Merong agrees to escort Marcus to the peninsula while Lycius (Eric Karl Henrik Norman), the Roman fleet admiral returns to Rome and promises to return to Goa with a brand new fleet, carrying the payment in gold for the passage of the prince to the "Golden Chersonese". Merong is also promised a ship large enough for him to explore the known world.
Merong escorts Marcus to the peninsula and is greeted by the Chinese Admiral Liu Yun (Craig Robert Fong). Merong tells Marcus and Liu Yun that this peninsula was where he grew up and it is owned by several tribes. The night before the marriage, Meng Li Hua and her handmaiden, Ying Ying (Nell Ng) agrees to run away and begin a new life in the peninsula. However, Marcus follows Meng, resulting in their first meeting. The royal couple then grows closer to each other as they discover how they both have a common wish of being free from palace life. In the morning, The Chinese and the Romans are attacked by the pirate nation, Garuda. The Garuda leader, Taji (Wan Hanafi Su) uses black magic and sorcery before attacking to weaken their enemies. Meng and Ying Ying is kidnapped by Kamawas (Khir Rahman). Marcus tries to stop Kamawas but is stabbed and falls into the sea. Heavily outnumbered, the Chinese and the Romans are defeated. Merong, enraged by Marcus' apparent death, kills most of the Garuda fighters but is heavily injured and passes out.
Merong wakes up as he is getting treated by a tribe leader named Kesum (Rahim Razali). Kesum and Embok (Ummi Nazeera), one of the village's nurses treat Merong until he is well enough to fight again. Merong learns that Kesum and Taji were students to a once great magician and a brave warrior. Taji, wanting the great magician's amulet of immortality, kills the great magician during his sleep and led a small band of fighters to terrorise the villages. It was revealed that Merong's mother Lang (Umie Aida) was implied to be killed in the onslaught, which has since haunted Merong's dreams; while Embok was once raped by Kamawas during one of these raids. Consequently, Merong swore revenge to Kamawas. Kesum tells Merong of a prophecy that a great warrior will come and unite all the tribe into one kingdom and defeat the enemy. Kesum believes that Merong is the one. After hearing the prophecy, Merong becomes Kesum's student and begins uniting the tribes.
In the island of Garuda, Meng and Ying Ying are held captives for ransoms by Taji and Kamawas. Meng and Ying Ying manages to steal Kamawas a piece of the amulet of immortality. After Merong manages to unite all the tribes, they became one kingdom known as Langkasuka and began a new civilisation. Merong is then suddenly met by Liu Yen, Marcus (who was saved by Liu Yun and gets treated) and a small group of Chinese soldiers. Liu Yun tells Merong that they have to save the princess before she is killed. Merong is then given a ship full of mirrors by Liu Yun. As Merong prepares his fighters to invade the island of Garuda, Embok confessed her love to Merong.
Merong launches an attack toward Garuda in the morning. The Garuda prepared their ships and outnumbered Merong's fighters at least five to one. Merong revealed that he used the ship full of mirrors to create a similar weapon to the Archimedes Heat Ray and uses it to set all the Geruda ships and boats on fire (along with some of the men). Taji then uses sorcery to make storms and cover the sun with black clouds, rendering the weapon useless. After a heroic speech, Merong and his fighters launch an attack and land on the beaches. After a brief fight, Merong's fighters manage to take control the beach but another wave of Garuda fighters led by Taji came in to destroy the fighters. Merong's fighters fight to their death while Marcus confronts Kamawas, but Kamawas defeats Marcus easily. Before Kamawas could finish Marcus off, Liu Yen came in to stop Kamawas but is killed in the process. Most of Merong's fighters were killed. However, shortly after, A large fleet of the Romans and the Chinese, led by Admiral Lycius arrives on the scene and attacks Garuda, changing the tide of the battle. Merong arrives to save Marcus and confronts Kamawas. After a brief duel, Kamawas is finally defeated. Merong tries to kill Taji but is stabbed. Merong makes a sacrifice by taking the amulet off and pushing the sword forward, thus killing them both. Right after Merong dies, the Romans and the Chinese attack and finish off the last of the Garuda, ending the battle.
Many years after the great battle, it is revealed that the mysterious narrator is Sultan Mudzafar Shah, the first Sultan of Kedah writing about the history of Merong Mahawangsa in the Kedah Annals. The Sultan tells that Langkasuka was known as a great and proud Kingdom. The film ends with a flashback to Merong being pronounced a hero and the first king of Langkasuka.

