Currently in production is The Original Gangster which hails from director Syamsul Yusof, best known for his work on the KL Gangster films and his newest period action epic, Mat Kilau: Rise Of The Warriors.
I started following niche film sites roughly eighteen years ago, which is eventually how I came to learn about filmmaker Syamsul Yusof upon the release of KL Gangster 2 back in 2013. That film, even though I haven’t seen it to this day, put Malaysia on the map for me as I aspired to keep up a little more with the goings-on of action cinema around the world at the start of FCSyndicate, which makes it all the more interesting now to see streamers like Netflix finally take notice and bring forth more Malaysian action cinema to global audiences, and to their credit, launching Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan following its Malaysia Day rollout in September.
Crossing over to Malaysia for bit, we’ve got a handful of behind-the-scenes character reels and an official poster for Mat Kilau, the latest from director Syamsul Yusof who is best known for the first and second KL Gangster action thrillers, as well as the award-winning horror Munafik and its 2018 sequel.
When actor Syamsul Yusof isn’t dabbling in music or directing films, he’s also starring in them. Point in fact, he’s partaken a number of films and to my knowledge, some of which are more than worthy of audiences wider than Malaysia.
Films like hit gangster thriller KL Gangster come to mind as well its 2013 sequel which was leaked online a month ahead of its October release. That trailer alone grabbed the heck out of my attention among other films that followed in my coverage on here and I often wonder, as a result, how long it will be before Malaysia gets its just dues abroad.
I even interviewed a stunt coordinator who since moved onto a become a local wrestling sensation in the region, and so there’s no question exactly how much I would love to see Malaysia shine overseas. Such is what I would love to see happen for the new action thriller, KL Special Force, directed by Syamsul’s brother, Syafiq Yusof who spun-off the KL Gangster films with actor Zizan Razak in 2014 gangster comedy, Abang Long Fadil, and its 2017 sequel.
The director also provides the narrative from his script which offsets an action packed story featuring his sibling actor as the antagonist of the tale – the leader of a menacing gang of armed thieves with KL Gangster 2 actor Rosyam Nor starring as the tactical unit leader tasked with catching him. Astro Shaw is presenting Yusof’s seventh turn at the helm in local theaters on March 8.
A Special Police Unit team lead by Roslan is hunting ‘Gang Anarchist’, a gang of robbers, led by Asyraff. A young policeman, Zul joins the unit to help solve the case. The situation becomes more complicated when Asyraff starts playing mind games between Roslan and Zul that raises unrest feelings between all members in the unit. A bigger heist is set in plan to reveal a bigger secret. Will the Special Police Unit catch them in time?
Of course, the rest of us will probably be left in the dark though, in a perfect world, people wouldn’t rectify that by leaking it online – all the more reason to hope for better days for Malaysian cinema, in my view at least.
Check out the latest trailer below along with a trio of character posters just beneath.
KL SPECIAL FORCE (Character Posters)
Zizan Razak plays Abang Long Fadil, a man who constantly dreams that his life is that of a gangster. But when his best friend, Malik goes to prison, then more chaos ensues and daydreaming may not be too far off from reality.
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