Tiger Stripes

"Zaffan" (Zafreen Zairizal) is a young girl merrily enjoying her childhood until her body decides it's time to grow up - and so she awakens horrified and bloody. Her mother reassures her and off she goes to school - only to find that her friend, the prefect "Farah" (Deena Ezral) is rather disgusted by her new found maturity. It isn't long before "Zaffan" is being ostracised by her classmates and no matter how hard she tries, she cannot re-engage with her pals. The frustration this causes starts to manifest itself in dreams, then in more than those - in physical changes that seem to be rendering her more animal than human - as epitomised by her new favourite snacks! In a rural Malaysian community that is not without it's superstition, her shunning becomes more complete - but what can she do? Can the enigmatic "Dr. Rahim" (Shaheizy Sam) help out with his internet-friendly method and speciality products? The production standards aren't the best, but there's an engaging effort the young and enthusiastic Zairizal as she learns to shin up trees in record time and manage to work well enough with the very limited visual effects. It's not without some humour - especially at the end, and that helps it move along quickly with just enough emphasis on a subject rarely touched upon by cinema anywhere. It'll be fine on the television, and it is worth ninety minutes.

Really cool piece

Not quite sure what genre

Not horror

More rites-of-passage puberty tale with highly humorous and also serious themes blended in; shamanism is very present here too

The Malay village and surroundings/nature it is set in so beautiful

The acting from the three girls; this a teen buddy movie too really very good; the ancillaries pull their weight too; the parents are excellent in this too; the über-laidback dad an absolute treat

Watching more and more films and series from Asia and the quality is really as good as anything from The West often on a par with

Highly advised for folks who are interested in good cinema shamanism and the thorny time in a person's life we call teenage.

PS For the ones of you who have not seen it; watching La Féline (1982) would explain why I titled the review Cat People for 12 year old. The 1982 was not the first but it was an excellent film.

Responses from general people have been mildly positive but many have been experiencing how this isn't a horror movie and there's not much scares. It's more of a coming-of-age story rather then horror so just keep that in mind. This movie won the Critics' Week Grand Prize and having seen it, I can see why.

Director Amanda Nell Eu does a pretty good job other debut story about the coming-of-age setting of a 12 year old girl going through some bizarre changes and situations with gorgeous colorful camerawork, sound designs, themes and atmospheres, and good performance from the lead actress.

Malaysian cinema isn't often discussed and rarely I have seen films from the country and having known it's culture and background, the movie does a pretty good job on capturing the setting, atmosphere, culture and beliefs with some interesting ballsy choices like discussions of periods and showing Malay girls' sexuality. Throughout, Nell Eu's direction was pretty good on handling the narrative, sound, atmosphere and concepts. While some concepts are a bit cliched of certain horror tropes, the narrative mostly worked.

The performances are pretty good as the child performance are all solid. The sound designs are good, the characters, while a bit thin, remain interesting and engaging to observe, and it has a good score. The movie has horror themes explored but admittedly, since it is more of a coming-of-age story, the horror elements didn't feel as strong or ambitious as it could have been. Including some noticeable bad CGI.

Overall, despite the flaws, I found myself enjoying this movie because of it's ambitious style, concept and the direction it took. Again, this isn't the typical horror movie but it's more of a coming-of-age movie.

Tiger Stripes: A Malaysian coming of age shape-shifter body horror film. Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) attends a conservative school, along with the other girls she is forced to wear a hijab and long robes. Being a rebel she takes the hujan off and dances on Tik-Tok. This gets her in trouble at school and with her pious mother. She is the first in her class to menstruate and this gradually leads to her being excluded by her friends and bullied. Her body changes though in surprising ways. Blotches, stiff hairs to start with but then claws develop. This is a tale which involves many Fortean tropes demons of the forest which Zaffan sees sitting in trees, mass hysteria of schoolgirls having fits, an exorcist Imam, a shape-shifting transformation into Werechild. Mostly though it is a story about revolt against medievalist misogyny and a girl fighting for her freedom. There is one scene in particular where Zaffan deals with an Imam which fair gladdened my heart and made me laugh out loud. It is in the tradition of Carrie and Ginger Snaps. Tiger Stripes: was released in Malaysia in a heavily censored version, and the director has disowned that cut of the film. Written and Directed by Amanda Nell Eu. 8/10.