Review: Reviewer Raoul Hostettler thinks his local kindergarten could make a better movie that Clash of Empires and so I would like to please book a seat for the opening night.
But then, if Hostettler's local kindy is as good at making movies as he is at writing English, I fear that might be a wasted evening!Yet again (if you've read some of my other reviews), we have illiterate people writing desultory reviews about low-budget movies as though they expected them to be block-busters.
Yes, I have written a few pretty scathing reviews myself but you've got to admit, those were for the absolute pits of the film industry.
This movie is NOT the pits!
That isn't to say it's a blockbuster either but come on people, how many blockbuster movies are released each year?
It's most likely too complicated for you!)Let me ask you negative reviewers (and those readers who are contemplating watching Clash of Empires but check the reviews first), why do you watch movies?
Is it to be entertained or is to avidly look for bloopers like trees not waving in the background?
When it isn't, by the way - as in the case of the narrator in this movie who speaks absolutely beautiful English with just the right timbre for the role - the whiners complain about THAT too!
There seems to be no pleasing some folk!OK, I've got my frustration at negative-thinkers off my chest - now to the movie.
Firstly, it was made in Malaysia by a Malaysin production company so one would assume that the prime target audience was Malays.
However, if it had been all made in the Malay language, the box office would probably never have covered costs (because it definitely wouldn't have been cheap to make).
So, very cleverly, the main language used was English which some of the Malaysian actors spoke with a slight accent.
Nothing wrong with that (they weren't wearing Saville Row suits!!) I though it a nicely integrated touch for Mandarin and Malay languages to be used with subtitles where appropriate as this preserved the international flavour of the film.
The princess's handmaid added a little comedic interlude a few times and was well-played.
Stephen Rahman Hughes as the lead was quite good (I'd like to know what the ladies thought of him).
Pity there is no info about him on IMDb. I suspect that, if he ventured to Hollywood and had some good direction, he could become a big star.I was entertained (which is why I watched the movie).
I probably won't watch it again (but then I can think of some much larger-budget movies I won't watch again either!) So, if you're one of those picky twits who loves to look for things to complain about, watch Clash Of Empires.
You will be rewarded - but PLEASE don't write a review because everyone else doesn't want to know how clever you are!
On the other hand, if you enjoy a bit of action entertainment for what it is, then watch it too - and write a review (preferably in coherent English) telling everyone what you enjoyed!
A Nutshell Review: Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa.
Other than the horror and comedy films that get churned out on a regular basis by Malaysia's mainstream film industry (who is going into 3D too by the way), KRU Studios showed that it had ambitious plans to make a big budgeted action spectacle that have some legs to travel the world, crafting a tale from centuries past loosely based on The Malay Chronicles involving a melting pot of Roman soldiers, Chinese warriors of the Han Dynasty, and natives of the land of Langkasuka in a joint battle against pirates of the maurading Geruda tribe.
It's noisy, it's epic looking, and it features characters and a cast that would make the United Nations proud, speaking in English, Bahasa and Mandarin as well to highlight its multi-culturalism.The story is told in simple terms, with a Roman Prince Marcus Carprenius (Gavin Stenhouse) set to wed the Chinese Princess Meng Li Hua (Jing Lusi) in a deal to seal two separate empires into an alliance.
The wedding is to take place at the mid point between the east-west sea routes of the empires, which would be where modern day Peninsular Malaysia is but of course.
But the Geruda tribe is to gatecrash the wedding day with plans of their own for riches by capturing and holding the Princess hostage, and it's up to our heroes to train, form an armada of brave men to take the enemy down within two moons, or risk having the Princess violated then killed.While it's a film that features an ensemble cast of heroic characters such as the Chinese Admiral Liu Yun (Craig Robert Fong) and the Roman Prince Marcus, the main protagonist is that of Merong Mahawangsa (Stephen Rahman-Hughes), whom you can picture as a Captain Jack Sparrow equivalent, minus the comedic banter and attitude, with stronger physique and better fighting skills to boot.
A wandering soul himself, his amorous exploits in various lands allowed an opportunity to meet Prince Marcus and his entourage in Goa, where the Prince saves his life from the mob and having Merong promising to take him back to his homeland in Langkasuka where the wedding will be, being late meaning an insult shown to the Chinese emperor.
And it becomes a prophecy (as always) fulfilled when Merong makes land, being the chosen one to unite and lead his people to battle against their joint enemy, falling in love in the process and with an added objective to restore the honours of loved ones.This is an action adventure, so what mattered are the big fight sequences, filled with plenty of swords and sorcery, CG blood spewing all over the place, and what I thought to be admirable fight choreography to rival some of the best available out there, despite having some cringe- inducing acting from faceless extras who had to be various goons to fall in battle.
