REVIEW: Kitani, Brunei’s first zombie series
poster used with permission from Syafi Halim, director and founder of New Wave Film.
Alright enough with the content from Netflix for now. Let me talk about a recent Bruneian made short series released on the 29th October, on the Progresif Media website and App. In my personal point of view, these past recent years, our local Bruneians who are involve in the creative and art scene are trying their best to expand and getting recognition in the country by showcasing their talents and skills through an end product and currently the creative industry in Brunei is slowly rising, in which the film industry is one of them.
As you all are aware by now, I love to watch movies and series that I am interested in. With the rise of Bruneian movies and series content that has been released for now, I am really happy and proud that the quality content of some these releases are really worth watching for both locally and internationally. In this post, I will be sharing by thoughts on Kitani, Brunei’s first ever zombie series directed by Syafi Halim of New Wave Films.
SYNOPSIS
Just a quick self synopsis about the series, basically the story takes place on a fictional post-apocalyptic setting where zombies exists to a viral outbreak which transforms humans into deadly creatures called “Jangkits”. The story of this series starts 8 years after the viral outbreak, focusing on the siblings Nazurah and Ilyas, trying to survive not just from the “Jangkits” but from other humans who survived as well, but they are an unlawful group of aggressive opportunists, known a as “The Cure”. With Ilyas being just a 10 year old, unexperienced kid, it is up to Nazurah to take care of him while trying to survive from “The Cure” in the day and the “Jangkits” at night.
PROs and CONS
As usual I will explain my thoughts on the series by pointing the good and bad aspect of it. First will be the good side, I would like to point out that they did an excellent job on the make-up department for the zombies because personally in how I see it, the zombies looked legit! It does not looked fake and even if it was, it does not look to obvious. The extras who play the part of zombies did an excellent job acting as one so that is one of them. Then for the music of the opening credit, I don’t know who made it but yeah great job I love the music used in every opening credit of the show! It has that like a Walking Dead or Last of Us’s eerie vibe which is important so the audience can get a feel before watching each episode accompanied with the opening credit’s visuals of a b-roll of a damaged room, dried dead leaves and so on. But most important highlight of the good aspect of the series is that the casts did an amazing acting performance, especially Nazurah, she is my personal favourite where she and her colleague’s acting did not feel “fake” but realistic and convincing.
Now moving on to the Cons aspect of the show. Honestly the bad side of the series does not really affect my overall enjoyment of the show but just something I noticed a “mistake” they made. I noticed that the clothing that some of the casts wear in parts of the episode are clean, in which if it was a real post-apocalyptic setting, their clothing could have been a bit dirtied or a bit torn-off something like that. Then I more Cons side of the show is that it lacks establishing shot. Showing the landscape environment is also important to get the feel of the zombie-apocalytic setting and I noticed that in the series, most shots either mid close-ups or location choice are a bit limited. Personally I do understand why they made it like this since the fact that this is not a high-budget production hence their resources is limited. Although even with the strict resources they had, I still think they managed to deliver the story and setting very well because I pretty much binged watch the whole series in one sitting lol.
VERDICT
So yeah overall, Kitani has a minor flaw but with a low budget production, they managed to deliver a great quality content with amazing acting performance from the cast, convincing zombie make-up and amazing music production for the opening credits. Speaking of music I can not believe they brought back a classic viral malay song in here in which I will not spoil for those who have not watched yet heheh. I am giving this series my personal rating of 8/10.
Those of you who have not watch this yet, you can only watch it on either Progresif Media website or mobile app and pay a subscription. It only has 6 episodes so it is easy to binge watch in one sitting or just one day. For those who have seen the series, what are your thoughts? Do share them in the comments below!
This might be my last blog post for now as I need to focus on other personal commitments but I might continue again if I ever feel like posting another review. So for now, I will see ya guys time! Cheers! :D












