English Title: All Because of You
Original Title: Pasal Kau
Country: Malaysia
Language: Malay
Year: 2020
Rating: 6.5/10
Dedicated readers of Other Than English may remember that I reviewed the Malaysian Netflix action movie Wira a few months ago and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t in any way mind-blowing but it did what it needed to do and was a lot of fun to watch. So when I saw a Malaysian romantic comedy pop up on Netflix I was intrigued, and hopeful, could Malaysia be a secret hotbed of hidden gems? Probably not.
When All Because of You begins it seems like a fairly routine story about the ragtag staff members at an upscale beach resort. It’s not too surprising that Jane, the one female staff member that has a significant role, is caught up in unrequited love with the main protagonist Aiman. She’s been struggling to tell him how she feels for years but just can’t manage to and poor Aiman just sees her as his best friend. It’s all pretty basic stuff. Things get a little more complicated when the resort’s owner insists Jane teach English to Aiman and some of his friends, but not really complicated enough to make it very interesting.
Then about halfway through the movie takes a hard turn and out of nowhere goes from a romantic comedy to an action-comedy. All of a sudden a group of foreign women who were posing as influencers are actually t to be armed terrorists, intent on kidnapping a high profile resort guest. Of course, it’s up to the same motley crew of Aiman and his buddies to stop the kidnapping and take back their hotel. The switch to action is very abrupt but not entirely unwelcome because there’s finally something of consequence happening. The rest of the movies plays out about how you might expect, but it’s fairly amusing as they come up with some entertaining ways for the heroes to thwart the bad guys
If I had done some research before watching All Because of You I wouldn’t have been surprised by the switch to action because it turns out it’s many of the same people involved who produced the previously mentioned Wira (they also made Paskal which is apparently the biggest Malaysian movie ever, and I might have to watch just to complete the set). The lead actor is even the same but I didn’t recognize him as Aiman because he’s wearing a bad wig and prosthetic stomach to cover is abs.
Knowing who produced the movie makes the whole thing much clearer. It was a bunch of action guys who wanted to make a romantic comedy but also wanted to show how tough they were. The result is pretty uneven and the action is definitely better than the comedy—there’s even a little really unneeded homophobia that doesn’t play well in 2020—but the actors are still rather charming, and it’s worth sticking with the whole thing just for the very enjoyable waterslide fight scene towards the end.
Subs & Dubs: There’s no dubbing available for this one, just the original Malay with English subtitles.
Where to Watch: It is out now worldwide on Netflix.
Trailer:
Other Than English 