The story doesn't waste time in presenting Merong Mahawangsa as a battle-weary individual, and launches into huge beachfront assaults that got repeated again as the finale battle, albeit on a different side with slightly different players.
One thing's for sure though, that Malaysia has got the know how and capability to stage rather convincingly fights that combine choreography and CG (albeit some aspects of it requiring some polish), no longer having to play catch up with the more established film industries.What I would have enjoyed a lot more would be stronger opponents, who possess some degree of sorcery to control the weather, though nothing else which blunted their supposedly mean and ruthless reputation of continuous victory.
With bomohs and warlocks, it could have been more of a fantastical action flick with magical amulets, a mean looking kris and an Archimedes inspired device that looked a little bit puny due to a lack of budget.
I do not have issues with the many languages used in the film since the country of origin of the film is multi-cultural, at least characters speak to each other in the same set of language rather than a mishmash of sorts, although you do have to stretch that believability a little in having almost all the characters in the film educated in more than one tongue for narrative convenience.It may not be a classic, but it sure is quite a fun ride from the film industry of a neighbour that I'm recommending as worthy of your time during the weekend even.
A Malaysian Epic Movie of the Century.
I guess it is the most awaited Malaysian movie by far.
Help by various source of publicity due to the story line filled with international taste, the movie The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines or 'Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' in Malay does not disappoint.Script: The English script looks to be a bit modernize but it does not hurt the movie as the Malays, Chinese and the Roman do not use English at that time.
The Roman at the time is using the ancient Latins which is not practical to be used.
For those of you who love history and ancient language, the use of 'Malay Purbakala' or some might say a dead language show the efforts of the script writer.
Even the Malaysian audiences are having hard time to understand the language.Story line: The story lines are quite fast and do not make you sleep, I promise.
It is understand that the Director wanted to limit the duration under 2 hours, so that the audience do not feel uncomfortable.Cast: Most of the major actors and actress are doing a great job by portraying their character.
Stephen as Merong, Jing Lusi as Princess, Khir Rahman as Kemawas has play their part greatly.
Although, most critic in here, agree that Gavin as Marcus and Henrik as Lycius can do a little bit more.Fighting Scene: I guess the fighting scene are amazing knowing the limited resource that the production's have, the end result is still above average.
Help by a group of experience fighting scene choreographer from Hong Kong and Merong masculinity, it is safe to say that it will blow your mind.History: For those of you who argue that the movie filled with history inaccuracies, please do your study.
It is well known that 'Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' is verbally told from generation to generation added with mystical elements which are not logical.
In the 'Hikayat' or book it is told that the Geruda is not pirates but a big man eating bird known as 'Geruda'.
In the book it also stated that Merong comes from Rom and in other source says he is a demigod.
There are also a tale about Merong meeting Prophet Solomon.All in all, I've got to say that the movie will not disappoint you.
Reminder: If you see any problem with the CGI, well do not expect the movie will be as good as Gladiator or Alexandre or 300.
Pity the production who works with only 13 graphic designers (add amateur after 13) and limited budget..
Time to watch history channel again.
I tried to watch this movie to see if it is worth the positive coverage that the Malaysian media have given during its preview.
The acting, the props, the CGI was not to the standard where we can say that it is an epic story.
The narrator tried so hard trying not to choke on his on voice to make that 'old man' sound.
At one scene during the battle, there was a fierce storm and the fight scene was intense, but I was surprised to see that the coconut trees at the background were not even moving.
If the Malay warriors were still alive they will certainly not approve the efforts the film makers trying to portray about their lives.
but this movie is quite bad..
but this movie is quite bad.The broken English really make the movie less enjoyable, just make them even look more like amateur actors.Quite a lot of scenes and dialogs were very corny, hard to endure.
I walked away from this movie..
leaving in the background.I can see they tried very hard to make this movie work, if they made it less corny.
And if they just remove most of the English dialogs, it would be more enjoyable.Was impressed that in a few scenes they actually did a very good job compared to the rest, but too bad most of it, wasn't..
Not perfect, but pretty good.
I gave this movie a 10, it probably deserved a 5 or 6, but with the overwhelmingly poor ratings given to it I thought it could use a boost.
This was by no means a perfect movie, but I still enjoyed it.
If more care had been given to the script to tighten it up and improve the dialog it could have been much better.
But, though jumpy, the battle scenes were well done and the overall pace and tone of the film were good.
The theme of ancient Romans and Chinese fighting together in South Asia was too good to pass up, so I decided to give it a chance despite the poor reviews.
Even though it lagged in spots it kept my attention and I'm glad I spent the time to watch it.
Clash of Empires is not an irredeemable movie in any way, the scenery was quite nice, a couple of the fight sequences are edge-of-your-seat quality, there is a good lead performance and the princess is simply beautiful.
For those redeeming qualities however there are a lot of things that Clash of Empires doesn't do well.
The movie can have a frenzied look to it, and the rushed and underexplained story(just where did the romance come from?) is a further indication of Clash of Empires being done in haste.
There are no characters to root for, they are almost comic-book-like in quality, the music is generic, the direction is of the kind that has heart and passion at least but not the skill and the acting apart from the lead is vapid and going-through-the-motions feeling.All in all, Clash of Empires is very poorly done stuff but it definitely could have been much worse.
3/10 Bethany Cox. A surprisingly good movie..
A Malaysian action film based on real history about Langkasuka, sounds great.
It's been a while now since the last Malaysian high budget movie (Puteri Gunung Ledang) came out, and to my surprise, this movie was executed really well.
The fighting was very intense and the movement is comparable to some Thailand martial art movie.
There are also some funny moment between the Chinese Admiral, Marcus and Merong.
Of everything the movie had to offer, the music is the best, as it was really good and did a lot to make the already intense scene much more impressive.
The CGI in this movie is also very good, but for some reason had a huge quality drop in last part when depicting Sultan Mudzaffar Shah walking towards the harbour.Also, the story was a bit rush.
IMHO, this should be make into a trilogy to explain the full story thoroughly.And what is wrong with speaking proper English?
Why is there so many broken English in this movie?
You see, games like God of War depicted ancient Greece, but with characters speaking proper English, and I didn't see any problem with it, so I really don't understand why should the actor use broken English instead of proper English.At last, I give this movie a 7 out of 10, because the production value was high and some of the scene is really good, but sadly it also has some serious flaw that made the movie incomplete..
Honestly I wasted my 109 mins of my life watching this movie.
It's worse then a kindergarten play, the kids would have done a better job in acting then they did.
I don't know how someone could created such a bad movie.
It's Amateur movie a shame for the money they wasted.I don't understand what other people like about the movie and I usually have an open mind for different types of movies but this was certainly one of the worse movies I ever seen.Do not waste your time on this movie 1 star is even overrated in my opinion but if you do not believe me see for yourself..
This film is trying to be big, but ended up being nowhere.It is promoted as a CGI film, but can't even put a computer generated 'Garuda' in the film.
What good is the CGI, if the crucial mythical element like this is ignored?
If 'Malay originality' is the word, then certainly this film lack much of it.
Old Malay language plus modern-sounding English..
In the end, it's like watching unfinished '300' or 'Troy' parody film with Malay dubbing..
Half an hour into the film, i just didn't care about the CGI anymore, and hopeful for something else.
Honesty and pure spirit of Malay film.
Sadly it's not there.I give 4 out of 10 because i know this disastrous film will be a good stepping stone for the producer to produce a decent one, later..
Good fairy tale, good acting, good action, nice scenery, occ.
It started out pretty good, then they got to India, and then the pretty boy prince met the charming savage I still clung to hope, and when they got to the spoiled rich princess wanted to run away to be a music teacher, I still clung to hope, but when the Roman prince started to whine about marrying for love, I couldn't watch anymore.I've been to south Asian countries where poverty is everywhere.
Many times woman seek to marry for any man with a job, even if its a farm worker.
Doctors and lawyers can barely make a living because hardly anyone can afford their services, an Asian princess would know this.In both Asia and Europe, it was common to marry for economics or duty.
The concept of marrying for love came into existence around the 19th industrialized century.
Good for people who want a Disney-type fairy tale with no basis in reality or history or facts or human nature..
I don't care how low the budget is...
if you like that sort of thing.
Some battle scenes that feel more like video game sequences, much tedious talk which accomplishes nothing for the audience or the plot, and a finale which is almost poetic in it's stupidity.Tell me: If you're the leader of two armies, and you've just won the last battle with your troops closing in an the last stragglers on the enemy side...
Fool.Of course, this film doesn't have the smarts to see that...
in fact, If it was a person, they'd need help getting dressed in the morning and remembering their own name (So, which is it: The Malay Chronicles or Clash Of Empires?) Basically, I LIKE watching movies I've never heard of.
ya know what I mean?